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Seasearch
News
Updated
11th June 2013
Sign
up for Seasearch Courses - going fast!
Now
is the time to sign up for the remaining Seasearch courses for the
year. We always try to run as many courses as possible in the spring
and there have been 22 already this year. We are now moving onto
the main surveying season so if you do want to join us sign up for
one of the remaining courses. They are:
Observer
Courses
29th-30th
June, North Yorkshire (to be confirmed but likely to replace the
originally planned Surveyor Course)
13-14th
July - Selsey (Sussex) and Weymouth (Dorset) both with course
on the Saturday followed by Sunday diving
20th-21st
July - Dublin
27th-28th
July - Sheringham (Norfolk)
Surveyor
Courses
29th-30th
June - Poole (Dorset) and Killary Harbour (Galway, Ireland)
Identification
Courses
29th-30th
June - Ascidians - Marloes (Pembrokeshire)
6th-7th
July - Hydroids and their Predators - Falmouth (Cornwall)
20th-21st
July - Marine Life ID - Swanage (Dorset)
Other
Courses
10th-11th
August - Marine Ecology - Swanage (Dorset)
7th-8th
Spetember - Photogtaphing Marine Animals - Swanage (Dorset)
For
contact details for all of the courses go to the Training
page.
New
sighting of rare southerly nudibranch
This
rather distinctive nudibranch with black rhinophores and gills was
recordedrecently at Hilsea Point, Devon and has been identified
by Bernard Picton as Cadlina pellucida. Bernard says "Currently
known from Portugal and NW Spain, but certainly never on our side
of the English Channel. Is it another one moving North?"
One to look out for then - this one was spotted by Allen Murray
and the photo is from Alec Jacobs
The Holothuria poo gives it a nice bit of scale!
Actually
it is the second sighting as Seasearchers David Kipling and Sarah
Bowen also found it in Cornwall in 2012.
Spring
Surveys underway at last
The
May 18th/19th weekend was a good one for survey diving for some.
In Devon Seasearch visited 4 sites east of Plymouth, Blackstone
Point, Stoke Point, East Rutts and Prawle Point, with 10m visibility
at three of them and a thick mid-water layer of plankton at the
fourth. In North Wales Seasearch visited Bardsey Island and there
were also dives planned in Poole Bay and West Pembrokeshire.
The
sea temperature in Devon has finally reached double figures after
being a couple of degrees below normal thoughout March, April and
the beginning of May.
Spring
is the best time of year to observe many of the hydroids and the
nudibranchs feeding on them. Below are dense oaten pipe hydroids
from East Rutts Devon, and a pair of, anemone eating, Aeoilid nudibranchs
from Sussex.
pictures
by Chris Wood (L) & Neil Watson (R)
There
are still places available on many of the Seasearch Surveys dives
over the summer. See the full list on the Diving
page of the site. There are often spaces at the last minute so even
if you find the event is currnetly full do ask to be put on the
waiting list.
We
have now received over 200 records from surveys so far in 2012.
Most of them come from England (57%), follwed by Wales (14%), Ireland
(10%) and the Channel Islands (9%).
Seasearch
data for 2012 now online
The
Seasearch dataset on the National Biodiversity Network has now been
updated to include all of the 2012 data collected by our volunteer
recorders. The dataset now includes 404,000 records from 9.089 sites
and covering 2,752 species.
The
dataset includes all of the data collected by Seasearch, and some
earlier UCS/MCS surveys, going right back to 1977. The graph shows
how the number of records collected by Seasearch has expanded over
the years and 2012 was our second best year ever, despite the challenging
conditions.
All
the records for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the
Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man can be viewed online. At
present the NBN is unable to display data from the Channel Islands
but we hope that will also be available soon.
To
see the Seasearch dataset click here
Now
we have all of the data for 2012 logged and entered into the Marine
Recorder database we know that the final tally was 1,861 forms of
all types (Observation, Survey and Sea Fan). Whilst this is 13%
down on the highest figure ever, in 2010. The good news is that
the number of Survey Forms is the highest ever and the proportion
of Survey Forms is a record 43%. Survey Forms typically provide
us with three times as much data as Observation Forms and we have
prioritised getting our volunteer divers to make the transition
from one to the other in the last couple of years. This has been
successful as the figures show.
As
the pie chart shows, almost half of the data comes from England,
though Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man have achieved
well above their size. Northern Ireland has recorded twice as many
forms in 2012 as in any of the last 5 years.
The
success story in England is the North Sea coast with a record number
of forms from the North East. In fact records from the North East
and East make up 37% of the total for England. It's an enormous
achievement for Seasearch divers along our North Sea coasts, always
considered to be difficult to dive and very under-recorded.
2012
also saw many more tageted surveys, especially in the recommended
127 new Marine Conservation Zones in England, and reports on these
are listed below. However the government has only brought forward
31 of the 127 sites and none of those which propose highly protected
'no take' status.
A
map of the records can be downloaded here and viewed in Google Earth.
Just click on the link and it will open if you have Google Earth
installed on your computer. Seasearch
Forms 2012
Seasearch
Spring Newsletter
The
Seasearch Spring Newsletter is now available and has been circulated
to all our mailing list via email. If you don't receive one then
please contact Seasearch Administrator Charlotte Coombes seasearch@mcsuk.org
with your current email address and we'll add you to future mailings.
You
can also download the Newsletter here Spring
Newsletter
Sea
fan anemones can damage sea fans
A
new Seasearch report has just been published on a six-year photographic
monitoring project carried out on the wreck of the Rosehill in Whitsand
Bay, Cornwall by Sally Sharrock of Devon Seasearch. The sea fan
anemone Amphianthus dohrnii is a BAP species because of
its rarity and lives almost exclusively on our two species of sea
fan. The report compares pictures of the same sea fan between June
2006 and May 2012 showing how the anemones have affected the fan
and caused necrosis leading to fouling and finally breaking off
of sections of the colony. The report also looks at the Seasearch
records of Amphianthus in South Devon and East Cornwall
and concludes that they are ephemeral at most sites, though the
cause of the fluctuating population is unknown.
The
report can be downloaded here: Rosehill
Sea Fan Anemone Report
The final picture of the damaged sea fan taken in May 2012
More
2012 Seasearch reports published
There
are now 23 Seasearch reports for 2012 published all of which can
be downloaded from the Achievements
page. The latest two are from Kent and Wales:
Kent
Summary 2012 is a summary of the Seasearch
activity in Kent in 2012.
Wales
Summary 2012 is
a summary of all of the Seasearch activity in Wales in 2012
There
are 2012 summaries for Northern Ireland, North-East England, Devon
and Dorset already on the site and there are more to follow.
Seasearch
Training and Qualifications
The
programme of Observer, Surveyor and Specialist Courses for 2013
is now well underway. Go to the Training
page so see the list. There are more in the planning stage which
will be added as soon as dates are confirmed.
In
April and May two volunteers completed their Observer Qualification.
They are Kerry Netherway (E) and Andrew Woods (E).
New
Surveyors in April and May are Cat Wilding (E), Tony O'Callaghan
(I), Matthias Biber (W) and Caroline Perry (IOM).
Congratulations
to them all
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