Reports of marine wildlife from all around the British Isles, with pollution incidents and conservation initiatives as they affect the fauna and flora of the NE Atlantic Ocean.

• NEWS 1998

Reports from July 1997 on this page. The News from before July 1997 can be accessed by clicking on the Link below.

• News up to June 1997

• Diary of Seminars, Field Trips etc.

NEW BBC WILDLIFE NEWS WEB SITE at:

URL= http://www.bbc.co.uk/alert

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• 27-28 November 1997
• A Sperm Whale, Physeter catodonm,  was stranded at Wassenaar (27/11/97) (pics) (just north of The Hague) and 3 Sperm Whales were stranded on Ameland island off the Dutch coast on 28/11/97.
• Link to photographs of the Waasenaar stranding
• Zeehondencreche [Netherlands Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre] Pieterburen
Report by Dr. Reindert Nijland (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
Report from Richard Lord (Guernsey)
via the Marine Wildlife of the North-east Atlantic Ocean Group

• 24 November 1997
• A tanker carrying 28,000 tonnes of 'highly volatile' aviation fuel was involved in a collision with a cargo vessel off France. The tanker 'Nordfarer' was heading for Fawley in Southampton Water but on 26 November 1997 it was not allowed into the Solent because of fears of an explosion. It remains anchored about one mile off the Isle of Wight. Two days after the accident, there are no reports of an oil slick.
• November 1997

Salmon farmers in Hordaland County on the coast of western Norway reported mass occurrence of String Jellyfish, Apolemia uvaria, that caused severe lesions and death of fishes. The species ranged from Gullmarsfjorden on the Swedish west coast to Finnmark in northern Norway. The first known observation from Scandinavia was from Kosterfjorden in western Sweden in early November. This is a mid-water oceanic species seen near the coast in the proximity to deep water only.
Original Report
Fisheries Report

• 8 November 1997.
• A White-tailed Sea Eagle, Haliaetus albicilla, is spotted by Andy Fitchett in the Shetland Isles. For more information access:
• Shetland Islands Wildlife News

• 3 November 1997.
• A 13 metres long Minke Whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, perished in the Humber estuary, east England, despite a well co-ordinated rescue attempt.

• 29 October 1997.
• Elliot Morley, Fisheries Minister will announce at a meeting of EU Fisheries Ministers that Britain will broker a deal to outlaw Tuna Net fisheries in the Bay of Biscay. For more news information on cetaceans see the external site below:
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• 20 October 1997
• The World Angling Record for Halibut is from Norwegian seas. The largest Hippoglossus hippoglossus caught on rod and line from a boat in Norway weighed 161.2 kg and was caught off Valevågsbråtet.

• Whales News Worldwide (External Link) 

• 18 October 1997.
• A Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, is observed at the head of Sullom Voe, Shetland Islands.

• October 1997.
• A 9.4 kg Hake, Merluccius merluccius, was caught in deep water off the Isle of Mull, western Scotland. This fish was not ovigerous, but despite this it was the third heaviest caught in recent times.

• October 1997.
• A Bluemouth Rockfish, Helicolenus dactylopterus, was caught off Guernsey. Information about this fish at:
• October 1997
• A school of about 1000 Triggerfish were reported at a dive site called Stack Rocks, near Littlehaven, SW Wales.
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• Rare Fish

• 26 September 1997
• A huge crab was trawled up from a depth of 70 fathoms at the Labadie bank south of Ireland earlier this week by MFV Sharon Corinna PZ399. It was kept alive, landed at Newlyn and taken to the Newquay Sea Life Centre. The crab, Paramola cuvieri is similar to the Spider Crab but has a span of more than one metre (3 ft) across the claws although the body is not much larger than the Spider Crab, Maja squinado. Only two others have ever been caught in Cornish waters.
• Cornish Marine Life Records (Ray Dennis) 1997
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• September 1997
• A Wreckfish, Polyprion americanum, is caught in deep water off the western Swedish coast, out of Svaberget.
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•  This is a rare record this far north for a southern vagrant. It weighed 3.1 kg.
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• September 1997
• During the autumn of 1997, on the east coast of Norfolk, at the tiny seaside resort of Sea Palling, equidistant between Great Yarmouth and Cromer, an unusual event occurred to four holiday makers,   Peter Johnson,  Mike Goodey,  Tom

Brindley  and Peter Waller. These four gentlemen spread themselves out on the sandy, but steeply shelving beach and settled down for a days fishing. Two hours passed with hardly a bite and then, quite with out warning, something shot out of the water and landed with a thump on the beach amongst these very startled gentlemen.

A 60 lb (27 kg) Porbeagle Shark measuring nearly 5 ft  (152 cm) in length  and still alive and kicking!

When they recovered from the shock, they manhandled the creature, with some difficulty, back into the sea.   During the next half hour it beached itself a further three times and after twice more, getting this fish back into the water, they finally gave up and allowed it to die on the beach.
They were all staying at the village’s Golden Beach Caravan Park, where they brought the now dead fish in a borrowed wheelbarrow, to be photographed and finally cut up into steaks and distributed to all and sundry.
The Daily Express  covered the story and printed an account with photographic evidence on Tuesday September 23rd 1997….reporter Bob Mc,Gowan.
The article and photograph of this startling event have been framed and hang in the clubhouse of the Golden Beach Caravan Park.  I was there in August 2000 and saw the evidence with my own eyes or maybe even I wouldn’t have
believed it!!!!   what a fishing story to tell again and again and again

Report by Jim Hall

• Mid-September 1997.
• A large, 450 kg, Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, perished in the ropes attached to prawn creels just out of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, on the west coast of Scotland. A few days later another large Leatherback was seen on the surface in the same area. (Information from Davy Holt.)
• A large Sunfish, Mola mola, is netted by a fisherman off the Butt of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, in September 1997.
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• August 1997
• The World Record Bluemouth Rockfish, Helicolenus dactylopterus, was caught by Fredrik Meyer (Sweden) outside Trondheim from the island Hitra, off the Norwegian coast. It weighed 1495 grams. The Bluemouth is rather common in deep Norwegian waters. In the south of  Norway, outside Langesund there have been several catches.
• EMail: fredrikmeyer@yahoo.com

• 21 August 1997.
• Fish Health Regulations 1997 (Statutory Instrument No. 1881) come into force. (for more information, see Torpedo 17, November 1997).

• 4 August 1997.
• The Shark Trust, the British arm of the European Elasmobranch Association, was officially started in an opening ceremony at Birmingham Sea Life Centre. 'Shark News' is the Newsletter of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group.
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• August 1997.
• A Blonde Ray, Raja brachyura, with the edible wings weighing in excess of 19 kg was captured in a trawl off Prawle Point, Devon. This was a very large specimen. The weight of the whole ray was estimated at 23 kg.
• Shark and Ray Page (BMLSS)

• August 1997.
• An extremely large breeding mound of 50,000 Spiny Spider Crab, Majasquinado, was discovered off Burton Bradstock off the Dorset coast. This is an annual breeding site and Peter Glanvill has reported these mounds in earlier years (Glaucus 1992 & 1995). This report of the discovery by Ken Collins at Southampton University made the Times.

• August 1997.
• A Golden Haddock was caught in a trawl off the Isles of Scilly . Silja Swaby (National Aquarium, Plymouth) explains that this is an albino freak specimen of the Haddock, Melanogrammus aeglefinus.

• 16 August 1997.
• 200 sea birds were found washed up dead and oiled on the Yorkshire shores. The source of oil is unknown. NB. See the reports of sea birds killed in the gales in June 1997 in 'News up to June 1997'.

• 15 August 1997.
• Collisions between merchant vessels in the English Channel were reported to be doubled from 1996. Oil spills increased as a result of this, and oil washed up on the beach from reports seems to be much worse this year compared to 1996 and earlier years. 

• 15 August 1997.
• A very interesting and the first discovery of a Broadbilled Swordfish in the Inner Clyde. This fish was washed up dead on the shore of Loch Long, and measured 3.3 metres (8 ft 10") with a girth of 107 cm (42") and the weight was estimated at between 113 kg and 136 kg (250-300 lb). The scientific name is Xiphias gladius.
• Swordfish (External Link)

• 14 August 1997.
• Records of Salmon in the River Thames substantially down on previous years with only 6 caught around Reading in July 1994 when over 50 would be the average figure for the month in the last few years. Low oxygen levels compounded by low rainfall in winter could be the reason. 

• 17 July 1997.
• A very large gastropod called the Triton Whelk, Charonia lampas (L.), was discovered Jeremy Rule, the skipper of the Sovereign, in Falmouth Bay during July 1997. It was 26 cm (10.5 in) long and looked like an exceptionally large Common Whelk, apart from a row of 11 prominent brown 'teeth' along the thick lip of the aperture. This thick lip is much thinner in the Common Whelk, Buccinum undatum. This find was reported in The West Briton weekly newspaper in the column by Richard Shimell on the Environment. The article included a photograph by Paul Gainey. This is a very rare find, and this large gastropod has only been recorded in British seas on a few occasions. It is a southerly species known from the Mediterranean Sea. 

• 15 July 1997.
• A Bluemouth Rockfish, Helicolenus dactylopterus, was caught by a bean trawler 8-10 miles west of Guernsey. (Richard Lord Report).

• June 1997.
• A Tope with an estimated weight in excess of 42 kg (93 lb) was caught by Margaret Tuckwell whilst fishing off Selsey Bill, Sussex, at a mark known as the Mixon Hole, which is popular with divers. This weight would have been a world record if the shark had been landed alive and weighed, but this specimen was returned to the sea, The current rod and line record of Galeorhinus galeus, is 37.4 kg (82 lb 8 oz) for a Tope caught off Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, (southern North Sea) in 1991, with another large fish caught in the same area in 1986. Tope are not very common in the English Channel and most specimens are caught in the summer months. The sharks migrate in from more southerly seas. The Tope caught at Selsey was 198 cm long and 78 cm in girth.
• Tope Page

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  Shetland Wildlife Records 1996
• Shetland Wildlife Records 1997
• Shetland Wildlife Records 1998
• Shetland Wildlife Records 1999
• Shetland Wildlife Records 2000
• Shetland Wildlife Records 2001
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• News up to June 1997

• BMLSS EMail

Cornish Marine Life Records (Ray Dennis) 1993
Cornish Marine Life Records (Ray Dennis) 1994
Cornish Marine Life Records (Ray Dennis) 1995
Cornish Marine Life Records (Ray Dennis) 1996
• Cornish Marine Life Records (Ray Dennis) 1997