Seasearch News

Updated 23rd July 2010

Seasearch data for Marine Conservation Zones

The latest Seasearch data is being used by three of the organisations currently tasked with recommending Marine Conservation Zones in England in accordance with the 2009 Marine Act. Net Gain (North and East), Balanced Seas (South-East) and Finding Sanctuary (South-West) have all been sent the latest Seasearch data and it is a major, and in some areas the only, source of information on sublittoral marine species and habitats. Seasearch divers wearing a number of other hats - MCS, Wildlife Trusts and recreational divers, are involved in the process and making sure that marine life gets the highest level of protection it can. In addition to the core Seasearch data added value has been provided by initiatives such as Dorset Wildlife Trust's seabed mapping project and MCS's Your Seas Your Voice suggested sites and public recommendations.

The local stakeholder groups are undertaking a second round of site mapping during July and the final recommendations to government are due in March 2011.

Seasearch's role in this is to supply data on which we hope sensible decisions will be made. Lobbying will continue to be carried out by partner organisations such as MCS and the Wildlife Trusts.

Seasearch data for 2010 starts to come in

Seasearch divers have been out throughout Britain and Ireland enjoying the extended period of good diving contitions. There is always a time lag before records come and and get recorded but so far we have 568 Seasearch Forms for 2010. They are 384 (67%) Observation Forms, 179 (32%) Survey Forms and 3 on-line crawfish and 2 online sea fan records (1%). The charts below show where they have come from so far.

The breakdown in England is as follows:

New Seasearch Coordinator for Northern Ireland

We have have now appointed a new Seasearch Coordinator for Northern Ireland. She is Dr Charmaine Beer who is a Marine Biologist and Seasearch Surveyor with a special interest in seaweeds. Look out for survey events and updated web pages for Northern Ireland soon. You can contact Cahrmaine at seasearchni@googlemail.com

Seasearch dives into spring and summer

Spring seemed to be a long time coming in the water this year with the coldest temperatures recorded for some years. However things are now well underway with the usual proliferation of hydroids and nudibranchs feeding on them and fresh clean seaweeds growing everywhere. In early May on Observer Course dives in Galway, Ireland, sea hares were everywhere. In the picture are two on Sargassum muticum, the non-native seaweed.

Photo Chris Wood.

A surprising find was made by Seasearcher Kate Risely on a wreck of Norfolk. The anemones in this picture are Sagartiogeton laceratus, an anemone much more commonly found in sediment habitats on north-westerly coasts. There is only one other record on the National Biodiversity Network for this anemone in the North Sea. But maybe nobody else has looked in the right places!

Photo: Kate Risely

Another interesting anemone sighting was in Church Bay on Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland. This was Aracnanthus sarsi, a rare sediment dwelling anemone that is on the Bioidversity Action Plan species list. This was the first Seasearch record for some years. It has a very limited distribution with the only records comng from the west of Scotland and north of Ireland.

A small Seasearch team has visited Alderney in the Channel Islands, somewhere where there has been very little marine recording in the past. On previous visits, in 2007 and 2008, we concentrated on sites in the Alderney RAMSAR area. This time we were looking at sites close to the infamous Alderney Race where there is a proposal for tidal power generation. The Alderney Wildlife Trust was keen to see what habitats and species occurred in the areas where cabling might come ashore. One significant habitat was eelgrass which occurred at two of the potential sites. The picture shows Francis Bunker, author of the eagerly awaited Seasearch Seaweed guide (its with the designers and should be out in July), at home recording in the eelgrass bed in Longis Bay - a popular yacht mooring location. Now where have we heard that before!

Photo: Sue Daly

The remaining Seasearch survey programme for 2010 can be found on the Diving page of the site. Bookings are coming in fast and many surveys are already almost full up. However, there are new survey dives being added all the time.

Seasearch Training and Qualifications

We have already run 39 Seasearch Courses this year in England (24), Wales (7), Ireland (5) and Scotland (3). Most course run early in the year so there are only a few dates remaining are on the Training page, which will be updated if any more courses are arranged. Contact the organisers for more information on each course. During June and July so far 16 volunteers have completed their Observer Qualification. They are Lizzie Heaver (E), Sue Mitchell (E), Emma Harris (E), Philip Payne (E), Paul Grosvenor (E), Simon Browning (E), Sarah Lee (E), Dylan Thomas (W), Janine Gartshore (E), Louise Stevens (E), Paul Slater (E), Jean Kennedy (I), James Lynch (I), Tom Sale (E), Fiona Henderson (E) and Neil Watson (E). (E=England, W=Wales, I=Ireland)

Four of the successful Observers were on a Reading BSAC trip to St Kilda (photo, right). Theirs are probably the first qualification forms from such an iconic location.

One of the successes this year has been the number of volunteers moving on to the Survey level. We have run 6 Surveyor courses already (and one to come) with 60 participants. The largest (but not by much) was a joint NE England/Scotland course in Eyemouth (photo below).

During June and July so far we have had four volunteers successfully complete their Surveyor Qualification. They are Mandy Knott (N Wales), Richard Dean (Devon), Charmaine Beer (Belfast) and Deirdre Greer (Dublin). We are expecting many more as the 60 course participants complete the practical parts of the qualification.

There are other Observers/Surveyors on the way, once we have sorted out details and signatures on some of the logbooks/forms.

Seasearch Annual Reports 2009

Seasearch summary reports for 2009 have been published for England, Wales and Northern Ireland . A similar report is being written for Scotland and there will be an overall Seasearch 2009 Summary Report in due course.

Meanwhile the 2009 data has now been added to the NBN website and is available for everyone to use.

Seasearch IT volunteers required

We are looking for help from amongst the Seasearch volunteers with three IT projects. They are:
- redesign of the Seasearch website, it works but needs a new look,
- design a species ID web quiz for participants, we will supply the pictures and the answers but need help to design it
- research the options for establishing a Seasearch image database online. If you have experience in any of these areas and would like to help us please contact Chris Wood at chris @seasearch.org.uk.