Reports of marine wildlife from all around the British Isles, with pollution incidents and conservation initiatives as they affect the flora and fauna of the NE Atlantic Ocean

13 January 2014
 

Fisherman Mike Ould (on FV Bronco TH74) landed a 39 cm long silvery sea bream (Sparidae) called a Bogue, Boops boops, fishing inshore off Babbacombe, south Devon, on the east facing coast. This Mediterranean fish is a scarce discovery off the British coast but there does seem to be a population in Babbacombe Bay and shallow seas around Devon and Cornwall as well as around the Channel Islands. The fish appears in small schools so where there is one, there are most likely more of them. 

6 January 2014
 

Jan Leverton's Island Porthcothan Bay Photograph by Paul Challinor	Pom Pom Rock Photograph by Mark Freeman Dorset Landscapes

Exposed to the Atlantic swell, the Cornish coast suffered remarkable damage after a terrific pounding by the waves blown on to the rocky shore by gale force winds. On the northern rocky coast at Porthcothan Bay a scenic arch and free standing rocky outcrop was destroyed during the night. On the Dorset coast a substantial sea stack known as Pom Pom Rock at Portland was completely obliterated by the storm. 

4 January 2014
 

Portreath at low tide Photograph by Helgar Palmer	Portreath at mid-tide Photograph by Simon Bone Simon Bone Photography

The end of the harbour wall and granite shelter at Portreath, north Cornwall, was demolished by massive waves propelled by gale force winds and high tides. 

3 January 2014

Waves battered the south and west coasts of Britain throughout the day, from Cornwall and the south coast, all up the western coasts to Scotland, propelled by high spring tides, gale force winds gusting to storm force and higher, and a small* storm surge. 
 

Waves battering the cliff at Rock-a-Nore the day after the cliff fall  Photograph by Jude Hutchings	Waves at Birling Gap  on flickr Photograph by Graham Huntley

The most dramatic storm damage occurred when a large area of sandstone cliff at Rock-a-Nore (now part of Hastings, East Sussex) fell into the sea at about 1:30 pm. There was also an appreciable chalk cliff fall near Birling Gap in East Sussex. 
(*The storm surge was 0.5 metres at Newhaven, Sussex.)

Starfish and sand burrowing molluscs like cockles were deposited on the strandline in addition to the usual collection of Mermaid's Purses, whelk egg cases, etc. A Grey Triggerfish, Balistes capriscus, was washed onshore off the Gower, south Wales. Scores of the sea cucumber, Thyone fusus, were washed ashore on Newborough, Anglesey. 
The power of the waves was strong enough to move the sand in the shallow water and cause erosion of the shoreline and large displacements of sand and shingle. 
BMLSS Strandline

1 January 2014
The New Year was heralded in by overcast and damp weather. Gales battered all the English and Welsh coasts from dawn and throughout the day.
Beaufort Scale
 

December 2013
Four animals previously unknown to science have been discovered in deep water off Scotland during surveys by Marine Scotland. All were discovered around Rockall, the rocky islet 260 miles (418 km) west of the Western Isles at a suspected cold seep at depths of up to one mile (1.6 km). The new gastropod mollusc Volutopsius scotiae and bivalve mollusc Thyasira scotiae have been named after the research vessel MRV Scotia. Another clam, Isorropodon mackayi, was named after mollusc expert David Mackay. The probable new species of marine worm Antonbrunnia has still to be named as a species. 

17 December 2013 A sub-adult Loggerhead Turtle, Caretta caretta, was washed ashore dead at Splash Point, Worthing, Sussex in the afternoon. It was a rainy day and I cycled past this point west of the amusement pier, I noted a flock of twenty Crows on the shingle but I did not look down on the syenite rock sea defences or else I might have spotted it. Credit for the discovery goes to Andrew Cole who was photographing a landscape shot of the rocks in poor photographic conditions. This may be the first discovery of a Loggerhead Turtle off Sussex as it was unexpected and I have not got records of a previous discovery. The turtle was damaged with a missing flipper and it had died out at sea and had been washed along until landfall on to this small promontory. Shoreham Herald Report

15 December 2013 Leucistic Lobsters, Homarus gammarus, and Spiny lobster/Crayfish/Crawfish, Palinurus elephas, housed in a commercial holding aquarium at Cushendall, County Antrim. These larger than normal Lobsters (> 2 kg) were caught around Rathlin Island, (north of Ballycastle) Northern Ireland.

BMLSS Lobsters

10 December 2013
New shellfish regulations have been introduced in Scotland and the islands to protect and regulate the fisheries. A Designation Order identifying 84 waters as ‘shellfish water protected areas’ has been made.

FORUM NEWS

Marine Wildlife of the North-east Atlantic Ocean Mailing Groups

Marine Wildlife of the North-east Atlantic Ocean 
Yahoo Group
New Group: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Glaucus

British Marine Life Study Society
facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/glaucus/

This Wall is now working properly and members can now post on it. This is designed for quick less important chatty news items. Photographs can be uploaded quickly which is only possible on the Yahoo Group by going to the web page.

Images can be uploaded to flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/glaucus/

Wet Thumb (Marine Aquariology) Forum Link
 
 
 

Lots of marine wildlife reports from Shetland on facebook Photographs include undersea, sea mammals and birds.  Click on the image to connect

Photographers submitting pictures should indicate if they wish them to be considered for inclusion as confirming permission takes work and time and can delay publication of the news bulletins. 
 

Click on the album for more links (On-line link)

 

Publisher: marine scotland

Scotland's Marine Atlas

Scotland's Marine Atlas is an assessment of the condition of Scotland's seas, based on scientific evidence from data and analysis and supported by expert judgement.

Click on the image for the free publication. 
 

Published: 27 March 2013 
ISBN (EPUB): 9781782564485 
ISBN (MOBI): 9781782564478 

EBook Reader Software (Adobe Digital Editions)
Change the font size to small for square monitors.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

by Paul Kay & Frances Dipper 
£19.95 incl. p&p
Soft cover

With 256 pages and numerous photographs supported by drawings, this book is the most comprehensive photographic guide to marine fish currently available in the UK. Published for the Marine Conservation Society with support from the Countryside Council for Wales.

Click on the image to order this book through the Marine Conservation Society

RECOMMENDED PURCHASE *****

July 2010

PS: A second revised edition of the book has been published. 

SEASHORE SAFARIS
 
 
 

Publisher: Graffeg
Publisher's Review (click on this text)
Review by the City and County of Swansea

This is the book I should have written (and I dare say a few others as well) and is a much needed introduction to the world of the seashore and the hobby of rockpooling. It is a photographic guide to most of the common species encountered which is much appreciated as newcomers and even experienced rockpoolers will try and match up what they have seen to a visual image (and photographs work better than line drawings) and this will usually get them the correct species, (unless there are two very alike species and then you will need a specialist identification guide like the Collins Guide to the Seashore).

However, the seashore is a rich and interesting habitat with a myriad of species and 225 pages of this large pocket guide are comprehensively covered to suit the enthusiast.

Extract from the foreword by Keith Hiscock:
"Being able to names to what you see and, better still, to use your observations to add to our knowledge about the natural world is what this book is about."

But the book for a popular audience is more than this. It starts from the assumption that the parents and teachers and older children are unfamiliar with the seashore environment.

RECOMMENDED PURCHASE *****

Not just a cookery book: you have to go down to the shore and catch or collect the food yourself. The 240 page hardback book (with an index) is exceptionally well produced in quality of the binding, paper as well as the quality of writing, information and clear useful colour photographs. It is well organised into nine chapters:

Sharks in British Seas Richard Peirce 138 pages, colour illustrations, line drawings, colour & b/w photos. Lots of newspaper reports. Publisher:  Shark Cornwall Softcover | 2008 | £9.99 ISBN: 978-0-955869402

Seashore by Lucy Beckett-Bowman Consultant: Andy Horton Usborne Publishing  £3.99 Usborne Beginners Series Level One (very young children) ISBN 978-0-7460-8864-7 BMLSS Notes for a Primary School Teacher

Whales & Dolphins
of the European Atlantic
The Bay of Biscay, English Channel, Celtic Sea and coastal SW Ireland
by Dylan Walker and Graeme Cresswell
with the illustrations by Robert Still
WILDGuides  2008
£ 12.00 (includes standard UK P&P)
ISBN:  978-1-903657-31-7

This is the second fully revised and updated edition of this comprehensive guide to the identification of whales, dolphins and porpoises (collectively known as cetaceans) in the European Atlantic. Until very recently, most researchers and whale-watchers were unaware of the great variety of cetaceans that can be seen so close to the shores of western Europe. Indeed, it is only during the last decade, when detailed cetacean surveys have been carried out in earnest, that we have discovered how important this area is for cetacean biodiversity.

This field guide describes all of the 31 species of whale, dolphin and porpoise that have occurred in the European Atlantic.
 

BMLSS Cetacean Book Reviews

 

Seashore (Collins New Naturalist) (Paperback) by Peter Hayward Collins 2004 ISBN:  0-00-220031-7 Amazon Web Site

Paperback. Pp 288. Colour & b/w photographs, illustrations, charts, maps and bibliography. Fine copy. "New Naturalist" Seashore is a comprehensive, authoritative account of the natural history of the seashore.
 

BMLSS General Guides
BMLSS Advanced Guides