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Antarctic Krill (
Euphausia superba)
are a tiny shrimp-like organism that are an integral part of the
Southern Ocean food chain. They can be up to 5 cm in length and
are the primary food source for most of the marine animals and
sea
 birds
in Antarctica. They are also commercially fished so it is
important to ensure that human fishing
activities do not negatively impact the
native animals that rely on krill for energy for themselves and
their offspring.
Using small vessels that allow access to
shallow inshore waters researchers from Stony Brook University
and Southwest Fisheries Science Centre conducted a multi-year
survey of the population of Krill in coastal waters near
Livingston Island and discovered that the inshore waters had
significantly higher krill biomass density than
offshore waters. They also found that the inshore waters had
less annual variation than
offshore waters.
Inshore krill biomass is generally most
accessible to land breeding predators as well as to human
fishers competing for this valuable resource and although the
spatial area of the inshore survey is quite small compared with
that of the entire southern ocean, the high and stable densities
of krill in shallow waters may be of more importance
ecologically than the offshore krill.
Plankton, the most abundant type of life
found in the ocean, are microscopic marine plants that drift on
or near the surface of the sea, and has been called “the grass
of the sea” because they are the basic food on which all other
marine life depends. Since plankton contains photosynthetic
chlorophyll pigments, these simple organisms also play a similar
role to terrestrial green plants in the photosynthetic process.
Plankton are able to convert inorganic
compounds such as water, nitrogen and carbon into complex
organic materials and are credited with removing
as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as vegetation on
land. While individually microscopic, the chlorophyll they use
for photosynthesis collectively tints the surrounding ocean
waters, providing a means of detecting these tiny organisms from
space with dedicated ’ocean colour’ sensors, like Envisat’s
Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), resulting in a
spectacular image of an electric blue-coloured plankton bloom in
the north Atlantic, south west of Ireland, acquired on May 23rd,
2010 resembling the brush strokes of French Impressionist Claude
Monet.
 Giant
Ocean-Going Geese with Bony-Teeth once roamed across SE England.
A 50 million year old skull reveals that huge birds with a 5
metre wingspan once skimmed across the waters that covered what
is now London, Essex and Kent. These ocean-going relatives of
ducks and geese also had a rather bizarre attribute for a bird:
their beaks were lined with bony teeth.
This new fossil from the Isle of Sheppey
belongs to Dasornis, a bony-toothed bird that was discovered in
the London Clay, which lies under much of
London, Essex and northern Kent. With a 5 metre wingspan, these
huge birds were similar to Albatross in their way of life,
wandering the oceans. Albatross have the largest wingspan of any
living bird. but that of Dasornis was over a metre an a half
greater. Despite these similarities, research suggests that the
closest living relatives of Dasornis are ducks and geese.
There were 31 reported sightings of Basking
Sharks in September from Newquay around Land’s End to
Porthgwarra. 21 of them from Gwennap Head. Six reports of
Bottlenose Dolphin were from Bude to Gwennap Head, with the
largest pod of 40 off Bude. Four
other reports of dolphins were of small pods, so probably also
Bottlenose.
There were reports from Newquay to Hella
Point, of Common Dolphins, with a pod of 200 or more seen off
Newquay. Risso's Dolphins were seen twice, 5 off Carn Gloose and
one off Gwennap, both on the 1st of the month. Twelve reports of
Harbour Porpoise were all from The Brisons to Gwennap Head
except one, which was a pod of 12 off The Lizard.
Eight
Minke Whales were seen, all off Gwennap Head,
and a Killer Whale was seen off Mawgan Porth. Five Ocean Sunfish
sightings were from St Agnes on the north coast around to
Gwennap Head on the south, and a Blue Shark was seen off Mawgan
Porth.
Grey Seals were reported 20 times and these
were also all off Gwennap Head, largest number on any one day
was 20 |
