Archive for the ‘Spanish seas’ Category
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
Two weeks ago we heard the news of the appearance of a monk seal in the Isla del Toro, Mallorca. This possibly isolated event coincides with some good news of the seal’s populations slow but hopeful recovery. The Cabo Blanco colony (between Western Sahara and Mauritania) saw the birth last year of 46 pups, practically the same as in 2006, and doubling those of previous years. The colony is now made up of 180 individuals of which some 50 are breeding females, demonstrating that it is finally beginning to recover from the mass epidemic caused by a toxic seaweed of the late 1990s which killed off 75% of the colony.
Elsewhere, in 2007 in Greece 28 pups were born, and in the Desertas Islands (Madeira), there are just three breeding females. The Algerian and Moroccan coasts support no more than 15 individuals. Source: La Crónica Verde
Distribution of monk seals. From The Monachus Guardian.
Figures of a world population of 500 Mediterranean monk seals are being quoted in the press though I can find no “official” figure. The Monachus Guardian states
“Thousands of islands, inaccessible coastlines, and a species that shies away from human contact have all conspired to make distribution and abundance assessments for the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) an extraordinarily inexact science. Conventional wisdom, however, suggests that fewer than 600 individuals survive, making the Mediterranean monk seal Europe’s most endangered marine mammal
Tags: Isla del Toro, Mallorca, Mauritania, Monachus monachus, monk seal
Posted in Balearics, Mammals, Sea mammals of Spain, Spanish seas | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Remarkable news. A diver from Palma claims to have seen (and taken photo above) a possible monk seal (foca monje – Monachus monachus) in the marine reserve of Isla del Toro. The monk seal is considered to be extinct is the Balearic Islands (where it was known popularly as the vell marí – old man of the sea) since the late 1950s, and is among the ten most endangered mammals in the world, with colonies divided between Mauritania and the Eastern Mediterranean, the former being far the stronger. If true, I imagine we are talking about an animal in dispersion or just plain lost. The Balearic government periodically considers the possibility of attempting to reintroduce the animal. Whether it would fare well in an area of sea so popular with pleasure craft is another question. See more in El País
Update: this version of the story from Libertad Balear is much better researched.
There is also a half plan to reintroduce the animal along the Costa Brava (La foca monje volverá a Cadaqués – El País)
A small group of monk seals survived in Cabo de Gata, Almeria until the 1960s.
See also
Tags: Cabo de Gata, Isla del Toro, Mallorca, Mauritania, Monachus monachus, monk seal
Posted in Balearics, Mammals, Spanish coast, Spanish sea mammals, Spanish seas | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Scientists have warned of a new plague of jellyfish to hit Spain this summer. The Guardian here reports that scientists were “alarmed to detect large numbers of the Pelagia noctiluca, commonly known as the “mauve stinger”, growing in the winter”.
..A study has revealed that jellyfish proliferate throughout the year, not just in the summer. Between November and January, scientists discovered 30 colonies, or blooms, ranging in size from four to 10 jellyfish per cubic metre of water, all along the Catalan coast. “The problem seen on the beaches is not the main concern for scientists….Jelly expert Professor Gili, noted “For us the major worry is the global disequilibrium in the sea caused by over-fishing.” In 2006, the Red Cross treated 21,000 people who had been stung on the beaches of Catalonia, while on a single day in August, 400 bathers were treated at a beach in Málaga. One cause of the problem is the decrease in leatherback turtles, a principal predator, which have been driven to the point of extinction because the beaches where they lay eggs have been used for tourism.
Tags: jellyfish, mauve stinger, Pelagia noctiluca
Posted in Dangerous animals, On Spain, Spanish seas | No Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2008
According to the Centro de Investigacións Mariñas of Galicia barnacle captures are likely to be favoured by alterations due to climate change, though clam and cockle farming will be hit.
Clams and cockles will be negatively affected by torrential rains as their principal beds lie at the mouth of rivers. Heavy rains will bring a large influx of fresh water harmful to shellfish. High water temperatures will lead to proliferation of pathogenic agents which attack clams and cockles.
On the plus side, the production of barnacles has increased in recent years coinciding with a fall in algal blooms, though the article does not explain why. More soon when I understand this.
El cambio climático favorecerá la captura del percebe en Galicia (El Pais)
More on barnacles from Iberianature
Tags: barnacles, clams, shellfish
Posted in Climate, climate change, fish, Galicia, seafood, Spanish seas | No Comments »
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
I’m re-reading Robert Hughes’ Barcelona, a fascinating history of the city from its foundation to the early 20th century. There’s a very interesting section on the Barcelonan and Catalan seafaring tradition in which he mentions the importance of ship’s cats – the bigger and blacker the better – and the custom of Shanghaiing them by tempting them on board with a bit of fish. Under 14th-century Catalan maritime law (Les Bones Costumes de la Mar), ship’s owners were penalised of they failed to provide a cat and rats infested the ship. Here’s the full quote from the law I managed to find:
If good be damaged by rats, and there is no cat on board the ship, the managing owner of the ship ought to make compensation; but it has not been declared in the case where a ship has had cats on board in the place where she was laden, and after she has sailed away the said cats have died and the rats have damaged the goods before the ship has arrived at a place where they could procure cats; if the managing owner of the ship shall buy cats and put them on board as soon as they arrive at a place, where they can find them for sale or as a gift or can get them on board in any manner, he is not bound to make good the said losses, for they have no happened through his default.
from “Les Bones Costumes de la Mar” (14th-15th c. Catalan text) from Twiss, Sir Travers, ed. Monumenta Juridica, The Black Book of the Admiralty
Get Robert Hughes’ Barcelona from Iberianature/Amazon
Posted in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spanish sea tales, Spanish seas | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
Today, the 13th November, is five years since the Prestige disaster. El Pais reminds us that nobody has yet been tried for this.
Some key facts
- The spill is the largest environmental disaster in Spain’s history.
- 64,000 tons of fuel oil were spilled in the incident
- The cost of the clean-up to the Galician coast alone is estimated at €2.5 billion
- The World Wildlife Fund estimated that 300,000 seabirds died. A study published this month (Nov 2007) shows that hydrocarbons are still present in the seabird chicks (El Mundo)
- Seafood industry was halted along much of Galicia’s coast
- WWF warn of the possibility of other “Prestiges” today and notes three oil spills in Spain this year Sierra Nava (Algeciras), Don Pedro (Ibiza) and Samothraki (Gibraltar) WWF
See also “The largest environmental disaster in Spanish history began during a fierce storm off Galicia’s Coast of Death, la Costa da Morte, on 13th November 2002, as the Prestige oil tanker was sailing from Latvia to Gibraltar, to its ultimate destination of Singapore.” (Typically Spanish) + More on the Prestige oil spill (wikipedia)
Posted in Environment, Galicia, Spanish coast, Spanish seas | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 21st, 2007
40 eggs of loggerhead turtles (tortuga boba – Caretta caretta) hatched last week on a beach in Cabo de Gata, Almeria. Another 40 are expected to hatch these days. The eggs came from Cabo Verde and form part of a reintroduction programme of the Junta de Andalucía and CSIC. The aim is for the same turtles to return to lay their eggs on the same beach, though the high mortality of the species means that very few if any of these young hatched in Almeria will reach adulthood.1000 eggs were taken from Cabo Verde, where a third of the world’s population lives. 800 were left in the Canary Islands and 200 were brought to Andalucia. 120 have been raised in incubators in Sevilla. Small populations of loggerhead turtle in the Mediterranean exist in the Turkey and Greece.
El Mundo
El Mundo
Tags: Caretta caretta, Loggerhead turtle
Posted in Almeria, Andalucia, Mammals, Sea mammals of Spain, Spanish sea mammals, Spanish seas | 3 Comments »
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
One in three deaths of whales, dolphins and porpoises in the Canaries Islands are caused by human activities (El Mundo). This is the findings of a study on 233 Cetaceans beached in archipelago between 1999 and 2005. 14% died from interactions with fishing, 9.4% associated with military maneuvers and 4.5% due to resulting pathologies The remaining 62% died from natural diseases or 4.3% for unknown reasons”. Antonio Fernández, the researcher in charge of the study noted that many deaths from natural causes may also result from a weakening of their immunodeficiency due to pollution, and suspects that the proven 4.5% could be the tip of the iceberg. The same team gained international recognition with their study published in nature on whale strandings due to military sonar in the Canary Islands. This cause of death appears to have fallen with the prohibition of sonar use within 50 miles of the Canaries.
Photo of beached Fin whale (rorcual común – Balaenoptera physalus) in Las Palmas
Posted in Canaries, Mammals, Sea mammals of Spain, Spanish coast, Spanish seas | No Comments »
Friday, September 14th, 2007
Oceana have warned of the disappearance of millions of Mediterranean corals due to pollution fishing practices and climate change. More than 200 species of corals, Gorfonacea and anemones live in the Mediterranean. Barely 1% are protected by international accords. (El Mundo)
Posted in Conservation, Spanish Mediterranean, Spanish seas | No Comments »
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
Several beaches in La Manga, Murica, have been closed after bathers spotted a shark – apparantly shortfin mako shark (marrajo, Isurus oxyrinchus). This is despite calls for calm from Murcian shark experts who note that the mako is not dangerous (La Verdad). Let us hope this does not have the same lamentable ending as this month’s shark in Valencia. The mako is now considered endangered as it is a favourite catch among commercial and recreational fishermen. See also sharks in Spain
Posted in Dangerous animals, fish, Murcia, Spanish coast, Spanish Mediterranean, Spanish seas | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007
La Playa de los Ingleses lies on Galicia’s bleak Costa da Morte, and is one of the few remaining stretches yet to be blighted by the scourge of second homes.
The beach takes its name from the 172 English sailors who were drowned off the coast here on 10th November 1890, when their ship, the Serpent, sank in a terrible storm. The Serpent had sailed from Plymouth on Saturday 8 November bound for Sierra Leone. Although there are several versions of what happened, the final verdict was that the Serpent had been lost through an error in navigation. Three surviviors reached the nearby village of Camariñas and sounded the alarm. A search party was sent out and most of the bodies were recovered. They were buried on the beach close to the wreck spot and a small cemetery was built around them. It stands today as a rather sad and lonely mounment. Letters of thanks were sent by the British government to the villagers and the mayor was given a shotgun and the parish priest a gold watch. Unusually for the time the survivors wore lifebelts, and there are claims that the incident led to their widespread use in the British merchant navy.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Serpent
http://josecadaveira.tripod.com/militaryruins/id41.html
Posted in Galicia, history, Spanish coast, Spanish sea tales, Spanish seas | 1 Comment »
Sunday, August 26th, 2007
Experts are on the alert to a possible dolphin epidemic after numerous dolphins have been found dead on the coast of Valencia. In the last two months 29 striped dolphins(delfín listado – Stenella coeruleoalba) have been found dead with a a virus known as cetacean measles, similar to a virus which caused a high death rate among Risso’s dolphin (calderones tropicales) in the Mediterranean last winter. An epidemic decimated striped dolphin populations in the Mediterranean in the early 1990s . Experts hope that this will not occur this time. Many cetaceans in the Mediterranean have very low immunity levels due to pollution. El Mundo
Striped dolphin in Almeria
Posted in Sea mammals of Spain, Spanish Mediterranean, Spanish sea mammals, Spanish seas | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 3rd, 2007
The Spanish government has given the go-ahead for marine wind farms in Spain. The first generators are to come into operation by 2012, with 273 planned for the Straits, giving the same amount of energy as a nuclear power station, and enough for 700,00o homes. Although Spain has 4,872km of coastline and more regular winds than inland, much of the coast is not suitable for marine windfarms as the continental shelf drops away quickly, making it too expensive to site generators (El Pais). We shall have to see the impact studies to see their effect on birds, particularly in the planned farm between Conil and Barbate in the Straits of Gibraltar. Other possible sites include Vinaroz (Castellón), Delta del Ebro and the Golfo de Cadíz.
Posted in Andalucia, Renewable energy in Spain, Spanish seas, wind energy | No Comments »
