Wildlife at sea

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Gunfleet

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Yet Another Yacht of Hamble's post on whales/dolphins etc made me wonder just how much and what wildlife we're spotting as we sail around these islands. On Sunday, sailing from dover to the Blackwater, I spotted about 25 seals stretched out on the drying part of Long Sand, comfortably outnumbering the yachts I'd seen since Dover. They looked like an audience. I've seen porpoises outside the Minquiers and there's a small group of seals that regularily swim up and down the Colne - to the annoyance of fishermen. Since I'm seeing more animals I have the impression things are improving for the wildlife... or is that an illusion?

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Hi John

Certainly here on the Clyde the spottings of porpoise and dolphin have increased noticably over the past three years.

Regards
Cameron

<hr width=100% size=1>Work to live, live to sail
 
Here in Cardigan Bay over last weekend we had seals, dolphin playing around the boat :o) porpoise not to mention gannets and other seabirds oh and the tourists on speedboats - too many of them

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My girlfriend says that as a student living in Whistable, they used to swim out and sunbathe on the yachts moored on the Thames. One chap swam out to a rock and climbed on to it. After while he become aware that the rock was slowly moving. He rapidly swam back and they realized that he had climbed onto the back a basking shark.

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Well, there's two ways of looking at this. Either there are more seals, dolphins, etc. or they are having to move into more heavily populated waters because of the lack of food in the deeper oceans. Plankton, the base of the marine food chain, is definitely on the decrease.

I think what we are seeing is the end result of years of over-fishing, poluting and wanton destruction of the sea-bed by drag-nets and the like.


<hr width=100% size=1>I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!
 
It's not made much impact in the press, but the seabirds in Scotland and Scottish Islands have not been breeding at normal levels this year due to shortage of sandeels. On some islands, no birds have bred at all - quite depressing reading.

One report can be found here: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=866762004>http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=866762004</A>

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni
 
And it started out as such an optomistic post!

Unfortunately, I can't really see the lot of marine wildlife improving without a complete re-think of our use of the sea, on a global scale.

<hr width=100% size=1>I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!
 
Not just the girls ...

... who sunbathe on the yachts!

sealion.jpg


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Whilst I'd agree with you about some aspects of overfishing some of your statements about pollution need to be put into context. At the risk of letting facts get in the way of a good story, the seas around our coast are less polluted than they have been for years. The Thames, for instance now has fish in its estuary that haven't been seen for years and don't tell anyone but there is a smallish run of salmon up the Trent and the Wharf, two rivers that have been incapable of supporting these fish for years. Seals are land based and don't rely upon the deep oceans for their food, so it is reasonable to suppose that if there more of them it is because there is sufficient food and/or lack of predation that allows them to flourish.

There is now less netting of salmon of the high seas and the coasts of Britain due to the actions of the Atlantic Salmon Trust who have bought off the most of the nets. I agree that things aren't perfect and that we have a long way to go but let's not go depressing ourselves unnecessarily. Read about the exploits of the MSC, who are promoting sustainable fisheries and cheer yourself up a bit.

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But if you're determined to be miserable - today's Le Figaro carries a report that there is a 15000km2 "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico where no marine life (other than algae) can exist. This is because nitrates washing into the Mississippi flood into the Gulf of Mexico promoting algae growth - the algae then deplete the oxygen in the water making conditions unsustainable for fish and crustaceans. There's an even bigger "dead zone" in the Baltic - 70000km2 - which exists all year round (unlike the one in the Gulf of Mexico). Some pretty drastic reforms will have to be made to agroindustrial practices to sort that problem out - no wonder the seals are taking refuge on boats

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Exactly what I meant by action being needed on a global scale. I don't attach much importance to the idea of nation. When I say we I mean everyone. I admit that locally things have improved vastly, which is fantastic news, but overall we're talking about a decline. China is pumping more industrial waste into the oceans now than the West did at its worst.

There are certain types of plankton that are in danger of dissappearing altogether. I don't feel that being depressed about Humanity's effect on the oceans is an unnecessary reaction, personally.



<hr width=100% size=1>I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!
 
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