| MARINE
LIFE NEWS
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
9
September 2015
Fractured
Limestone Cliff at Portland
Photograph
by Diana Sergent
If
you look closely at the photograph, you will realise why the footpath is
closed to the public. Large parts of the limestone cliff are imminently
liable to collapse into the sea.
Click
on the image
for more photographs by Diana
Sergent. facebook
|
A large
section of the cliff near Westcliff,
on the Isle of
Portland, on the Dorset coast suddenly crumbled into the sea. Ominous
cracks on the limestone
cliff had been seen for sometime before the cliff collapsed suddenly. The
Jurassic
Coast of Dorset is prone to erosion
and landslides.
Portland
Geology
West
Cliff Geology
Pictures
of Portland facebook
31
August 2015
Two
Beluga
Whales (=White Whale), Delphinapterus
leucas, were spotted and videoed
by Deb Powis
off Warkworth
Beach,
on the Northumberland coast, north-east England.
28
August 2015
A
vagrant Red-billed
Tropicbird, Phaethon
aethereus, made an extremely rare
visit to Cornwall and this pelagic
sea bird, widespread over tropical seas, was seen from Gwennap
Head on the extreme southernmost tip of Cornwall for five minutes by
a dozen birdwatchers. Reports of this bird
occur less than once a year from over British seas.
24
August 2015
A
spectacular and very rare sighting of the a Blue Whale, Balaenoptera
musculus, occurred over very deep
water 250 miles off the Irish coast was made from the RRS
James Cook on a a five
week scientific expedition in the NE Atlantic. "The
largest creature on the Earth surfaced from the murk of a deep-sea canyon,
lingered just long enough for observers to grab a few pictures, and then
vanished from sight into the fog and rain." This
was only the fourth sighting in the seas surrounding the British Isles
since these great whales were hunted to near extinction nearly a century
ago. The Blue
Whale was spotted by the oceanographers over
the Whittard
Canyon which varies from 200 m to 4000m in depth and is an important
little explored biodiversity route from the very deep sea to the Continental
Shelf. A previous scientific sonar record
had discovered the presence of Blue
Whales off Fastnet in 2000.
There
were twenty Fin Whales, Balaenoptera
physalus, including seven seen around the
research vessel when the Blue Whale
surfaced. The
survey team also recorded a Broad-billed
Swordfish,
Xiphias
gladius, several
hundred metres below the surface using ROV
Isis.
Blog
of the Expedition
Submarine
Canyons
Previous
Sighting 2012
BMLSS
Cetacea
22
August 2015
A
shoal of over five hundred Bluefin Tuna, Thunnus
thynnus, was spotted off the coast of Cornwall.
The shoal was spotted by Duncan and Hannah
Jones who described the sea as heaving with
these large predatory fish. British fishing
vessels would not be allowed to target this protected species but French
or Spanish vessels might be able to land them legally.
A shoal of this size has not been seen for over 50 years. Tunnies,
or Tuna, used to be found in sufficient numbers to make the North
Sea, especially off Scarborough, an area famous for captures of the massive
Blue-fin Tunny. Their current decline since the early 1960’s was
because of low recruitment rates (whether natural or because of overfishing).
BMLSS
Tunnies
c 20
August 2015
A
1.5 metre (5 ft) long Leatherback Turtle,
Dermochelys
coriacea, was seen off St.
Bees Head,
Cumbria,
during assessment work for a new nuclear power station planned to be built
in the area.
BMLSS
Turtles
17
August 2015
A
rather unusual sea bird encounter occurred over Agger, Denmark, when a
pair of White-tailed Sea Eagles,
Haliaeetus
albicilla, attacked a vagrant Black-browed
Albatross,
Thalassarche
melanophrys, which managed to escape
predation.
16
August 2015
Angel
Shark
about
to be returned to the sea
Photographs
by Michael
Griffiths
A large
two metre long (including the long tail) Angel
Shark, Squatina
squatina, was caught by Michael
Griffiths on road and line off Shell
Island,
north Wales. This very rare and protected
shark is thought to be extinct in the English Channel and still extremely
rare in Cardigan Bay.
Previous
Report 2015
BMLSS
Squatina
facebook
30
July 2015
A
Beluga
Whales (=White Whale), Delphinapterus
leucas, was spotted and videoed
by George Watson
swimming close to shore near Dunseverick,
County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
This Arctic
species is rarely (one every three years) recorded around the British Isles.
(Not
all records are shown on the BMLSS News pages.)
Previous
BMLSS Report 2005
FORUM
NEWS
Marine Wildlife
of the North-east Atlantic Ocean Mailing Groups
.jpg)
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
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 |
All
reports by Andy Horton unless the credits are given
to
other observers or reporters.
Cornish
Marine Wildlife (Ray Dennis Records) 2009
|
