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Posted by Lauren Smith on

Sea Shepherd UK; Seals & Salmon Fisheries

Sea Shepherd UK; Seals & Salmon Fisheries

Today I headed to Gardenstown & Crovie on the Banffshire coastline in the hop of having a chat with the Sea Shepherd crew who have based themselves their in order to prevent “USAN Fisheries” who trade as The Scottish Wild Salmon Company from shooting seals.

I was fortunate enough to meet some of the volunteers as well as Jessie Treverton  a Director/Trustee of Sea Shepherd UK and we discussed the campaign. So far the sheer presence of the Sea Shepherd Crew on patrol is believed to be a positive one, armed USAN employees have encountered seals when checking their nets but have not yet shot any seals on site.

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Gardenstown Harbour with the Sea Shepherd RIB

Last year multiple seal carcasses were discovered washed ashore at Crovie believed to have been shot locally, the SSPCA also intervened when it was thought that several of the shootings took place prior to the start of the netting season in April.

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Crovie Bay

The shooting of seals and the netting of “wild” salmon is of concern around the Scottish coastline. Recently USAN have been given the go ahead to begin netting in the Ythan Estuary next year (a submission was made by USAN for an organised seal cull for the area, however this has since been retracted, most likely as a result of quick thinking media savvy conservationists and concerned local residents).

The management of commercial fisheries and the conservation of both fish stocks and their ecosystem including seals, now lies in the hands of the Scottish ministers. My fear is that the lure of profit made as a result of supplying elite restaurants in cities around the world (London, Paris, Moscow…) with wild salmon will out-weigh the required change of legislation that would protect iconic Scottish species.

In the meantime, there’s Sea Shepherd.

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Posted by Lauren Smith on

School Outreach; Shark Program

School Outreach; Shark Program

An interactive shark program is now available for children of primary school age, from P2 through to P7 (ages 5-11). This specially designed outreach program enables pupils to understand basic shark biology, ecology and conservation. By identifying what makes a shark different from other fish – with a special investigation into the shark senses, looking at the sharks habitat and where they can be found, and taking a look at the sharks role in the Ocean, seeing what threats they face and why they are important.

The program consists of a power-point talk, with interactive participation from the pupils. Additional support material will also be on display including a sharks jaw, dive gear and underwater camera set-ups – allowing students to get hands on with the type of equipment used to study the shark and its world, as well as supplementary material provided by the Shark Trust UK.

Developed with the Scottish Curriculum in mind, this outreach program ties in well to the ‘Planet Earth; biodiversity and interdependence’ and ‘Topical Science’ categories of the Science Curriculum and also covers aspects of the Social Studies Curriculum specifically ‘People, place & environment’.

To find out more about this outreach program or to arrange a booking please drop me an email; lauren@saltwaterlife.co.uk 

Posted by Lauren Smith on

“Hope”

“Hope”

On the 4th of February 2014, at around 11:30 am I was at work at the Macduff Marine Aquarium, as I cleaned the ‘nursery’ tank (a display set up to house shark and skate egg cases as well as other young fish species), which includes the careful removal of algae from the shark egg cases. I noticed the one I was currently cleaning had a well developed pup inside, as I looked closer I saw the top edge of the egg case had split so i rested the case on my hand and watched.

Soon enough after a decent amount of wriggling the pup hatched out right there onto my hand!

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This particular pup was a small spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula), known locally and rather confusingly as a lesser spotted dogfish. Small spotted catsharks are most commonly encountered around the coastlines of Northern Europe, where they inhabit the seabed with a variety of strata (sand, mud gravel & rocky areas) from the shallow sublittoral down to depths of c. 400 m. They can reach a maximum length of 100 cm, with all males maturing after reaching a size of around 62 cm or in excess of 6.6 yrs and females at 69 cm / >7.9 yrs. Catsharks are opportunistic predators, consuming a wide range of macrobenthic fauna, with hermit crabs, cockles and whelks being considered dominant prey. In certain areas of the North East Atlantic, S. canicula are the most abundant elasmobranch, they are regularly taken in near-shore fisheries and are sometimes landed for human consumption.

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At Macduff aquarium, we have a large ‘kelp’ tank as a main display, in here mating pairs of S. canicula lay fertile eggs around the kelp. When diving in this tank we periodically remove the eggs and place them in the nursery tank, releasing them back into the wild once they have reached around 18 months +.

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With the recent publication by Nicholas Dulvy et al. entitled “Extinction risk and conservation of the world’s sharks and rays” detailing the fact that one quarter of all sharks, rays and chimaeras are threatened with extinction as well as the controversial ‘cull’ policy currently being employed in Western Australia. It was perfectly apt that Shark Angels (a global community that believes in the power of education, media and local grassroots campaigns to raise awareness and help save sharks and their ecosystems) should suggest this pup be named ‘Hope’.

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In today’s world in an Oceanic version of Pandora’s Box, after all the evil’s have been unleashed – overfishing, ocean acidification, sea temperature rise, marine litter, shark finning… I take encouragement in ‘Hope’ and further more with marine organizations and individuals stepping outside the box (apologies for the pun) in support of conservation, education and awareness I believe in ‘Hope’ too.