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.
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17
August 2006
A
Basking
Shark, Cetorhinus maximus,
was seen in Brixham Harbour, Devon, near the Lifeboat station. It was about
2.5 metres in length.
During
a routine aerial survey for marine wildlife off the southwestern tip of
Cornwall this morning, researchers from the University
of Exeter School of Biosciences, the Marine
Conservation Society (MCS) and Cornwall
Wildlife Trust counted 18 Basking Sharks.
They were concentrated on the north coast and spotted during the two-hour
aerial survey.
BMLSS
Basking Sharks
13
- 14 August 2006
Buoy
Barnacles on White Park Bay beach (north
Antrim)
Photograph
by Dave Harrison
Large
numbers of Buoy Barnacles,
Dosima
fascicularis, were found stranded on the
north coast beaches of Northern Ireland, e.g. Portstewart
Strand and White
Park Bay (County Antrim). There were at least six of these batches
seen on the White Park Bay beach during the walk
Buoy
Barnacles are
attached to floats that they had secreted that have a texture like that
of expanding foam.
BMLSS
Barnacles
Earlier
Report (received after this one)
August
2006
Twenty
one years after they were reintroduced, the hard work by conservation groups,
volunteers, the police, local communities and landowners, has paid off
with the two hundredth White-tailed Sea
Eagle, Halieetus
albicilla, chick fledging in
the wild on the Isle of Skye.
12
August 2006
A
Minke
Whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata,
was discovered washed up dead on the rocky coast at Seascale
in Cumbria (NW England). A Harbour Porpoise,
Phocoena
phocoena, was also washed up dead within
10 metres of the whale.
BMLSS
Cetacea
c.
9 August 2006
A
vagrant 18 kg (40 lb) Big-eyed Tuna,
Thunnus
obesus, was a rare capture by a commercial
net fisherman 70 miles off Land's End and 2,000 miles adrift of its usual
habitat in the tropical Atlantic Ocean.
It
is only the third capture on record from British seas.
BMLSS
Tunnies
7 August
2006
Peter
Dent spotted a two metre long
Broad-billed Swordfish,
Xiphias
gladius, (58 lb = 26 kg) thrashing
about in his salmon net a mile off Newbiggin-by-the-Sea
in Northumberland (north-east England). Because of its size and the damage
it was causing the fish had to be killed.
Peter Dent (with Phillip
and Imogen) and the Swordfish
Photograph
by Alan Charlton
Northern
Federation of Sea Anglers Society (NFSAS)
This
is the first recent record of a Swordfish
being caught off the British mainland coast, although there have been both
sightings and Swordfish
washed ashore dead this century. This fish
was thought have to have been following the Mackerel
shoals.
Earlier
Devon Report 2006
BMLSS
Swordfishes
3
- 7 August 2006
Buoy
Barnacles from Connemara
Photograph
by Alison
Thousands
of the stalked Buoy Barnacles,
Dosima
fascicularis, are washed ashore on the
beaches of Connemara, County Galway,
south-west Ireland. They were stranded all
along the west coast of Ireland.
Report
and Photograph by Alison
BMLSS
Barnacles
1 August
2006
Another
Short-snouted
Seahorse,
Hippocampus
hippocampus, was discovered washed
up on the strandline, near Brighton Pier (=Palace
Pier) by beginning of Volk’s Railway (TQ 315038).
The
discoverer was a Mr J Chapman.
BMLSS
Seahorses
17
June 2006
Amidst
so much excitement that the camera could be found immediately, a three
metres long (including the sword) Broad-billed
Swordfish,
Xiphias
gladius, swam past our dive boat off
the south coast of Devon, off Teignmouth
(near the wreck of the Galicia).
BMLSS
Swordfishes
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All
reports by Andy Horton unless the credits are given
to
other observers or reporters.
Cornish
Marine Wildlife (Ray Dennis Records) 2005
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