Marine WildLife

[obrienr]

Hi,

A couple of week’s back I posted details of a Leatherback found on a beach near Ballymoney, Co. Wexford.

Paul Murphy kindly forwarded details to Tom Doyle in UCC who has a particular interest in Leatherbacks, Jellyfish and Sunfish. His group has been involved in tagging Jellyfish in Wales(50 tagged, 25 recovered), and is looking to do something similar on the East Coast in the near future.

In sending Tom the images of the Leatherback I mentioned two observations of \'Portuguese-Mon-O-War\' this year, the most recent last Sunday in Rush. This appears to be a rare occurrence in the Irish Sea, has anybody else seen them this year ?

In the follow-on conversation two key things arose,

- Tom would love the opportunity to present to a group of seakayakers on his work in Cork, would be happy with as little as 5 people in the audience ! Happy to travel with projector etc.

- Tom would love to get a Jellyfish watch going next summer to help their understanding of the distribution in the Irish Sea and elsewhere along the Irish coast.

Would ISKA members be interested in participating in either ?

Thanks,
Richard.

[atlantic]

I am down in West Cork and wold love to be involved
Jim Kennedy
info@atlanticseakayaking.com

[DesKeaney]

Similarily in South Dublin...
Des

[Conal]

Likewise, anywhere in Dublin area
Conal

[margaretfarrell]

Yes, I\'d be interested, mainly north Dublin.

Margaret

[martinguilfoyle]

I am sure the westies can contribute. Is it possible to put some sort of a data sheet on the BB so we could enter any info without having to find organisations to report to. The relevant organisations could access all sighting/info at one spot. In the old days, fado fado fado, on a particular construction scheme going through environmentally sensitive areas, wildlife diaries were maintained at all offices where enteries were made. This proved very valuable to the concerned parties. I know we had to write it down but now it can all be done with the tap tap of a few keys. ( So I am told )
I have often spotted dolphins and porpoises and otters etc and with all the good intentions of contacting the interested parties, but rarely get around to it. On the other hand, if there was somewheer where just 1 visit would do it encourage me to do it immediately.
martin

[Conal]

As Martin said seeing wildlife can be difficult enough. Knowing where to report your sighting is often an even greater challenge, and can lead to valuable sightings not being recorded.
Perhaps the webmaster could include a few wildlife sites among our links to encourage people record their sightings. Included might be the Irish Whale & Dolphin Group site, The Jellyfish site, The Irish Wildlife Trust\'s lizard site etc.
I think this would work better than trying to draw up a single datasheet for all types of sightings . The IWDG tried a \'one size fits all\' sighting sheet to cover all marine wildlife some years ago and it just got too cumbersome.
In the meantime please remember that even mundane records can make a valuable contribution to conservation efforts and make the effort to send them in.
Conal

[obrienr]

Hi,

For a while now I have tired to use www.biology.ie, its a reasonably good site, not sure about where the info ends up, but it does have a \'My Sightings\' section which the kids enjoy.

www.jellyfish.ie also has a comprehensive reporting section, along with the already mentioned IWDG.

I will see if we can get a Jellyfish evening organised for the early spring, should not see too many in the coming months !

Thanks for the interest, and remember that its not just the \'live\' sightings that can be of interest.

Thanks,
Richard.

[paulmurphy]

Great idea Richard! There are a number of key sites for the various groups as Conal indicated but the most convenient one-stop-shop would probably be the National Biodiversity Data Centre (www.biodiversityireland.ie) which collates all records for all biota and generates distribution maps available on line. It is necesary to ensure a records reliability (the great white that was really a harbour porpoise...) so where possible get a photo or note key characteristics. Location (6 or more fig grid ref), date and observer should also be recorded. We could possibly have a page on the website where people could log their records which could then be periodically submitted to the NBDC. The NBDC require a verifier for records (to ensure accuracy) and I would be willing to review records and where a doubt occurs contact the recorder to confirm identification.

Kayakers are in quite a unique position to get up close and personal to a lot of wildlife so there is definietly a significant contribution to be made by recording what we come across.

Paul