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

15 -16 August 2012
A young Sowerby's Beaked Whale, Mesoplodon bidens, was washed up alive but in distress at Aust near the First Severn Crossing. The 2.7 metre long beaked whale calf became beached at about 10:00 pm and was euthanised by a vet at about 3:30 pm on the second day. 
"The beaked whale calf should have been with its mother. If we had managed to refloat the animal it would have starved to death because its mother wasn't anywhere near and the likelihood of them finding each other was limited," said the vet Elspeth Hardie.
Beaked Whales are an elusive deep water whales which are rarely seen around the British Isles. 

14 August 2012 An 18 metre long Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus, swam into Baltimore Harbour, County Cork, early in the  morning and stayed virtually motionless at the bottom of the pier all day. Fishermen tried to coax the huge mammal back into open water without success. As crowds of people arrived to watch, experts realised that the whale must be ill to behave in such a strange manner. Pádraig Whooley (IWDG) said "the whale’s behaviour suggested it was very unwell and would almost certainly die. If this was a healthy whale she could probably reverse out of harbour. It looks somewhat emaciated, and thrashing throughout the night has caused some injuries."  The whale died in the harbour on 15 August 2012.  Irish Times Report Irish Times Report with Images Irish Examiner Update IWDG Update Irish Whale & Dolphin Group (IWDG) IWDG Facebook Discussion Whales & Dolphins in British Seas

13 August 2012
An unusual report was received of a tropical Smalltooth Sandtiger Shark, Odontaspis ferox*, washed up on the southern coast the English Channel (la Manche) and found alive on the sandy shore at Agon-Coutainville on the Cherbourg Peninsula (west coast). (So extraordinary was this report that I did not include it until the identity of the fish could be verified.) The 2.5 metre long shark, weighing in excess of 200 kg was pushed back into the sea and was not recovered for identification. 
(*probable ID only, not verified.) 
Discussion on the Marine Wildlife of the NE Yahoo Group

A badly injured fully grown 19 metre long Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus, was washed ashore at Carlyon Bay on the south coast of Cornwall two miles east of St. Austell. The live whale was is such a poor condition that it had to be euthanised. 

Early August 2012
When Mitchell Burkes (from Godstone, Surrey) was walking along the beach at Ventnor near the southern tip of the Isle of Wight, he spotted at injured Tuna washed up on the beach still alive.
"I returned it to the water and it seemed to recover, however about an hour later it beached itself again. On inspection it appeared to have tooth marks near the head and I guess it must have been hit by a Dolphin or Porpoise. When gutting the fish, it contained a small undigested Mackerel, which indicates it was in good health when hit and
weighed 6½ lb (2.95 kg). I have had the fish identified as a Yellowfin Tuna, Thunnus albacares,  not native to the waters around the Island."
NB: The image (not copyright cleared) looks more like a Bluefin Tuna Thunnus thynnus, to me. The second dorsal fin was small and not elongate and the pectoral fin is short as well. Small specimens of this Tuna have been reported occasionally in Mackerel shoals from the English Channel over the years. AH.

4 August 2012
In living memory the Thresher Shark, Alopias vulpinus, was if not a regular sighting off the Sussex coast, it would be remarkable because of its exceptionally long caudal fin. Now, a Thresher Shark is a newsworthy event caught by a boat angler out of the notable shark fishing centre of Looe, south Cornwall. The shark was landed and released. 
Three species of Thresher Shark have been declared to be "vulnerable", according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) 
IUCN Red List of a threatened species. 

 Link to an Image of a Thresher Shark (jumping out of the water) from Cardigan Bay, Wales
Why Thresher Sharks have huge caudal fins (BBC)
BMLSS Sharks
 

July 2012 Field magazine for August 2012 has featured Lobsters and one on beach Shrimping as well. Available in branches of WH Smith and larger newsagents on the shelf from the end of July 2012. Recommended light reading. £4.20.

24 July 2012 A large 400 tonne cliff fall occurred at Burton Bradstock on the Jurassic Coast, Dorset; unfortunately killing and burying a young woman walking underneath. The soft crumbly cliffs have a predilection for landslides after periods of heavy rain.  Independent News Report Guardian News Report & Video Geology of the Wessex Coast     Photographs by Graham Wiffen Photography

Cliff Fall at Burton Bradstock
Photographs by Graham Wiffen
Graham Wiffen Photography

Graham Wiffen Seascapes

23 July 2012

A juvenile Basking Shark, Cetorhinus maximus, was observed swimming in very shallow water (swimming amongst bathers!) at the coastal town of De Panne (Belgium). It’s length was estimated at around two metres, and it could be identified through the photographs provided by deputy-chief lifeguard Filip Jongbloet.

15 July 2012
An Arctic Rigid Cushion Star, Hippasteria phrygiana, was spotted on a dive off the Northumberland coast in the proposed Marine Conservation Zone between Coquet and St Mary’s. This northern species is one of only two records off an English coast. It usually inhabits the seas off Greenland and all over the northern Atlantic although it it is present in the seas around the Shetland Isles and it has been trawled off St. Abbs further north on the same North Sea coast. This cushion star was around 10 cm across and was recorded at 20 metres depth on a cobble/pebble seabed. 

4 July 2012
Several fisherman have reported seeing a dead and decaying Loggerhead Turtle, Caretta caretta, about a metre and a half long to the east of the island of Herm in the Channel Islands. There are no records of a live individual of this species has ever been reported from the Channel Islands area. Occasional turtles have been seen before though. 

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

It needs an attachment rock and it is not only found in silt. In this photographic study by Fiona Crouch, the solitary coral is on an exposed rock around Sark in the Channel Islands.  Do not be confused by the large photographs this coral has a tentacle span of up to 25 mm only. It is a rare find intertidally and rather locally (south-west only) found down to a depth of 25 metres. 
Shore Thing Survey (MarLIN)
 
 

"I had been spending a summer at Ilfracombe ............. It was a spring-tide in September 1852, and the water had receded lower than I had seen it since I had been at the place.  I was searching among the extremely rugged rocks that run out from the Tunnels, forming walls and pinnacles of dangerous abruptness, with deep, almost inaccessible cavities between.  Into one of these, at the very verge of the water, I managed to scramble down; and found round a corner a sort of oblong basin, about ten feel long, in which the water remained, a tide-pool of three feet deep in the middle ..........  I had examined a good many things, of which the only novelty was the pretty narrow fronds of Flustra chartacea in some abundance, and was just about to come out, when by eye rested on what I at once saw to be a Madrepore, but of an unusual colour, a most refulgent orange .." 

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)

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This is a book about an ocean that vanished six million years ago: the ocean of Tethys, named after a Greek sea nymph.  The oceans are important to climate and environment, and therefore to life on Earth. The story of Tethys is also a story of extinctions, and floods, and extraordinary episodes such as the virtual drying up of the Mediterranean, before being filled again by a dramatic cascade of water over the straits of Gibraltar. 

Dorrik Stow
300 pages, 15 b/w illustrations and maps.
Oxford University Press
ISBN-13: 9780199214297
 
 

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.
 

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