Cornish marine survey records 8 species from ferry
November 2009. Marine life surveys conducted onboard Scillonian III this season by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust have turned up some fantastic results, confirming that this route between Penzance and St Mary’s is an excellent platform for wildlife watching.
The surveys, led by Paul Semmens, were have been conducted weekly on Wednesdays between April and the end of October. On the way out to the islands Paul recorded casual sightings while talking to passengers about marine conservation and wildlife spotting. On the way back from Scilly Paul joined the crew up on the bridge and kept a careful watch as he did a scientific transect survey.
The sightings, combined with observations given to the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust by the crew, gave a total of 786 sightings of at least 7 different marine animals.
13,400 species on RSPB reserves – Less than 3% are birds
18/11/2009 10:34:25
RSPB reserves not just for birds, says new report.
November 2009. Less than three per cent of the species recorded on RSPB reserves are birds, according to a new report.
For the first time the RSPB’s annual report on its 200 reserves across the UK has collated records of all species together - and come up with some surprising results. Of the 13,400 species recorded on our reserves, more than half are insects, almost a quarter are fungi and 12 per cent are plants.
140,000 hectares
RSPB reserves cover 140,000 hectares across the UK - just 0.6% of the area of Britain - yet this land features 68% of Britain’s native plant species, 78% of its spiders, and all of its resident reptiles and dragonflies. …
Nationally important fungi sites - New species?
Gurney added “The RSPB’s woodland reserves are great places to go to discover fascinating fungi, and now is the perfect time of year to do it. Our reserves at Abernethy in Inverness-shire and Tudeley Woods in Kent are nationally important sites for the rare tooth fungi. Surveys there have already revealed two species new to Britain and experts believe another species may prove to be entirely new to science.
“And while our reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk is a mecca for birdwatchers, mycologists have found over 1,500 species of fungi there, including the endangered bearded tooth fungus. We are grateful to all the dedicated enthusiasts like these, who have helped us record wildlife on our reserves.”
41 mammal species, 500+ spiders
The 3,136 recorded fungus species on RSPB reserves are only 21% of the total number of known UK fungi. However our reserves do have 75% of Britain’s vascular plant species (1,137), 77% of grasshopper and cricket species (23), 78% of spider species (505) and 93% of land mammal species (41). All the native British species of cockroaches (3), earwigs (4), dragonflies (45), lampreys and hagfish (3), and terrestrial reptiles (6) can be found on RSPB reserves.
The researchers compared the morphology and DNA of the seahorse with the two native species and found it was a lined seahorse Hippocampus erectus usually found along the Atlantic coast and Caribbean sea coasts of North, Central and South America. …
The researchers say that this is the first record of the species in the eastern Atlantic.
Seahorses are cryptic animals and blend into their habitat living among seaweed in shallow water along coastlines.
So exactly how it arrived on the other side of the Atlantic in the Azores posed a key question for the researchers.
Life raft
They suggest the seahorse may have been released by someone who kept the seahorse in an aquarium.
Another possibility is the fish may have been transported to the Azores in the ballast water of a ship.
However, the most likely explanation the researchers believe, is the seahorse hitched a ride across the ocean on a floating raft.
DE KOOG - On the conveyor belt of the Texel fishing boat TX68, this weekend eleven little spiny dogfish sharks were born.
RTV N-H says so. While working at a dead shark, suddenly the babies appeared. The fish were brought to natural history museum and seal asylum Ecomare.
Spiny dogfish are ovoviviparous. This means that the eggs develop within the mother’s body … The baby sharks of the TX68 were about to be born, as they were already 25 cm long.
The spiny dogfish is the commonest shark in the North Sea.
Premature dogfish sharks. Usually the yolk sac is not so large. The urchins and sea-stars kept trying to eat these guys until I put them in separate tanks.
SYDNEY - – Australia on Wednesday rejected plans to build a massive new dam, despite pleas it is needed to provide water to residents, because of its feared impact on endangered fish and turtles.
“It is clear to me that the Traveston Dam cannot go ahead without unacceptable impacts on matters of national environmental significance,” Garrett told reporters.
“The area that would be flooded by this proposal is a critical habitat for populations of these species.”
A huge community campaign in opposition to the construction of a new dam on the Mary River, north of Brisbane, ended last week with a victory for people power: here.
November 2009. The first bittern of the season was seen flying over WWT London Wetland Centre on 16 October, earlier than ever. It has now settled amongst the reeds. The bird has been arriving earlier and earlier in the year since it first appeared in 2002. It is not known why this pattern of early arrival seems to be emerging, but speculation at the centre points to weather patterns and winds on the continent, where this individual is believed to come from. The London Wetland Centre in Barnes is one of a very few locations in London to see a bittern, and certainly the closest the bird gets to the City centre.
Excellent predator
Keen birdwatchers at the centre have seen the bird several times in the Wildside of the reserve where it is likely to stay until February or March. Expectation is high for one or two more bitterns to fly into the centre, as there were three visiting the centre in 2008. Bitterns usually take a few weeks to find their winter feeding spot, but once they do they remain in their territory through the winter. The birds are excellent predators, feeding mostly on perch, but also prey on roach, frogs, eels and small birds. Known as shy creatures, they are excellent camouflage artists concealing themselves from larger predators and humans.
“The centre has been attracting high numbers of wintering birds in the past few weeks, and the bittern always brings excitement to the reserve because it is such a rare bird in the UK. Nationally significant duck numbers have already been reached, with hundreds of gadwall and shoveller seen on the main lake,” said Adam Salmon, Reserve Manager. “Other highlights include good counts of arriving redwing and Cetti’s warblers. There are still chiffchaff and blackcap around, some of which may over-winter, siskin and lesser redpoll are feeding now through the birch trees.”
Visitors can take in all the sights of the autumn migrations on self-guided tours through the site, or book a Wildlife Walk for Members tour on 7 November and 5 December. An introductory birdwatching course is being held on 10 January.
Each autumn, in the northern hemisphere, a mass exodus commences; Northern Saw-whet Owls Aegolius acadius depart their breeding grounds in the boreal forest belt of Canada and the northern United States for more temperate climes in which to pass the winter months: here.
Tanzania: November 11, 2009. Crowned Cranes, Common Swifts and Palearctic passerines by the Mara River: here.
Not long ago, this blog blogged about a big pike who tried to eat a big zander, causing both fish to die.
Today, in the museum, another big pike. It is now exhibited in the entrance hall, with a big carp bream which it had tried to eat in Peizermade in Drenthe province, still stuck inside its mouth.
Scientists discover new deep sea life off NZ coast
Wed, 4 Nov 2009
A deep-sea marine biodiversity survey of seamounts on the Chatham Rise has produced a bounty of new species.
The finds were made by National Institute of Water Atmospheric Research (Niwa) research vessel Tangaroa, on 18-day voyage in July along the Chatham Rise.
The rise stretches for 1000km from near the South Island eastward.
The finds include a coral genus Narella and nicknamed “Rasta” because of its long white dreadlock-like branches; a tiny squat lobster measuring 1cm across; and some specimens of sea urchin which are commonly known as Tam O’Shanters due to their similarity to the Scottish hat.
“There are three new corals that we are confident are new species from the area,” said scientist Di Tracey. …
Three surveys of the Graveyard region since 2001 have revealed high levels of biodiversity, and many undescribed species.
They include benthic macroinvertebrates — animals without backbones that are larger than millimetre long — such as corals, sponges, seastars, snails, lobsters, clams, and marine worms.
The first survey alone showed 15 percent of the species collected were unknown in the New Zealand region, plus 14 species new to science. Six new species of lace coral were discovered in the second survey in 2006.
Seamounts can be ecologically valuable as hotspots of biodiversity and economically valuable and they are often the target of commercial fishing.
But the Chatham Rise — where the fishing industry wiped out the commercial viability of the orange roughy through overfishing — is also being targeted by miners eyeing its multi-billion dollar phosphate resources.
Widespread Energy and its parent company Widespread Portfolios applied in August 2007 for a prospecting licence over a 3048 square kilometre area of the rise.
It hoped that 100 million tonnes of phosphorite (rock phosphate) valued at more than $50 billion can be scraped off the seabed.
And an Auckland company Chatham Phosphate Ltd has applied for another 71,750sq km around the Widespread prospect.
In a small pond, about 30 by 30 meter, in the early morning scores of cormorants are fishing together. Hunting together increases chances of success. It is known just comparatively recently that cormorants fish together; it was seen for the first time in the Naardermeer.
Meanwhile, great egrets have discovered this special spectacle as well. Sometimes, on the banks of the pond, about 20 egrets stand waiting patiently until the cormorants have driven the fish so far that they almost literally swim into the eager waiting egrets’ bills. On the other hand, the great egrets drive the fish which they do not catch, back to the cormorants’ bills. Let us say: a win-win case.
During the twentieth century, this fish species also became extinct in much of the Netherlands because of pollution.
Recently, a professional fisherman in Flevoland province caught five adults. The biggest of those fish was 60 centimeter. So, for the burbot, though on the Dutch red list, there still may be some hope.
