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 A
young Northern Bottlenose Whale stranded on the coast of
Hampshire on 1st April and it was suffocating under its own
weight as it lay in the mud. The local fire brigade, with the
help of several members of the public, managed to get it into a
sling and return it to the water, but a vet discovered that it
was a very sick animal, suffering from kidney failure. It would
die a lingering death within days if it went back to sea, so it
was returned to a harbour and given a lethal dose of
anaesthetic.
A 7 ft, 450 pound dead Blue Marlin was found
in the surf on Saundersfoot Glen Beach, Pembrokeshire on
Thursday 7th August. It was hauled ashore with a Land Rover by
local fishermen and taken to the South Wales Sea Fisheries
Officer for identification. Marlin are usually found well
offshore in deep water in tropical seas and are known to migrate
toward the north Atlantic but not as far as the UK. The
fishermen disposed of the fish in a watery grave well out to
sea. Had it been one that they caught on rod and line it would
have made about £4000 at Billingsgate Market.
The largest number of reported sightings
during July was of Ocean Sunfish, 35 in total , these were
mainly of single fish, but 9 were seen off Gwennap Head on the
26th and 7 on the 28th. They were seen all the way around the
coast from Pendeen on the north coast to Looe on the south.
There was 27 sightings of Harbour Porpoises from Bawden Rocks
off St. Agnes, on the north coast to Nare Point near Helford on
the south. Bottlenose Dolphins with 23 sightings came next, from
the Camel Estuary around the coast to Fowey.
There were 15 other reports of unidentified
dolphins which were probably Bottlenose Dolphins except for one
sighting of a pod of 30 off The Runnelstone which were probably
Common Dolphins. There were 8 positive sightings of Common
 Dolphins,
from the Camel Estuary on the north coast to The Manacle on the
south where the largest pod of about 40 were seen. There was
only one report of Risso's Dolphins, that was of 2 off Tater du.
A Whitesided Dolphin stranded alive at Hayle but was in a very
bad state, and euthanasia was used to give it an easy death.
 Basking
Sharks were reported 18 times, from Tintagel on the north coast
to Helford on the south. A Minke Whale was seen off Gwennap Head
and an unidentified whale off Porthgwarra. Twentyone sightings
of Grey Seals were from
Concleave Strand, between Dizzard Point and Bude, all the way
around the coast to Whitsand Bay in southeast Cornwall. A
Thresher Shark was seen of Merthen Point, near St. Loy, and a
Portuguese-man-of-war was seen near The Runnelstone.
Two Cyanea Lamarckii jellyfish and 12 Compass
Jellyfish were seen off Praa Sands and Compass Jellyfish were
also seen off The Runnelstone and 100s were seen between
Botallack and Cape Cornwall on the 27th. Hundreds of Goose
Barnacles were also found stranded alive at Newtrain Bay east of
Trevose Head
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