Marine Wildlife Sightings 2009

One of our most magnificent and endangered fish has been sighted catching mackerel off Bournemouth this week.

There is cause for celebration at a west Dorset nature reserve, with news of the first ringed plovers to breed in the area.

Last week as many of you will have seen on BBC2, Simon King and the Springwatch team came to Kimmeridge Bay.

As World Oceans Day is celebrated on 8^th June, an advanced seabed map has become the first in the UK to be made freely available to the public, making it possible to see the sea floor in all its glory, including reefs, wrecks and rocky ledges.

In response to concerns for Dorset’s shellfish population, conservationists are calling on divers to take care when collecting marine animals.

The sun was shinning as the 22nd annual ‘Great Dorset beach clean’ got underway on Sunday 18th April.

The Easter Holidays started with a bang. Enthusiastic families braved the weather to join our expeditions on the Kimmeridge Great Egg Case Hunt and Marine Egg Hunt.

With marine litter on the increase, the bags, bottles and plastics that blight our beaches need constantly to be cleared if our wildlife is to be protected. 

With Easter weekend just around the corner, what could be better than a hunt for marine eggs along the seashore?

Visitors to one of Dorset’s top beaches are being urged to help protect its seahorses.

Equinox or extreme low spring tides only occur twice a year and it’s an opportunity not to be missed! Shore species already living at the limit of their survival capabilities are uncovered by the tide that little bit longer; becoming subjected to the sometimes harmful effects of the wind, rain and sun and jeopardizing their survival.

A scheme to protect wildlife from discarded fishing line has been a great success.

Recent storms and strong south-westerly winds have brought some unusual visitors to Dorset's beaches.

On Monday 9th November we were fortunate enough to have a rare visitor to Kimmeridge Bay. A keen eyed Range Warden was first to spot its head peering out of the water in the middle of the bay and once closer we were albe to confirm it was a Grey Seal. Read more...

Over the autumn and winter months, Kimmeridge is visited by a variety of wading birds that come to feast on the insects and invertebrates living in the washed up seaweed. Read more...

Goose barnacles (Lepas anatifera) grow in colonies on floating objects such as flotsam and jetsom, ships, buoys or whales. The common goose barnacle can be found in almost every global ocean except the polar region.

Another recent find of a seahorse on the strandline at Worbarrow Bay has fuelled the theory that these threatened species are in fact living in or near the Purbeck Marine WIldlife Reserve.

Sunfish are often sighted along the British coasts in the summer months, mostly in the South West and Dorset Wildlife Trust often receives reports of them in Worbarrow Bay.

Another usual find has turned up on the shores of Worbarrow Bay recently.

A number of jellyfish have been washing up in the reserve recently including the beautiful mauve stinger Pelagia noctiluca, a first for Dorset. 

Several Portuguese Man O' War, Physalia physalia have been found at Kimmeridge, adding to a current total of over 40 reports on the Dorset coast. 

Several strawberry anemones have been spotted on the seashore around the reserve recently. 

A trigger fish has recently been sighted in Kimmeridge Bay.  It was spotted by divers about 60 metres off the entrance to Kimmeridge bay.  Up until recently, trigger fish were rarely seen in British waters, usually only late summer.  However, more triggerfish have been sighted throughout the year and possibly surviving our winter temperatures. 

Trigger fish are a green grey colour, can grow up to 50cm long and are laterally flattened with a trigger like dorsal spine which enables them wedge themselves into small areas.  This makes them particularly suited to living within shipwrecks; a favourite habitat of theirs.

On a recent survey for climate indicator species in the reserve, we stumbled upon a very beautiful and prominent Painted topshell, humbly sat in a shallow rockpool awaiting high tide. 

An oceanic sunfish has been spotted in the reserve!  It was seen swimming along the surface just off Worbarrow Tout, encircling a stationary dive RIB much to the amazement of the crew and was estimated to be about 1.5m long.

The Kimmeridge seashore strandline is a very important habitat for marine and terrestrial wildlife and is commonly overlooked as a pile of rotting seaweed.

Keep a look out for hundreds of tiny baby shore crabs, to be seen on the beach hiding amongst seaweed (on the strandline).