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!

MCS AGM report. The National AGM came north to Preston this year, just a few days after the long-awaited completion of the Marine and Coastal Access Act. This finally opens up the possibility of statutory marine reserves around the UK, so there was considerable satisaction, though there is still a long way to go to implement effective protection for habitats and species ‘on the ground’.

Something that came from the meeting quite strongly was the feeling that we need to broaden our constituency. We need to be able to show that the state of the seas around us is of concern to more than just a few eco-warriors!

Recently in-store polling work by the Co-Op has shown that you do want to look after marine wildlife. Clearly the state of our seas effects everyone living in an island nation! This collaboration with the Co-Op is now coming together in the ‘Your Sear Your Voice’ campaign. This gives you the opportunity to support the establishment of marine reserves in your area. (See below for further details).

AGM was on 17th November 2009 at the Foster Building, UCLAN.

The ‘common’ skate has been in serious trouble for some time, due entirely to over fishing. In 2008 ICES recomended that there should be no more target fishing, and that by-catch needed to be limited. Unfortunately, it now looks as though what fisheries statistics were labelling as the ‘common’ skate is in fact two species, with distinct morphologies and life histories. This change in classification means that we have two endangered species. One of these species (Dipturus cf. intermedia) is now thought to be in immediate risk of extinction.

It is sad that we know so little about our seas, and yet do them so much damage.

Ref: Iglésias S.P., Toulhoat L., Sellos D.Y. Taxonomic confusion and market mislabelling of threatened skates: important consequences for their conservation status. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, (in press) via Science Daily

More information: UK biodiversity Action Plan on the Common Skate

Is there something you can do? – The ‘Your Seas Your Voice’ programme, sponsored by the Co-Op, allows you to lend support to proposed marine reserves around the UK coasts. Reserves with strong no-take policies are the only way that many species, like the common skate, will survive. Showing you care about the seas around us is the only way we will get the political action necessary to offer them this protection:

Your Seas Your Voice

We had an interesting walk today around Walney, with some great weather and light. Thanks Gordon for organising.

I couldn’t help but notice how much plastic rubbish there was though, hardly a meter without any. I didn’t think I was that old, but I can remember as a child when on a trip to the beach you didn’t see tons of plastic. In fact, like most children, I was a real beachcomber, picking up shells, dead crabs, rocks, bits of wood etc. I would have noticed.

Anyway, for anyone interested, I’ve put some pictures on my web pages here.

Photographer Chris Jordan has published a heart-breaking series of photos of the effects of litter on baby Albatross.  On the tiny Midway Atoll in the middle of the North Pacific, tens of thousands of Albatross chicks die yearly of toxicity and starvation because their parents feed them plastic, thinking it’s food.

See the photos here