STUDLAND - How much do they want???

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Searush said:
Rhizome mat? So it is just like grass then? Those broken off bits rhizome no doubt settle elsewhere & spread the grass?
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Well it is called eelgrass, so that figures :) It spreads by sending out shoots or suckers from the rhizome mat which then develop new plants. This is reported at Puget Sound (one of the biggest and most studied American Eelgrass sites) to happen 'quite quickly' so it is not clear why Dr Collins reports such slow recovery at Studland. It also propgates by seeding, which is said to be much slower. There is no report of fragments re-rooting that I have seen.
 
Just watched (BBC4) a repeat of a 2003 programme about Studland and the National Trust. Two things - what a zoo!, and coastal erosion. So much land is disappearing and - presumably - becoming seabed, that the eel grass must, periodically, be semi-buried in sediment. Can't imagine that would be ideal growing conditions. Has it happened this winter/spring?
 
Twister_Ken said:
Have the conservation fans grasped the fact that it ain't possible to conserve a dynamic environment?
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My point exactly,clearly they are unable to take onboard the changing face of nature (& then some of them expect us to take onboard a complicated process like climate change or heaven forbid.Global warming) :D

Many of the comments above about eelgrass look highly relevant to me.
I was amazed by how quickly it spread & established itself in Portsmouth Harbour & I have seen the same process taking place while anchored along the North shore of the Isle of Wight.Many of you must have seen the fronds go floating by to establish themselves in a new place while anchored there as I have done I am sure.
So what is all the fuss about rhizome mat?Obviously it is a very old & well established colony in Studland but to assume that anything old should never die or undergo change seems daft to me.There are many factors influencing nature all the time.
 
There's also the point that there are under-seabed freshwater springs at Studland, which apparently eelgrass doesn't like; but hey, any clear spot must be caused - probably deliberately some would very likely make out - by us 'rich yachtsmen'...:rolleyes:
 
Doc Collins does say in his report that Eelgrass growth is 'cyclical' by nature, and after growth spurts over a period of years will die back, then grow again over an unspecified period of time - years rather than months by inference. However he is now saying it has tended to decline since the early 1970s.

There seems little douybt though that something else is happening to it this year.
 
Reading reports on the Studland Face Book site, by local observers, there seems to be some strange goings on, re diving in the wee small hours, divers with strange East European voices, plus more than normal day time diving activity, Mmm, interesting.

Looks to me like SHT's open invitation to the diving community to "come take a look (we'll have those rich yachties out of here soon)" plus their free advertising on the BBC, may well have back fired, encouraging the wrong sort of interest.

With that and the eelgrass problems, I can just imagine the script writers at the BBC preparing broadcasts for Packham and Humble to tell the nation how rich G&T swigging yachties have destroyed the seahorses and their habitat.

I doubt the real truth will ever get broadcast.
 
galadriel said:
I can just imagine the script writers at the BBC preparing broadcasts for Packham and Humble to tell the nation how rich G&T swigging yachties have destroyed the seahorses and their habitat.

I doubt the real truth will ever get broadcast.
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There was a report on BBC Radio Solent just now about marine conservation zones round the Isle of Wight which was interesting but the reporter started with a script that could have been written by Niel Garrick-Maidment & the seahorse trust.Just after half past seven for those interested.
 
"divers with strange East European voices"

What concerns you about this, that they are divers, that they have a different accent or speak a different language. How do you know they have strange voices? Seems to me you don't even know what language they're speaking. Wouldn't be surprised if you only had a vague idea where this "East Europe" is.
 
Let me explain further then.

Group of divers heard speaking an Eastern European language, approaching Russian; some can tell Russian states by the sound, but even educated Brits may well have trouble if not linguists.

12 divers in very early morning.

Interviewed later by Police and found to be Polish.

In todays' view Poland is Eastern Europe.

Funnily enough, people talking in foreign tongues is not thought to be the work of the devil, even in Dorset !

Gangs of people diving in the dark then the Seahorses disappearing at exactly the same time is bound to raise eyebrows, whether the divers are speaking the Queens English, Polish or Martian...
 
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