Sussex Marine Wildlife Jottings

Seal in the River Adur

2012-01-24T06:19:00.000-08:00

A seal (probably a common) has been seen in the River Adur yesterday at 2.15pm. Its appeared to be feeding. The seal was between the toll bridge and the flyover.

White Beaked dolphins

2011-12-02T06:53:00.000-08:00

Just received an interesting sighting of a White-beaked Dolphin observed by surveyors bow-riding their vessel about 15 miles south of Worthing (9th November 2011). Followers of this blog may remember we had a small group of white beaked dolphins sighted some miles off shore between Eastbourne and Dieppe back in April this year.

This species often bow-rides so it is interesting that both local sightings of these dolphins were bowriding. This species is not normally recorded in the English Channel.

Seal in the River Ouse East Sussex

2011-11-30T06:47:00.000-08:00

Another seal is currently in the river ouse East Sussex. It does not appear to be the usual 'Ouse Seal ' that regularly visits this river or Twinkle the rescued and released seal we have been following this year.

The seal was first reported to me on the 29th Nov and I received a message from British Divers Marine Life Rescue that they had attended the seal on 28th Nov. The seal is a little on the thin side.

Bottlenose dolphins off Brighton

2011-11-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

A large group of bottlenose dolphins were reported 12 miles off Brighton. The sighting, that appeared on the news was made by Mr Lambert, who was fishing 12 miles off the Brighton coast when the dolphins appeared.

He said

"I have seen dolphins four times off Brighton, and twice this year.

"These were the biggest dolphins I've seen off Brighton."

The dolphins played around the vessel occasionally leaping out of the water near the boat.

The group was said to contain 70 dolphins, even allowing for an over estimation (which is common) this was still a large group.

If you did not see it, below is a link to the ITV website

http://www.itv.com/meridian-west/leaping-for-joy42159/

Grey seal at Goring

2011-11-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

I received a grey seal sighting from the Sussex Wildlife Trust 'Wildcall' conservation officer.

The seal was seen at 12.30 pm on Thursday 13th October and is almost certainly the same seal as reported nearby at Goring on 17th October. The seal was about 20 metres from the high tide off the beach at Rustington.

Grey Seal, Goring West Sussex

2011-10-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

I received a report of a seal off the beach at Marine Drive Goring-by-Sea from Mark and Claire. They took their children across to the beach and to their surprise watched a seal about 10 metres off the beach.

The seal was about 30 - 40 metre's off the beach and was photographed with the seal's head above the water. From the photographs, the seal appears to be a grey seal, with its flat head and Roman nose.Mark and Claire's description also suggests a grey seal.

Mark and Claire stayed for about 20 minutes and the seal periodically disappeared and reappeared at this distance. There was a large number of sea sports such as wind and kite surfing towards the east about 1 km way and the seal seemed to be very aware of the activity. If fact Mark and Claire said the seal is looking in that direction in the photo.

Seal in the River Arun

2011-10-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

A member of the public (Jason) reported a seal in the Arun River (West Sussex) 1/4mile south of the marina at Ford. It was in the evening around 6.30pm. Jason reported that the seal was swimming on the surface travelling with the outgoing tide. when it saw us, it dived and surfaced around 100yds further down river about a minute later with a fish.

The last time I received a seal sighting in the Arun was back in 2008 when a common seal was seen (and photographed) above Arundel. There is a link below to my earlier blog entry of this sighting

http://sussexmarinejottings.blogspot.com/2008/08/catch-up.html

Return to the Wild

2011-10-11T02:33:00.000-07:00

The young common seal rescued on Hove beach back in August is now recovered and was released back into then sea by the RSPCA Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Mallydams today.

Below you can see a series of photographs all taken by Nikki Lambert of the moment the seal pup was released. The seal has been tagged so if the seal is unfortunate enough to be stranded in the future we will know about it. Who knows, we may also get a glimpse of this pup from time to time, as with Twinkle, the seal as it will be recognisable from the flipper tag and possibly from the photographs taken for ID purposes.

These images are (c) Nikki Lambert

The release of this seal was filmed by Autumn Watch and should be aired on Friday 4th November.

More seal sightings

2011-09-28T08:05:00.000-07:00

A common seal was spotted by a member of the public (Laurel) at Hope Gap - Seaford yesterday about 1pm. She also passed on information that her dad has spotted a seal in the River/sea in Newhaven a few times recently. Possibly Twinkle? Impossible to be sure without a confirmation of the tag.

Rescued seal pup, Chichester, West Sussex

2011-09-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

BDMLR rescued another seal pup in Sussex, this time at Chichester, West Sussex. One of the girls that helped with the transport named him ‘Peanut’, but I don’t know if the name will stick, at Mallydams he’s currently known as the Chichester seal pup.

Latest seal pup update

2011-09-02T03:07:00.000-07:00

The rescued seal pup from Hove now has a playmate. He now resides in an outside pool with a young female.

The Hove pup is the one in the front making a bit of a mess eating a fish, his new friend is directly behind watching.

Its great to see how well the rescued seal is doing and it should make a full recovery, more news soon.

2011-08-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Today, Elaine, the marine medic who helped rescue the Hove seal pup took a display about BDMLR to the Mallydams Open Day. This is where the seal pup is being cared for until it is released.

(c) Elaine Brown, Marine Medic British Divers Marine Life Rescue

BDMLR rescue many sea mammals around the country each year from dolphins and whales to seals like the one rescued at Hove. If you want to find out more about the great work that BDMLR does or even help support them, please click on the link below.

http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/

Dolphins and humpback whale in the English Channel

2011-08-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

I recieved the following report today. On 3^rd July, 3 bottlenosed dolphins were reported by Groupe d\'etudes des Cetaces du Cotentin on a ship wreck HMS Daffodil. The ship was lost off Dieppe on March 17th 1945 after striking a mine. HMS Daffodil is a big wreck 107m long. Today the wreck of HMS Daffodil wrests in only 24 metres of water, she sits upright and is pretty intact giving good swim through wreck penetration. The marine life on her is superb with large shoals of Bass and Black Bream in the wreckage. This may have been what attracted the dolphins to the wreck.

On 5^th July a humpback whale was reported between Brighton and the French Coast.

Hove seal pup doing well

2011-08-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

(c) Nikki Lambert, RSPCA Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Mallydams

The rescued seal pup from Hove is still making good progress

Seal pup doing well!

2011-08-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

The seal pup rescued on Hove Beach on the 31st July (reported on 4th August on this weblog) is doing well.

Emaciated and looking rather sorry for itself on arrival at RSPCA Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Mallydams Wood. The seal has perked and and looking much better.

You can see the injuries the seal pup had to its face which have been cleaned and treated and should heal up okay.

You can find out more about Mallydams at http://www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/wildlife/centres/mallydams

Injured seal pup

2011-08-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

I received a report of a seal pup beached on Hove Beach on Sunday, July 31st. I first heared about it through my daughter who saw it on a friends FaceBook page.

I then received a detailed report from Elaine, a medic for BDMLR who attended the pup. The seal turned out to be a common seal pup possibly less than a month old with serious injuries to its face and head, including a bad gash beside the left eye.

(c) Elaine Brown, Marine Medic British Divers Marine Life Rescue

The wildlife rescue ambulance service also helped with the rescue. At 4:45pm, the pup was on the beach near Hove Lagoon, before it went back into the sea.

The seal was relocated again later when it came back ashore and was taken to the RSPCA Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Mallydams Woods in Hastings were he is currently receiving care.

The pup was reported as being repeatedly sighted from about 3:00pm at different areas along Hove Beach throughout the day until we picked him up at about 7:30pm.

It does make you wonder where the pup came from as it is so young. Even with currents etc, I can't imagine that it was born further than a few miles away. I wonder if there is a mother around somewhere. Common seals only feed their young for 4-6 weeks. This seal does look quite thin (rather than the large fat reserves a pup should have when weaned) maybe it become separated too early and for some time!

Comparing habitats, Summer School

2011-08-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

On my way to Shoreham Beach to work with a group of students I noticed this cormorant eating an eel.

The eel put up a good fight before it was eventually swallowed whole.

I had been working with the school at Midhurst the previous day studying the grounds as a wildlife habitat and recording the various invertebrates we could find. Today we would be doing the same set of activities on the vegetated shingle at Shoreham.

However, first of all we explored the intertidal zone.

When we arrived an egret hunted along the edge of the incoming tide.

We would not have long to explore before the tide came in.

The children found a variety of marine life in the short time.

A amphipod, related to sand hoppers. Not dead, just laying on its side. They swim on their side and also wiggle along on their side when on the sand.

These children find and photograph a shore crab

They also explore the rocky walls and sea defences covered in seaweed and inhabited by periwinkles , limpets, sea anemones and other wildlife.

And more shore crabs

After lunch we explored the vegetated shingle beach

The children drew a plan of the beach habitat to compare with their school grounds habitat.

Then they investigated the shingle plants and their special adaptations

This is woody nightshade, a relative of deadly nightshade

The children also investigated the invertebrates to compare with species they recorded in their school grounds.

Solitary bee

Hoverfly

They also recorded the bird life

Green finches

House sparrow

Ringed plover - wading birds.

Tomorrow, the children will be going to Iping Common to study the wildlife there and compare what they see with today's records and the records of their school grounds wildlife.

Returning the Sea Creatures

2011-07-31T06:35:00.000-07:00

Today I returned the marine creatures back to the beach. I have been looking after them in a special marine tank.

I had originally planned to return them earlier, but it needed a good low tide to return the bivalve molluscs.

I searched for the area of chalk so I could fit the piece with the piddocks back in same place.

In one of the deeper tide pools, shore crabs fed on the remains of fish.

As I watched a little egret hunting along the waters edge another egret swooped down and chased the first egret

It chased the egret low across the mud flats and the back towards the harbour mouth

I then lost sight of them.

After a while a egret arrived and landed on the edge of the water and started to feed, I don't know if it was the first or second of the egrets.

It started to feed and then suddenly it was chased off by another egret.

After a while an egret returned

This one started to feed and was still there about 30 minutes later when we left.

Learning about inter-tidal invertebrates

2011-07-20T09:19:00.000-07:00

School visit today with the live marine invertebrates I collected yesterday. I would be working with one class year groups year 5 and 6. This visit was part of a larger project that the children were studying called "Oceans Alive" and would provide a local context to the Great Barrier Reef which the children had been learning about.

We started with an introduction to the nature reserve and about how the local coastline was formed.

I also included pictures and information about the beach and tide pools the invertebrates were collected from to set the scene.

Then I worked with each year group separately, observing and discussing the live animals as I demonstrated them one at a time.

I put each invertebrate one at a time underneath the video microscope and the image was projected onto a large screen.

The beadlet anemones are always popular. I put them under while they are closed and then add sea water and they open up. This is how they survive in-between the tides.

We spoke about how they catch their food – which I demonstrated with a piece of food I placed in the tentacles. The anemone reacted immediate firing thousands of stinging cells to paralyze its prey. Without eyes it reacts this way to anything that touches its tentacle, even us but our skin is too thick to harm us.

I demonstrated four crustaceans.

I started with an amphipod and we discussed its body type, where it lives, its senses and what it feds on.

Next the shore crab with its armored shell with jointed limbs like a suit of armour.

The children discussed what they thought the crab might eat and I gave it a small piece of seafood which it held in its pincers and it proceeded to shed into smaller pieces. Shore crabs shed their protective shell when they grow but this also gives them the ability to re-grow a lost limb.

Juvenile shore crabs often have markings that help them to camouflage with their surrounding. This one has white blotches that match the pebbles.

I don’t usually take prawns into schools but as it was a very local school this was not a problem. Being transparent means it is camouflaged where ever it is and you can see some of its internal organs such as the brain.

It picks up bits of food with its delicate pincers and constantly sweeps its surroundings with its long antennae.

A surprise crustacean is the barnacle.

Although it looks like a molluscs, the barnacle spends a moth as a free swimming larvae living in the plankton before it changes shape and sticks itself to a suitable hard surface, a rock a sea defense or even another animal in this case a mussel.

Once secured to the rock it cannot move around. It lives by catching food with its feet (once used for swimming).

I also demonstrated some tiny copepods, no bigger than a large sand grain, these are part of the zoo plankton.

I brought several molluscs, one clam was too big so I kept it in a container.

You can see the siphons used to suck water and food into the shell, the food is filtered out and the water passes over the gills so it feed and respires at the same time.

You can also see the large fleshy foot that is used for burrowing in the sand.

Cockles are small enough to show under the microscope and like the clam they burrow in sand and silt

I also showed a piddock which came from the chalk. The piddock burrows into the chalk by rotating its shell.

Safe inside its burrow the piddock can extend its siphon to feed while still protected by the chalk.

This was a lucky find, a loose piece of chalk and a piddock protruding from the bottom. (When finished I carefully put it back into its burrow.

This mussel has attached itself to the Petri dish by strong threads called byssus which the mussel uses to attach itself to rocks and man-made structures.

On this mussel you can clearly see its foot which is not usually visible.

Edible periwinkle glide along on their foot, this is a gastropod as it only has one shell.

All the above molluscs are bivalves as they have two halves to their shell.

Last of all I showed a small rock pool fish, a blenny.

Like the prawn, I don’t usually take a fish to schools but being very close this was not a problem. This juvenile has extra large pectoral fins making it look like a flying fish.

This small fish can even survive out of the water at low tide as long as it is hidden somewhere cool and damp.

Collecting trip at Kingston Beach Shoreham Harbour

2011-07-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

I visited Kingston beach today to collect some marine invertebrates for a school visit on Wednesday. As usual the challenge is to find very small animals that can be shown under the digital microscope.

The beach is inside the harbour mouth at Shoreham which means is is protected from the worst of the weather.

A few shingle plants can be found at the top of the beach such as this sea kale.

Some sandwich turns were sheltering from the wind on the exposed sand.

They can be identified from other terns by the crested black cap, long black beak with a yellow tip and the short black legs

The low tide exposes a large area of silty sand. The upper area is stabilised by a mussels bed. Pools off sea water are trapped between the gaps providingng temporary pools.

However beneath this is chalk which shows through in places

I moved a loose piece of chalk and found some live piddock shells. Piddocks bore into the chalk where they can live in relative safety. They feed using long siphons that protrude out of the chalk at high tide. This is the underside.

The old sea defences also provide places for marine life to colonise and also several large pools collect at the base.

These are dog whelk eggs. You can also see a small hole in the mussel shell. Dog whelks feed on mussels by boring a hole through its shell. You can see the white shell of an adult dog whelk behind the eggs.

The transparent prawns lining in the pool at the base of the sea defence are difficult to spot unless they move.

There were several large snakelock anemones in one of the larger pools

They can be identified by the green tentacles (a symbiotic algae lives in them giving them the colour) with pink tips. Unlike beadlet anemone it cannot close up at low tide.

Check out my next blog entry to find out what sea animals I found to take to the school.

Seal sighting Brighton Marina

2011-07-07T07:48:00.000-07:00

Another seal sighting off the Marina at Brighton. The seal was spotted at 9.00am surfers who were surfing off the eastern side of the marina. They reported the seal as being very curious, which suggests it could possible be Twinkle.

However, over the years I have received several calls where other common seals have approached swimmers and touched them with their whiskers, so of course we can’t be sure if this is Twinkle or not.

Another seal sighting Brighton

2011-06-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

Another seal sighting. It was spotted very close to shore, possibly within 10m, by workers on the Brighton Pier. The seal, first seen at 11.15am kept looking at the beach but was also slowly moving west.

Based on previous sighting records, these current sightings over the last few days do suggest that they are one seal and possibly Twinkle.

Another seal sighting

2011-06-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

Another seal report. This is very close to the seal sighting on 12th June, so it may be the same seal. The seal was seen at 9pm and it was about 50 yards from the shore, east of the pier in front of the Volks railway. The observer, Peter, saw the seal pop up 4 or 5 times looking around. Peter left the beach around 9.30 and the seal was still there. It was almost a full moon so it was easy to spot.

Seal off Brighton

2011-06-12T04:18:00.000-07:00

A common seal was reported yesterday about 20m from the shore at Brighton. It was observed between the nudist beach and the halfway stop for the Volks Railway. The seal stayed in the same general area disappearing underwater and popping its head back up again.

This could be the rescued and released seal Twinkle whose movements we have been following since November 2010. Twinkle does come very close to shore and always appears to be interested in people on the beach or river bank when he swims up stream.

Of course there is no way to be sure without a photograph (I have been able to recognise this seal from face markings in some close up photographs, even when the tag has not been visible) or seeing the tag which is only visible when it is on land.

If you are new to this blog, there are many earlier entries about Twinkle and reports of other seals and dolphins we see off the coast locally.

I was at World Oceans Day with a couple of displays yesterday in Shoreham so I did not see the seal myself this time.

Adur World Oceans Day Festival and Spring Watch Festival Brighton

2011-06-11T03:29:00.000-07:00

We attended the Adur World Oceans Day events again this year. Situated on Coronation Green, next to the high street and River Adur this is a great event at a perfect location.

The weather stayed nice and we were busy all day. Our display focused on two projects.

Project One
Our life sized inflatable bottlenose dolphin was the focus for a display about local dolphin and seal sightings, many of which have been reported on on this weblog.

We were also able to promote an exciting event coming up in November called WhaleFest 2011 organised by Planet Whale. More information about this event will be posted nearer the time. You can also find out more about whale planet at http://planetwhale.com/

Project Two

I also took along my schools program called One World One Ocean the Adventures of Ed the Bear.

This programme shows how we are all part of one ocean, a celebration of marine biodiversity locally and globally, highlight threats to the oceans, people around the who are helping the oceans and how we can all help the oceans, even by making small changes to our life style.

You can find out more about this project at http://adventuresofedthebear.blogspot.com/

The Friends of Shoreham Beach were also here with a bright and informative display and they were also busy all day with children art activities. You can find out more about the beach and special walks, talks and other event they run, including school visits at http://www.fosbeach.com/

The previous Sunday we were also at the Brighton Springwatch Festival at Stanmar Park. I took both of the projects mentioned above.

Despite the rain it was well attended and we spoke to make interested visitors

Exploring vegetated shingle habitat - schools

2011-05-21T02:57:00.000-07:00

Today we ran a special course for the Pupil Enrichment Programme - part of West Sussex County Councils Gifted and Talented programme. We were able to use a local school as a base to run the indoor session, looking at the coastal geography (starting from Cretaceous Period) and the fascinating local maritime history.

The indoor session also provided an introduction to the vegetated shingle habitat, the adaptations that allow it to grow in such a harsh environment and the wildlife that the plants attract. This prepared the pupils for the practical work we would do on the beach.

We started with a transect survey, using a tape and canes, and the pupils surveyed the beach in metre squares from the top of the beach to the high tide line.

The pupils also investigated the plants themselves looking for special adaptations and identifying the plants.

Back in the classroom we discussed our findings. We also discussed invasive species, many of which are garden escapees. Due to garden rubbish being dumped on the beach, this is causing the shingle to become more rich in nutrients allowing the invasive species to take over and swamp out some of the vegetated shingle plants.

The main problem species are red valerian and silver ragwort. We counted the number of squares that contained these species. The result was 13 out of 40 squares in one transect and 15 out of 40 squares in the second transect.

In the afternoon session we returned to the beach to record the wildlife that we saw.

There were only a few bird species visible today, house sparrow, starling and carrion crow

We did watch a herring gull repeatedly picking up and dropping a seashell in an attempt to break it open and eat the occupant.

The afternoon was quite sunny and so we saw many wall lizard amongst the vegetation.

It was a bit windy so we did not see many butterflies, mainly white butterflies.

However we did find several caterpillars of the Garden Tiger Moth. These were on several of the silver ragwort.

There were also two types of beetle, this attractive Malachius bipustulus

and this Oedemera nobilis

There were several zebra jumping spiders

One solitary black ant.

Last year I ran a pilot project called Bees on the Beach. The aim of this project was to find out what bee species were present on the beach. Most importantly, to record the plant species that the various bee species pollinated and how this changed at different times of the year.

So we also recorded the bees we saw and the plants that they were visiting. These included a bumble bees and a few honey bees. We saw one solitary bee, Adrena species, and a cuckoo bumble bee that lays its eggs in other bees nests so that they will care for them. The cuckoo bee looks like the queen bee of the species whose nest they lay their eggs in.

Two banded bumble bee on sea kale flowers.

Red tailed bumble bee on yellow horned poppy

A red tailed bumble bee on thrift

We saw a good variety of invertebrates on the plants. Back in the classroom we discussed what animals we had seen and then finished off with a round up and final questions.

Two seal sightings

2011-05-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

A seal was reported 10 metres off the beach at Hove at about 11:30am on the 9th of April. About 5 people saw the seal, which they were surprised to see. It poked its head out of the water and looked at them for about a minute, then swam off.

Another seal sighting, possibly the same seal, was reported off the same beach on 16th May at 10.00 am. The seal was about 50m from the shore and heading east. These were probably common seals. The observer said that the seal looked like a dog swimming, which also indicates a common seal.

Bottlenose dolphins Shoreham

2011-05-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

Another bottlenose dolphin sightings, 2 poss, 3 dolphins seen during the Sussex Yacht Regatta on Monday 1st May. The sighting occurred about 250m south of Shoreham harbour at about 10.00am.

All the dolphins played around the yachts for about 20 minutes.

One of the photographs shows some good identification marks on the dorsal fin. It would be great to get pics of the dorsal fins of other dolphins from this group.

It may be possible that there were more dolphins not seen because the observers were taking part in the regatta - possible another sighting of the group reported in the two previous messages.

Bottlenose dolphin sighting

2011-04-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

Another dolphin sighting, Friday 29th April. This sighting occurred close to the Mixon Hole, Selsey, West Sussex. This was a school of bottlenose dolphins, 6 to 8 adult and one smaller bottlenose dolphin, which may be the same group observed off Brighton. The dolphins were observed by the Mulberry Divers. The dolphins were reported to be swimming around, jumping and playing until the divers started to get into the water.

They may be the same group of dolphins seen on 27th April

White beaked and bottlenose dolphin

2011-04-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have just received the following 2 Dolphin sightings seen during the last week:

On 22 April a pod of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins was seen in the middle of the English Channel (half way between Eastbourne and Dieppe).

Here's video clip of them riding in the bow wave of the boat....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKynKbvZ3zs

On 27 April a school of around 10-15 bottlenose dolphins were seen feeding less than a mile from Brighton seafront.

Dolphin sighting

2011-04-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

I have just received a report of a dolphin (possibly bottlenose) sighted by a commercial fisherman on Saturday 16th April at 7.45am about 3 miles east of Selsey Bill.

Twinkle the common seal

2011-04-19T01:39:00.000-07:00

Twinkle the common seal has again been spotted back at Cuckmere, on 21^st March, were it was spotted by the mouth of the Cuckmere River.

A seal sighting on 10th April off Hove Beach may also be Twinkle.

The further travels of Twinkle the Seal

2011-03-18T02:42:00.000-07:00

A seal spotted in Shoreham Harbour on 11th January, during the launch of the new life boat has now been confirmed to be Twinkle, the rescued seal that I reported on last November first seen in the Cuckmere River

The orange tag on its hind flipper clearer identifies this seal as Twinkle.

The seal was rescued and named by the RSPCA on the 13th June 2010 from Lowestoft. It was successfully released into the Wash on 18th August.
I have been following the movement of this seal since November 2010 (see earlier blog entries) where it was first seen in the Cuckmere River. Since then it has been seen at the 7 sisters, Newhaven, River Ouse further upriver than Lewes and now the River Adur. Other seal sightings may also be this seal, but the tag can only be seen when the seal is on land.

We know the seal is finding food as it was reported eating a big fish. A photograph taken on a mobile phone by Debra clearly shows the seal feeding.

These are some of the photographs I have taken of the seal while it was in the River Adur

From the pictures below you can see that the seal is quite relaxed and appears to be fit and healthy

It would be good to hear from anyone who spots this seal as this has been a unique opportunity to follow the movements of a single seal around our coast and rivers.

Seal at Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve

2011-01-27T10:09:00.000-08:00

A seal was seen off Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve (West Sussex) today at 4.00pm. I am not sure which species at present. A photograph of the seal "face on" suggests it might be a grey seal but this may just be the light.

A segment of video taken, too large to send as an attachment, so I hope when I receive this it will be clear as to which species it was. Unfortunately when I got the message at 4.00pm it was already getting dark and unfortunately it would have taken me an hour to get there by bus. So I did not get to see it myself.

Grey seal, Cuckmere River

2011-01-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

I have received a seal sighting from Malin (who has provided seal sightings before). This seal was resting on the riverbank between the Golden Galleon Pub and Cuckmere Haven in the Seven Sisters area on New Year's Day.

Malin first saw the seal at around 1.30 pm when they started walking and the seal was still there around 3.30 pm when they returned.

The seal was a grey seal, identifiable by its lack of a forehead. This may well be the same seal that was reported in the nearby river Ouse on 30th December 2010, as grey seals are rarely sighted in Sussex.

Grey Seal in the River Ouse

2010-12-30T08:15:00.000-08:00

I recieved a sighting of a seal (the observer said it looked like a grey seal) in the river Ouse near Southease, East Sussex ! The observer, Kirsty, was walking her dogs and the seal suddenly appeared in the water and watched them with interest before slowly floating away backwards (whilst still looking at us) downstream, then disappeared underwater.

Grey seals are not often observed in Sussex waters, so this is an interesting observation.

Seal sighting, Hove Beach

2010-11-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

A common seal was hanging around just off the beach at Hove this morning, just opposite the Hove lagoon boating lake. The seal was slowly making its way eastwards towards Brighton.

Seal update

2010-11-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

Update on the tagged common seal reported in my previous blog. The seal has been identified by its unique number tag on its flipper. It is a male yearling, which has been named Twinkle.
The seal was taken to the RSPCA on the 13/6/10 from Lowestoft where it was rescued, weighing 21 kg. It was successfully released into the Wash on 18/8/10 weighing 35 kg.

Common seal sighting River Cuckmere, East Sussex

2010-11-07T12:11:00.000-08:00

I received a very interesting report of a common seal (from David Harris and Stewart Page) on the gravel/mud bank of the Cuckmere River, on the east side about half mile in from the sea. The time was about 4.20pm.

The seal was laying in a patch of sunlight, but the wind was cold, about 5 metres from the waters edge. It was clear from the photographs (taken by Stewart Page) that this seal was not the common seal we see from time to time in the River Ouse. The seal appeared to be fit and healthy. It was holding a steady position with tail flippers together and slightly raised with those on its side flat. This is the usual resting position called the banana position because of its shape.

Of particular interest was the fact that the seal had a flipper tag and Stuart was able to get a clear photograph of the number.

I am currently in the process of tracking down the originators of the tag and hope to find out more about its history.

The seal moved its head around but it did not appear to be too anxious and made no attempt to make for the water, which is a seals first instinct if it feels threatened. Stuart and David observed the seal for about 15 minutes before moving on when their border terrier noticed the seal was there. Seals appear not to be disturbed by dogs at a safe distance, but David was worried that the dog would rush down towards the seal.

Roosting starlings at the Brighton Marina

2010-10-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

I have seen the starlings roost underneath the Brighton Pier but I have not seen so many on the Brighton Marina before. It was a windy evening and a small flock of starlings turned in to a noisy swirling flock.

They spiraled down and disappeared beneath the restaurants standing on piles above the water.

Seals at Beachy Head

2010-10-20T02:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I received another seal sighting, this time at falling sands just to the east of Beachy head lighthouse. Two seals were observed by Jack Harris (and his Father) on Sunday 17th October in the morning. On his return late afternoon one of the seals was still there

Jack took this picture using his mobile phone which clearly shows a dog-shaped head which would indicate a common seal.

A seal, probably the same animal, was also there on Monday 18th October morning and Monday evening.

Seal call out

2010-10-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

I was called to a possible injured seal this evening at Saltdean beach (opposite the Lido). Unfortunately the traffic was bad and it was getting dark by the time we got there. It was light enough to see that the seal was not on the pebble beach, or in the water as there was good illumination from moon light. It was difficult to tell
for sure if it was on the rock breakwater or not.

Hopefully this was a healthy seal, which the observer thought was in trouble because seals are not common locally and people are often not used to seeing a seal hauled out. I also encouraged the observer to call British Divers Marine Life Rescue but they arrived just before me and could not find the seal either

We will keep an eye out tomorrow to see if it is still around. It may be the seal that we occasionally see up the nearby River Ouse.

Bottlenose dolphin sighting

2010-09-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

I have recently received a dolphin sighting from the Sussex Sea Fisheries. A school of 8-10 large bottlenose dolphins were seen during a routine patrol on the 3rd September at 9.00am. The vessels position 50.44.30N 000.37.02W is approximately 3 miles offshore between Bognor Regis and Littlehampton. The dolphins stayed with the boat for about 2 minutes riding the bow wave.

Compared to sightings when I first started monitoring local sea mammals as regional coordinator for the Sea Watch Foundation, in recent years the number of sightings have been much less. We have had very few bottlenose dolphin sightings off Sussex the last couple of years. Sea Watch Foundation have voiced concern that this species is declining around the UK so the lack of Sussex sightings is worrying. However, me may just be unlucky and not have anyone watching when they pass.

Northen Bottlenose Whale off Sussex

2010-08-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

I am following up a probably bottlenose whale sighting, came in 16th August while I was away on holiday. The whale was spotted off shore at Middleton on Sea (near Chichester).

Although this is a deep water species, you may remember that a northern bottlenose whale was stranded at Bournemouth last year and another one was observed off Chichester and then Hampshire in 2008 before, sadly stranding at Hampshire.

Even more exciting, from the point of view of observation, two Northern bottlenose whale where recorded off The Wash area, Norfolk on 9th August during National Whale and Dolphin Watch. However, it is also disturbing to find such deep water species turning up in areas outside their normal range as they usually end up getting into trouble.

Ed the Bear helps out with National Whale and Dolphin Watch

2010-08-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

The display table also included some pictures from Ed the Bears adventures, an education project - One World One Ocean. The aim of the project is to raise awareness of global ocean issues and celebrate the fascinating wildlife around the world and on our own doorstep.

The display focused especially on sea mammal related pictures such as meeting a bottlenose dolphin at Florida Keys Dolphin Research Centre and humpback whale watching in Hawaii. There were also some pictures to do with conservation issues too, Ed helping at an oil spill and cleaning up beach litter. This allowed Ed to promote his message about One World One Ocean.

Ed also took part in the manned watch at Shoreham, newly arrived back from his tour of the USA. He was a little disappointed that he did not see any sea mammals during the watch –especially after his experiences in the US, but he was pleased to help out, as Shoreham is his local beach. Ed’s return to the UK has been delayed due to the terrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He had originally planned to visit some of the UK watch sites during National Whale and Dolphin Watch (NWDW). You can find out more about his USA adventures on http://adventuresofedthebear.blogspot.com/

Ed’s sister Bella, who has helped Ed out in the past, has travelled up to New Quay to help out with NWDW in his place.

National Whale and Dolphin Watch

2010-08-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

Its that time of the year again for National Whale and Dolphin Watch Week, running from the 7th-15th August 2010. Members of the public are once again invited to take part in National Whale and Dolphin Watch, either by helping our trained observers on manned watches, performing their own timed watches or by sending in sightings. 28 different species of whale and dolphin have been recorded around the UK and 13 spoecies are seen on a regular basis.

This is an opportunity for everyone to become involved in the research which goes into understanding these magnificent creatures. The event is the ninth consecutive annual watch. The results of the watch provide a snapshot of the distribution of whales, dolphins and porpoises around the British Isles and are helping inform scientific debate on any change in the range and distribution of species.

I ran the Sussex manned watch site at Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve today from 10.am until 3.00pm. No cetaceans sighted. While sea conditions were okay for watching we did have a strong SW wind of 3-4 and gusting to 5 on occasions. The sun came out mid watch.

Shoreham Beach also a site of rare vegetated shingle habitat

We had about 9 people who stayed to take part in the watch period.

Recording data

I also had a table set up with local dolphin sightings, and a species ID quiz. This provided the chance to talk to local people visiting the local nature reserve.

The number of people visiting the beach increased with the sun. The ID quiz was particularly aimed at children, but some adults also had a go – and not surprisingly the children often got more right.

Family Fun Day Rock Pooling Event, Friends of Shoreham Beach

2010-08-04T16:45:00.000-07:00

The inter-tidal fun day event was as popular as ever, an event I run for the Friends of Shoreham Beach with the help of the countryside rangers. This year we counted over 70 people attending. Before we went down on to the beach we pointed out some of the sea and wading birds that visit the beach to feed on small fish and invertebrates.

This included a cormorant surveying the beach from its perch.

The little egret flying across the beach before landing and hunting in the pools.

The egret would use its foot to disturb the sand and snap up any fish or shrimps.

There were also a few terns, diving for fish

Then we made our way down onto the beach.

The main aim of the event is to introduce people to the fascinating life of the intertidal zone, provide them with some knowledge and skills to come back and explore the beach themselves.

A beach like this has a wealth of marine life waiting to be discovered.

Nestled in amongst the mussels and barnacles on a sea defense in a dog whelk. This predatory sea snail can drill through the shells of mussels and barnacles to fed on the living creature.

Crabs were as popular as ever and generated a lot of questions for the adults and children. There was a lot of questions about the colouration - juvenile crabs have shells that match the habitat they are living in and may be sandy coloured or covered in random blotches of black, white, brown and other colours.

One of the more unusual finds included this snake lock anemone...

...and this compass jellyfish (the latter was a dead stranding).

We provided some small tanks and containers to temporarily keep a few of the animals we discovered so we could talk about them at the top of the beach.

A beadlet anemone

A dog whelk, edible periwinkles and a shore crab

A common shrimp, sandy coloured and flat compared to the transparent prawn. Common shrimps are hunters and can spear small fish, worms and other prey.

Some fisherman had been digging rag worm to use as bait.

A green shore crab

Then after a picnic lunch, the children took part in a beach sculpture activity using pebbles, seaweed and other items they could find on the beach

I was one of the judges, along with Jacky and John from the Friends of Shoreham Beach. Choosing winners was not easy as the designs were very different and each had something special or unusual.

The day was a great success and we managed to avoid the rain which was forecast but did not reach the beach until about an hour after the event ended.

Bottlenose Dolphin Sighting, Bognor Regis, West Sussex.

2010-08-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

3 bottlenose dolphins were sighted yesterday afternoon (3rd August). They were observed swimming 200 metres off the coast just east of Bognor Pier. Rough location 50'46'47.12 N 0 40'20.16 W
The dolphins appeared to be feeding, fisherman on the pier were catching mackerel. The dolphins also spent more time swimming on the surface, rather than the usual dive surface dive swimming pattern. The dolphins swam east along the coast and they were visible for about 30 minutes.

Exploring Shoream Beach Local Nature Reserve

2010-07-10T07:58:00.000-07:00

Another course, this time as part of the adult education programme for the Sussex Wildlife Trust. To provide an overview of the geneal area, coastal geography, how Shoreham Beach was formed and the maritime history - we started at the Rope tackle Centre on the banks of the River Adur.

This provided the opportunity to introduce the participants to the various topics, including archives images. Part the way through, I handed out some pebbles from Shoreham Beach (similar to the previous school session - see yesterdays blog) for the participants to comment on the pebbles, what they were etc.

The second part of the course was a walk from the Rope Tackle Centre, across the Norfolk bridge, down by the estuary and across to the beach via the house boats. On the way I pointed out the coastal geography and maritime history we had seen in the earlier part of the session. This included the history of the Norfolk bridge(s), the estuary, the houseboats etc. On the estuary we saw various birds including several lapwings, a couple of egrets, and a red shank

Just before we reached the beach we stopped to look at the shingle garden by the Beach Green toilet block.

We then explored the vegetated shingle habitat looking at the plants and wildlife. I provided the participants with ID guides so we could move along as an informal ramble giving the chance for the participants to explore and identify some of the plants.

We eventually walked back down the beach and crossed the river Adur at the footbridge before returning to the Rope tackle for a brief roundup. Several of the participants said they would certainly come back and explore Shoreham and Shoreham Beach later in the year.

Exploring Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve

2010-07-09T03:52:00.000-07:00

I worked with a group of students on Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve, one of my Pupil Enrichment Programme session, for West Sussex County Council. The course started in a local school near the nature reserve allowing some classroom preparation.

We started by looking at how varied the Sussex Coastline is in regard to habitat types which include pebble beaches, sandy beaches, sand dunes, chalk cliff and wave cut platform and various coastal developments.

We looked at how the sea can create beaches (such as shingle spits like Shoreham) or erode coastline such as chalk cliffs. The pupils were provided two different scenarios to complete and predict what happens next, a shingle coast and a chalk cliff coast. After this we discussed how Shoreham Beach was formed by longshore drift and the flow of the River Adur.

We looked at how Shoreham Beach has played a major part in local maritime history – such as the port and ship building.

The students were given a selection of pebbles from the beach to identify and comment on their origins.

These included a large flint pebble, piece of flint from the South Downs, chalk, sea coal, a brown flint, a long shaped flint and quartzite.

Much of the day was spent investigating the local nature reserve. The students were divided into two groups and took turns in various activities.

This included a beach transect survey from the top of the beach to the shingle crest identifying and recording the numbers of each species present.
Group 1

Group 2

This helps to build up a profile of the plant communities.

Another activity involved students looking for adaptation features that different shingle plants use to survive in this harsh habitat, from a list provided.

Once they had found a plant with the adaptation, they then used identification guides to identify the actual plant.

Two separate animal surveys took place, one to record generally the birds, lizards and invertebrates that visit the shingle plant habitat.

House sparrows

Wall lizard

The second focusing on recording three types of bee, to also discover which plant species they favour.

Two banded white-tailed bumble bee on silver ragwort.

We finished the day back at the school with a recap of what we had done, what they had discovered and a general round up and a chance for final questions.

Common Seal off Lancing

2010-07-08T10:05:00.001-07:00

A common seal was observed for 20 minutes at 10am off Lancing beach, West Sussex, today.

Common seal off Brighton

2010-06-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

A common seal was spotted today off Brighton at 7.15 pm today by Malin who was running along the undercliff walk between Rottingdean and Brighton Marina. Malin and I spotted a seal in the sea. The seal was swimming towards the shore but then it dived down in the direction of Rottingdean. It was not seen again, however seals can dive for 15- 20 minutes easily so it is easy to loose track of them once they dive.

Bottlenose Dolphin

2010-06-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

A solitary bottlenose dolphin was reported by fisherman off Selsey Bill, West Sussex.

Adur World Oceans Day.

2010-06-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Its June and time for the annual World Oceans Day Event. The same great location as always on Coronation Green at the end of the high street and adjacent to the river Adur in Shoreham-by Sea.

As usual a great mix of stands from local groups and organisations. Shoreham Beach Local nature Reserve was represented by the Friends of Shoreham Beach with a fascinating and informative display stand about the rare vegetated shingle habitat and associated wildlife.

The stand display also included marine litter and a children's colouring activity.

The local rangers brought along their fascinating tactile display about the seashore strandline and long term experts on vegetated shingle David Wood and his wife had a display about this habitat and also the local saline lagoon "Wide Water". The local Shoreham Angling Squad. who voluntarily clear up the western arm of the harbour. also had a display.

Andy Horton from British Marine Study Society (and co-organiser of the event) had the usual aquarium displays and a pool with lobsters and edible crabs.

As usual I took along my display based around the life sized inflatable bottlenose dolphin (species seen locally) which included biological information and pictures and facts about local sea mammal sightings.

This year I also took along a new display, One World One Ocean - The Adventures of Ed the Bear. This is a project that highlights threats to the ocean and also celebrates the diversity of wildlife globally and also locally.

This is done through the global adventures of the globe trotting Ed (a teddy bear) who reports back his experiences via a weblog. Ed also visits UK schools and events.

You can find out more about this project on http://adventuresofedthebear.blogspot.com/

The display included objects from Ed's travels and his journal.

The display also include a demonstration about acid oceans using clear vinegar and a seashell.

I took the opportunity to make Ed's appearance at World Oceans Day part of his ongoing story and so I photographed his with many of the exhibits, a couple of examples below.

As usual the event was very popular and attracted a lot of interest.

Common Seal in Ouse

2010-05-31T04:33:00.000-07:00

I have received a couple of reports of a common seal again spending time in the River Ouse. No pics this time. The seal was spotted at Piddinghow, between Newhaven and Lewes. Mullet are quite common in the lower reaches of the river at the moment which may well be the attraction for this seal. This is proably the same seal that has been recorded in the Ouse on previous occasions.

Brighton Sustainability Conference "The Evolving Seas" Day 2

2010-04-16T03:57:00.000-07:00

The second day of the conference focused mainly on renewable energy such as offshore wind farms and wave energy. This included a presentation about the planned wind farm off East Sussex. There was also a very interesting talk from Bournemouth council about the artificial reef.

The rest of the day was taken up by the ecology tours the Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve. The following is an overview of the tour I led.

Much of Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve supports rare vegetated shingle habitat. We knew before hand that the vegetated shingle plants would be less established than usual due to a more severe winter.

A view of the vegetated shingle as it will be in the summer

During the winter months many of the plants die back beneath the shingle and reappear in the spring. This is a useful adaptation to avoid the worst of the winter storms. The sea kale was most evident, but we also saw biting stone crop, bittersweet, curled dock, sea beet, tree mallow and a single yellow horned poppy plant.

Sea Kale

Biting stone crop

Bitter sweet

We looked at some of the features that allow these plants to survive in these harsh conditions. Waxy and hairy leaves to protect them against the drying affect of the sun, wind and sea spray. Long tap roots mean shingle pants to reach freshwater below the shingle and surface roots provide access to the small amount of nutrients near the surface.

Common lizard

As the plants develop they will support a wealth of terrestrial birds and invertebrates. We did see a couple of common lizards scuttling across the shingle.

People often think of shingle as boring old pebbles. They are half right, most of the pebbles are flint which were formed at the same time as chalk – during the Cretaceous period when Sussex was covered by a warm shallow sea.

At the end of the last ice age, melt water scoured the softer chalk, created valleys, and flints and other pebbles were washed down to the coast where they now form shingle beaches. Even the pebbles have a story to tell. The brown flint has been coloured by organic matter before being washed down to the shore. The bigger, greyish flints eroded from the chalk in more recent times. Elongated flints formed in the burrows of burrowing marine life (when the chalk was still soft like clay) some formed around the dead remains of other sea creatures and hide a fossil deep inside. Pebbles with holes were created when flint formed around sponge. We also found some lignite (sea coal) created by the vegetation that grew in the channel when we were still attached to Europe.

Demonstrating a piece of lignite

Having looked northwards to the South Downs and westward to the chalk cliffs it’s not too much of a surprise to realise that beneath the top layer of shingle is chalk

The beach here is actually quite new in geological terms. Along the Sussex Coast, the waves transport the smaller shingle ever eastwards, this is called longshore drift. With the help of the river Adur, which now runs parallel to the north side of the beach, before entering the sea at the harbour mouth, the Shoreham Beach we know today was created by longshore drift. In fact the Napoleonic fort remains that sit just to the west of the harbour mouth could only be built when the river mouth was stabilized by the first harbour arm built in 1820. Longshore drift constantly blocked the river mouth causing it to find an alternative entrance. Infact the river Adur has entered the sea as far West as Lancing Beach Green and as far east as the Lagoon in Hove. Shoreham has been important for many centuries for ship building (up until Victorian times) and as a Port which is just as important today.

Another fascinating part of the beach is the strandline, made up of seaweed, sea shells, egg cases and all manner of curious objects cast up by the tide – including marine litter.

We found the egg cases of dogfish, ray and whelk. One of the most common shells, the slipper limpet, came across the seas from America on the shells of live oysters planned to re-populate the overfished local oysters. Slipper limpets often live in chains, all males except for the female at the bottom. If the female dies, the next male in line will change sex.

Whelk egg mass and dogfish egg case

Idetifying egg cases

Slipper limpets

Ray egg case

Sadly, Shoreham Beach is also a good place to illustrate local and global threats. The vegetated shingle plants can be damaged by trampling, bonfires and by people removing the flowers or seeds. A major problem is over enrichment of the shingle caused by dog fouling and garden rubbish. The latter is a major problem as large areas of the shingle have been taken over by invasive species such as red valerian and silver ragwort. These plants can out compete the true vegetated shingle plants. The beach may also be in danger from global problems. Global warming – may cause sea level rise which could eventually flood the plants as they are unable to retreat inland because of coastal squeeze – the plants are tapped between the sea and the houses. More severe storms could also destabilise the shingle and it and the plants could be washed away.

Shoreham beach has a unusual blend of flora and fauna creating a diverse ecology and together with the coastal geography and maritime history, they entwine to tell a fascinating story of this piece of coast. (Also touching on themes discussed in the conference).

I spoke to the delegates briefly on the coach at the end of the ecology walks and they seemed to have enjoyed the afternoon, some mentioned it was a great end to the conference and many said they would return in the summer to see the beach at its best when the shingle plants will be in full flower. I gave each delegate on the tours a copy of the LNR leaflet.

Brighton Sustainability Conference "The Evolving Seas" Day 1

2010-04-15T03:56:00.000-07:00

Here is some general feedback and pictures from the Sustainability Conference “The Evolving Seas” held in Brighton this year by Brighton and Hove Council. On day one, I presented an illustrated presentation about the dynamic and diverse Sussex coastline and the equally diverse local marine ecology. On day two, I ran one of the eco-tours to Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve. I also took along a display of my own One World One Ocean.

Day 1
The first day speakers concentrated on issues (in 20 min slots) including spatial planning, the coastal access Bill, Marine Conservation Zones, impact of climate change on our local coastline, coastal erosion and the Brighton Marina. There was also a presentation from the Blue Gym (the original co-founder of surfers against sewage) and my presentation on local marine ecology.

Samples pics and topics from my talk. Some from my talk

It’s a bit of a challenge to sum up our marine ecology in only 20 minutes and do it justice, so I went for very visual. My PowerPoint presentation consisted of an ariel tour from Bognor in West Sussex to Hastings in East Sussex to illustrate the diversity of Sussex Coastline. At various stages along the way the presentation looked at some examples of marine ecology – Shoreham Beach was one of the stop of places (which also gave a chance to introduce the following days ecology tour on the LNR).

Our diverse coastline

Shoreham Beach LNR

Kingston Beach

Brighton Beach

Rottingdean Beach

The presentation then looked very briefly at offshore marine wildlife, including sea mammals and ended with an overview of the how climate change (and other global issues) might impact on our local marine ecology (using local and global examples).

Common seals

Examples of some of the globaconservation issues

I ended with the One World One Ocean mission statement from my project of the same name (basically illustrating how the oceans are part of our daily lives).

I was pleased to receive some very positive comments, both from the academics and general members of the public who attended.

In between speakers there was a chance to network and look at the various display stands. I also had a stand, One World One Ocean project focusing on the Adventures of Ed the Bear Project http://adventuresofedthebear.blogspot.com/ and other educational projects including the LNR Education Programme.

Me and my display stand

Dead porpoise River Adur, Shoreham West Sussex

2010-04-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

I received a call late Friday evening of a dead dolphin in the river Adur at Shoreham. On close inspection I discovered that it was in fact a harbour porpoise. The porpoise was situated on the rather muddy bank of the river, about 100 metres north of the old Toll Bridge.

While the size and body shape seemed to indicate a harbour porpoise (it was in poor condition) the shape of the teeth confirmed it as a porpoise. Harbour porpoise have spade shaped teeth, rather than the pointed teeth that dolphins have.

I was able to take pics, measurements and remove a tooth and have forwarded the information to the natural history museum who record and study all UK strandings of Cetaceans. The tooth can be used to age the animal, as cetacean teeth have growth rings similar to a tree.

Infact stranded whales and dolphins in England were once classed as "Royal Fish" and were the property of the crown. This has now been taken over by the Natural History Museum of London and it is a legal requirement that all dead strandings are reported to them. There was a very high tide yesterday and the animal may have been swept into the river – however it did appear to be quite fresh (no smell). The tide was rising fast and the animal was soon covered by the river water. A sad end to a beautiful animal

Common Seal River Ouse

2010-03-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

A common seal, almost certainly the same seal recorded previously in this river, is back again. The common seal frequently hauls out on a pontoon by the river bank. We do receive occasional seal sightings in local rivers at this time of the year and as usual the seal is fit and healthy.

Many people are surprised to see this seal, especially as it is over 8 miles from the coast.

Bringing the seashore into the classroom.

2010-02-25T06:28:00.000-08:00

I have been working on an exciting new session for schools this year about tide pool invertebrates. It has been developed inparticular for schools who are unable to take their pupils down to the coast to experience local marine wildlife. This might be because the children are too young or because of the difficulties of getting a class of children to the beach.

By using a digital microscope and media projector, the session takes the form of a living lecture as the class will be able to see live animals projected onto the whiteboard screen. The children can observe sea anemones opening before their eyes, barnacles feeding, crabs scuttling sideways, marine worms, crustaceans and sea snails (depending on specimens collected).

Through first hand observation the children have the opportunity to classify the marine animals and observe how they move. They are encouraged to suggest how each animal is adapted to its habitat and predict what type of food they might eat.

This session allows children to experience the marine life that lives around our coast from the safety of the classroom.

The schools I have worked with on this so far have been primary schools but this would be equally suitable for secondary schools.

Common Seal at Pagham Harbour

2010-01-31T08:12:00.000-08:00

I received another fascinating common seal sighting today, the observer was walking at the Western end of the Pagham Harbour Wall (West Sussex). It was high tide and the seal swam very close to the group of people. The observer, Jacky, said it swam around and it seemed to be frolicking. Then it gazed fixedly at us made movements as if it was going to jump out of the water and attack us and at the last minute swam under and turned away. She said you could almost think it was laughing...

Jacky said it followed us as we turned the corner at the end of the wall and started to walk south then we turned back as the way was blocked by a thorn bush and went inland, so that was the last we saw of it. Jacky remarked that it was a quite fabulous encounter. Jacky spoke to the people at the Pagham Harbour Reserve who told her that they do have one seal in occasionally and it comes they think from a colony at Hayling Island.

From the seal tagging project I was involved in and covered last year in this weblog, we did indeed discover that one of the seals from the Hayling Island group did venture into Pagham Harbour on occasions.

First common seal sighting of 2010

2010-01-04T11:26:00.000-08:00

I received a report of a Common Seal from Graham in the River Ouse yesterday (2nd January) at Lewes by the moorings.Graham provided the following superb pictures of the seal.

The seal was sunning itself on a pontoon and was seen by many people, two sightings reported to me so far.

(c) Graham Farey

The Ouse is quite a tidal river and it is likely that the seal travelled up river following fish. The tide had recently turned, and the seal may have swum up-river on the incoming tide. Because seals can happily haul out, they sometimes spend a few days up river before returning to the sea. As you will see from my other blog entries, it is not uncommon for healthy "happy" seals to swim upriver.

Due to the quality of the pictures I am hoping that we will either be able to match it with a known seal (by spot pattern markings) or create this seal with its own ID profile. There are similarities with a seal observed last year which I intend to investigate further. Watch this space for an update.

Common Seal, River Ouse, Sussex

2009-12-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

Another seal sighting, probable common seal. The observer reported the following. "On a dog walk today with my husband along the river bank (River Ouse) in Piddinghoe we saw a seal. There was a loud splash and then a few seconds later saw what thought was a football and then realised it was a seal looking at us. It did this for for a minute or so and then completely disappeared".

Common Porpoise stranding

2009-11-27T06:43:00.000-08:00

A dead Common (or Harbour) Porpoise was stranded on the beach near Widewater lagoon, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex on 27/11/09

The porpoise was identified as a female as mammary slits were visible. The porpoise was 173cm in length.

3 teeth were removed (in a dead specimen teeth fallout very easy). Teeth are routinely removed where possible from dead strandings which can be used used as a means of aging the animal. A section of a tooth reveals growth rings (under the microscope) similar to a tree which can be used to determine the age.

Grey Seal

2009-11-26T06:36:00.000-08:00

Another Sussex seal sighting, reported as a young grey seal on the river Adur past Lancing College. This may actually be the common seal preiously reported in the River Adur, but wuld need photographs to confirm this.

Dead Seal

2009-11-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

A dead seal was washed up on Shoreham, Beach, possibly an adult common seal. Animal was quiite decomposed.

Common Seal in River Adur West Sussex.

2009-10-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

Another common seal sighting, this time in the River Adur in West Sussex. The seal was seen swimming in the lower estuary area of the river on Saturday 17th October. On Sunday, a seal (almost certainly the same one) was spotted seen a few miles up river near Upper Beeding.

I am hoping to obtain photographs of this seal. Looking at the picture that appeared in the Shoreham Herald it is almost certainly the same seal we have seen in the past in the nearby River Ouse where it swims many miles up river above Lewes.

Common seal sightings

2009-10-12T11:41:00.001-07:00

I have just received two common seal sightings from last Friday, both inland. The first was reported on the river Arun near Pulborough (West Sussex). The second was reported near Alfriston on the River Ouse (East Sussex).

As you may know from earlier blog entries, its not uncommon for common seals to swim up river, especially the Ouse and the Arun. Its thought that these seals travel up river following fish. Unlike whales and dolphins, seals are quite happy up river, being able to haul out from time to time and rarely get into trouble.

A common seal was also seen just outside the Brighton Marina in East Sussex last Saturday 10th October.

Dolphin Rescue Workshop

2009-10-09T07:14:00.001-07:00

The dolphin rescue demonstration has now become a course for the West Sussex Gifted and Talented Programme. The aim of the course is that the children would learn about sea mammal adaptation and use this to help plan a dolphin rescue.

The scenario for the main rescue activity is that a dolphin has become entangled in an old piece of fishing net and become stranded on a sandy beach as the tide recedes. The children will need to provide first aid that will keep the dolphin alive until the tide returns and they can float the dolphin. However, to do this the children will need a level of knowledge about dolphins and dolphin strandings.

We started with general information about sea mammals including important biological information about dolphins.

For example the dorsal fin (on the dolphins back) provides balance, the flippers are used for steering and the tail for locomotion. The dolphins layer of blubber reduces heat loss and excess body heat is removed via the fins and tail.

The children were then shown some stranding case studies and we discussed why dolphins become stranded. We discussed the problems a stranded dolphin may face and the children used this information to create their own first aid manual.

The children used the information they had recorded in their first aid manual to plan their group rescue.

The children had to decide what they should do, who should do what and in what order.

Checking the that the dolphin is alive by checking for breathing. A dolphin may breath once every 15 - 30 seconds.

More than 10 times a minute is a sign that the dolphin is deeply distressed. Monitoring the breathing is a very important role

Dolphins react very well to being stroked and spoken to softly.

Keeping the dolphin cool and wet with buckets of water and a wet towl.

Another couple of children were digging sand from around the flippers to help reduce pressure from gravity.

The tide is now coming in. Final check before attempting to release the dolphin into the sea.

Moving the dolphin and supporting it until it is able to swim away.

Recording the stranding

The rescue was a success and we discussed as a group what went well and what they might do different.

To look more closely at the issue that cause strandings the children undertook a group food web game to see how global warming is affecting marine food chains.

We finished with an activity about marine litter, especially plastics. We looked at how long different items take to biodegrade and the dangers to marine wildlife from plastics and other marine debris.

Bottlenose whale stranding

2009-09-22T12:15:00.001-07:00

Sadly, the bottlenosed whale mentioned in my entry 16th September was been found dead on the beach. There are marks on the whales body that suggest it may have been entangled in nets or a rope but this will need to be confirmed by the post mortem.

The Amazing World of Sharks

2009-09-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I ran another of the popular shark courses for the West Sussex Able Pupil Enrichment Programme. The aim of the course is to challenge children's perceptions about sharks, to show children that while sharks may not be the dangerous man-eater that everyone thinks, the truth is actually more amazing (hence the title, "The Amazing World of Sharks").
Right at the beginning of the morning we asked the children to do a "true or false" quiz. These included statements such as "sharks only live in saltwater", "Sharks eat about 200 people a year", "Great white sharks are endangered", "shark meat is poisonous to eat"and "sharks are the most dangerous animals in the sea". We did not tell the children what the right answers were, they would find out during the course (and we would test them again at the end of the day).

The children discovered the many different species and how they use different methods for catching and eating a wide range of food. We also gave them a food web activity.

In two groups the children constructed the food web (using clues on the reverse side of the cards) and then used these finished food webs to complete and sheet.

The children were also asked to explain what would happen to the great white shark if the mackerel disappeared because of overfishing. We wanted the children to understand how important sharks are in marine food webs for keeping them healthy and in balance.

We also encouraged the children to think about how dangerous sharks really are. We use a fun quiz that helps to put into perspective the likelihood of being attacked and killed by a shark.

Again, we use questions that include "are you more likely to be killed by an elephant or a shark", "are you more likely to be killed by a coconut than a shark". The first question in the quiz is how many people are killed by sharks each year (the actual answer is between 5 - 15). The last question is how many sharks are killed by humans each year (the answer is over 1 million). This always surprises the children. We asked the children to suggest how and why humans kill sharks, their answers included "out of fear" "for sport and jaws as a trophy" to eat.

One of the worst thing people do to the sharks is to kill them for their fins to make shark fin soup. The sharks are caught and the fins cut off and the rest of the shark thrown back into the sea, sometimes while it is still alive. Its is unbelievable cruel.

To end the course on a more happier topic we finished off by showing the children how scientists are studying sharks so we can understand more about these beautiful fish and how public aquarium, authors and educators are all playing their part to raise awareness of shark so hopefully we will treat them better in the future.

We showed the children some picture of great white sharks leaping out of the water. They do this when they speed up from the sea bed to catch seals on the surface. This only happens in a few places in the world and is really spectacular. A sea shaped decoy is pulled along the surface of the water encouraging teh shark ton attack so they can study this behaviour. The children also got to handle one of these decoys that had been chewed up by great white sharks. It was donated to the course by Chris and Monique Fallows who study the sharks and donated some of the pictures they had taken. The children were very lively and enthusiastic and I think they all enjoyed their day. Sharks really need our help and hopefuly the next generation will treat the earth and oceans with more respect and in a more sustainable way.

Unusual whale activity off Sussex and Southern UK

2009-09-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

We have received some unusual sightings for the south coast of the UK recently. Firstly, a pilot whale, a species of toothed whale, was stranded on Rustington beach, west Sussex on the 7th September.

In late August a possible Minke whale was reported off Rottingdean. We have not been able to confirm this identification, but it may have been the bottlenose whale currently off Bournemouth. This is a deep water species and not usually found in the English Channel however it is of course the species that became trapped in the River Thames a few years ago in 2006. There was also a bottlenosed whale stranded on the mud flats near Chichester Harbour at the end of July Last Year. Sadly the whale did not survive. The bottlenose whale currently off Bournemouth is being monitored and it is hoped it will head off west and out of the English Channel. This is a deep water species more at home in the open waters of the Atlantic where it feeds on deep water fish and squid.

A humpback whale stranded in the Thames and was found dead near Dartford Bridge Kent on Saturday 10th September. It was first seen alive on Thursday and was originally mistaken for a minke whale. This is also a possible candidate for the cetacean seen at Rottingdean. A few years ago, I am guessing about 2001 (I do not have the data to hand) a juvenile humpback whale stranded and later died on a beach in Kent. This occurred around the time that we had a report of 3 large cetaceans off Hastings (which is to the west of Kent). These were reported as Humpback whales, but unfortunately we could never verify it. However it was a week or so later that the juvenile humpback whale stranded in Kent. We do not have a huge quantity of cetacean sightings in the south compared to some parts of the UK but we do get some unusual/strange sightings from time to time.

Working on Ocean book for kids

2009-08-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

For the last few months I have been busy working on a new book for children about the Oceans. It is now nearing the finishing stages, checking the layouts and making last minute adjustments to text and captions.

Books make important support tools for environmental education work and I always consider how one of my books could be used for teaching even in the early planning stages.

Tide Pool Event Shoreham Beach

2009-08-17T06:28:00.001-07:00

This is the third year I have run this popular tide pool ramble, with an estimated 60 adults and children. The beach is just inside Shoreham Harbour, adjacent to the Old Fort and the Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve. The event is part of the Friends of Shoreham Beach annual events programme.

It is a very safe beach for family events providing the opportunity to explore both a sand/silt habitat and a rocky habitat all in one place. The beach is also visited by a variety of sea and wading birds such as terns, cormorants, gulls, turnstones, dunlins, oystercatchers and little egret.

As usual we started off with an introduction about inter-tidal zone wildlife and this year I did a quick demonstration on the causes of tides inlcusing spring and neap tides using a cardboard cut out of the sun, earth and a yellow ball for the moon. This was done with the help of three child volunteers.

Everyone then spread out across the pools and explored the beach as the tide receded.

We helped by pointing out various seashore creatures and identifying the wildlife finds and generally providing facts and information about the animals that were discovered.

A juvenile plaice. Juvenile fish often live in the river estuary where they are safer from predators.
A compass jellyfish stranded on the beach. I carefully moved it to a rockpool to see if it was still alive, but sadly we discovered it too late. A volunteer stayed by the jellyfish to make sure no one touched it (as they can still sting when dead) and also to tell people about the jellyfish.
A dead eel was also discovered on the beach. It appeared to be partly eaten but the skin was still quite shiny in places and the fish did not smell so it must have died very recently.

We set up a small tank and containers at the top of the beach to temporarily house some of the discoveries so we could talk about them at the end of the event.

We identified and kept a record of the marine life discovered during the event.

These included lugworm, sand mason worm, shore crabs, common prawns, sand hoppers, edible periwinkle, chitons, barnacles, dogwhelk, bass fry as well as animals mentioned above.

After a picnic lunch, the Friends of Shoreham Beach organised a beach art activity. Children created sea creatures on the sand using pebbles, shells, sea weed and other debris washed up.

Fish design
Another fish design
Starfish
Mermaid

Jellyfish

The children produced some great sea creature art and prizes were awarded for some of the best.

UK National Whale and Dolphin Watch Event

2009-07-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

The Sea Watch Foundation National Whale and Dolphin Watch ended last week end. The aim of the event (in its 7th year) is to provide a snap shot of whale and dolphin sightings around the Uk during the event. the secondary aim is to raise awareness and encourage people to take an active role in monitoring UK whales and dolphins. This event supplements the ongoing monitoring that takes place all year, co-ordinated through the 35 regional groups.

Sadly this year (as Sussex regional Co-ordinator for the Sea Watch Foundation) I was unable to organise a manned watch site during the event. As always I have encouraged my volunteers and requested sightings through the press so we may still get further results. As with last year, much of the week was plagued by poor weather.

We did sadly receive details of a dead dolphin (probably common, I am still awaiting images to confirm this) at the mouth of the Cuckmere River. Only live sighting was a probable bottlenose dolphin at 12:35, 25/7/09 near Cambrian wreck buoy, 50/44/42N, 001/03/40W in the Solent.

For further information about the event or UK whales and dolphins in general, check out the Sea Watch Foundation website at www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Satellite tagged seals

2009-07-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

The satellite tagged common seals are still sending signals and providing some very useful data that will help us understand how they use the Solent area and help us provide better protection. The tags will continue to transmit until sometime in August when the seals moult and the tags will detach. (See earlier posts)

The tagged seals provided the basis for another course for the Gifted and Talented Programme in West Sussex. This course features Sussex Sea Mammals and as usual we used the life sized inflatable dolphin.

The pupils (aged 11 to 12 years) learned about the natural history and adaptations of sea sea mammals. They also compared the adaptations of the fully aquatic bottlenose dolphin with the semi-aquatic common seal.

(Seal behaviour activity)

This information was then used by the pupils to decide what information we would need to know about seal in order to protect them.

They watched a presentation on how and why we tagged the seals and used all this information to help analyse the movements of the seals, displayed on Google Earth. The pupils were provided with a sheet of questions to help and guide them with this analysis.

The pupils were looking for data about how the seals used the area that could be used to help protect them. The pupils discovered that the 5 tagged seals moved around quite differently using different areas that overlapped. They also discovered two possible haul out areas and two possible foraging areas

We also investigated the threats to common seals in the UK, over 50% of the UK population has declined in recent years. As part of this discussion the pupils undertook a food web activity used to explain bioaccumilation - how pollutants build up and are transported to top predators through food chains.

Another bottlenose dolphin

2009-06-16T06:02:00.001-07:00

Another bottlenose dolphin sighting. The dolphin was seen off Lancing/Shoreham (West Sussex) yesterday (Monday) at about 2.30pm.
This sightings was also made from a vessel about 1.5 miles off the coast and may have been the same dolphin as yesterdays report (as this sighting occurred a few miles west of yesterdays sighting).

Bottlenose Dolphin

2009-06-15T06:12:00.001-07:00

A solitary bottlenose dolphin was observed off Brighton yesterday at 7.30 pm. This sighting was made from a vessel about 1 mile south of the Brighton Marina. Sightings along the Sussex coastline have been quite poor so far this year.

World Oceans Day 2009

2009-06-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

World Oceans Day
In June 1992, over 150 Heads of States signed the Convention on Biological Diversity at Rio de Janeiro. They did so to express a shared belief that action must be taken to halt the worldwide loss of animal and plant species and genetic resources. World Oceans Day was first declared as 8 th June at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Since then, events have occurred on or around this day all around the world.

I took a sea mammal display again this year. This year it was made up of 2 main themes, the inflatable dolphin and local dolphin and whale sightings and the seal tagging project included on this weblog.

The life sized inflatable bottlenose dolphin represents the species most commonly seen in Sussex. The display included biological information about dolphins and information and pictures of local sightings.

We also had a static display including a dolphin skull, whale vertebrate and a sperm tooth.

The seal display included information about the seal satellite tagging project. Between 2000 and 2007 the UK common seal populations declined by 56% and continue to decline. The display also included information about local seal sightings including a picture taken about 100 m away from the marquee in the adjacent River Adur.

I also presented a dolphin rescue re-enactment demonstration with participation from the audience.
The scenario for the stranding was a dolphin entangled in a piece of old fishing net. The children were asked to suggest what we might need to do to provide first aid for the stranded dolphin and volunteers helped in the demonstration.

It was decided the first thing we needed to do was to check the dolphins breathing to see if it was a live. The breathing rate should then be monitored to see if it speeds up or slows down, a sign that there could be a problem.

Dolphins have blubber that reduces the loss of their body heat when in the sea. A stranded dolphin can easily die from heat exhaustion so a row of 4 children keep the dolphin wet and cool with buckets of water (not real water of course). Dolphins control their body heat by loosing heat through their tail and fins. Water poured onto these can also help to cool the dolphin down.

Dolphins can also die from the effects of gravity, so another volunteer dug holes around the flippers to help alleviate this problem. Two volunteers filled in the stranding form and identified the species from an ID chart.

Other information was recorded such as injuries and natural markings, and the dolphin was measured.

The dolphin was returned to the sea, the volunteers walked the dolphin around until it could swim under its own steam. Back on the display stand, we answered many questions about dolphin strandings and the problems of marine mitter - especially plastic.

There were also many other very interesting displays including

The county rangers presented a fascinating display about the various shells, bones and egg cases that wash up on the beach

The Friends of Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve (FoSB) display depicted the rare vegetated shingle beach habitat on the nature reserve and a display about marine litter and the threats to wildlife and the environment.

The British Marine Life Study Society had several displays where you could come face to face with a variety of marine life.

There were also various experts on hand to answer questions.

It was a great day with much interest and lots of questions from both the adults as well as the children.

Dolphin sightings

2009-05-19T03:29:00.000-07:00

Not many dolphin sightings this year so far. Here are two recent sightings for May.

On the 2 nd May, 2 bottlenose dolphins were observed off Selsey Bill, heading east.

On the 10 May, 1 bottlenose dolphin was observed heading west at Splash Point, Seaford Bay. There were numerous small silvery fish in the water which attracted a lot of attention from terns that made spectacular dives into the sea to catch them. This may also have been what attracted the dolphin.

School beach survey

2009-05-18T03:51:00.001-07:00

Today I worked with a great school group on Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve. The course (secondary school level) focuses around a practical beach survey.

The course started with an introduction to the nature reserve and its links to the surrounding area through coastal geography - using archive materials and maps. This focused on the Cretaceous period when the chalk and flint were formed and the end of the last ice age when much of the shingle beach material was deposited in the English Channel. This was then shaped by natural process including longshore drift. We also discussed the fascinating maritime history and other key historical facts. Most people are surprised to discover that Shoreham was far more important than its more well known neighbour Brighton until the Victorians made the seaside popular and accessible through rail travel.

The pupils were taken down to the beach to study the rare vegetated shingle habitat. The class was divided into two groups. The first group undertook a beach plant profile survey starting at the top of the beach and recording the plants in each 1 metre square until they reached the shingle crest (about 40m at this point). We used a 20 m tape and 1 m canes to create the metre square (the usual quadrat would not work because of the size of the plants).

While this was happening the second group was being led around the reserve to look at examples of shingle plant adaptation to this harsh exposed habitat.

The pupils also recorded the wildlife that they saw. Unfortunately it was a very windy day and so most of the mobile wildlife (bees etc) where not visible. We did see two butterflies (a red admiral and a painted lady) woodlice, snails and this lizard.

When the survey was completed, the groups swapped activities. This is the result of the two survey.

The pupils used this data and the adaptation observations back in the classroom to answer questions about the vegetated shingle habitat.

The pupils also used their experiences on the beach to suggest threats to shingle beach habitats both global and local and propose solutions.

The pupils also brought back one pebble from the beach for further study. We discussed the pebbles and the reasons why the flint pebbles were different colours, shapes. We also discussed fossils, uses of flint through the ages and myths and folklore relating to shingle pebbles. (The pebbles were returned to the beach at the end of the day). It was a very enjoyable day and a great bunch of kids.

Shoreham Beach Visit

2009-04-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

Visited Shoreham Beach to create a shingle plant survey activity for an upcoming course. It was sunny, but quite windy. Single and small groups of swallow flew along very low over the beach heading west to east.

After I had completed this activity, I visited Shoreham Beach First School to present a talk about the vegetated shingle plants as part of a series of science week activities the school children were working on.

Seal tagging update

2009-04-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

The Seals continue to behave normally and are providing some fascinating data. This image shows the movement of common seals in first week.

Much of the seals movement occurs within the Chichester area as expected. Often referred to as Chichester harbour this is infact an area of estuary spread out over 74 square kilometres with sand banks and four separate channels. Seals have been tracked as far east as Selsey Bill and also crossed to the Isles of Wight. The seals continue to be monitored and I hope to provide further update soon.

Solent Seal Tagging Project

2009-03-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

An exciting new project is taking place this year to increase our knowledge of common seals in the Solent and Eastern English Channel. The main leads in the project will be the Wildlife Trusts South East Marine Programme and Chichester Harbour Conservancy (the latter is the site of a small resident population of common seals). The first step has been to collate all the currently existing seal sightings from various sources including my records as Sussex County Recorder for Sea Mammals. Common Seals have recently been made a Biodiversity Action Plan Species because of their numbers in the UK have declined dramatically in recent years.

A small population of approximately 15 - 20 harbour seals live in the Solent area and are considered regionally unique and therefore very important. Very little is known about the Solent seals, their resting, feeding and breeding sites remain a mystery. With out a knowledge of these important sites, little can be done to ensure they are protected for the benefit of the seals. Transient seals seen in East Sussex, sometimes entering the river systems of the Adur and Ouse, may come from this Solent population.

As part of this project, 5 of the seals were tagged in March using the latest seal monitoring equipment. The tagging operation was undertaken by the world leaders in seal tagging, the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU), under a Government approved licence. The tags will remain on the seals until they moult in July / August time. Previous tagging operations have been very successful and seal behaviour has not been affected as a result. The tags will transmit using mobile phone networks and will give information on location, dive depth, dive duration and periods spend resting on land.

As part of this project I have been developing an outreach programme which will be delivered to local school. I was able to go along on the first day of tagging to observe and take pictures for the outreach programme. First hand observations and tagging data show that the seals are behaving as normal and that their behaviour has not been affected at all.

(A porpoising seal leads the way)

We are also hoping over the next year to build up a photo identification library which we can use to identify individual seals (unique markings) and monitor their movements.

Brighton Science Festival 2009

2009-02-22T08:36:00.000-08:00

I attended the Brighton Science Festival again this year with a joint display with the Friends of Shoreham Beach Nature Reserve (FoSB). The Shoreham Beach Display included information about the Reserve and FoSB activities, events and achievements. A large part of the display was taken up by a marine litter display "Turning the Tide on marine Litter" and a display of marine litter including the time it takes for each item to biodegrade. (See below)

We shared the room with another display about creating art from marine litter.

My display focused on sea mammals again this year, particularly dolphins and seals, both of which have been recorded at Shoreham.

As well as UK and Sussex Cetaceans (Whales, Dolphins and Porpoise) the display included information about local seal sightings and a satellite tagging programme on Solent and South East Channel Seals.

I will be involved in this project as Sussex County Recorder for Sea Mammals and to develop an education pack to accompany the project. I hope to be able to provide updates on this project in future entries.

A major focal point for my display was the life sized inflatable bottlenose dolphin. This year I also ran three demonstrations in the demonstration hall, the scenario for the demonstration was a re-enactment of a dolphin rescue with audience participation.

Dolphins may be stranded for many reasons so I chose a different scenario for each demonstration, one of them being entangled in marine litter debris, which again linked to the FoSB display. About 100,000 marine mammals, seabirds and turtles are killed by debris each year.

Moving the dolphin from the display room to the demonstration room was a difficult operation, avoiding people and navigating along various narrow corridors.

The demonstration started with a introduction to dolphin adaptation and anatomy, as this is knowledge the audience would need to know to affect a rescue.

The demonstration followed the series of things one should do to help give first aid e.g. check it is breathing (how often!), keep it wet (dolphins can very quickly die of heat exhaustion), dig holes around the flippers if possible to alleviate the damage that gravity causes (dolphins can’t swim if they damage their flippers) and so on (see above)

The re-enactment also demonstrated how a dolphins adaptations to aquatic life work against them if they become stranded on land.

Being a demonstration involving children, each scenario has a happy ending. The dolphin was helped back into the sea and walked around until it was able to swim unaided. But in reality, even after much effort, a happy ending is not guaranteed.

Stranded Porpoise

2009-01-30T06:01:00.000-08:00

Yet another dead stranded porpoise has been washed ashore near Worthing in West Sussex, yesterday afternoon. It was an adult common porpoise, partly decomposed. It is worrying that we have now had 3 reported in the same area over the last two months.

Another stranded porpoise

2008-12-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

I have just heard, via the Sea Watch Foundation that another porpoise has stranded at Worthing, on Sunday 21st December. The porpoise was fairly decomposed.

Newpaper article "Lancing Herald" regarding the previous pospoise stranding discussed in my earlier entry.

Winter storms and stranded marine life

2008-12-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

Following the recent storms, large number of dead and dying starfish have been washed up on local Sussex beaches along with other animals inlcuding crabs and dogfish. I have had reports from the Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve and Worthing Beach. The strandings at Worthing included a harbour porpoise. The report came initially from a local animal rescue charity WADARS via the Sussex Wildlife Trust. The porpoise was estimated to be able 1.7 metres and was very emaciated.

Initially it was thought the two events were not related, as winter storms can wash ashore large numbers of all sorts of small marine creatures (such occurred locally back in March this year). Since then it has been suggested that the porpoise and other marine animals at Worthing may have been the result of a trawl. The remains of the porpoise was picked up by the Natural History Museum in London and I hope to receive an official report on the cause of death.

While porpoise are not common in the eastern channel in winter they are occasionally observed, for example a pair of harbour porpoise were reporetd at Hastings (East Sussex) in January 2007. Over the years we have had the occasional winter stranding of porpoise off Sussex, in one year a baby porpoise with the umbilicus still attached.

Common Seal

2008-11-21T06:30:00.000-08:00

I have just recieved a report, via the Sussex Wildlife Trust, of a seal that was spotted in the River Ouse just above Lewes. The seal was seen on Wednesday the 19th November at about 4.00pm. I spoke to the lady who made the observation and it appears likely that the seal is a common seal and quite possibly the seal reported earlier on Peacehaven beach.

More on the Peacehaven Seal

2008-11-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

Further information about the seal spotted off Peacehaven East Sussex by Bill Carter. Bill also took the great pics as well.

Bills first sighting of the seal was at 2pm as he was cycling along the Peacehaven undercliff promenade on 31st October. It was a warm sunny afternoon with calm sea and the seal was basking on the groin as you can see below.

It seemed to be in good health and condition, with no sign of injury or distress. Bill took several pictures with a long lens from the promenade, the seal simply turned to keep a wary eye on him, making no attempt to go into the water. (see below)

Seals have an oily tear that runs across their eye to protect it against the salt water. This makes them look like they are crying, when they are dry and hauled out on the beach

Flipper waving, a friendly warning not to come any closer.

Looking at this photograph I am almost certain that the seal is female. Bill managed to measure a section of the groin shown in the photograph and we were able to estimate that the seal was about 1.2 metres. Female common seals are 1.2 to 1.7 metres and males 1.4 to 1.9 m, so it is probably an adult or young adult female.

The following morning was overcast and drizzly and Bill checked for the seal from the cliff top at about 11am on Nov 1st. To his surprise it was still there. The seal seemed more cautious today and slipped into the sea which was right up to the groin as it was high tide. It popped up a few yards offshore then dived again and appeared a hundred yards or so offshore, where it stayed for the quarter of an hour or so that Bill was there. It did occasionally dive for some lengths of time so it may have been feeding.

When Bill went back the following day it had gone and he hasn’t seen it since. In Bill's own words, a fascinating first encounter with a sea mammal in the wild.

Check out earlier blog entries for more Sussex seal sightings.

If you would like to see more spectacular pictures of the coast, visit Bill Carters website at
http://www.carterphotographics.myzen.co.uk/

Seal at Peacehaven, Sussex

2008-11-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

A young seal has been reported off the Sussex coast at Peacehaven. It has been around for a few days.

Common Seal Sighting

2008-10-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

I received a seal sighting on Monday from John Bradshaw Chairman of the Shoreham Beach LNR Management Group. An adult common seal was hauled out on the bank of the River Adur bank near the airport, at 3.00pm. John went home to get his camera but when he returned the seal was no longer there. However, a passer by said they saw the seal swim further up river. The sighting occurred about an hour before high tide.

This is particularly interesting as seals do not usually seem to swim further up the Adur than the Norfolk bridge (just south of where the seal was spotted). I do however receive reports of seals several miles up the River Ouse and the River Arun as part of my role as Sussex County Recorder for Sea Mammals. Now that common seals are a biodiversity action plan species, sightings are even more important and its always good to receive observations.

Wexford Southern Ireland

2008-09-02T10:32:00.001-07:00

I have just come back from holiday in Wexford (town) Wexford County in Southern Ireland. As to be expected I saw some fascinating wildlife and thought you might like to see a few pictures.

A sequence of heron pictures. This lone heron was feeding in a small puddle left behind by the receding tide

Grey seals that come into the harbour and fed scraps by fishermen (Kilmore Quay)

Two cormorants startled from a rest place on the quay

One of the more secluded sandy beaches below. Most of the beaches are long stretches of sand with few people. Many are backed by sand dunes.

Dune insects fighting near a hole (not sure what they are)

Burnet moth

There are lots of sea shells laying on the sand, wexford mussel, razor shells and large otter shells. This shell has a hole made by a predator, probably a neclace shell.

There were many seabirds including several gull species, fulmar, gannets, oystercatchers and terns. The terns were diving for fish, this one was successful.

Shoreham Beach Marine Week Event

2008-08-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last Monday (11th August) I ran an event for the Friends of Shoreham Beach for Marine Week. This was an inter-tidal session on a small beach inside Shoreham Harbour. Protected it makes an idea beach for this type of event, both for the variety of creatures and the safety of the participants.

We found a wide range of animals life including beadlet sea anemones, edible winkle, limpet, dog whelk, numerous shore crabs, sea slater, amphipods, sand mason worms, rag worm, blenny and goby (fish)

Beadlet Anemone

Chiton (or coat-of-mail shell)

Common shore crab

Goby and juvenile shore crabs

There were various marine birds such as turnstones, dunlin, cormorant, terns and this egret.

We mingled with the visitors to the events and answered questions ansd pointed out things of interest. We set a few tanks and containers up at the top of the beach to house a few animals temporarily and discussed these before they were retrned to the tide pools. There was a lot of interest and many of the people said they would come back and explore the beach themselves - which is really the main aim of such an event, raising awareness and encouraging people to enguage with their coastline.

Catch Up

2008-08-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Due to the large amount of urban wildlife work I have been doing over the last few months I have rather neglected this blog. So I thought it was time I caught up a bit.

3rd May

A common seal was reported up the Arun River past Amberly castle by the railway crossing.

The common seal has a definite forehead and is more dog-like in profile than our other UK seal the Grey Seal. The other difference is that the grey seals nostrils are parallel while the common seals are V shaped and with the muzzle look distinctively Y-shaped. We do have a handful of seal sightings upriver each year, usually in the Ouze and the Arun. On the river Adur, the occasional seal visitor seems to be restricted to the estuary region between the harbour mouth and the Toll Bridge.

While both grey and common seals visit Sussex waters, it is the common seal that is most frequently reported (out of the sightings where a species has been identifiable). Almost all seals that have been specifically identified in upper reaches of these rivers have been common seal.

15 June 2008

Another seal, probably a common seal, was spotted in the River Adur lower estuary, first of all on the Sussex Wharf side of the river in the early evening from 8:30 pm. It then swam over to the scrapyard side (east of Monteum, where the fishing boats moor up and unload fish) and was seen for 45 minutes chasing after the fish in the river.

Dolphins

Dolphin sightings have been poor this year off Sussex, just a few. We were lucky to get a sighting during National Whale and Dolphin Watch last week in June (the only one for the south coast east of Devon). This was a sighting a sighting of a bottlenose dolphin close to the shore near Shoreham Harbour.

Shoreham Beach

2008-03-19T08:12:00.001-07:00

Had a look at Shoreham Beach to see if there were many stranded starfish and what else I could find of interest on the strandline.

There were very few starfish present. Mainly bits of larger ones, especially single legs. There were a quite a few dogfish egg case but only two ray egg cases. Only one of these was intact and possible to identify. It was from an undulate ray. The egg felt heavier than the empty cases and smelt. I carefully cut it open to reveal a partly developed ray with egg yolk. The embryo had started to dry. (see below)

It was interesting to see the number of pebbles with holes on the beach. It took a lot of searching last month to find a few for a display, today they were everywhere. We now call thgem lucky stones but were originally refered to as hagstones and where reputed to be a protection again witches. Here are just a few of the hagstones I found on a short stretch of beach.

Beachcombing after the gales

2008-03-15T08:54:00.000-07:00

First chance to check out the beach following the severe gales recently. We went to Southwick Beach first starting at Carrots Cafe along to the eastern arm of Shoreham Harbour.

We walked to the end of the harbour arm where a couple of fishing boats chugged along underneath a cloud of seagulls wheeling overhead. Within the harbour mouth a great crested grebe dived periodically beneath the water. Not a common bird in this area but I have noticed reports over the years of Great Crested Grebe on the sea at Shoreham.

On the way back to the car we explored the strandline. The most common strandline objects were the clumps of whelk eggs. Usually washed ashore after the eggs had hatched, due to the stormy seas some of the egg capsules still had eggs. There were also large piles of slipper limpet shells that had been washed up together. There was also a dead spider crab and numerous dead starfish amoungst the debris.
There were numerous empty dogfish eggcases and a few ray egg cases (Dogfish egg case below)

We also found about a dozen scallop shells (below) and several oyster shells, the latter had both halves (valves) still intact.
Afterwards we drove along the coast to Hove beach for a hot drink and to further explore the strandline. My wife Sharon and our friend Xena had visited this beach yesterday and said there was lots to see.
There were many slipper limpet shells on this beach as well. I also found a stack of live slipper limpets, 5 stuck together in a stack.

The bottom slipper limpet is a female the rest are males. If the female dies, for example if they are dislodged in a storm, the next male will change sex and become female. Unlike the common limpet, slipper limpets are plankton feeders.

There were also numerous whelk eggcases here too (see above). A few dogfish eggcases and a larger number of ray eggcases (see below), 14 which I found on just one area of the beach.

I found the remains of a small sea urchin (below). Not an empty test (this is what the shell is called) unfortuantely but the dead remains with the spines missing. If you look carefully at the image below you will notice the tube worm on the slipper limpet shell, top left.

The other unusual find was a clump of eggs about 10 cm across. The nearest thing I had seen to this is lumpsucker fish eggs. The female lumpsucker lays her eggs close to shore and leaves them to be guarded by the male.

Brighton Science Festival

2008-02-27T07:01:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I took a display to the Brighton Science Festival with the Friends of Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve. This was a joint display depicting various aspects of the Nature reserve and local dolphin and whale sightings for the Sea Watch Foundation (for whom I am the Sussex Co-ordinator). As Sussex country recorder for Sea Mammals and Sussex Regional Coordinator for the Sea Watch Foundation (SWF) I represented the SWF with a display about Sussex whale and dolphin sightings. As a member of the management group for Shoreham Beach LNR I helped represent (with the help of members of FoSB) the nature reserve.

The Friends of Shoreham Beach (FoSB) display explained why Shoreham Beach had been made a Nature Reserve (because of its rare vegetated shingle habitat) and the work of the FoSB.

The FoSB display also included an exhibit about marine litter. This consisted of a variety of litter items cast ashore by the tide which were tied to a piece of fishing net (also marine litter). Each label had a tag with information about how long it takes each item to biodegrade.
There was also a display that I had worked on (based on te outraech work I had done with local schools earlier in the year) which depicted elements of coastal geography.
This looked at how the local coastline was formed and how it is shapeed by natural forces. This included how chalk and flint were formed and how the shingle beaches contain flint scoured from the chalk and deposited on the coast after the last ice age. Some are the result of more recent coastal erosion. The display also looked at vegeated shingle; the animals that are attacted by this habitat, how the plants have adapted to live in this harsh environment and the threats this habitat faces. These was also information about strandline objects and some examples that could be handled.

The main focus of the Sea Watch Foundation display was a life sized bottlenose dolphin, the species most frequently seen along the Sussex coastline.

Infomation about local dolphin sightings (including pictures) were displayed down the left side of the display while the right side provided information about dolphin natural history. There were also some fact quiz questions.

The remainder of the display looked at the science of studying dolphins and whales focusing on photo-identification (recognising individual whales or dolphins) , DNA sampling and satellite tagging whales to study migrations and populations. We also displayed a dolphin skull, sperm whale tooth, baleen killer whale vwertebrae (all on loan from the local Booth Museum of Natural History in Brighton. The event was well attended and there was a lot of interest and divese questions.

Wading birds, pebbles and hagstones

2008-02-19T03:08:00.000-08:00

Took a trip to the Shoreham beach yesterday with my daughter to collect some pebbles for a coastal display that I will be running for the Brighton Science Festival on Saturday 23rd February. I started at the footbridge, crossing the River Adur. The tide was on its way out and there was a lot of bird activity. Apart from the various gulls, a large flock of grey plover were feeding on a small island of estuary and mussels.

On the mud flats on the far side of the river there were several redshank feeding. Redshark have relatively long legs and stride over the soft mud probbing every now and then with their long beaks. The display will be mainly about the Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve and will also be run by the Friends of Shoreham Beach (FoSB).

This is an exciting new nature reserve established in June 2006 and which I have been very pleased to have the opportunity to be involved with both as a member of the management group and as a honary member of FoSB.The beach is comprised of a large shingle spit, formed as the result of several centuries of wave action and westerly deposition of the shingle - Longshore Drift. Above the tide line, where the shingle is stable, is vegetated shingle, a rare habitat for the UK and worldwide. The shingle plants die back during the winter ready for a dramatic transformation in the spring when the plants will burst back into life.

Anyway, more about the shingle. People often this that the shingle is boring but it is infact very interesting. 98% of the pebbles are flint washed into the English Channel at the end of the last ice age or have been left behind as the chalk coast eroded in more recent times.

In amongst the flint are various other pebbles from inland also washed down when the ice thawed. There are also pebbles left over from the large rocks used as ships ballast from the 13th Century until about the 18th Century.

Pebbles with holes, like the one above, are known as hagstones. They were once worn to protect the wearer from witches. They were also tied around the neck of cattle to prevent witches from riding them off to their secret meetings. Large pebbles with holes were tied at the bow of fishing boats to protect them from witchcraft.

Beachcombing

2008-01-29T10:38:00.001-08:00

After the recent stormy weather its the idea time for a spot of beach combing. While the timber washed ashore has been a major news item, there is far more of interest to look for amongst the seaweed and other debris. Here are a few of my finds.

The beach is covered in numerous cream coloured balls that resemble bubble wrap and are often mistaken for sponges. These are the egg mass of the common whelk, often referred to as sea wash balls as they were used by early sailors to wash. Each of the smaller capsules contains thousands of eggs, but only about 10 hatch the remaining are eaten by their siblings. This may seem wasteful, but in fact the few that do hatch have had a hearty meal and increase their chances of survival. Several female whelks will often lay their eggs together creating quite large egg masses. When cast up after a storm, the whelk egg masses may still contain viable eggs.

The occasional weathered and empty common whelk shell are also present amongst the seaweed. Most are broken to some degree, making the intricate internal structure visible. This one was intact. These whelks are carnivorous, feeding on marine worms and other molluscs such as bivalves (which have two halves to their shell). Whelks can use the edge of their own shell to prize open bivalve shells to feed on them. Common whelks also feed on dead animals, which they locate by smell using their siphon. They wave the siphon back and forth to detect where the smell of food is coming from. Empty shells such as this one are sometimes used as a temporary home by hermit crabs as these crabs have no protective shell on their abdomen.

These dark coloured egg cases belong to rays, a relative of sharks. In contrast to the whelk eggs, these egg cases contain a single embryo. The capsules hatch after 5 or more months (depending on the species). Several UK species of ray have greatly declined over the last few decades. The Shark Trust are collecting records of ray egg cases on the beach to help locate nursery grounds to better protect UK species so they have a chance to recover. If you find a ray egg case the records should be sent to the Shark Trust, http://www.eggcase.org/
A couple of years ago I worked with Brighton based River Ocean Foundation as Education Coordinator for a project called Ocean 2. As part of this project I worked on a strandline exhibition that was set up at the Booth Museum of Natural History also in Brighton. The exhibition was made up of various displays that focused around the seashore strandline. These included a replica beach, the forces that created the strandline, scavengers, myths and folklore, beach object identification, amazing eggs, marine litter, stranded sea mammals and more. When the exhibition came to an end, River Ocean Foundation created a website including images of the exhibits and all the original text I wrote for the exhibition.
To find out more about the strandline you can visit the website at http://www.riverocean.org.uk/ocean/exhibition/digibooth/Strandlinehome.htm