17 November 2008 - BBC News

It is as thick as your arm and smells disgusting - and it has just been caught on camera for what is thought to be the first time.
A crew has managed to record a whale shark - the world's biggest fish - expelling food waste, which was then scooped up for research.
Biologist Mark Meekan said the sample had helped him to discover more about the giant creature's feeding habits.
The footage forms part of a BBC Natural World wildlife programme: Whale Shark.
Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are related to great whites, but are far less fearsome - they are filter feeders, swimming about with their enormous mouths open to scoop up tasty morsels floating in their paths.

Read the full story and see Videos HERE........

9 September 2008 - BBC News

The Seahorse Trust is warning that Britain's native breeds are under threat unless action is urgently taken to preserve their habitats.
To look at Studland Bay is to see the familiar sight of waves washing up hypnotically on a sandy Dorset beach.
The white cliffs of the Old Harry rocks frame the horizon, sheltering the bay from the prevailing south-westerly winds.
Fishing boats and yachts bob up and down with the incoming tide.
But take a glimpse underwater to see an exceptional view as the bay is home to a rather magical creature.
Its Latin name is hippocampus but you are probably more familiar with the term seahorse.
Steve Trewhella, from The Seahorse Trust, has been diving here for as long as he can remember.
In all that time, he's been searching for the creatures in their natural habitat - among either eel or sea grass.
He said: "Most divers could spend a lifetime looking for seahorses in their natural habitat and never find one.
"This is an exceptional site - a window into the seahorses' world".

5 August 2008 - BBC News

A rare loggerhead turtle rescued from the sea off Gower, south Wales is thought to be the 26th to be found in UK waters this year.
The female turtle - named Nemo - has been transferred to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, Cornwall.
The turtle, which is missing its front left flipper and which has damage to its right front flipper, was found floating in water, covered in seaweed.
If Nemo recovers, she will be flown to the Canary Islands and released.

Read the full story here…….

16 July 2008 - BBC News

Five years without fishing around Lundy Island off the coast of Devon have brought a significant revival in sea life, scientists report.

Lobsters are seven times more abundant within the protected zone than outside.

The eastern coast of Lundy is the UK's only "no-take" zone, where fishing is completely prohibited.

Conservation groups say UK seas need more of them, but the government's recent Marine Bill promises much vaguer "marine conservation zones".

Read the full story here.

7 April 2008 - BBC News

Rare seahorses breeding in Thames

Colonies of rare seahorses are living and breeding in the River Thames, conservationists have revealed.
The short-snouted variety are endangered and normally live around the Canary Islands and Italy.
Experts at London Zoo said the species had been found at Dagenham in east London and Tilbury and Southend in Essex, over the last 18 months.
The revelation coincided with new laws which came into force on Sunday to give the creatures protected status.
The seahorses, or Hippocampus hippocampus, are now protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
They are usually found in shallow muddy waters, estuaries or seagrass beds and conservationists said their presence in the Thames is another good sign that the water quality of the river was improving.
Monitoring work
Alison Shaw, from London Zoo, said: "These amazing creatures have been found in the Thames on a number of occasions in the last 18 months during our regular wildlife monitoring work.
"It demonstrates that the Thames is becoming a sustainable bio-diverse habitat for aquatic life.
"It is not clear how endangered short-snouted seahorses are because there is little data known, particularly in the UK, so every scrap of information is valuable.
"Now they are protected conservationists are more relaxed about telling the world they are there."
Both the short-snouted and long-snouted seahorse are kept and bred in the aquarium at London Zoo in Regents Park.
Aquarists are studying their life history and behaviour so their wild habitats and requirements can be protected.

Hundreds of dead starfish have washed up on Brighton Beach in East Sussex, just days after thousands were spotted off the east Kent coast.

BBC News. 16 February 2008.

Warming risks Antarctic sea life

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Unique marine life in Antarctica will be at risk from an invasion of sharks, crabs and other predators if global warming continues, scientists warn.
Crabs are poised to return to the Antarctic shallows, threatening creatures such as giant sea spiders and floppy ribbon worms, says a UK-US team.
Some have evolved without predators for tens of millions of years.
Bony fish and sharks would move in if waters warm further, threatening species with extinction, they say.
In the last 50 years, sea surface temperatures around Antarctica have risen by 1 to 2C, which is more than twice the global average.

Read full story HERE

BBC News 1 February 2008

Nine areas in the UK have been identified as internationally important sites for seaweed. A report by Plantlife, the British Phycological Society and the Natural History Museum said these waters contained rare species, and highlighted the need to find out more about these unique organisms.

BBC News 20 January 2007 & Local West Sussex News

Photos taken by Jason from UK-RPC on Lancing Beach (as seen on ITV Meridian)

WARNING NOTICE: Due to the timber cargo from the Ice Prince washing up along the West Sussex & East Sussex coast line we strongly recommend NOT to go rock pooling until your local authority has given the all clear. In all cases please take care when going to any beach / coast line but for the time being, please refrain from going to the worst effected beaches in particular: Worthing, Lancing, Shoreham, Hove & Brighton.

A snippet from BBC NEWS:Beaches along the south coast of England will remain closed indefinitely to prevent looters taking away more than 2,000 tonnes of washed-up timber. The wood, several feet deep on the tide line, is from the Greek-registered Ice Prince which sank about 26 miles (42km) off Dorset after a storm last Tuesday. Beaches along the Sussex coast from Ferring as far east as Hastings have been littered with the timber. Dover Coastguard said it was likely more would wash up on Kent's beaches. West Sussex County Council (WSCC) said its beaches, which were the worst affected, would be out of bounds to the public for the foreseeable future. The salvage operation is being carried out by contractors authorised by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). WSCC said there were unconfirmed reports of minor damage to sea defences. It said people taking the wood had become a "serious problem". A spokesman said: "Lots of people have been turning up, including men in vans taking a load - a significant number of people." Sussex Police has issued a warning to say removing the timber is unlawful, and if people continue to take the wood, they could be liable to prosecution and arrest under the Merchant Shipping Act.

BBC NEWS January 2008

Seventeen countries have marked 2008 as the International Year of the Reef, a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the importance of coral reefs and to motivate action to protect them

GREAT NEWS !!!

BBC News January 2008

Mr Potato Head makes octopus pal
A giant Pacific octopus living in a Cornish aquarium has formed an unlikely bond with a child's plastic toy.
Louis regularly plays with the Mr Potato Head figure which was given to him as part of an enrichment project at Newquay's Blue Reef Aquarium. "We wanted an octopus-friendly toy which had a compartment to hide food in," said the aquarium's Matt Slater. He says Louis gets very excited when sees the toy, which he plays with for an hour at a time. "Its bright colours, strange shape and moveable parts make it fascinating for Louis," said Mr Slater. "The secret space within Mr Potato Head allows us to hide tasty treats like fresh crab inside and that perhaps more than anything has resulted in him becoming such a hit." In the past, keepers have used everything from perspex boxes to rubber toys and even fishing floats to keep Louis, who came from Vancouver about nine months ago, mentally active. The giant Pacific octopus is the world's largest species of octopus and are found from Japan to Southern California.The biggest recorded specimen had a span of 10m (33ft) and weighed 270kgs (600lbs). Louis, who is 18 months old, stretches about 1.5m from tip to tip. As well as being the largest, the giant Pacifics are also among the cleverest members of the cephalopod family. "Louis is well known for his curiosity and intelligence," said Mr Slater. "We've devised a series of puzzles, games and toys to ensure he's getting the mental stimulation he needs, but Mr Potato Head is definitely his favourite at the moment."

On the 9th November 2007 we went for a very early morning walk on Lancing Beach, from Lancing Green towards Onslow Court. As we where walking we where very surprised to find so many dead washed up Spider Crabs on the beach. We stopped counting when we got to 26. some where as small as a tennis ball (the actual body) and the largest one was about 4 tennis balls put together in a square. After reporting this to Andy from The British Marine Life Study Society I was informed that this is pretty common for this time of the year and the deaths can be due to a number of things, strong tides, starvation and discards from fishing boats. As we walked we did see one crab washed up that was still alive. We picked it up and put it back into the water. If you come across such finding, please let us know through our contact page.

The orange-pink creatures, called apolemia uvaria but also known as "pearl strings", have been seen off Plymouth and the Cornish coast.

But people have been warned not to touch them as they have a nasty sting.

Rory Goodall, a wildlife trip operator in Penzance said: "I have seen thousands of them attracted to our waters because of plankton."

Kill fish

Mr Goodall, who runs Elemental Tours and Atlantic Adventure, said he spotted the creatures while at sea off west Cornwall in his rigid inflatable.

With the help of wildlife experts in California, where they have also been reported, Mr Goodall identified the species of jellyfish as apolemia uvaria.

The jellyfish can be seen in colonies of tiny hydroids which can form strings up to 100ft (30.48m) long.

The creatures' sting, although not life-threatening to humans, is enough to kill a large fish.

Mr Goodall believes the creatures, normally found in deeper water off Norway and Ireland, were attracted by a plankton bloom off the Plymouth coast.

This fossil of a stony coral, 70 million years old, has surprised scientists. It appears to have been a modern coral, but had a skeleton made of calcite instead of aragonite, as seen in contemporary relatives. Scientists say changes in ocean composition may have induced the switch in minerals.

SEE PHOTO's BELOW

A cache of exceptionally well-preserved fossil sea spiders have been described for the first time.

The eight-legged marine animals, which are known as pycnogonids, are only distantly related to land spiders.

The stunning specimens were discovered in 160 million-year-old fossil beds at La Voulte-sur-Rhone, near Lyon in south-eastern France.

Details of the finds are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Sea spiders are still with us today; scientists have described about 1,300 species of pycnogonid. They are characterised by eight extremely long legs and a prominent mouthpart.

While they may resemble land spiders, the pycnogonids form a distinct biological group.

Writing in Proceedings B, Sylvain Charbonnier from the University of Lyon, France, and colleagues say the new fossils fill a 400 million-year gap in our knowledge of these enigmatic creatures.

The team identified 70 sea spiders from three distinct species in rock slabs from the Jurassic La Voulte Lagerstatte. A Lagerstatte is a sedimentary rock bed rich in fossils or containing well-preserved specimens.

"This Lagerstatte is very important because during Jurassic times the water here was about 200m deep," Mr Charbonnier told the BBC News website.

Many other Lagerstatten from the Mesozoic - the era of the geological time when the dinosaurs walked the Earth - were formed from lagoons or relatively shallow bodies of water. This means that La Voulte Lagerstatte preserved many fossil creatures not found elsewhere.