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Cait Cochrane’s talk about our marine environment
This was a very thought-provoking presentation which made clear just how badly whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and marine birds like albatrosses are served by people.
Particular areas of concern for the environment and well-being of these creatures included our waste products (plastics in all its forms and chemicals) and our use of the seas (propeller cuts, noise including our use of sonar, ‘ghost’ fishing nets that have been abandoned by fishermen, and examples of intentional harm by a small number of fishermen and through whaling).
Far from being just a depressing list of harm, Cait communicated her passion for these intelligent, gentle, and harmless mammals and birds. We enjoyed the images of grown and young mammals in their environment.
Cait wears several ORCA ‘hats’:
- Team Leader for ORCA, which leads her to make presentations on land and sea (e.g. SAGA “Spirit of Adventure” cruises);
- Volunteer Coastal Warden (e.g. she has family connections in Whitstable so she sets up regular beach-cleaning along the Whitstable foreshore and works with local schools); and
- Marine Mammal Medic for British Divers Marine Life Rescue.
Cait explained how diverse our marine mammals are around the UK coastline, with occasional rarities spotted that include the Sowerby’s Beaked Whale. Sadly, ORCA volunteers are usually involved when these mammals are in difficulty or have died and the causes have to be identified. But, if you want to see a very VERY moving and joyous video of a successful whale rescue (from entanglement with fishing nets) on You Tube - click here (have hankies ready!).
A particularly nasty hazard is presented by drifting gill-nets (20 miles long, 2 miles deep with floats along one edge and weights on the other. Often left by fishmen and later returned to haul in. But not all nets are recovered and these are the “ghost nets” that entrap and drown anything that passes by.
Cait brought with her examples of rubbish that she finds on beach-cleaning exercises (syringes, bottle-caps, plastic bags, fragments, and weathered plastic granules - “nurdles” - small, easy to eat but indigestible and deadly. One estimate suggests that up to 90% of fulmars have at least 0.1g in their gut. This toxic mix affects birds too - we were shown difficult images of baby albatross that had died and decayed revealing their stomach contents - an astonishing quantity and variety of plastics. These images were taken on Midway Atoll, which is many hundreds of miles away from any continental mass.
Moving to identification of our local seal populations, Cait explained the differences between grey (sometimes called “hooknosed pigs”!!) and common seals. Common = rounder and deeper face profile; grey = larger and more of a ‘muzzle’. We also learned that if you can see the back of the skull of either species, they are likely malnourished - normally they are chubby.
We also learned of Cait’s involvement with school projects - in particular Westmeads School who successfully raised £800 for ORCA by drawing images that were transferred onto cotton bags. The message being, take your waste home and dispose of it properly rather than leaving them on our beaches. A point well made!
Other positive things that can be done include supporting beach-cleaning of adopting stretches of beach. “Adopt a Beach” is a scheme run by the Marine Conservancy Society under its “Beachwatch” campaign. This is a very informative web site if you want to explore the issues further.
We were told that there is also a Government Review of Marine Protection Zones. All relevant organisations are involved in promoting zones with special protection.
If you want to know about different types of marine zones there are nearby, you can visit the interactive map supported by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) - an official advisory committee for DEFRA. When you open the web site page you can zoom in on any part of the UK and add “layers” for the different marine zones. For our area, here are a couple of areas I found (there are more!):
- SPAs with marine components
SPAs are sites that are identified for birds listed on Annex I of the EC Birds Directive and regularly occurring migratory species - Dungeness to Pett Levels; Thanet Coast and Sandwich Bay; Outer Thames Estuary; Medway Estuary and Marshes; The Swale; etc
- Inshore SACs with marine components
SACs are sites that are identified for habitats and species listed on the EC Habitats Directive - Thanet Coast; Dungeness; and more.
Other hints at what we can do to help - take your own shopping bags when shopping - preferrably not plastic. Ask retailers where the fish comes from and how it is caught - line caught rather than drift nets for example. Some supermarkets are trying to declarea ethical fishing through the blue tick scheme look for the blue tick logo on packaging.
Nigel Heriz-Smith
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