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
 
 

24 May 2010 onwards
Some of the first Basking Sharks, Cetorhinus maximus, of the year are spotted off Land's End, Cornwall. "I heard a brief splash as three of the twelve sharks breached the surface" 

15 May 2010 onwards
 

Other Basking Shark reports from off the coast of Cornwall came from Pendeen and Praa Sands and the odd one off the Lizard. Later reports on 18 May 2010 saw the sharks off Porthcurno and Sennen. 

9 May 2010
A rarely recorded Oarfish (or Ribbon Fish), Regalecus glesne, was found dead in the small fishing village of Bovallstrand on the west coast of Sweden, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the Norwegian border. This strange elongated deep sea fish measured 3.5 metres. This was a relatively small specimen of the longest fish found in the oceans. The fish was taken to the House of the Sea Museum in Lysekil. The last recorded discovery of an Oarfish in Sweden was in 1879.
Kurt Ove Eriksson, who discovered the fish, initially thought the leviathan was "a big piece of plastic." 

22 April 2010
A large Box Crab, Paramola cuvieri, was caught 80 miles west of the Isles of Scilly by skipper Matthew Keast on his boat Harvest Reaper while fishing for Turbot. This rare species of deep-sea crab, normally found at depths of down to three kilometres was landed at Newlyn. 
It was only the seventh recorded since records began in 1900. Despite its long journey from the depths, the crab, which has a claw span of more than a metre, appears in reasonable condition and is being looked after in a specially chilled tank at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay.

Curator Matt Slater said: "It looks like something from another planet and has caused quite a stir among all the staff.  It's one of the oddest crabs I've ever seen. It has weird eyes on stalks which look like bicycle handlebars and a strange pair of backward facing pincers. Apparently it's normally found very deep on the edge of the continental shelf which runs from Morocco to Ireland at depths of 3,000 metres," he explained. "Due to the great depths at which they live relatively little is known about giant Box Crabs, but it is thought they live mainly off dead fish they find on the seabed."

19 April 2010
Recreational angler Troy Waterman discovered the third (and his second) British record of the alien Asian Shore Crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus, on the southern end of the west coast of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It was a female and alive. with a carapace width measured at 23 mm.

The Asian Shore Crab has a square-shaped shell with three spines on each side of the carapace. Hemigrapsus sanguineus is indigenous to the western Pacific Ocean from Russia, along the Korean and Chinese coasts to Hong Kong, and the Japanese archipelago.  This species is an opportunistic omnivore, feeding on macroalgae, salt marsh grass, larval and juvenile fish, and small invertebrates such as amphipods, molluscs, Barnacles, and polychaete worms. It is highly reproductive with a breeding season from May to September. This versatile crab inhabits any shallow hard-bottom intertidal or sometimes subtidal habitats. This species has the potential to become an established competitor with native crabs.
Previous Record
Further Information (by Richard Lord)

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June 2009
 

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:

Starting Out:  Conservation and Equipment, including the first paper published instructions on how to construct a shrimp net (push-net). 

Foraging:  Lots of useful and essential information about the tides, weather, safety and what to wear. 

Rule Book: This is the bravest inclusion. John Wright attempts (better than anyone so far) to explain the rules, law and ethics of seashore collection, what you are allowed and not allowed to do. It is worth buying the book for this chapter alone.

The Flowering Plants
The Seaweeds
The Molluscs
The Crustaceans

All the expected species and some unlikely edible candidates are included and each is given two pages. Very informative and lots of information I did not already know. John Wright conducted his research first hand and we shrimped together on Southwick Beach with Peter Talbot-Elsden (as shown in my photograph, not in the book).

The Recipes:  Well I would omit the chilli in the Potted Shrimp. After collecting the food, I am usually a wee bit tired and this chapter should be for your partner. Let me know how you get on?

The home-made shrimp net on page 17 is an identical design to mine, the one used by John Wright before he made his own on our expeditions at Southwick, and the one used by Charlie Dimmick on River Walks filmed on nearby Lancing beach.

Conclusion: Highly recommended, essential purchase ***** (highest five star rating).

’The Seasons’ is a four-part series (no surprise there then!) that looks at the way every living thing in Britain is profoundly affected by the seasons. Its very much macrocosm to microcosm, starting with the astronomical reasons for our seasons and then looking at the myriad and fascinating effects they have. It investigates such basic factors as lengthening nights and changes in temperature have in our islands.

The very last piece of filming was the Blenny, Lipophrys pholis, with the help of myself (Andy Horton). This small fish would not behave as the books said, because the books were wrong!

Kimmeridge Tidings

Autumn 2009
http://www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/c2/uploads/tidingsautumn09web.pdf

Up to date with all the latest happenings at our Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve in Kimmeridge.
 

VIVARIUM
by Peter Stiles
Publisher: Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon

Philip Henry Gosse was a popular naturalist who moved to Victorian Ilfracombe and wrote his natural science book ‘A Naturalist’s Rambles on the Devonshire Coast’. He later designed the first public aquarium, which opened in London. His activities also attracted other naturalists, including Charles Darwin and novelist George Eliot.

This book celebrates the link between Philip Henry Gosse and his rockpool adventures in Devon and contains lots of information about the life of this self-taught Victorian scientist and writer.

in conjunction with an Exhibition that finished on 25 April 2009.
 

Marine Fisheries Science Yearbook  2008/2009

Publisher:  defra

href="http://archive.defra.gov.uk/search/results.htm?cx=014361324438485032053%3Aljunwq2pe_y&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=Marine+Fisheries+Science+">To obtain a copy from the defra web site, click on this text
 
 
 

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

 
The Gulf Stream
by Bruno Voituriez
Publisher:  UNESCO 
ISBN:  92-3-103995-4 
222 pages, figures, glossary, bibliography

The Gulf Stream
Amid contemporary scenarios of potential climatic catastrophes and global warming that might be imagined to bring a new ice age, the powerful image of the Gulf Stream rising from the Florida Straits and flowing to the north Atlantic inevitably provokes questions about its ecological significance and whether it might ever stop.
 

Coastal Plankton
Photo Guide for European Seas

by Otto Larink & Wilfried Westheide
reviewed by Wim van Egmond
 
 

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.
 

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BMLSS Advanced Guides