Thanks to everyone for supporting this campaign, the Chagos islands have now been designated as a no-take marine reserve.

This declaration will make it the largest marine protected area in the world, totalling more than 210,000 square miles – an area twice the size of the UK. The combination of tropical islands, unspoiled coral reefs and adjacent oceanic abyss makes this area comparable in global importance to the Great Barrier Reef or Galapagos Islands.

More information about the Chagos islands project:

www.protectchagos.org

An octopus? We’re aware of the amazing art of mimicry cuttlefish have, blending into their backgrounds, but their close relative the octopus may go one better again, by pretending to be a fish! The Atlantic longarm octopus, a caribean species, has been filmed mimicing flounder and other bottom-dwelling flat-fish. It is not clear why they do this, but video is available on the National Geographic website. The story is also picked up byt the BBC World Service’s Science in Action. Links for more information:

National Geographic: Atlantic Octopus Mimics Flounders—A First

Science In Action: 12/03/2010 (Ivory trade…)

Thanks to Michelle Cooper of Lancaster Maritime Museum for a very beautifully illustrated talk on the river Lune through Lancaster (Wednesday 11th March 2010). Lots of views of activity on the river over the last 400 years, which got everyone in the audience judging how things have changed. The images used to illustrate the talk were from the Lancaster City Council collection. These will be on display at the Maritime Museum until the 11th April 2010. For more information:

Tales from the riverbank

The competition is part of the celebration of the silver anniversary of the Lancaster Maritime Museum. Photographs on the COAST theme – from shipwrecks to sandy beaches – are invited. The best entries will be displayed in the Exhibition Gallery.

For further details, including PRIZES, please see the entry form below:

Coast photo competition entry form. (300kB PDF)

by Charlotte Caffrey MSc. FRGS

An exploration of the wildlife, marine life and scenery of Spitzbergen, Greenland and the Antarctic Peninsula.

This is a special event organised by the Preston Society (The Preston Bird watching & Natural History Society) to mark their 3000th. presentation/lecture!

At: 7.30pm on Saturday 28th 27th November, 2010
Location: St. Mary’s Church Hall, Cop Lane, Penwortham, Preston PR1 0SR

Tickets costing £3.50 each available through the Preston Society – full details in the form linked below:

The arctic and antactic – booking form (corrected)

The three categories this year were Above water, underwater and humerous, and the winners, declared by popular vote at the meeting on the 10th of February were:

Above: In the above water category, Greenland sea ice, by Chrissie Ryan.

Above: In the underwater category, Scorpionfish by Lewis Bambury.

Above: In the humerous category, Fish head by Chrissie Ryan.

Report on the MCS walk 30th January: The Ribble Way walk between Longton and Penwortham (Preston) is an interesting route. While the land is flat, we walked on the raised levees, which protect the surrounding land from the river Ribble, and so had excellent views over the river and inland. Wildlife included several large flocks of geese, cormorants (one pictured) and a couple of hares.

Thanks to Hilary for organising a very enjoyable day out!

The Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean is one of the least-spoilt areas of marine wildlife on earth, with extensive coral reef habitats. It could become one of the worlds foremost marine reserves, if we have the will to enact protection, as through an accident of history it is under British jurisdiction. Our chairman, Ron Crosby, has a long history of involvement with the Chagos islands, having taken part in the early marine life survey work. The Chagos islands have been subject of a couple of talks to the group in recent years, but if you missed these, there is plenty of information online through the link below:

Protect Chagos .org

This address also has an online petition to lobby for protection – the consultation period ends on 12th February 2010, so please take a look soon!