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

26 July 2014
Shoals of Anchovies, Engraulis encrasicolus, that normally inhabit warm waters have been seen swimming in the North Sea off the Essex coast. Angler Richard Holgate has caught this Mediterranean fish off Walton-on-the Naze pier for the first time. In historic times Anchovies were caught in large numbers off the coast of the Netherlands in summer when they entered the Wadden Sea and Zuiderzee. After the closing of the Zuiderzee they were still found in the Wadden Sea until the 1960s. They were also caught in the estuary of the Scheldt. There is reason to believe that Anchovies at the western end of the English Channel in November and December migrate from the Zuiderzee and the Scheldt in the autumn, returning there the following spring.

23 July 2014
A most extraordinary capture of a young Atlantic Croaker, Micropogonias undulatus, caught by an angler off the Dutch coast. This fish is a member of the Drum (Sciaenidae) family of fishes that make a distinct croaking sound. 
The Atlantic Croaker can be found along the east coast of the U.S.A. (between Florida and Massachusetts) and northern Gulf of Mexico, where it is one of the most abundant inshore demersal fish species. Captures of this small fish (> 55 cm) in the North Sea are rare but have occurred before. They are most likely to have arrived in a ship's ballast water.

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

This small elongate (> 49 cm) fish is a little known example of the British fauna; it is a northern fish unknown from the English Channel and rarely encountered even in the northern part of the range, not often seen by divers, not caught by anglers or by conventional fishing methods (I have no records of its occurrence as fishing discards). This particular fish was photographed at a depth of 15 metres on 18 August 2014, in the relatively sheltered waters of Vassa Voe, a small bay at the north east corner of Cat Firth in South Nesting in the lee of the Mainland, Shetland Isles. Snake Blennies are always seen over a sandy or muddy substrates living in Y-shaped burrows. The burrows are believed to be used for parental care of the eggs. It is not a true Comb-tooth Blenny (Blenniidae) but classified in the family Stichaeidae (which Alwyne Wheeler called the Arctic Blennies). Blenny means slimy, mucus covered. Its distribution includes the off the coast of Norway and as far north as Svalbard and off Greenland and Newfoundland coast of America. It is not exclusively an inshore fish and is more frequent is water deeper than 40 metres. There is an isolated relict population in the Baltic Sea. Adult specimens are known to be bluish in colour.

Catches of  Lumpenus lampretaeformis have been made in the inshore waters of the west coast of Scotland. Analysis of these catches confirm the view that this species shows marked seasonal variations in abundance. The species lives for up to nine years and has a rapid growth rate in the first two years. It feeds mainly on meiobenthic organisms, of which polychaetes, harpacticoid copepods, ostracods and nematodes are the most important. (MBA article). 
 
 

Holm is pronounced ham for this sheltered bay, with the sea access now blocked off  for cetaceans and submarines. The place name holm does not mean island (usual toponymic translation), but haven, (ON hofn). This small haven was previously noted for its herring fishing. 

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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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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