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National Whale and Dolphin Watch 2018 is most successful yet! (Watch Video)

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As the National Whale & Dolphin Watch concludes for another year, organisers are calling the 2018 event the most successful yet with an unprecedented variety of whale and dolphin species recorded around the UK during last week. Thirteen species and more than 500 sightings have been reported, and sightings continue to stream in.

“This looks like being the best National Whale & Dolphin Watch event of the last two decades,” reported Dr Chiara Giulia Bertulli, organiser of this year’s national event for the UK national research charity, Sea Watch Foundation.

The 2018 National Whale and Dolphin Watch event involving thousands of volunteers from all around the British Isles, conducted between 28th July and 5th August, has revealed the striking biodiversity of Britain’s Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises.

Photo: Chiara G. Bertulli / Sea Watch Foundation

This summer has seen a good number of humpback whale sightings all around the UK, with individuals popping up this last week in the North Sea off the Aberdeenshire coast and off Flamborough Head in Yorkshire. This species is making a noticeable come-back after many decades of exploitation in the North Atlantic.

“However, the most extraordinary sighting from this year’s Watch week”, adds Chiara, “was surely the Sowerby’s beaked whale which live stranded in the shallow waters of Belhaven in East Lothian, Scotland, on July 29th. This year also saw the addition of the striped dolphin, which in Britain and Ireland, is very rare, seen occasionally off the Atlantic coasts mainly in the south-west of Ireland. This species of warm temperate seas came to the shore at Pendine in South Wales on July 31st.”

Watch this video of short-beaked common dolphins filmed three miles off Dodman Point in South Cornwall.
Video: Rupert Kirkwood / thelonerkayaker:

At the time of writing, a total of 527 sightings have been submitted after the 9-day event. With regards to number of species recorded, results show that records at this stage are up 50% on last year. Cetacean data collection is strongly weather dependant. Factors such as sea state, swell height and visibility to the horizon affect how easily animals can be detected during a watch. Heavy rain and wind can even cause watches to be cancelled altogether.

For these reasons, every year, the volunteers rely heavily on good weather conditions for the success of National Whale and Dolphin Watch. Like previous years, this year’s event was scheduled over nine days to increase the chances of coinciding with a favourable weather window. The weather forecast at the beginning of the event was very poor with frequent showers and strong winds around the country which forced several watches to be cancelled and to be rescheduled to this past weekend. However, once the weather stabilized and the temperature increased the number of sightings increased dramatically and it showed.

Photo: SBCD – Peter G.H.Evans / Sea Watch Foundation

Possible explanations for this summer’s high number of cetacean species sighted during this year’s event are the good stable weather recorded this summer, with high temperatures which brought in warmer water species like striped dolphin, and created the conditions for plankton fronts to develop, attracting shoals of fish and in turn, whales and dolphins.

“We are seeing a general longer term trend,” adds Chiara, “for warm water species to be extending their range further north – species like the short-beaked common dolphin and the Risso’s dolphin as well as the striped dolphin. Since a greater number of species live in warm waters, the effects of climate change can actually be positive at mid latitudes such as around the British Isles.”

“We should still be a little cautious,” says Dr Peter Evans, Director of the Sea Watch Foundation. “Although new species of cetaceans have been added recently to the British list of mammals, there are more northern species that we could lose from our fauna – species like Atlantic white-sided dolphin and white-beaked dolphin, and the problem with tropical and warm temperate species entering our seas is that they face a much wider range of human pressures along the industrialised coastlines of northern Europe.”

All the verified sightings so far can be viewed online – www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk/nwdw-2018 – where they are updated as more reports come in.

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Euro-Divers to close dive centre at NH Collection Maldives Havodda

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Havodda

Euro-Divers have announced that as of 15 April 2024, they will no longer be operating the dive centre at NH Collection Maldives Havodda (formerly known as Amari Havodda).

The popular dive centre chain released this statement regarding the closure:

Dear valid customers, business partners and friends,

We are leaving NH Collection Maldives Havodda – former Amari Havodda as of 15th of April 2024.

Unfortunately, the information reached us on short notice that we are no longer operating the dive centre at the resort.

It was a great pleasure to work with the Amari Hotel group and continue to work with the NH Hotel group.

We wish our partners great success with all their new changes.

Thanks a lot for cooperating during our time at the resort. We wish everyone with whom we have worked a good and hopefully successful future.

Euro-Divers continue to operate in several other dive resorts throughout the Maldives in addition to other locations.

To finds out more about Euro-Divers, visit www.euro-divers.com.

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Marine Life & Conservation Blogs

Creature Feature: Undulate Ray

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In this series, the Shark Trust will be sharing amazing facts about different species of sharks and what you can do to help protect them.

This month we’re looking at the Undulate Ray. Easily identified by its beautiful, ornate pattern, the Undulate Ray gets its name from the undulating patterns of lines and spots on its dorsal side.

This skate is usually found on sandy or muddy sea floors, down to about 200 m deep, although it is more commonly found shallower. They can grow up to 90 cm total length. Depending on the size of the individual, their diet can range from shrimps to crabs.

Although sometimes called the Undulate Ray, this is actually a species of skate, meaning that, as all true skates do, they lay eggs. The eggs are contained in keratin eggcases – the same material that our hair and nails are made up of! These eggcases are also commonly called mermaid’s purses and can be found washed up on beaches all around the UK. If you find one, be sure to take a picture and upload your find to the Great Eggcase Hunt – the Shark Trust’s flagship citizen science project.

It is worth noting that on the south coasts, these eggcases can be confused with those of the Spotted Ray, especially as they look very similar and the ranges overlap, so we sometimes informally refer to them as ‘Spundulates’.

Scientific Name: Raja undulata

Family: Rajidae

Maximum Size: 90cm (total length)

Diet: shrimps and crabs

Distribution: found around the eastern Atlantic and in the Mediterranean Sea.

Habitat: shelf waters down to 200m deep.

Conservation Status : As a commercially exploited species, the Undulate Ray is a recovering species in some areas. The good thing is that they have some of the most comprehensive management measures of almost any elasmobranch species, with both minimum and maximum landing sizes as well as a closed season. Additionally, targeting is entirely prohibited in some areas. They are also often caught as bycatch in various fisheries – in some areas they can be landed whilst in others they must be discarded.

IUCN Red List Status: Endangered

For more great shark information and conservation visit the Shark Trust Website


Image Credits: Banner – Sheila Openshaw; Illustration – Marc Dando

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