Marine Recorders Report 2005

Following on from last year I can report some progress in the integration of our recording activities and database with the wider biological recording community. Our converted computerised records, now transferred to Recorder 2002, can be explored through a web browser using the NBN Gateway and I refer members to Mollusc World 8 to see how to explore those records alongside other molluscan databases. Although we have computerised some of our marine data, these represent a minority of records held by the Society, in their various forms and in various locations. Many records still await input and we are looking for some assistance with this from the membership and also exploring a route to enlist voluntary help outside the Society via a volunteers’ website. To my knowledge we now have 4 Society members who can work with Recorder 2002 but we need more.

An audit of sea area archives has resulted in receipt of batches of documentation for a number of sea areas. Some of these data have been compiled and submitted in such a way that they require some preparation before they can be made ready for computerisation. Some very large marine mollusc datasets for other sea areas have already been computerised by a Local Record Centre (LRC), or by the respective sea area representative (for example, Orkney, West Scotland, all of Ireland, Cornwall) and without making too many presumptions, in order to avoid duplication of effort, I believe we need to negotiate their integration into the Socety database without compromising the calibre of our own database. This should entail some reciprocity on the Society’s behalf.

There has been a proliferation in the quantity and quality of datasets being compiled over the last decade which poses problems of checking, validating, agreement on common standards and ultimately whether records are considered acceptable or not. At one time the Society was the first point of submission for new records but many workers actively involved in recording now submit to their LRC or County Wildlife Trust and I believe this has resulted in a diminution of marine records coming into the Society. It has been calculated that about 70% of all information on species are collected by amateur biological recorders (BRISC Source Book for Biological Recording, 1999). Whilst we should be glad that recording continues, and it is evident that our services continue to be valued for specialist help in identifying, it does have consequences for the Society’s own recording scheme and database.

Some noteworthy records for the year are as follows:

Atrina fragilis: This species, protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 featured in my report for 2004. During 2005 a solitary specimen was found in Loch Duich in northwest Scotland as reported by Jean-Luc Solandt of Marine Conservation Society. He noted that this find increased the known Scottish population by 100%! Fan shells are gregarious and live deeply embedded in sediments, Figure G, p.15. They can occur in extensive beds in the same habitat as scallops, which renders them vulnerable to damage from fishing activities. There must surely be extant but unknown fan shell beds which need to be located and reported.

Lyrodus pedicellatus: The field trip to Sandwich in June turned up new record for a group of molluscs seldom recorded living around the British Isles. A partly buried wreck exposed at low tide was investigated by John Llewellyn Jones and found to contain several specimens of this shipworm. This is a new record for Sea Area 13.

Tapes philippinarum: In the space of 3 weeks in 2005 I received 3 independent notifications of living Manila Clams from Foreness Point, Margate (Rupert Honnor), Reculver Beach on the north Kent coast (Simon Taylor) and a single live individual was collected from Langstone Harbour (Christopher Palmer). The determination of the former specimen has not been finally resolved. Mik Davies has been finding shells of the species, some alive, since 1993 from Whitstable Harbour. This non-native (southeast Asian) species is farmed at Reculver and it would seem that some clam larvae have escaped and become established locally and possibly at nearby Foreness. There is a healthy self-sustaining population established in Poole Harbour as a remnant of former farming there. When T. philippinarum was introduced into the UK for farming it was thought that minimum water temperature requirements for fertilisation could not be met. Global warming has probably put paid to that assumption. The species is found in the intertidal in sheltered mudgravel beaches and superficially resembles T. decussatus (see Mollusc World 2 for an identification guide). The escape of this species into the wild is still sufficiently recent to warrant an observation scheme to track the movement of the species into the open environment and I commend it as a suitable project for Society members with involvement from the wider public.

Osilinus lineatus: This topshell of the upper littoral, now viewed as a bioindicator of climate change has been found by Julia Nunn at Portballintrae on the north coast of Northern Ireland (SA29A) - the most northerly record in Ireland and the first record for the species since it was found there in 1952 by Nora McMillan.

Janthina janthina: A live occurrence of this species, the first for the south coast of Ireland for more than 75 years, has been recorded by Graham Day at Castlefreke Strand, co. Cork (SA38).

Other records for Ireland submitted by Julia Nunn include: Puncturella noachina Kilkieran Bay SA36, Ondina diaphana Lough Hyne SA37, Donax vittatus Magilligan SA29A, Partulida pellucida Inishkeas SA35, Gibbula magus, Mangelia brachystoma, Limaria hians, Cochlodesma praetenue all from Rathlin Island SA29A

Sepia elegans: Tom Clifton who regularly surveys stretches of the coast in Sea areas 23 Anglesey and 24 Liverpool Bay has reported strandings of S. elegans as new records for S22 Cardigan Bay and S23 (see Mollusc World 9). The four specimens on the left of Figure H, p.15 are S. elegans bones from a sample collected between Port Daffarch and Barmouth, North Wales in July 2005 by Tom. The two S. orbigniana on the right, figured for comparison, were collected by Peter Topley, the left from Appletree Bay, Tresco, SV892 136/8 (August 2000) and the right from Warren Point, near Minehead, Somerset (April 2001).

In conclusion I reiterate the concluding remarks of Trevor James who came in December to talk to the Society about the NBN. His message was simple ‘Keep on Recording’. In the light of the emphasis placed on Biodiversity and Conservation issues, we need to think about what sort of records are needed, improve how recording is carried out and work towards managing our records efficiently so that we have something really worthwhile to make available to those who need the information via the NBN.

All the records cited in this report are new information to the Society’s Marine Census.

Fig 1 Atrina fragilis showing the unburied part of the shell intensely colonised by sponge and other organisms. Photo Sally Sharrock / Marine Conservation Society

Fig 2 Sepia elegans (4 smaller specimes on left and S. orbiginiana. Photo Peter Topley