Oh God! Look what we have done now!!

martyn78 said:
Neil Garrick-Maidment, director of the Seahorse Trust, said the colony was one of the most important in Europe and played an important role in the food chain.

Maybe, just maybe, they were a little too important.....
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Got to wonder if sticking a big glinting tag on them interfered with their natural camoflage.
 
2002. 3 divers 'discover' seahorses in Studland. Actually locals knew all about them 50 years ago, but great excitement in conservation circles.

2008 Surveys by teams of divers working in relay several times a week find over 50 specimens. Huge excitement.

2010 Large numbers of visiting tourist divers swarming all over the place scaring the beejabers out of the little darlings: numbers reported 'in decline'. Lots of visiting divers go home disappointed because they never saw one. Word spreads, and divers stop coming.

2011 Police investigate reports of night time diving activities in the bay. Very few specimens reported afterwards. (They are worth £50 each on flea bay, which later banned their sale)

2013 3 divers dive a handful of times but fail to spot any, and hit the panic button. They have been 'wiped out'. Actually someone else from the Wildlife Trust had already seen them, but its a good story, and the press make the most of it.

I wonder why there were so many sightings a few years back?

At least its only the wealthy yotties who are supposedly damaging them - lets the rest of us off the hook!
 
I didn't know that Studland bay was an aquarium.

Look at this picture in the article.



article-2365731-0E471FFE00000578-247_634x475.jpg





Nor did I realise that only POSH yachties anchored there. Mind you the are not blaming the POOR boat owners.

Posh yachties wipe out Britain's largest colony of seahorses by dropping anchor on their habitat
Decline of native seahorse population described as 'absolutely disastrous'
Spiny and short-snouted species numbers have both fallen dramatically
Rich boat owners have been blamed for damaging their delicate habitat
Conservation group has called for the bay to be granted protected status
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Yup.
The concern, for such it is, is that a misleading story set against a national reader base has more momentum

The Echo story doesn't mention the yachtin set in a perjorative way
 
Rustykhight,

I think mine was one of the 3 responses ?

When I was with BORG and the real battle was on the Echo was a pain, very nearly as poor journalistically as the Mail; they too just repeated Seahore Trust propaganda without checking, and didn't have the courtesy to reply when I wrote pointing out the reality !
 
It's interesting that I made a comment putting some of the other facts on. It hasn't been published but I do wonder if it and other factual responses made the DM look again.

Look at how the headline could have been written.

Sponging conservationists take thousands of YOUR money in fiasco to save non existent seahorses.
 
Most of the research on newspapers shows that they chase their reader's prejudices, not set them.

"Posh yachties wipe out Britain's largest colony of seahorses by dropping anchor on their habitat"

All this tells me is that Paul Dacre thinks he can make a few more quid out of this story than the Dorset Echo by pandering to his reader's stereo types of yotties.
 
SimonFa said:
Most of the research on newspapers shows that they chase their reader's prejudices, not set them.

"Posh yachties wipe out Britain's largest colony of seahorses by dropping anchor on their habitat"

All this tells me is that Paul Dacre thinks he can make a few more quid out of this story than the Dorset Echo by pandering to his reader's stereo types of yotties.
Click to expand...


Not just dacre I guess...


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/10183387/UK-Seahorses-in-danger-of-being-wiped-out.html

And of course if you now do a google search for "studland bay seahorses" both these articles are on page 1....

So that's the facts established...
 
Old Harry is the man to ask, but as far as I remember the VNAZ was discontinued; it was a pretty pointless exercise anyway, as soon as a speedboat or two had anchored in it, it was of no use as a ' control ' sample.
 
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