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

20 September 2013
Bluefin Tuna Thunnus thynnus were spotted chasing Mackerel off the Outer Hebrides including one jumping out of the sea. 

19 September 2013
A rarely caught Skipjack Tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis (=Euthynnus), in English seas was accidentally stranded on a Devon beach near Budleigh Salterton. Leo Curtis and friend Ian Carrott had been fishing on the beach when they spotted the 60 cm long fish in 15 cm of water in the River Otter estuary. Skipjack are the smallest and most common of all the tunnies but they are native to tropical seas. This is the first record on the BMLSS News Pages.

"There have been angling catches of the south-west coast of Ireland and stranding reports on Scottish western island shores in the past."

18 September 2013 
A rare female Sowerby's Beaked Whale, Mesoplodon bidens, a mother with its calf, has died after it got into difficulty, on the remote shores of Hirta island in the St. Kilda archipelago. Rescuers managed to refloat the five metre long whale, but it later died. The calf found open water but it is unlikely to survive without its mother. This oceanic whale is rarely seen in British seas and strandings only occur in the extreme west near deep water. 

14 September 2013
A Sei Whale, Balaenoptera borealis, suffered a horrible death after it was washed up alive on the sandy beach at at Waterfoot Pier, north-east County Antrim, south-east of Ballycastle, Northern Ireland. It was about nine metres in length so that indicated a sub-adult. 
 

Colour is spot on for a Sei Whale, dark leaden grey; fin had a very pale right side to the throat and this pattern is asymmetrical as is the colour of the baleen which looks evenly coloured here; the erect and 'shark-like' dorsal fin is classic, the Fin Whale tends to be much more swept back and streamlined looking. 

13 September 2013
Leatherback Turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, have been spotted off the south Cornish coast, notably a reported two metre long specimen in Falmouth Bay. 

The Leatherback Turtle is the largest of the turtles (Chelonii). Adults can attain over 1.8 metres (6 ft) in length and 680 kg (1,500 lb) in weight, but they are usually smaller. Leatherback Turtles breed on sandy beaches in the tropics but they are great travellers and can be found in the temperate and tropical oceans throughout the world where they feed almost exclusively on jellyfishes and gelatinous zooplankton (salps, hydrozoans etc.) captured with delicate scissor-like teeth. They can also accidentally consume floating plastic bags which will probably result in their death. Unlike other turtles its carapace is not a hard shell (exoskeleton), but is covered by a layer of rubbery skin strengthened by bony bits which makes it look leathery. The turtle discovered in Falmouth Bay probably swam across the Atlantic Ocean from a breeding site in Florida or elsewhere in the Caribbean. 
The IUCN classifies the Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, on the Red List as critically endangered.
IUCN Red Listing
BMLSS Turtle Reports

12 September 2013
Three True’s Beaked Whales, Mesolpodon mirus, were spotted around 100 km off the southwest coast of Ireland.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group has said photographs taken during a research expedition to the Porcupine Seabight area showed that they were almost certainly this rarely recorded species classified as a vagrant oceanic whale around the British Isles. Sighting records of this whale are only from off the west coast of Ireland and the Scottish islands. A Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, was also spotted on the of the eastern edge of the Porcupine Bight, which includes the Belgica Mound Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for deep water corals.

Early September 2013
A most extraordinary report of a Striped Bass, Morone saxatilis, was caught on rod and line off Dover Breakwater, Kent. This is an unusual report because this is a coastal anadromous fish native to the east American coast. 

Late July 2013
Five newly born calves of the Risso’s Dolphin, Grampus griseus, with their parents, were spotted off the Calf of Man, Isle of Man. 

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

The seas surrounding these outlying islands are rich in fish that support the vast million strong colony of seabirds: Gannets, Puffins, Leach's Petrel, Guillemots, Fulmars and other sea birds that nest on the craggy rocky promontories. The highest sea cliffs of Britain, Conachair at 427 metres, rise from the depths on the largest island of Hirta.

In September 2013 Bluefin Tuna Thunnus thynnus were spotted chasing Mackerel between the Outer Hebrides and St. Kilda.

St Kilda was inhabited until 1930. 
29 September 2013
Norman John Gillies, the last St Kildan, has passed away in the morning. He had been unwell for some time.

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.

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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. 
Click on the image for a review of this book

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.
 

BMLSS General Guides
BMLSS Advanced Guides