Common Seal in River Adur West Sussex.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.