|
A Newquay fisherman recently caught a fish
that normally lives in the Caribbean. The Almaco Jack
Seriola rivoliana,
which was caught off the north coast, is
believed to be only the 5th of this species ever recorded in
British waters and the 1st to be kept alive. It is now in the
Blue Reef Aquarium at Newquay. It is
related to and very similar to a British fish The Greater
Amberjack Seriola dumerili, but the rear of the upper jaw is
much deeper.
A giant Pink Spiny Lobster,
Palinurus mauretanicus
was recently caught and landed at Newlyn. It
was caught about 200 miles off Newlyn with two other which were
sold at the market. The Blue Reef Aquarium, where the monster is
now housed, is trying to establish if it is a record breaking
size. The Pink Spiny
 Lobster
is closely related to the Common Crawfish,
Palinurus elephas but
is usually found off the coast of Africa and in the
Mediterranean There are records of catches off the west of
Ireland up to 53º N but at a depth of 180 metres or deeper. As
there is not much water of that depth close to the UK they are
very infrequent in British landings.
During August and September the National
Oceanography Centre, Southampton. (NOCS) and the RSPB have had
observers at Gwennap Head to carry out a survey of Balearic
Shearwaters. They have recorded not only all the birds seen, but
also all marine animals and fish and their records have all been
put on their website which is updated daily, so I have received
massive numbers of sightings from them. The records for
September 6th were 28 Basking Sharks, 2 Minke Whales, 9
Bottlenose Dolphins, 90 or more Common Dolphins, 20 Harbour
Porpoises and a Grey Seal, and it went on like this for most of
the month. It just goes to show just how rich the sea is and
what you could see if you really look for it. These are reports
from just one site and did not include the 462 Basking Sharks
seen from Land’s End on September 5th.
The sea is full of food at present. Fred
brought me in samples of plankton during the month and each time
it was absolutely full of zoo plankton, all of it that I
examined was of copepods. Each little drop of water I put onto a
microscope slide contained several of these tiny creatures.
Samples of plankton usually contain a rich mixture of creatures
like Copepods, Mysids, Euphausids, Pagurid and Coenobitid
Larvae etc., but the samples Fred brought to me contained only
copepods, but it was still a rich soup for the Basking Sharks
that were out there.
The largest number of sightings were of
Basking Sharks. There were 42 reports and all but one were from
Cape Cornwall around to Carn Barges just west of Lamorna. The
exception was on the 1st of September when 8 were seen well
north of St, Ives. Second in line for report numbers were of
Harbour Porpoises with 37 reports, they were seen from Godrevy
all around the south coast to Whitsand Bay, east Cornwall. The
largest numbers were of 50 off Godrevy on both the 22nd and 23rd
of the month. Next came Common Dolphins with 30 sightings and
Bottlenose Dolphins with 24 reports, although if you add in 12
sightings of unidentified dolphins, which were probably
Bottlenose Dolphin, they would have come in second place.
Perhaps the surprise of the month was the
sighting of 19 Minke Whales, all around west Cornwall. There was
also a Pilot Whale and an unidentified whale. A Leatherback
Turtle was seen in Whitsand Bay on the 1st of the month. Cyanea
lamarckii and Compass Jellyfish were reported off The Scilly
Isles on September 3rd. Pieces of Pearl Chain, Apolemia uvaria,
a colonial hydroid, were brought in for me to examine under the
microscope, an amazing mass of squirming tentacles. Basking
Sharks were seen being harassed off Gwennap Head and Sennen on
three occasions during the month.
|
