wild life in Scotland this year

[dylanwinter]

This is now my third summer in Scotland and the wildlife seems a bit thin on the ground

I have seen just a few jellyfish swarms - almost no shoals of sandeels - very few birds in significant numbers

I have seen harbour porpoises, seals, otters and all the main species of birds from gannets to sea eagles and the usual range of gulls and shore feeders

but the numbers seem much lower than the previous two seasons

I saw a bloke who came across a shoal of mackeral and he was hauling them in but they were all tidlers

there is plenty of variety but not much in the wy of numbers

the early arriving geese have turned up so they should be pretty spectacular to watch

I am planning to do some autunn sailing around Islay and Jura

even the seals do not look as fat as previous years

all terribly subjective I know but....

 

[Mister E]

There was a nature program on TV recently that basically said the same as you have. Even showing a Bull Seal eating a young pup, they said this was an increasing problem. They thought this was due to a shortage of their normal food.

The natural order of wildlife is changing before our eyes in such a short time.

 

[Uricanejack]

Food may be scarce, over fishing? or rising sea temperature?
Maceral were plentiful when I was young, there numbers and since have declined sharply since they started fishing for them.
Salmon have declined on my favourite loch. When fishing with my brother a couple of years ago. He was complaining about the color of the loch being very dark.
Wandered up a stream and I found it full of bark. Not surprising they were clear Cutting the forestry plantations on the loch side right up to the streams which take the run of down to the loch.
We did catch a couple of small sea trout the first real silver ones he had seen in many years.
The fish farm had just closed. But I'm told that just another coincidence.

With luck next year will be better

 

[chanelyacht]

There was a nature program on TV recently that basically said the same as you have. Even showing a Bull Seal eating a young pup, they said this was an increasing problem. They thought this was due to a shortage of their normal food.

The natural order of wildlife is changing before our eyes in such a short time.

As an aside, that series is delivering the best wildlife filming I've ever seen, and Ewan McGregor's understated commentary is superb. It's on a par with the Hebrides series last year.

Being active with seal rescue and BDMLR, I could hardly watch that poor pup trying to find it's mother.

 

[agurney]

This is now my third summer in Scotland and the wildlife seems a bit thin on the ground

I have seen just a few jellyfish swarms - almost no shoals of sandeels - very few birds in significant numbers

I have seen harbour porpoises, seals, otters and all the main species of birds from gannets to sea eagles and the usual range of gulls and shore feeders

but the numbers seem much lower than the previous two seasons

I saw a bloke who came across a shoal of mackeral and he was hauling them in but they were all tidlers

there is plenty of variety but not much in the wy of numbers

the early arriving geese have turned up so they should be pretty spectacular to watch

I am planning to do some autunn sailing around Islay and Jura

even the seals do not look as fat as previous years

all terribly subjective I know but....

In my experience, the large mackerel tend to be around the west coast in June/July; at this time of year it's just the tiddlers, and the large ones have moved on to the North Sea.

Seals have certainly been down in numbers recently, but there are rumours that some of that is down to culling by fish farm operators. However, I haven't seen many gannets this year, so it may just be that there's no fish to keep them in these waters.

Have you seen many puffins?

 

[MM5AHO]

I have seen far less of everything this year.
In various west coast trips, north to Skye, west to St Kilda and south to Mull of Galloway, and most parts in between, there's a scarcity of all the usual wildlife.
I don't know why!

 

[Shuggy]

Me too. We've been out and about a lot this year and have seen:

0 basking sharks
1 minke
1 dolphin superpod (100 ish)
1 dolphin 'small' pod
Erm...
...That's it.

Normally we would have seen lots of whales and dolphins.

Lots of puffins though.

 

[Sgeir]

Interesting post. This is very subjective but I did wonder whether there are fewer seabirds this year.

We've been "out", off and on, since April and have to say there does seem to have been fewer interactions with wildlife. A few porpoises, the occasional basking shark, the back of one whale, probably a minke, some small dolphins in the Irish Sea, but AFAIR no dolphins this year in Scotland. I'm sure they're there, but just haven't spotted them.

The seals do look smaller this year IMHO, but I wondered whether that was due to over-culling of mature seals by the fish farm people.

 

[Iliade]

Just sailed much of the English Channel and there were tens if not hundreds of large bait balls visible from Scilly to Shoreham. Some larger predatory fish was causing them and I would hazard that is was mackerel. Also five sharks of at least three different species, maybe 50 dolphins in two pods and a few stragglers, a similar number of seals and one tardy puffin.

So I guess this is where all the wildlife has gone...

 

[Even Chance]

A mega flock of many thousands of Gannets was in Caithness the other evening.
Its been as busy (wildlife-wise) here as ever this year.

 

[Nicholas123]

Things are grim in my back garden.Most of the usual garden birds seemed to disappear about three months ago especially the black birds & robins
Actually considered making a post to see what others are experiencing.

 

[adwuk]

This summer trip (Largs to North Uist and back to Oban) we saw:
- 4 minke on the same day rounding the top of Skye about 4 weeks ago
- Loads of puffins around the same area as well
- Plenty of gannets, guillemots and cormorants north of Ardnamurchan and West of Mull.
- A sea otter in the Kyles of Bute
- plenty of small pods / pairs of porpoises & dolphins almost everywhere. Didn't see any really large pods (100s) though
- No basking sharks, until the Plmouth return trip in the Irish Sea - wasn't on board at the time
- A pair of sea eagles near Tobermory
- Seals popped up most places, but healthy colonies still at the Burnt Islands and Canna
I wouldn't say it was unhealthy, but certainly not the vast numbers (especially dolphins) that I have seen in the past.

 

[Sandyman]

If you are noticing a change in the wildlife I would suggest it's probably due to the food supply.
Portugal & Spain were limited to catching just 1600 tons of Sardines this year and what they did catch
was so small it was just not worth eating. To compensate the allocated catch of Mackrel (Cavala) was
increased but they were, like the sardines, small & tasteless. The fishermen claim there are vast stocks
out there & that they should be allowed to catch much more fish. I query why, if the stock is
so good, are they only landing tiddlers. Next year will be interesting.

Last year we were paying 50 Euro cents a Kilo for Sardines. This year its as high as 6 & often 7 Euros a Kilo.

 

[GrahamM376]

Last year we were paying 50 Euro cents a Kilo for Sardines. This year its as high as 6 & often 7 Euros a Kilo.

You need to be Olhao market at 1pm closing time on Saturdays, they drop the price on all unsold fish.

 

[savageseadog]

The marine ecosystem is being damaged around West Scotland by salmon farms

 

[dylanwinter]

The marine ecosystem is being damaged around West Scotland by salmon farms

I am amazzed at the number of dead salmon farms there are

floating piles of junk

just like the dead mussel farm on the Fal in Cornwall

I think it is time we stopped eating fish and gave the seas a bit of a rest

I was given a lift by a bloke who used to work on the deep sea pelagic ships

he said that he dedided he had tostop when they found themselves delivering a hold full of sandeels to holland for turning into pig feed

D

 

[garvellachs]

We holidayed for over 20 years on Shuna just N of Jura and got to know the area quite well. At that time fishing boats would come into the waters off the island and trawl all day and all night up and down like a farmer ploughing a field. Afterwards the water would be cloudy for days. No ecosystem can stand abuse like that, repeated year by year.

I don't like eating farmed salmon anymore after hearing that the famed omega3 oil supposed to be in such oily fish actually has to be added to their diet, as does pink dye. The fish in the pens are jumping all the time because they have lice and are trying to rub them off their sides by splashing themselves - the lice thrive because the fish are so confined together.

I think it's time to have a Royal Society for the Preservation of Fish. The RSPB is on the case of the birds with funds to buy whole islands. The RSPF needs to lobby for the herring, the salmon, the sand eels, the mackeral, and don't start me on the poor squid being hunted industrially by the huge jiggers down in the Falklands.

 

[Sandyman]

“When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realise that one cannot eat money.”

Let me start you Check out AIS to see the number of boats down there http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-55/centery:-51/zoom:7 Mostly boats from Japan & Taiwan I believe. Destroying the seas & oceans. Apparently Japan consumes 20% of the worlds annual catch.

 

[johnalison]

I think it's time to have a Royal Society for the Preservation of Fish. The RSPB is on the case of the birds with funds to buy whole islands. The RSPF needs to lobby for the herring, the salmon, the sand eels, the mackeral, and don't start me on the poor squid being hunted industrially by the huge jiggers down in the Falklands.

I don't belong to the RSPB but I believe that they have for some years now been aware that it is whole ecosystems that they need to consider, rather than just concentrating on the bird species.

It is always very evident to me when we go abroad how much richer their bird life is than some of ours. Our coastal birds still give a superb show in most places, and I was enjoying the sight of some little terns only yesterday, but I have seen nothing to compare with, for instance, the sight I had in Dokkum a month or two ago, of the air around me being patrolled by dozens of martins and swallows, while the sector above the roofs was being cleared out by a dozen or more swifts methodically going round the town.

 

[chanelyacht]

“When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realise that one cannot eat money.”

Let me start you Check out AIS to see the number of boats down there http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-55/centery:-51/zoom:7 Mostly boats from Japan & Taiwan I believe. Destroying the seas & oceans. Apparently Japan consumes 20% of the worlds annual catch.

Pits an absolute obscenity that Japan get the next Olympics, mind you that has just become a circus of wealth and corruption now anyway. While people are watching the next opening ceremony, Japan will be illegally hunting whales in the Southern Ocean reserve, despite international rulings and in contravention of Australia's territorial waters.