In my April 2001 report I wrote about cold water corals being discovered 185 km north of Cape Wrath when oceanographic scientists sent down a ROV after side scan sonar detected hundreds of mounds 100m across and 5m high spread over an area of some 20 sq. km. The coral, Lophelia pertusa, was found to be supporting at least 800 species. Further areas were soon found off Norway and there, sonar images and seabed photographs showed deep parallel grooves gouged through the coral by heavy fish trawl gear. The trawl doors, holding the nets open, can weigh 5 tons apiece. Within months of these surveys, several reef areas had been closed to any trawl fishing. Since that time deep cold water corals have been found throughout the oceans, from northern Norway to many miles south of New Zealand.. Spain, Russia and New Zealand have large deep-sea bottom-trawling fishing fleets, and smaller fleets operate out of Portugal, Norway, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Japan, Lithuania, Iceland and Latvia. A coalition of environmental and conservation groups says the technique of dragging heavy nets across the seafloor is doing immense harm to fragile ecosystems and wants the United Nations General Assembly to ban the practice. These cold water corals are very slow growing ecosystems and if damaged, may take hundreds or even thousands of years to recover, or may not recover at all. On one sea mount in the Tasman Sea 850 species of coral were found, of which a third haven.t been found anywhere else. A dozen seamounts near New Caledonia have been examined and 1200 species were found , half of them new to science, and the fear is that bottom-trawling will destroy many of the reefs before scientists have had a chance to study them.

Two very rare Jacks or carangids have recently been caught off Cornwall. One, caught by an angler off rocks at The Lizard was taken to The Blue Reef Aquarium, Newquay for identification. It was thought to be a Lesser Amberjack, Serolia fasciata, which has never been recorded in Britain before, but it could turnout to be an Almaco Jack, Seriola rivoliana which would be the sixth for British waters and the first taken by an angler. The other fish was a related jack known as a Blue Runner, Caranx crysos caught by a fisherman in a Bass net off Mevagissey and was taken to the Mevagissey Aquarium, who passed it to Douglas Herdson at The National Marine Aquarium at Plymouth for identification and is thought to be the fourth or fifth specimen of this fish for U.K. waters. The Jack family or Carangids are widespread in the warmer waters of the world, but the only member of the family common in the N.E Atlantic is the Horse Mackerel , or Scad. This is a great example of how three Westcountry aquariums working together can build our knowledge of what is happening in the seas around our shore.

Another first for Britain is a rare crab netted just off the coast near Downderry in mid October. The crab identified as Eriphia verrucosa is known as Warty Crab or Yellow Crab and is common in the Mediterranean and the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula. They are rare in the Black Sea and a Red data Book species in the Ukraine where they have been eaten to the verge of extinction. The crab is still alive at the National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth, where they are hoping to get some better photographs of it.

Bottlenose Dolphins were only sighted three times during October, a pod of about 8 each time, off Newquay on the 3rd, Falmouth on the 20th and Sennen on the 27th, so probably the same pod. Two sightings of Common Dolphin, small pods this month, off Helford and Cape Cornwall. Harbour Porpoises were sighted off Porthtowan, Porthgwarra and twice off Botallack. Grey Seals were reported off Porth, St. Anthony Head and there is still one well up the river Tamar, near Gunnislake. A Killer Whale was seen off the Scillies and other creatures reported were a Snake Pipefish and a Blue Runner, a rare fish of the Jack family.

There were 7 Cetacean strandings during October. A Fin Whale near Aire Point, near Sennen, on the last day of the month, an unidentified dolphin, 2 Common Dolphins and 3 Harbour Porpoises. More By-the-wind Sailors, Velella velella, have stranded at Poldhu and Hayle, Violet Sea Snails at Poldhu and Bude where Buoy Barnacles and Goose Barnacles have also stranded . 3 Guillemots, a Razorbill and a Shag have also been found dead on beaches.

Conservation Officer Raymond Dennis