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 November 2014
Rescuers of a stranded cetacean on Newborough Beach, Anglesey, were surprised to discover a rare Pygmy Sperm Whale, Kogia breviceps, washed up alive on the sand. At three metres long it still look a team of people to transport the whale to the sea where it swam off successfully into deeper water. The Pygmy Sperm Whale is found in tropical seas worldwide but there have only been about a dozen records in British seas, mostly strandings as this whale is not often seen from boats. 

15 November 2014
Another Oceanic Pufferfish, Lagocephalus lagocephalus, was discovered on the rocks at Paignton, south Devon.

10 November 2014

A huge Sea Hare, Aplysia, laying eggs, was discovered at Belcroute on the south coast of Jersey. It weighed in at a massive 900 grams which ruled out the normal species Aplysia punctata found around the shores of Britain. Its huge bulk and appearance almost certainly means it is the southern species Aplysia fasciata which is only rarely recorded around the Channel Islands with at least one record off Cornwall and others from Devon and Dorset. 
BMLSS Aplysia

4 November 2014
A tropical Oceanic Pufferfish, Lagocephalus lagocephalus, was discovered washed up dead on Chesil Beach, Dorset, by Richard Fabbri, having been swept on to pebbles by the high tides. The fish was 30 cm along from head to the base of the caudal fin, but was actually longer than this because this fish inflates itself like a balloon to make it bigger to discourage predators. It does not make a good meal, especially for humans, because the fish more than likely contains a toxin tetrodotoxin sufficiently harmful enough to cause death to anyone eating the fish without expert culinary preparation. It is advisable not to even touch the fish.

The Oceanic Pufferfish is normally found in tropical seas and is a very rare and surprising discovery in the English Channel. 

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 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 animal washed up on the Sussex coast proved to be a mystery that was not solved immediately, perhaps due to failure to apply lateral thinking as the creature was washed up in larger than normal numbers around the British coast in 2014. Everybody quickly surmised it was a jellyfish-type animal, but which one? Credit to be first to identify it as part of one of the eight oral arms of the Barrel Jellyfish, Rhizostoma octopus, came from the Big Jellyfish Hunt.
 
 

A portrait of the rocky north Devon coast shrouded in mizzle². There are plenty of attractive sunny shorescapes of this rocky coast but this one is a topical inclusion to demonstrate the dreich weather we have been having this year. 

¹ Quay is a Norman-French word (formerly spelt Caius) incorporated into English. The OE wharf is now more often used nowadays for a landing stage. However, in the description for Hartland Quay, the word appears to be used in a wider context for the area surrounding the former harbour (destroyed 1887). The village of Hartland is inland. 

² Mizzle is a portmanteau word reportedly used in Devon and Cornwall for the advection mist and drizzle that drifts in or forms over the damp headlands (Pen). 

In Sussex the term sea fret would be used and on the north-east coast the sea fog would be called a haar.

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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