Volunteer Bryan Whitingpicked up as many of thesquid, cuttlefish and catsharkeggs as he could andbrought them by bucket intothe centre where we quicklyset up several aquariumtanks to house them.

Marine Centre visitors weredelighted as they watchedthe eggs developing,

especially the tiny catsharksas they wriggled aroundinside their opaqueeggcases, pumping their tailsto bring in freshly oxygenatedwater.

First to hatch out were theminuscule squid, escapingfrom their white, sausageshaped egg clusters in largenumbers. Too tiny for us to

feed in captivity these wereimmediately released into thesea to fend for themselves.

Next came the cuttlefish,hatching from their blackseagrape eggs. Each eggheld one pea-sized animaland they were hard to spotcamouflaged against thepea-gravel in the tank. Mostwere returned straight awaybut a handful were kept to befattened up and increasetheir chances of survival inthe wild. They quickly grewas they fed voraciously onmysid shrimps and showedoff their amazing colour-changing abilities, becomingalmost invisible against thepebbles.

Finally and to greatexcitement the tiny sharkshatched, beautiful spottedminiatures of their parents.These were released within acouple of days of hatchingand you can see a film of therelease atdorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/pmwr

News fromthe Reserve

Conservation

In thisissue

Wardens news

Living seas

Sightings

Part of a nationwide networkof Wildlife Trusts

Protecting Wildlife for the Future

DORSETWILDLIFETRUST

DORSET

Marine maternityunit The Fine Foundation Marine Centre turned

into a mini maternity unit this summer as wenurtured a variety of eggs washed ashore bystrong winds in May and June.

Living Seas news from Dorset Wildlife Trust Issue 26 September 2012

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Baby cuttlefish

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Baby lesser spotted catshark

Our stakeholder-led PMWRcommittee has morphed intothe PMWR Advisory Groupand we are looking foradditional members to take anactive part in our work. Inparticular we are looking forsea anglers, divers and localresidents to represent thoseinterests. Please contact meon 01929 481044 if you orsomeone you know isinterested.

Countryfile picked a fabulousday to come and film us for aprogramme aired in June.Presenter Adam helped with aWelly Zone survey and enjoyeda kayak safari before learningabout one of our smallestseashore inhabitants, the 2mmlagoon snail.

We've been playing staffmusical chairs this summer!Melinda Fisher replaced MarcSmith as Summer Wardenwhen he moved to our newChesil Beach Centre in July.Volunteer Emma Goddenextended her work placementand has been invaluable inrunning our educational workat the Marine Centre. GlynisNorthwood-Long has beentemporarily employed to helpwith admin.

The government indicated that as few as 20 of the 127recommended MarineConservation Zones chosenaround England may gothrough next year to form thenetwork. The Wildlife Trustsknow this will be inadequate torecover our depleted marineenvironment. Our 'campaign'this summer is to recruitFriends for each of the 8Dorset rMCZs to stand up insupport of their own favouritesite.

To become a MCZ Friend goto www.wildlifetrusts.org/MCZfriends

DWT patron, Simon King,asked for our help when hebrought a group toKimmeridge for a rockpoolramble. Marc and Emma spentan afternoon showing them thebest of our seashore wildlife.

In July, volunteer marinewardens turned out in force fora bat survey training sessionled by Jan Freeborn from theDorset Bat Group. Followingan informative talk we headedto the beach armed with batdetectors and recordingequipment. After a quiet startthe bats suddenly appearedswooping low over our heads

and along the beach feedingon strandline flies.

At least 250 people attendedour National Marine Weekevents in August, includingeco-crabbing, rockpoolrambles and marineminibeasts. The weather wasin our favour and kept dry forall our events apart from onevery wet and slippery eco-crabbing activity!

Julie Hatcher, MarineAwareness Officer

What a busy summer we've had! Here are some of the highlights in brief:

Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reservenews

Marine Week emailcomments:“Thank you for an enjoyableafternoon on the RockpoolRamble. We had a very lovelytime, and our boys reallyenjoyed learning all about thecreatures they saw.”Clare Tarling, Matt, Callum (5)and George (2).

“Just a quick note to say howmuch the girls and I enjoyedthe ramble yesterdayafternoon-we had a brillianttime and it was great to beable to see so many speciesin one place, many of whichwe'd not seen rockpoolingbefore.”Steve Austen

Julie Hatcher with Countryfile’s Adam Henson

Marc, Simon King and Emma

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Throughout the summerregular sightings of bottlenosedolphins have been reported,often a group of 8 to 10individuals including a coupleof juveniles. Most have beenfrom the St. Albans Head toSwanage area but also someas far east as Southbourne.DWT members aboard ourWorld Oceans Day boat tripfrom Poole Harbour in Julywere delighted by a group of 8bottlenose dolphins bow-riding. Marine life boat trips inLyme Bay at the end of Julyreported seeing lots of white-beaked dolphins, commondolphins and harbour porpoiseas well as a breaching threshershark, sunfish and a minkewhale!

Early August saw the arrival ofa small number of compassand blue jellyfish in KimmeridgeBay, one of which was photographed by NigelNorthwood.

Visitors on our KimmeridgeKayak Safari on 14th Augustwere thrilled when a grey sealpopped its head up right nextto them. This was our secondrecorded grey seal sighting atKimmeridge this year and wasalso enjoyed by many peopleon the shore.

Goose-necked barnacles,ocean-wanderers, were carried inshore at Kimmeridgeand Friars Cliff, Christchurch in early July and again at theend of August, attached tofloating objects includingdriftwood, wooden pallets and plastic fishboxes. Bothcommon goose barnacles and buoy barnacles wererecorded.

Diver Kenrina Maidmentphotographed a beautifulundulate ray on the seabedclose to the wreck of the Fleurde Lys in Swanage Bay at theend of August. This sightingstrengthens evidence pointing

to a spawning and nurseryarea for this endangeredspecies in the Swanage/Studland vicinity.

A spear-fisherman in Portlandhad a thrilling close encounterwith a porbeagle shark. Theanimal bumped him repeatedlyas he headed for shore. It wasclearly picking up the scent ofthe dead fish he had speared,which he discardedimmediately, but as the waterwas cloudy it continued tofollow him. At no time did itphysically hurt him although hisheart was racing by the timehe got out of the water!

Strandline expert SteveTrewhella discovered a coupleof tiny crabs among othermarine life on a fish boxwashed up on Chesil Beach.Being unable to identify themthese have been sent off to a

crab expert at the NaturalHistory Museum and we awaithis verdict. They may just bejuvenile forms of commonBritish species or may beexotic species carried herefrom distant shores on driftingflotsam.

Sightings

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Bottlenose dolphins

Compass jellyfish

Undulate ray

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The main weatherfeature this summerhas been galesaccompanied byrough seas. Despitethis there have beenmore dolphinencounters thanusual to make up for the lack ofunderwater sightings.

As a student withBournemouth Universitystudying Marine Ecology andConservation at KingstonMaurward College I have beentasked with a Sea-AnglerEngagement Project. The aimis to actively engage seaanglers in Dorset with theRecycle Fish initiative andfoster a wide-spreadresponsible-take attitude withinthe sport. I started withresearch into education andtuition. After much searching andconversations with the AnglingTrust and theEnvironmentAgency, amongstothers, I discoveredthat there is very littletuition available foryoung sea anglers oradults taking up thesport for the first time.The majority of peopleare self-taught or learnfrom friends or family.

A questionnaire wasdesigned to get feedback fromsea anglers on how they weretaught; what they do with theircatch; their opinions and

awareness of MarineProtected Areas, the RecycleFish Campaign and SeaCleanbins and whether they wouldbe prepared to report theircatch or sightings. Initially Iwas apprehensive at theresponse being a representa-tive from DWT a wildlifeconservation charity. I needn'thave worried; the responsehas been great and actuallyvery welcoming from theanglers. So far just under 100questionnaires have beencompleted.

Before carrying outthe survey many expressedtheir concern over thedepletion of fish and the catchsizes over the past ten totwenty years, with the majority

blaming foreign commercialfishing boats. They alsocommented on the amount ofrubbish left by “other” anglersfor instance tackle, lines andhooks left on the shore. Thosequestioned said they tooktheirs home every time or useda bin on the beach. Whendiscussing Marine ProtectedAreas most anglers wereaware of them and initiallythought these would have noeffect or a negative effect onthe sport. Those who felt itwould be negative assumedthat all MPA's would be no-fishing zones but afterexplaining to them that is notthe case, they then agreedthat it would either have noeffect or have a positive onefor the sport. Those who weremore informed on MPA's felt itwould have a positive effect byincreasing fish populations.

When it came to the RecycleFish initiative unfortunatelymany had not heard of or seenthe Tacklebox Tips leaflet. Thiswas not surprising as manyanglers questioned livedoutside Dorset or were new tothe sport. All, of course,

walked away with the leafletand many of the first timeanglers felt it would be helpfulespecially for the catch sizesand season dates. One verypositive response was to thequestion of whether theywould be prepared to reporttheir catch. Many said theycurrently don't but if it wasclear and easy to do theywould be happy to.

Lynn Marsland.Volunteer Marine Warden

One of our Seaclean bins

at Swanage

Sea-anglerproject

The new guide, part of ourGreat Dorset Seafoodcampaign, covers many of thefish caught in Dorset andconsiders the status of fishstocks and how they arecaught, promoting those withthe minimum environmentalimpact.

Marine Officer Emma Rance,says: “We are standing up forDorset's inshore fishermen andmarine wildlife by putting ourseal of approval to seafoodthat is fresh and locally caught,using fishing practices that aresensitive to the environmentand providing high qualityseafood. So it's good for youand it's good for Dorset and itswildlife.”

You can search the guide by species, season orfishing method and then checkthe traffic light rating forwhether DWT recommends,advises caution or suggestsavoiding it. Dorset fish that getthe green light on the new FishGuide include rod and linecaught pollack, mackerel andblack seabream; and potcaught lobster and ediblecrabs. A red light is given tospecies including ray (skate),shark and eel owing to theirstock levels or conservationstatus. Check out the Fish Guide atwww.greatdorsetseafood.org.uk/fishguide

A new online Fish Guidehas been launched thissummer givingconsumers, retailersand chefs the first everchecklist of approvedDorset seafood.

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Edible crab

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Living seasnews

Dorset Wildlife Trusthas PANACHE!Dorset Wildlife Trust isembarking on an exciting newcross-Channel project todevelop stronger protectionand a wider sense ofownership of the marineenvironment - PANACHE.PANACHE is a €4Million+project involving partners onboth sides of the Channel,including several WildlifeTrusts, the Marine Institute andthe French Marine ProtectedAreas Agency.

The project is looking atmanagement and monitoringof Marine Protected Areas andwill evaluate whether the MPAnetwork being proposed inEngland and France will deliver.A strong element of the projectinvolves “citizen science” -where members of the publicare involved in wildlifemonitoring. This is somethingDWT has a lot of expertise in,with programmes such asSeasearch and the Welly Zoneproject. PANACHE willcontinue until summer 2015.

Planning for theMarine EnvironmentDorset's C-SCOPE project,which included DWT's DORISseabed mapping exercise,could help the development ofthe first marine plans for thesouth coast for which work isjust beginning. The Marine &Coastal Access Act (2009)brought in a new way ofmanaging activities in the seawhich previously had been

rather disconnected andpiece-meal. New marine plansare being created in stagesaround the country - the eastcoast area plan is nearingcompletion. Now the southcoast area, including Dorset'ssea, has been chosen andincludes some of the busiestwaters in the UK.

The C-SCOPE projectdeveloped a pilot marine planfor part of Dorset so we arealready ahead of the game.

Marine Awareness Officer,Julie Hatcher, was lucky tomeet Doug and took theopportunity to ask him afew questions:

How did you first come towork in the polar regions?

My first passion was diving,which I started at school. Thatled to a marine biology degree,but on graduating in 1973 Idecided I didn't want to be inwhat I termed 'science at thesharp end' so I cut loose andsimply looked for excuses todive. Two years later I read anarticle in a dive mag written bysomeone who'd just been ascientific diver in the Antarctic.I tracked down the address forthe British Antarctic Survey(BAS), applied to them and in1976 was heading south toone of their research bases ona year's contract as Diver. Best move I ever made!

What is it about working inextreme conditions thatattracts you?

I guess at heart I like thechallenge. There's always beena physical element to what I'veliked doing, a kind of edginess.Extreme conditions make forhigh emotions. It's not like I'man adrenaline junkie, and Idon't like bullshit, but there's a

huge satisfaction in bringingback pictures from difficultsituations.

What was your most excitingwildlife encounter?

It's tough to pick out a singleone to be honest. Beinggrabbed by a walrus while Iwas snorkelling in the Arcticwas my hairiest moment.Watching the polar bear cubscome out of their den for thefirst time on Kong Karl's Landfilming for Planet Earth, thatwas wonderful because we'dbeen there for weeks beforewe found a den and wethought we might failcompletely. The first time I everwas close to a big whale,

when I did Right Whales inArgentina way back in 1989.This female was so friendly thatshe ended up pushing methrough the water on the endof her rostrum. Big highs all ofthem.

You have filmed humpbackwhales in the Antarctic and inthe slightly warmer watersaround Tonga in the SouthPacific. Can you describe whatit's like being underwater witha humpback whale?

The secret is to be patient,take the time to develop arelationship with the individuals,spend maybe the first couple

of encounters just at the limitof vis so she gets to know you.But then if it's inclined tofriendliness, you can move in.Eye to eye, only a couple ofmetres apart, you completelyrealise how much she'sweighing you up. Play yourcards right in terms of bodylanguage and she'll relax. Thenjust more patience and thechances of seeing behaviourwill follow. There's no greatercompliment an animal can payyou than be chilled in yourcompany so you should bereciprocally grateful. Exciting,humbling, it's a wonderfulprivilege.

Freeze frame

Doug Allan is one of the world's most respected and well-knownwildlife cameramen. His is best known for his work in the polarregions where he has worked for over 35 years. Sir David Attenborough said of him “He is not as other men. Hecheerfully endures conditions more uncomfortable and for longerperiods than anyone I know. ........... He has an uncanny understandingof animals, ranging from tiny birds to gigantic whales, that tells himwhat the animal is about to do before it does it - and so enables himto move his camera to get a breathtaking, perfectly composed shot.”

Doug filming Humpback Whales in the South Pacific

With huskies in Greenland

Searching for Bowhead whales

Do you have any concerns forthe future of any of the wildlifeyou film? If so, which do youthink is most at risk and whatdo you consider is the mostimportant thing we can doindividually to address theproblem?

We should all be aware of thefragility of the natural systemswe all too often take forgranted. We've madesignificant inroads with manyissues over the last thirty years,we've protected some areasand some species, but climatechange and ocean acidificationare a wholly different level ofconcern. They're simply so bigand all encompassing. It'sdepressing that the onlysolution thrown up by thepoliticians to the economic'crisis' seems to be a return tobusiness as usual when weshould actually be weaningourselves off consumption. Weneed leaders with biggervision, and we need to showthem they'll have our supporteven when they take steps thatin the short term make thingsmore costly.

The Antarctic is generallypictured as a pristinewilderness - is this still a truepicture?

In some respects, yes. But wehammered the seals andwhales for a hundred and fiftyyears since discovering themaround 1820, and the balancethere was originally will neverbe restored, even though thereis some recovery these days.But climate change is affectingAntarctica, the Peninsularegion that stretches outtowards South America - that'sthe most rapidly warming place on the planet. Winter temperatures are severaldegrees C warmer than theywere fifty years ago.That'sgreatly affecting the distributionof species of penguin like theAdelies, whose numbers onthe Peninsula are falling significantly.

Deep warm water is creepingsouth, giving more temperatewater animals the chance toestablish themselves downthere. The very old stableecosystem is in real danger ofinvasion by foreign species.

In the UK our coastal waterssuffer from a tide of plasticdebris. Is this something youhave ever encountered in polarwaters?

You see very little in theAntarctic because the shipsand bases now have a veryrigorous policy of non disposalof all waste in Antarctica.

But it's there at themicroscopic level, tiny particlescarried on the currents andlasting for years. Parts of theArctic have more visible plasticpollution - the Arctic region iseffectively a frozen oceansurrounded by land, withseveral huge rivers draininginto it, and people living roundthe periphery. Plastic often isn'trecycled or disposed ofproperly, it drifts around andeventually makes it ashoresomewhere.

All photographs courtesy of Doug Allan

What led you to becomeinvolved in the film being madeby the Plastic Oceansmovement?

Jo Ruxton and Lizzie Bewickare old friends and I filmed withboth of them when theyworked for the BBC NaturalHistory Unit. When they comeup with a project as big andambitious as Plastic Oceans,and they ask you to beinvolved - well what a greatchance!

Find out more about Doug Allan and his work atwww.dougallan.com and read about his amazingadventures and see some of his breath-taking photographs in his new book Freeze Frame.

Weddell seal mum and pup

Adelie Penguins

Fighting Polar bears

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In May we teamed up withlocal dive club Flippas n Finsand event organiser MarkNinnim to carry out anunderwater clean-up atStudland Bay, under theProject AWARE Dive AgainstDebris initiative.

Because of the sensitivity ofthe area, home to richseagrass meadows andbreeding seahorses, all diversattended a pre-dive briefingand talk about the seahorseson the evening before the diveto ensure a strict protocol was

followed and disturbance towildlife was prevented.

With support from the NationalTrust and sponsored by PooleAccident Repair we all met upearly on the Saturday morningand the divers entered thewater three at a time, coveringset areas. All litter retrievedwas examined closely and anymarine life on it was returnedto the sea. Unsurprisingly giventhe time of year not much litterwas found and a second cleanup in September at the end ofthe summer season is planned.

Dive Against Debris

DWT has a very active photography group who regularly uploadtheir wildlife photos on to our Flickr site. These are usedextensively on our website, in newsletters and other publications.However there is a shortage of marine photos, both on theseashore and underwater. Many people now have waterproofhousings for their cameras and occasionally we are sent somebeautiful underwater images. So if you take underwater orseashore photos and would like to show them off, why not join ourFlickr group and share them with other wildlife lovers todemonstrate how colourful and special our marine wildlife is?

Go to www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk and click on Flickr “+ photos”to view or add photos.

Report your marine sightingsWe regularly post marine sightings from Kimmeridge and all alongthe Dorset coast on our website and would love to share yoursightings too. These could be animals washed up on the beach,seabirds, dolphins, rockpool or underwater life. Please let us knowwhat you have seen, where and any behaviour or other details andwe will post it up for everyone to see.

Send sightings to Kimmeridge@dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

To view recent sightings go to www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/pmwr

Have you signed our Petition Fish?You can sign in person at either of our Fine Foundation Centres atKimmeridge or Chesil Beach or sign online atwww.wildlifetrusts.org/petitionfish or text 'FISH' with your nameand postcode to 60777.

Volunteering

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Dive Against Debris

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Wildlifephotoswanted

You can contact us at: kimmeridge@dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk orDorset Wildlife Trust, Fine Foundation Marine Centre, PurbeckMarine Wildlife Reserve, Kimmeridge, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5PFTel: 01929 481044

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Petition Fish at Chesil Centre