Climate fears after dolphins head south
A POD of dolphins from Scotland has been seen further south than ever because of climate change, according to a wildlife survey.
Environmental fears have also risen over the proliferation of invasive foreign oysters in the South West of England. The Wildlife Trust’s review of the UK’s marine environment in 2019 found that kittiwake gulls are also struggling after storms and plastic waste is washing up in Dorset.
Overall the survey reveals growing concern over climate change and pollution. The pod of bottlenose dolphins was spotted off Flamborough Head,
Yorkshire. It is the furthest south this group – believed to be from the Moray Firth – has been recorded to reach.
Bex Lynam, of the Trust, said: ‘Ten years ago, seeing a bottlenose off the Yorkshire coast would have been rare. We need to collect more data about how and why they are using these waters.’
Warming seas have caused a population explosion of Pacific oysters, which are forming reefs in some West Country estuaries and smothering mudflats needed for birds and juvenile fish such as the bass to feed.
When they were introduced to the UK in the 1920s, and commercial oyster farms were established in the 1950s and 1960s, it was believed that they would not breed because our waters were too cold. In another potential effect of climate change, savage storms have killed all but one kittiwake chick – from 20 nests – on the Isles of Scilly.
Last month hundreds of thousands of ‘nurdles’ – tiny pieces of industrial plastic – washed up and covered parts of Kimmeridge Bay, a protected part of the Dorset coast.