SHERKIN COMMENT

Issue No. 59 Environmental Quarterly of Sherkin Island Marine Station 2015

40 Years of Sherkin Island Marine Station A Life Lived Cork’s Lough Wildfowl Society The Flora of Cork City Matt Murphy looks back at the history of the An appreciation of the life of Daphne Pochin Denis Twomey on the origins and work of a – A Personal Perspective Station as it celebrates a landmark year. Mould – writer, photographer, geologist, pilot, wildlife group in the city in the 1960s & 1970s. Tony O’Mahony looks at the city’s diverse 5 archaeologist and more. 8 15 wildflower species. 20

THE LOUGH Cork City Photograph: Robbie Murphy 2 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 Contents Editorial EDITORIAL: Preserving Our Past for the Future ..2 Matt Murphy questions what the future will be for our historical collections. The Cry of the Curlew ...... 3 Preserving Our Past Oscar Merne’s writings about a species whose breeding population is on the decline in Ireland. Research into the origins of the woody plant flora of Ireland...... 4 for the Future Colin Kelleher gives us an insight into where our native flora comes from. 40 Years of Sherkin Island Marine Station ...... 5 Matt Murphy looks back at the history of the By Matt Murphy Station as it celebrates a landmark year. The Pros and Cons of Wind Power ...... 6 I RECENTLY came across a couple of articles that appeared in The Newsletter of Alex Kirby looks at this renewable energy source. the Society for the History of Natural His- How to Choose a Career Path Using the Concept tory. Written by the President of the of Random Events ...... 7 Society, Hugh Torrens, he highlighted his David Crestin on his career in the marine environment. concern over the increasing number of A Life Lived ...... 8 specialist museum curators in Britain that are losing their jobs. A recent survey of 34 An appreciation of the life of Daphne Pochin Mould UK museums had shown a decline of 35% – writer, geologist, pilot, archaeologist and more. in such curators in the past 10 years. The Eco Echoes – The Environmental Legacy of the consequence of this demise is that they Gaslight Era...... 10 leave behind many “orphaned collec- Walter Mugdan reveals the dangerous and expensive tions”. One such collection of boxes of Preserving historical documents and artifacts is a challenge for a dwindling number of shadow that the Gaslight Era cast over the USA. rocks and fossils, which was among the specialist curators. Predicting the unknown from the unknown...... 11 medical collections at University College tions being lost due to pressure on storage What is the lifespan of today’s discs and London, was dumped as no one was aware Barrie Dale on the need for long-term space being given over by administrators what technology will be available to read of their scientific value or relevance. environmental monitoring. for other use? Are there sufficient them? We do not know with certainty. The author states “If there are now resources being provided in Universities On a personal level here at the Marine EPA Publishes Focus on Urban Waste Water many fewer curators here, perhaps similar to care for herbaria and fauna collections? Station paper records of all our data is still Treatment in report ...... 12 crises have been occurring within our Today our past is so well served by local kept in fire proof safes, as well as on com- Overview of the nation’s waste water treatment systems. archival repositories, on which we histori- Historical Societies that produce informa- puter. I already know from past experience ans must equally rely”. He mentions two Lyme Bay: Six Years On ...... 13 tive journals with many articles about that when computer data needs checking case studies where he personally failed to Lin Baldock on the affect a Statutory Instrument times gone by. Much of the information is having the paper copies for verification is find a repository in a museum for two vital as human error is almost unavoidable closure to bottom towed fishing had on the bay. sourced from archive material, especially major collections. The first collection family sources. I question what archival in data input. Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority highlights adverse involved the most remarkable industrial material historians of the future will have I believe there needs to be much more affects of declawing Irish Brown Crab ....14 operations ever to have happened in Eng- available to them from the present time? thought given before paper copies are dis- Looking at the need to conservation measures. land. This was the failed attempt by the Many will say that the digital age is here carded and records are committed to Stone Pipe Company (1805–1815) to use Cork’s Lough Wildfowl Society...... 15 and that it will be the main source of his- digital format only. So much will be lost pure Cotswold limestone [pipes] to supply torical records for the future? It may well for historians of the future. Denis Twomey on the origins and work of a wildlife the burgeoning cities of London, Man- group in the city in the 1960s & 1970s. be the source for national issues but will it chester and Dublin, with much needed, be for local issues/events? Correspon- Matt Murphy, Sherkin Island Marine The Lough – Cork City...... 16/17 unpolluted, water. The other collection dence via email will in most cases be lost. Station, Sherkin Island, Co. Cork. Photographs of the birdlife in Cork City’s Lough belonged to the naturalist Robert Townson by Robbie Murphy (1762–1827), a true polymath. Hugh Tor- rens also accumulated a large research Tellus – GSI’s major regional geological survey ....18 collection of books in many languages, SUBSCRIPTION FORM An overview of the project. and photos, slides, photocopies and copies Wildlife of the Suffolk Coast ...... 19 of his several books. After finally finding SHERKIN COMMENT is a environmental publication of Sherkin Anthony Toole looks at an area of outstanding natural a home for the collection at Shrewsbury Island Marine Station, aiming to promote the awareness of our natural beauty just south of England’s most easterly town. Museum, it was once again in need of a resources, their use and protection. The Flora of Cork City – A Personal Perspective ..20 home when that museum lost another nat- ural history curator post and the museum SUBSCRIPTION: to receive a 4-issue subscription to “Sherkin Tony O’Mahony on the city’s diverse wildflower species. had to put the material “aside, prior to dis- Comment”, please send a cheque or money order for €8.00 for Ireland Groupers in NE Atlantic & Mediterranean Waters ..21 posal”. Each of these large research and £8.50 stg for the UK (sterling cheques accepted from UK); send Declan Quigley highlights a group of fish with at collections were rescued by the author and €13.50 for Europe and the rest of the world (surface postage) – payable to least 475 living species worldwide. now reside at his unsuitable garage. In a Sherkin Island Marine Station and sent to Sherkin Island Marine Station, EPA Drinking Water Report...... 22 further article Mr. Torrens describes where Sherkin Island, Co. Cork. Ireland. Tel: 028–20187 Fax: 028–20407 collections of archives given to museums A report based on 240,718 sample results reported Email: [email protected] were mislaid and could not be located. He from public & private water supplies. also describes where the Royal Agricul- Please send a 4-issue subscription – beginning with Issue No...... Henry Williamson – Novelist, nature writer and tural Society of England had a sale of all conservationist...... 23 its “unique collections of historical books, I enclose cheque/postal order to the sum of €...... John Akeroyd describes the neglected genius who paintings and prints” all of which had wrote Tarka the Otter. raised £400,000 in total. Name ...... The question I poise is how concerned Publications of Interest...... 24 Address ...... are we in Ireland about our historical col- Captain Cockle with John Joyce ...... 26 lections? Are our museums sufficiently ...... Shore Watch Worksheet ...... 27 staffed to care for such collections and Tel ...... Email Address ...... Sea Life & Camouflage Quiz ...... 28 equally important, have they sufficient Gaisce – the President’s Award...... 30 resources for accepting and storing new Date ...... Signature ...... collections? Museum curator staff are Steps to Safe and Enjoyable Boating...... 31 STAFF: Editor, Matt Murphy; Editorial Assistant, Susan Murphy Wickens; Typesetting, Sand, rarer than you think ...... 32 incredibly dedicated people and due to Susan Murphy Wickens; Publisher, Matt Murphy. ISSN 0791–2447 © 2015 Mike Ludwig discusses one of the highest volume their commitment, so much of our past history has been saved – such as papers, Sherkin Island Marine Station website: www.sherkinmarine.ie raw materials used on earth. books, artefacts, and herbaria. Are collec- SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______3

The Cry of Images courtesy of Cian Merne the Curlew The Curlew in flight.

breeding habitat, turning the pop- and on stony shores. They appear By Oscar Merne ulation around will be a here from mid-July and remain in monumental task. The recent numbers until March/April of the O Curlew, cry no more in the air, removal of the Curlew from the following spring. The principal or only to the water in the West… Irish huntable species list, though sites used are Loughs Swilly and I hardly hear the Curlew cry… overdue, is welcome, but the habi- Foyle, Carlingford Lough, Dun- THE above two references to tat issue is a far greater challenge. dalk Bay, Rogerstown Estuary, Curlews are from poems by W. B. Our Curlews are the Eurasian Dublin Bay, Wexford Harbour and Yeats, written over 100 years ago. Curlew Numenius arquata, and, as Slobs, the Blackwater Estuary, Unfortunately, most people nowa- the name suggests, they are lim- Cork Harbour, Tralee Bay, the great days will not hear the cry of this ited to the Old World. They breed Shannon/Fergus Estuary and Gal- enigmatic species in their former in the northern hemisphere at tem- way Bay. All these sites regularly breeding places, because they perate latitudes across the boreal support >500 birds, and peaks of up have declined towards extinction zone, from Ireland in the west to to 3,100 have been recorded. The here in the last forty years or so. Siberia between Lake Baikal and Irish Wetland Bird Survey estimates The first full survey of the China to the east (north of c.45º N that we have c.18,000–22,500 breeding population was carried and to c.120–125º E). In western Curlews here in winter. out for the Breeding Bird Atlas in Europe they extend as far north- Curlews are our largest waders. the seasons of 1968–72, at which wards as the north of Norway. In contrast with the little Turn- time they were found nesting or Their breeding habitat includes bogs stones and Sanderlings that I wrote probably nesting in nearly 90% of (raised and blanket), fens, moor- about recently, a big adult female the c.1,000 10-km squares that land, swamps, damp grassland, Curlew is up to 60 cm long, has a cover our island in the Ordnance extensively-managed farmland, wing-span of up to 100 cm, and Survey National Grid. A repeat coastal marshes, dune slacks, can weigh up to 1.36 kg. They are Atlas survey in 1988–91 showed a open damp areas is natural forest not colourful birds, having contraction of the breeding range terrain, and also dry heathland in plumage that is generally streaked of nearly 20%, and the Irish popu- some places. In the past, many and mottled pale brown and grey, lation was estimated at 12,000 such habitats were common and and their outstanding features are In Ireland, outside the breeding areas, Curlews are found mainly on the coasts, both pairs. Since then, the reduction in widespread in Ireland. The total their extraordinarily long bills (up in the large, muddy bays and estuaries, and on stony shores. range and numbers accelerated and Old World population is esti- to 15 cm), long legs, and, of the latest Atlas (together with mated to be 700,000–1,000,000 course, their familiar and evoca- intensive searches in suitable habi- or more, the great majority of tive cries. tats) now puts the breeding which are in Europe west of the The Eurasian Curlew is one of population at less than 200 pairs. Ural Mountains. eight species in the genus Nume- Are Curlews going the way of the The severe winter conditions in nius, of which four are Old World once-familiar Corncrake, which is the continental interior forces the (Eurasian, Slender-billed, Little barely hanging on in remote breeding birds and their young to and Far-eastern), three are in the coastal areas between Connemara migrate southwards, or to the tem- Americas (Long-billed, Bristle- and Donegal? perate coastal fringes of Europe. thighed and Eskimo) and one (the While research (carried out by Outside the breeding season (often Whimbrel) is circumpolar. Several Dr. Anita Donaghy of BirdWatch from as early as mid-July to are in trouble: The Eskimo Curlew Ireland) into the causes of the March/April of the following may be extinct (over-hunted in decline needs to be completed, it year), flocks are found at migra- North America); the Slender- seems that the main problems are tion staging areas and wintering billed is critically endangered loss of breeding habitat. In the grounds in the Mediterranean, on (c.50 pairs); the Bristle-thighed is uplands, afforestation, intensive the west and east coasts of Africa very vulnerable (extremely lim- sheep-grazing, peat extraction, (as far as the Cape of Good Hope ited Alaskan/South Pacific islands pushing arable crops ever higher, and Madagascar), the Arabian Sea range). Strangely, there is one old and maybe increasing recreational and Indian sub-continent coasts, record of an Eskimo Curlew in pressure in some areas, have all southern China and Japan, SE Ireland, from 1870 when the made former suitable areas unhos- Asia, and parts of Indonesia, the species was still common in North pitable for Curlews. In the Philippines and Borneo. They are America. Ironically, it was shot lowlands, large-scale arterial certainly long-distance travellers, here and discovered in a poul- drainage schemes, followed by but not so much as the high Arctic terer’s shop in Dublin… field drainage, have removed huge waders that migrate to New areas of former damp, rushy pas- Zealand and Tierra del Fuego! Oscar Merne retired from Ireland’s tures, while most of the great In Ireland, outside the breeding National Parks & Wildlife Service in raised bogs have been destroyed areas, Curlews (probably mainly January 2004. Before he died in by industrial levels of peat har- migrants from Europe) are found January 2013, Oscar wrote a number vesting. Clearly, with so many mainly on the coasts, both in the of articles for Sherkin Comment to While research into the causes of the decline of the Curlew’s Irish population needs adverse impacts on the Curlew’s large, muddy bays and estuaries, be published in future issues. to be completed, it seems that the main problems are loss of breeding habitat. 4 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 Research into the origins of the woody plant flora of Ireland Images courtesy of Colin Kelleher

tic to those associated with the Mediterranean and we still do By Colin Kelleher not fully understand the ori- gins of this mix. The What can genetics tell us Tea-leaved willow (Salix about plant origins? phylificolia) has a mainly arc- One question that has tic distribution and is a rarity intrigued and puzzled natural- in Ireland, found in only a few ists since the first descriptions small populations in Sligo and of the Irish biota is – where Leitrim. The Montane willow has our native flora come (Salix herbacea) has a broader from? We know that most of but still northerly skewed the island was covered in ice global distribution and is at the end of the last glacial much more widespread on maximum, so our current Irish mountains. On the Montane willow growing in a crack on Tonelagee, Co. Wicklow. Alder (Alnus glutinosa) on the bank of the River Liffey. plant populations must have warmer front we have some originated beyond the island, so-called Mediterranean ele- and likely beyond the tundra ments. One notable example that extended to the ice free is that of the Strawberry tree areas. Our current understand- (Arbutus unedo). The Straw- ing is that three main southern berry tree can be found in the refugia (Iberia, Italy and the Beara and Iveragh Peninsulas Balkans) maintained popula- in the south west of Ireland tions of temperate species but is absent from Britain, during the last glacial maxi- with the nearest site being mum. Following the ice Brittany, and this is even con- retreat northwards the popula- sidered planted, so the nearest tions in these refugia emerged proposed native site is further The Strawberry Tree on Lough Leane, Killarney, Co. Kerry. and recolonized Europe. Ire- south in France or even into land contains an interesting Spain. So, we know that our which wraps from the Bay of ranean. The Strawberry tree is mix of species, ranging from populations are disjointed Biscay around the Iberian perfectly at home on the those associated with the arc- from the main distribution Peninsula into the Mediter- shores of Lough Leane in Co. Kerry, but this habitat con- Sampling remnant pine forests in Clare. LEAVE YOUR trasts dramatically with the FOOTPRINTS much drier Mediterranean ular characters) for the Straw- adding additional tree species ON THE SAND AND habitats in which it is more berry tree and other species, to the mix. Work being under- 2015 Beaches Awards for NOT YOUR WASTE. commonly found. We know which allow us to describe taken as part of the FORGEN On your next beach visit through this unusual distribu- individual trees at a molecular project (www.forgen.ie) County Cork REMEMBER: tion that Ireland has had a level. This is the molecular involves situating Irish popu- - Stay safe. Adhere to safety signage. different colonisation history genetic landscape. We can see lations in a European Blue Flag Award Not all beaches are life guarded. Know which are – and obey the compared to our nearest variation that is not visible in framework. Species such as An Taisce–The National Trust for Ireland, with support from the Department of the Lifeguard flags when displayed. Environment, Heritage and Local Government and on behalf of the Foundation for - Use litter and recycling bins provided neighbouring island, Britain. gross macroscopic, or even alder, birch and Scots pine are Environmental Education (FEE). The International award is one of the worlds most at the beach or better still follow the Pack it in Pack it out initiative The puzzle of the Strawberry microscopic investigations of being investigated to assess recognised Eco Labels and is universally recognised as the benchmark for beach quality. implemented on many of our Cork The Blue Flag Award requires the adherence to 32 criteria including: beaches and bring your litter home tree has occupied, and indeed the plants. We can then com- the genetic diversity and the 1. excellence in water quality and a committed monitoring programme. with you. vexed, botanists for centuries. pare populations and track provenance of the Irish popu- 2. provision of adequate safety and services, safety equipment and warning signals of - Respect the fragile habitat, potential hazards. particularly the sand dunes. Sand Did the populations in the where they have come from. lations. Scots pine is of dunes are a very important 3. beach management programme, good infrastructure, accessibility and litter control ecosystem and coastal defense south west of Ireland survive particular interest as it is con- 4. provision of environmental information and education. system. Please do not trample the Oak set the scene, dunes - use footpaths and designated the last glaciation or did they sidered to have gone extinct Green Coast Award pathways. Driving, motorcycling colonise after the glaciers others will follow around 400 AD or possibly scrambling and horse riding destroys The Green Coast Awards were first operated with Authorities in Wales and now extend to the dunes. Please try and prevent retreated? Survival on the This type of research has later into the medieval period the coastline of Ireland for the sixth year running. The Green Coast Award is a symbol of these activities. excellence which recognises: - Bring Your camera!!!!!! edge of glaciers is highly already been undertaken for and was subsequently planted – Excellent Water Quality – Good Management The Environmental Education unit of An Taisce are running a Clean Coast unlikely given their predomi- oak and it showed that our from Scottish material. The – High Environmental Standards – Community Involvement Photographic Competition as part of nantly coastal Atlantic and records are ambiguous and so Green Coast beaches may not have the necessary built infrastructure required to meet the their Clean Coast programme. This is populations have an affinity criteria for Blue Flag Status, however they are exceptional places to visit and enjoy a rich open to all amateur photographers . Mediterranean distribution with those of the Iberian we aim to use genetic analysis coastal heritage and diversity. Community involvement through local Coast care groups For more visit www.cleancoastphoto.org and the evidence suggests this Peninsula. We only find to give a first glimpse of what is a requirement for the Green Coast Award and Cork County Council would like to - Cork County Council Beach Byelaws commend the excellent work and commitment of our local community/Coast Care groups 2011 have recently been is not the case. However, if the genetic types of oak in Ireland Irish populations are composed in the management and care of their local coastline. To find out how you can adopt a beach implemented on our Cork Beaches. trees migrated after the gla- that originated in the Iberian of and try to determine if any and form a coastcare groups contact www.beachawards.ie For Further information on Commencement, Interpretation, ciers retreated then why is the Peninsula and none from gla- populations could be native. An Taisce recently announced 7 Blue Flag awards and 10 Green Coast awards for Authorised Persons, Prohibited Acts, Strawberry tree not native to Over the next few years we County Cork bathing areas. The Blue Flag Awards ceremony was held on Ballinskelligs Control of Dogs, Horses, Recreational cial refuges further east. This Craft, Permits, Offences ETC please Beach, Co. Kerry, on Thursday 28th May. Presentation were made by the Minister of visit WWW.CORKCOCO.IE Britain? Could this migration seems logical – as the ice aim to build a picture of the the Environment Community & Local Government, Mr. Alan Kelly TD. - THE BEACH IS A PUBLIC PLACE. Dog have skipped Britain? In the retreated populations moved genetic makeup of the Irish owners please respect the safety of others. Keep your dog on a leash and DBN Plant Molecular Labora- northwards and colonised woody flora from the more clean up after your dog. On the spot BLUE FLAGS GREEN COAST fine of €150 for dog fouling. Protect tory in the National Botanic along the western seaboard. mundane such as birch and public health and be responsible. Youghal Redbarn Ring - Get your school involved in beach Gardens we are using molecu- We will ignore the little issues alder to the more exotic such as Shanagarry Ardnahinch activity days-marine education days lar genetic techniques to of the lack of land and the the Strawberry tree. This will organised by your local authority. Midleton Inch IT'S A Remember – There is a BLUE FLAG assess where the Irish flora large expanse of open sea increase our understanding of Garretstown Garretstown CERTIFICATE awarded to schools who GREAT carry out marine/beach activities. For originated from, in particular along the way – these issues the genetic diversity and forma- Carrigaline Rocky Bay DAY more information contact the Blue Flag we are focusing on woody are still being debated. The tion of Irish woodlands and will Old Head of Kinsale Garrylucas Oysterhaven Team at [email protected] TO BE species. These techniques fact remains that the plants got also aid in their conservation. Clonakilty Inchydoney Inchydoney East BEACH AWARDS have benefits to the AT THE local community where amenities and allow us to open up a hidden Rosscarbery Owenahincha here! However, have all our BEACH! environment are enhanced and a shared Skibbereen Tragumna responsibility for the beach and the local genetic landscape that up to plant species a similar story to Colin Kelleher, National environment is promoted. These awards two decades ago was Schull Barleycove Ballyrisode also have a positive knock on affect for oak? How prevalent is this Botanic Gardens of Ireland, Galley Cove tourism in the County. The local Authority unknown. In the DBN labora- Iberian connection in our depends on the full cooperation of the Glasnevin, Dublin. Beara Garinish public in maintaining and progressing the tory we have developed flora? This is a question we Sheep’s Head Peninsula Dooneen Pier blue flag and green coast awards along www.botanicgardens.ie our beautiful coastline. molecular markers (or molec- are currently addressing by SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______5 40 years of Sherkin Island Marine Station

was the reason they had pursued their current By Matt Murphy career. This was wonderful to hear as so many of our volunteers came with their third level THIS year we celebrated 40 years of our Marine degree having had little or no practical experi- Station, which my late wife Eileen and I founded ence of the marine or terrestrial environment in 1975. We came to live on Sherkin in 1971 and it was at Sherkin that they got practical and having lived near Banteer in North Cork for the worthwhile experience. previous 8 years. In 1964, we had purchased a Sherkin Island Marine Station does not receive small house and 15 acres on Sherkin, with the any grant aid or Government financial support intention to eventually live there. Admittedly it for its research. It has been a great blessing that was my dream more than Eileen’s as I had spent we have been able to undertake the research we a week’s holiday on Sherkin in 1953 and always believed necessary. Of course it was incredibly said I would live there “one day”. difficult at times and we have survived “on a Our great adventure began in August 1971, wing and a prayer”. I have had a passionate when we arrived on Sherkin with five children, belief in long-term monitoring from the very a few suitcases and some furniture. Our only means of making a living was with our adven- beginning. I have never seen the need to publish ture centre for children, which we previously ran data in the short term on our two major pro- Image courtesy of Robbie Murphy on Munster’s River Blackwater for some 13 grammes – the rocky shore and plankton. Data Drolain Point, Sherkin Island, Co. Cork. years. In 1975 we ran a course on oil pollution over a year, or two or three, is of little or no of the rocky shore for adults. It was led by Dr. the coastline from Bantry Bay to Cork Harbour, In 1979 we organised our first workshop/con- value. One needs data covering a period of 15 Jenny Baker, one of the world’s experts on oil increasing the number of sites to 144. Seven ference on Sherkin. Others followed and when we years or more. What disturbs me most is when I pollution of rocky shores, and by Gillian Bishop, sites are surveyed monthly on Sherkin from organised our final one in 2009 in Cork City we read of people presenting a model on future phy- a young British biologist who worked at the April to October. In 2014 we reduced the num- had organised 39 environmental conferences with toplankton blooms based on a very short term adventure centre, teaching children about the ber of sites due to financial constraints. 470 speakers. Over 250 of these were from 21 sampling programme, often days or a few weeks. seashore. During the course, Jenny convinced Since 1978 we have surveyed plankton pop- countries around the world, with some returning a I am often asked what have I learned in the us of the need for a long term monitoring pro- ulations in Roaringwater Bay and South of number of times to speak at our conferences. I am 40 years of the Station. First and foremost is to gramme on the Rocky Shore so as to get a better Sherkin. Permanent stations were visited at reg- extremely proud of the topics and programmes of always question and challenge the conventional understanding of what was happening on the ular intervals from approximately April to those conferences. I set out to educate and as I wisdom and the fashionable belief. It is not shore over a long period of time. Eileen and November. This has now ceased since 2014. look back at the proceedings which we published always true because the experts or the media myself wondered what information was being Water samples were taken at different depths at the topics are still relevant today. say so! A simple word “why” can open up a collected on Ireland’s rocky shores and it turned each station, down to a depth of 50m. The water The 1990s saw us branch out into publishing Pandora’s Box or an Aladdin’s cave. out the only data available was on a number of samples were then preserved and analysed to as a way of expanding our educational pro- The volunteers that came to the Station over the sites in Bantry Bay surveyed by Jenny, Gillian determine the population densities of each species. gramme. We have gone on to produce many years showed that my faith in young people was and others after an oil spill in the Bay in 1974. Annually we have analysed a thousand water sam- publications, including guides to the seashore totally justified. The wonderful thing was they had We decided to set up a monitoring and sampling ples and have preserved and stored these samples and wildflowers, colouring books, coffee table no hidden agenda. They worked in all weathers, programme on Sherkin and the islands in Roar- in the Station’s archives since 1978. books on Ireland’s birdlife and marine life, late into the night to enter data they collected. I ingwater Bay with young volunteers. That We have undertaken large scale intensive sur- information on the ecology of the Rocky Shores challenged them, continuously reminding them summer five young students, who were studying vey work on terrestrial plants, both for the of Sherkin Island 1981–2000, bulletins, an the data would be needed away into the future. for science degree in UCC, came to us as volun- islands of Roaringwater Bay and Bantry Bay, environmental newspaper – Sherkin Comment – Their response is now that huge legacy of data that teers and under the leadership of Gillian Bishop, overseen by Dr. John Akeroyd. As a result of this and an online newsletter for children – the Marine Station has amassed. began the monitoring programme. It was then work, the islands of Roaringwater Bay have www.naturesweb.ie. What has been the most difficult is trying to Sherkin Island Marine Station was born. been recognised as botanical “hotspots” for rare For seven years, Audrey, my daughter, visited understand the rivalry and often bitter relation- We built our first laboratory in 1976 in time plants. Two major flora books have been pub- primary schools, giving talks on the environ- ships amongst scientists in Universities and for a field study group of students from Bangor lished by the Station on each of these areas. ment and the sea. During her time on the road Institutions. I have seen wonderful scientists University in North Wales. A number of univer- Sherkin Island, the other islands in Roaring- she spoke to over 200,000 children throughout curtailed and sidelined by their superiors and sity groups visited us between 1976 and 1979 water Bay and the waters that surround them, Ireland and left a lasting impression on the deliberately starved of funds. The saddest issue from Bangor, Swansea and the University of have been the subject of many surveys over the school children. over the years has been the lack of co-operation Amsterdam, and also a group from the British 40 years and innumerable internal reports of the Our annual environmental competition for between various state and academic institutions. Natural History Museum. findings were prepared. These include diving primary school children in Munster is now in its Funding was never a priority for the marine by Today we have four laboratories and five surveys, rockpools, macrofauna, otters, birds, 18th years and gives schools an opportunity to any government over the years; what was pro- library units. From the beginning, our aims have butterflies and moths, beetles, flies and dragon- focus on the environment. This has been huge vided needed to be used frugally and with care. been to establish baseline data on the marine life flies. The survey work has enabled us to build success and we are always thrilled to see the Unfortunately it was not. along the coast, from Cork Harbour to Bantry up a huge collection at the Station, including variety and hard work that the children put into My advice to young people starting out on Bay, and to identify and record the natural extensive terrestrial and seaweed herbaria, the entries. We had wonderful friends who were life’s journey, if you have a dream work hard, changes in the plant and animal communities. fauna, butterfly, moth and insect collections and so generous in their support. Our educational be prepared to make huge sacrifices, be pre- We also wanted to raise the level of awareness of a large photographic collection. programmes for young people have been a won- pared to make mistakes, which will come and the marine environment in Ireland and the poten- I always believed that children have an derful success because of support from state can be disheartening. The important thing is to tial of the marine resource to create jobs. instinctive love of nature. This was obvious bodies and companies. learn from those mistakes. Always be true to To help us achieve this, the Station has been when they came on the canoe-camping holidays We have been manually recording the weather yourself, listen carefully to advice, you do not staffed by volunteer scientists from April to on the River Blackwater. When we moved the at the Station since the early 1970s. In July 1972 always have to take it but it can be most helpful November each year. Since 1975, nearly 600 adventure holidays to Sherkin and began to we began recording rainfall for Met Éireann and in getting you to understand issues. volunteers have come through the Station, most teach them about the rocky shore, I knew I added sunshine and temperatures in 1974. This As I am now in my 80th year I am so thank- with third level degrees. Without their participa- wanted to bring this to a wider audience. In has been ongoing since then, with Met Éireann ful to the Lord that Sherkin Island Marine tion, we would not have been able to achieve 1981, I decided to organise an exhibition in also installing an automatic TUCSON station in Station will leave a legacy of Marine and terres- what we have today. Cork City, bringing displays and live marine 2004 as part of a European Network. trial data for the SW coast especially Over the 40 years of the Station we have car- animals from Sherkin. We were fortunate in This May we celebrated the 40 years of the Roaringwater Bay. It has been my great privi- ried out many surveys: some are long-term while being able to book 10 days at Connolly Hall, the station. The Good Lord blessed us with a lege to have lived on Sherkin and to have had an others have been short-term or intermittent. We SIPTU headquarters in Cork. Over the next 20 scorcher of a day. People later mentioned they amazing soulmate in Eileen, who died in 1979 have always kept paper records of all the data, as years we organised 13 exhibitions there. Each got sunburned. That week, was the finest we and who has always been my guiding light from well as storing information on computers. year, over a 10–14 day period, we bussed in had all summer. The great joy I had was meet- above. I am equally blessed to have seven won- The two largest and longest running pro- some 8000 local primary school children free of ing many of our former 600 volunteers, derful children without whose amazing input the grammes at the Station have been the Rocky charge. These exhibitions were a great success affectionately known as “the bods”. who had marine station could not have survived. Shore Survey and the Phytoplankton Monitor- and the excitement of both children and adults, from 1975 built up the unique data base on the I dedicate my life’s work to my late dear ing Programme. who also came, was wonderful to see. Most had marine and terrestrial life of Roaringwater Bay wife, Eileen, and my family for the support and The Rocky Shore Survey has been running never seen such an array of marine life, includ- and beyond. These young volunteers gave so since 1975, with 69 sites surveyed annually on ing conger eels, lobsters, crayfish, spider crabs, much to Sherkin. Most were from the UK. On encouragement I got over the years. Sherkin Island, the islands of Roaringwater Bay octopus and many varieties of fish. Now we the day some of these former bods came from and in Dunmanus Bay. have a small, permanent exhibition at The around the world – Europe, Africa, USA and Matt Murphy, Director, Sherkin Island In 1995 the programme was extended along Islander’s Rest hotel on Sherkin. Thailand. So many said their time at Sherkin Marine Station, Sherkin Island, Co. Cork. 6 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 The Pros and Cons of Wind Power

• wind is less efficient than fossil fuels or By Alex Kirby nuclear energy and is expensive to set up. • it causes noise pollution, which some say WOULD I like a wind turbine at the bottom of can trigger stress-related illness. It can dis- my garden? Certainly not. There again, neither rupt TV and radio signals and bird would I like a coal/oil/gas-fired power station, a migrations and emit vibration which threat- large dam, a nuclear reactor or a pile of rotting ens marine life. There are military concerns biomass or slowly combusting cattle dung. that offshore wind installations can inter- Energy, rather like children in Victorian Britain, fere with coastal radar systems. is to be used, but not seen or sensed in any way. So that doesn’t get us much further. • the real beneficiaries are far distant from the turbines themselves: the energy compa- There are plenty who will argue for or nies with their profits and the governments against wind power, some of them persuasive and many vociferous. These are among the which can say they are reducing CO2 emis- arguments in wind’s favour: sions. Meanwhile the local community feels the turbines’ impact. • as it’s renewable it reduces the need to burn One of the strongest arguments against wind fossil fuels and reduces reliance on months of the year it can run for 24 hours a day. the needs of more than 6.7 million households, imports. power says because it is intermittent it can be used to generate electricity only when the wind The plant is small, producing 20 megawatts 25% of all British homes, all year round. • it’s abundant and free. Some estimates sug- is blowing strongly enough. You have to use it of electricity – enough for 25,000 homes, Taken together, renewables now supply 22% gest there is enough wind to generate reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 30,000 when it’s available, the argument runs, because of global electricity. Global investment in clean one-third of the world’s electricity. tonnes a year. there is no way of storing it. energy rose by 16% in 2014, with solar, whose • small turbines can serve remote places not It has 2,650 mirrors which train the Sun’s served by the grid. This argument has been used for years costs have plummeted in recent years, attract- against solar energy too, which its critics say rays onto a central tower, where they heat • once built, the turbines cause no pollution molten salt to more than double the boiling ing over half the total funding. Only a series of and produce no waste, and are easy to cannot be stored and so is no use for night-time point of water. More heat is produced than is large offshore wind farms stopped Europe decommission and dismantle. applications. Wrong. A system has already been developed to store excess heat produced needed for maximum power, so the surplus is bucking the trend. Global investment in • wind has a small footprint, so farmers can still stored in molten salt tanks until it can be used cultivate and seafarers navigate around them. by solar plants and use it to generate electricity renewables in 2014 totalled US $310bn, just during cloudy periods or at night. at any time. short of 2011’s record $317bn. But, with prices • the turbines can be built offshore, out of Another argument against wind farms – partic- sight of land. There and onshore as well, The engineering challenge has been to design plunging, the money invested in 2014 bought ularly offshore ones – is their threat to birds. But making, installing and maintaining them a system in which enough of the Sun’s heat can the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of almost double 2011’s clean electricity capacity. can provide jobs. be stored to produce full power continuously, Birds says siting is all: “If wind farms are located Is wind power good or bad then? As so often, Wind’s opponents make some trenchant even on cloudy days – and at night. away from major migration routes and important it looks like a case of following the money. It’s points too: Now a plant near the Spanish city of Seville feeding, breeding and roosting areas of those bird delivering the goods, it’s attracting funding, the turbines are eyesores, sited on remote has developed a way to store enough heat to • species known or suspected to be at risk, it hilltops where they spoil the natural beauty operate for 18 hours at full capacity without and many of the commonest counter-arguments is likely that they will have minimal impacts.” of the landscape. any additional power from the Sun. For many don’t stand up to scrutiny. One argument against wind that is seldom There is one proviso: wind won’t work every- heard is based on research by US scientists. They say harvesting the resource also reduces where, and shouldn’t be expected to. Like free the resource: when a steady wind slams into a lunches, cost-free energy does not exist. But if blade and keeps it turning, it transfers energy to you really do think climate change is a serious the blade, and thence to the turbine. That slows problem, it’s hard to say we should neglect wind. the wind, leaving the grim prospect of dimin- ishing returns. Alex Kirby is a founder editor of the Climate Wind power is certainly working well in many places. The UK’s National Grid says News Network. wind generated enough power in 2014 to supply www.climatenewsnetwork.net

Salmon, Trout & Shellfish Marine & Freshwater North, South, East & West Download a free and exciting newsletter for children, featuring interesting and informative news Delivering results for Aqua-Business on nature and the environment.

www.naturesweb.ie For more information contact: IFA Aquaculture Section, Irish Farmers’ Association, Bluebell, Dublin 12 ph: 01-4500266 fax: 01-4551043 e-mail [email protected] natureaqua Produced by Sherkin Island Marine Station SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______7 How to Choose a Career Path Using the Concept of Random Events

was the issue. I was successful During the course of the By David Crestin in gaining a 30-day reprieve, next twenty five years, I and immediately visited the assumed added responsibili- I RETIRED in 1995 from a navy recruiting office, was ties involving applied science rather happy and active sworn in, and breathed a sigh as well as administration and marine-related career in biol- of relief. I had passed the qual- supervisory duties. These ogy, specializing in fisheries. ifying test to attend officer included day-to-day oversight It was a long, circuitous route candidate school and was of the foreign fishing fleet, the getting there, very little of it ordered to begin training, at onboard observer program, due to a deliberate choice of Newport, Rhode Island. When management of the Atlantic specific academic pursuits. I I graduated, I was commis- bluefin tuna fishery and suppose the initial seed of an sioned an ensign and was fully implementation of Federal idea was planted when I first prepared to become a career regulatory programs in the got to see the Atlantic Ocean officer, a life that first captured Northwest Atlantic. With pas- coastline after my family my imagination as a child. sage of the 200 mile limit, we moved to Boston, Massachu- Of the five years I spent in became a regulatory agency setts. I was five or six years the navy, virtually all were for both foreign and domestic old at the time and viewed the spent at sea. I was fortunate fisheries seaward of state ocean as a mesmerizing mira- enough to sail across the waters. This brought me in cle. Boats and ships captured Pacific and the Atlantic, as contact with a host of interna- my imagination, and I then well as the Mediterranean tional fishery institutions such and there pledged to myself Sea, North Sea and Irish Sea. as ICNAF, NAFO, and that I would one day go to sea. Of the several vessels I served ICCAT as well as foreign gov- Growing up I had always on, the last was an oceano- ernment and fisheries maintained a strong interest in graphic survey ship. It was officials. My last position science and in particular, biol- aboard that ship that I found a before retiring was as Deputy ogy. Natural history subjects plankton net. One night our 1972: Dave Crestin tagging Atlantic salmon during a seven week cruise aboard a Canadian research vessel. Director of the Office of Fish- fascinated me to the point of ship was drifting slowly when eries Management and my spending huge amounts of I first lowered the net and tions and other industrial uses on behalf of the agency the ade- therefore applied and was hired Conservation, in the agency’s time reading in order to learn retrieved it. That event along the waterfront. quacy of an applicant’s by the National Marine Fish- headquarters. I spent six years as much as I could. Neverthe- changed my life forever. Upon From this initial entry into environmental assessment eries Service (NMFS), under reviewing management and less, a series of choices I made viewing the contents of the my chosen profession, I subse- studies. Having been totally the Department of Commerce. regulatory programs across while a teenager kept me from collecting jar at the end of the quently transferred to the immersed in preparing such The new position allowed the United States. Ultimately finishing my public school net, it was as if a door opened United States Fish and Wildlife studies, I was able to apply my me to review and help assuage it led to the honour of working academic training along a for me and I knew I wanted to Service (FWS) under the experience to the issues of the potentially undesirable impacts with the Sherkin Island smooth trajectory to gradua- study marine biology and to Department of the Interior. The day and became a member of a from activities within the Marine Station. Looking back, tion. As a result, I received my make it my life’s work. Since FWS was not only engaged in host of technical committees marine environment that were it certainly had been a reward- high school diploma when I my obligation to the navy was animal and environmental overseeing such studies in the subject to regulatory authority ing ride. Now, living on Cape was nearly 20 years old, well for only three years and I had research, it was also a Federal northeastern United States. It of the United States Corps of Cod, at the edge of the sea, I behind my peers. At the time already served five, I submit- regulatory body. At the time was during these first positions Engineers, The United States have remained a keen my circumstances loomed as a ted a request to be allowed to (1970s), the desire to construct after leaving school that I Coast Guard, and the United observer of marine issues. huge social conundrum. How- leave to attend graduate both nuclear and fossil fuel became certain that my inter- States Department of Envi- ever, in retrospect, I look on school. At the same time, I generating facilities was sub- ests focused on the marine ronmental Protection as David Crestin, Harwich, MA those days as perhaps neces- applied to the University of stantial. One of my new environment more than fresh- well as the Nuclear Regula- 02645, USA. sary for me to have reached a Massachusetts graduate stud- responsibilities was to review water or inland subjects. I tory Commission. proper level of maturity. ies program and was accepted With diploma in hand, I in the Department of Fish- applied to and was accepted by eries. Three years later I was Boston University where I awarded a Master of Science entered a four-year liberal arts degree in Fisheries Biology. program. My major studies Now, I had to put my career consisted of geography, geol- choice to work. ogy and biology courses along My first job upon graduation with a substantial immersion was with an environmental into the humanities. Frankly, consulting firm. We studied the when I finally graduated with potential impacts of a nuclear a Bachelor’s Degree, I had no power electrical generating firm idea of what I wished to plant on organisms subjected do professionally. Fortunately to the cooling water systems or unfortunately, before I and the discharge of heated could consider the options effluent. This expanded into available, I was drafted into studies of fossil fuel plants and the United States Army. Such other large shore-side indus- circumstances, however, were trial developments. It involved totally inconsistent with my both field and laboratory work love of the ocean and ships. As of varying kinds. I became a result, and in a bit of a panic, well versed in the types of I wasted no time to visit the impacts such activities could draft board and make a plea impose and how difficult it was for me to join the navy instead. to determine their actual dam- It was due to quite an effort on age to marine life in hard my part that I was able to con- numbers. I believe these com- vince an elderly bureaucrat plex questions remain that I was not attempting to unanswered, although there avoid military service. Rather, has been a proliferation of it was the service branch that large electrical generating sta- 8 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 A Life Lived

of truth, reality, the nature of being, fusion business and emergency births. By Matt Murphy finding out what things were, what When Daphne graduated in 1943 life was about.” she had not recovered fully from her DAPHNE POCHIN MOULD was Daphne lived with her parents and heart problem and was not called up an extraordinary person. Writing an aunt and it was her aunt who for full time war service. The Min- was her passion but she had many mostly home-schooled her. Her istry of Labour decided she could talents. An avid photographer, school career was brief and inter- take up a research fellowship that geologist, broadcaster, pilot and rupted because she had trouble with she had been awarded and so went flight instructor, she also had a her eyes. Most of the time she worked on to work for a PhD in Geology. great love for the natural sciences alone for her Higher Certificate and Her Director at the Department of and for archaeology. University entrance. An only child, Geology at the time suggested she I was privileged to have known Daphne was a rebel from an early gather what was known on the rocks Daphne for over 40 years. She first age. Her aunt read her the story of the at Foyers, which was right in the came to visit me on Sherkin Island in Garden of Eden and she was not middle of the Highlands, so she paid 1971 and began writing articles for impressed. In disgust, her aunt, a a visit to the Geological Survey in Sherkin Comment in 1989. Writing Greek scholar, read her the Odyssey Edinburgh. There she discovered 61 articles in all, the last one was of Homer instead of the Bible. only a small-scale map to indicate published in issue No 58. Daphne Soon after Daphne turned seven- what was found in the area and when died in 2014 at the remarkable age of teen there was a momentous change in the field realised to her horror that 93. Her life is a fascinating story and in her life. Her cousin lent her his big the map and the rocks did not agree. I hope this article will do her justice. Horch car and she learned to drive. Studying that one hundred square Daphne was a unique individual On a Sunday, she would drive her miles of Scotland gained her a PhD Images courtesy of Sherkin Island Marine Station Daphne Pochin Mould and this was obvious from a very parents to a small country church from the University of Edinburgh. early age. Those who knew her near Salisbury but as she had no In looking for a place to live she found her a most independent per- interest in the ceremonies she waited drove to Inchnacardoch at Fort son, incredibly strong in her views outside. She said “It was always fun Augustus to view a cottage overlook- on many issues and definitely was to throw stones and a considerable ing Loch Ness. It had been empty for not shy in giving them. All her life, spice in jeering at Christianity and years, the roofs of the stables and she had no interest in material pos- the Saints.” Having access to a car coach houses sagged. The house sessions. Her early years, until her she explored the countryside and in itself was badly in need of repair, 30s, were a battle between her agnos- 1938 aged 18 she headed north on a lighting was by oil lamps and the ticism and Christianity – a battle visit to Scotland and the Highlands. piped water supply came from a which was evident in the early books This new world of mountains and mountain stream. The garden of she wrote. From these one can see peat-stained rivers thundering about three quarters of an acre, was the depth of her thinking. To give through the rocky glens and the end- overgrown. Daphne’s mother came some sense of what made her the per- less lochs was to call her back again from England to see the place and son she was, I will try to give a broad and again. they decided to lease it for a five- summary of those early years before In the autumn of 1939 she enrolled year term. Both her mother and she came to live in Ireland. for the BSc course in Pure Science at herself came to live permanently. Daphne was born on 15th Novem- Edinburgh University. In her honours Her father came for holidays as he ber 1920 in Salisbury, England. In year of the course “I strained my was still teaching and later, when he her book “The Rock of Truth” she heart by some means or other and it retired, he too came to live there per- tells us she was baptised as an infant suddenly packed up on me. I thought manently. Daphne set about clearing in Salisbury Cathedral. She was I would die the next morning. My the garden – overgrown bushes, brought up Church of England but pulse rate sped up then halted with a brambles, rough grass and rushes. said “I think I was agnostic from the jerk and the process began again. I The following year she began very start. My thinking for myself fought for life for several days.” The reclaiming the three acre paddock was already taking me farther and idea of death was not frightening field and sowed oats and potatoes farther away from the Christian reli- only annoying as there were things using the garden to grown vegetables gion. I turned to science, the she wanted to do. She said “One’s for sale. Her neighbour was a Sandy biological sciences and to geology; a past misdeeds do not rise before one, Grant and as Daphne said an “R.C” scientist I wanted to be and science I anyway, if you are as agnostic as I (Roman Catholic) who went to mass studied at every available opportu- was then”. During World War II she in the nearby Benedictine Monastery nity.” Daphne used to go out in the joined the ARP (Air Raid Precau- at Fort Augustus. He instructed country and identify the plants and tions – or Civil Defence) but soon Daphne on how to plough with a Daphne, with Dr Leander Wolstenholme, looking at plants on one of the islands in trees, watch birds and other wild ani- transferred to the Volunteer Car Pool. two-wheeled “walking” tractor with Roaringwater Bay, West Cork. mals and search for fossils in the This was a pool of cars and drivers a 3.5 HP engine, harrow and so forth. natural progression for her was to ways by change of thought and English chalk pits. She once said: that went everywhere, especially At this time Daphne planned to write about the islands themselves scene, by racing her car along nearby “Science to me meant the discovery emergencies to hospitals, blood trans- write about the old roads and cattle and her next book was “West Over roads and doping herself with South tracks of the West Highlands. She Sea”. This book gives a comprehen- American bands on the radio. She knew it would be necessary to sive picture of life on the Outer also walked the woods above her research literature on the subject Hebrides set against the legendary home trying to find arguments to before exploring the roads them- and historical background. Her inten- break the proofs and to her horror selves. The monks at the Benedictine tion then was to write about the inner discovered that a scientific training Abbey were reputed to have a good islands of Scotland, including Iona of was no infallible shield against the library so putting her anti-Catholic St. Columba and to “show-up” the arguments for God’s existence. Fr. objections in her pocket, she went Saints and the Church for what she Augustine was her “sounding down. Little did she the agnostic thought they were. In order to write ground” and the more they discussed know this would be the beginning of “Scotland of the Saints” and attack the more miserable she became. a very difficult road to becoming a the Church, Daphne need to research Daphne’s battle with her inner self Catholic. Father Augustine met her the subject first and went back to Fr. was very difficult. She was an agnos- and said she could borrow what Augustine. It was at him that Daphne tic in a tug of war which was now books she needed. threw all her arguments about the moving her inch by inch to formal Daphne’s first book “The Roads non-existence of God. She found instruction in the Catholic Church. Image courtesy of Robbie Murphy from the Isles” was published in herself in a miserable state of mind She disliked it so much as she felt Daphne before a day’s flying. 1950 when she was 30 years old. A trying to fight it. She fought it in two she was turning her back on Martin SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______9 Luther who had been one of her ble to see from the ground. Daphne her time “on the road” as it were, she childhood heroes and who had the worked with the Cork Archaeology survived on her pension and support courage of his convictions and stood Survey undertaking the aerial pho- from friends. She suffered from up to Rome. On 11th November 1950 tography for The Archaeological arthritis in her hands, could not write she was received into the Catholic Inventory of County Cork – pub- and found typing difficult. For a Church by the local Parish Priest. lished in five volumes. In our writer, who still had a lot to say, this In Autumn 1951 the lease on their archives at the Station I have superb was a cruel blow. It would not be an house in Inchnacardoch was up and slides of the coastline from Kinsale exaggeration to say that her final they decided to move to Ireland. to Kerry and also photographs of years were like hell on earth for her. They first went to live in Con- Beara, Sheep’s Head and Mizen Images courtesy of Sherkin Island Marine Station When Daphne was moved to hos- nemara. While in Galway one day Peninsula and Cork Harbour from pital Simon and Paul Tassie, a she passed the Dominican Church in the air, taken by Daphne. neighbour of Daphne’s, contacted the Cladagh. She had wanted to To take photographs, Simon said Muckross House in Killarney to ask learn about the Dominicans and on she would open her side window of them to collect all Daphne’s calling to their priory she met a Fr. the Cessna 150 Single engine plane archives, mostly her photographs Dominic Fahy who became her and with two hands on her camera and slides. Daphne had said to friend. She quoted Fr. Fahy as say- shoot away. Simon said he held his Simon that in her will, everything ing “I can say anything I like to you breathe on those occasions and there was to go to Muckross. It is wonder- and you do not mind.” Her friend- were many of them! I have spoken to ful that this happened as Daphne had ship with the Dominicans in Galway a couple of other people who had a number of break-ins at her house would lead to her book on the Irish similar experiences. Daphne was a over the years and, with no one Dominicans. In the Preface, the then very accomplished flier and in time around, anything could have hap- Master General of the Dominican she became a chief instructor and pened her priceless collection. Order, Fr. Michael Browne wrote: was flying into her mid 70s. I have wonderful memories of “She has given us something which As we talked about her mode of Daphne. Recently I pulled together a has long been desired.” transport on land he said for a num- complete set of her books and as I In 1952 Daphne and her parents ber of years she also had a 50cc delve into them I see a person who, rented a large house near the Church moped. Her cars over the years were as Simon says, was copper-fastened of Ireland church at Aherla, 13 miles instruments to be used and not to be in the truth. She was an artist in her west of Cork City. Daphne went to admired. Daphne always drove a descriptions of places she visited. the Dominican Church on Popes “banger” and none would now pass She noticed everything. Quay, Cork, regularly. I was then an an NCT test. He tells of sourcing a I would like to finish this article altar boy and often saw this woman £30 car for Daphne from a friend – with a quote from Daphne’s article dressed in tweeds with brown subject to her liking it. The friend “Flight to the Blaskets” that brogues striding up the isle with a phoned him after the visit saying he A selection of books by Daphne. appeared in “The Countryman” large, leather-bound missal in hand. wouldn’t believe it but she wanted a Spring 1969. We pick up the story It would be some years before we guarantee with it! with Daphne in Killarney, waiting to were to meet in a different setting. Simon said the reason Daphne and refuel: “After I telephoned Cork air- Daphne’s book output was her parents came to Ireland was to port, there is nothing to do but to extraordinary. By the time she was get away from the huge divide wait. When you fly a small plane 45 years old in 1965 she had fourteen between the rich and poor in Britain. with the very limited endurance of a books and various pamphlets pub- Ireland they believed was the land of ten-gallon tank, you tend to organise lished, since her first book in 1950. heroes and a society without a class trips around Ireland in the manner Her writings about Scottish saints system. She told him she had no fear. once adopted on record-breaking prompted her to write more books, The only thing she feared was when world flights; you organise fuel and now about Irish Saints and monastic her aunt would comb her long hair as oil at intermediate points. I lie on the sites of Ireland. Her love of climbing a child. Daphne hated it. Her aunt grass in the sun beside the plane and Scottish mountains led her to scram- said if she didn’t let her untangle it wait for Ivor, who is driving over ble around Irish mountains and bats would get caught in it – for with the jerry cans we laboriously ultimately to another book, Moun- many years she had a fear of bats! filled before I set off from Cork.” tains of Ireland (1955). She must Daphne had a love of dogs and “He arrives in the family car, have travelled many hundreds of cats. Her two Alsatian dogs went bringing father and mother for a day miles as her descriptions of each everywhere with her in the car, con- in Killarney. We fill up and check the mountain range are so detailed. sequently they wrecked the oil. I climb in, and he swings the One of Daphne’s photographs of Hungry Hill on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork. In the 1950s, Daphne took up fly- upholstery. Her first article in prop. Chocks away, and he ties him- ing in a small plane from Cork’s Sherkin Comment No. 2 (1989) on vations in writing about them but I another place. Over the next seven self into the second seat; we taxi out Farmer’s Cross Airfield (Cork Air- Sheep’s Head Peninsula had a photo feel having read much of Daphne’s years Daphne moved on from guest- and take off. Killarney with its port was built nearby in 1961). of the dogs. Simon said Daphne brutally honest writings about her houses to hotels to nursing homes. wooded slopes, where the arbutus Flying became a big part of her life never used words needlessly. She life, it would almost be an injustice She found it very difficult to be tied and rhododendron and oak form a and led to her book “Ireland from the had a maverick approach to formal- to her not to write about her final down in one place. Her mind was wild jungle, falls away behind us, Air” (1973). To get an insight into ity – an eye of a sceptic. One gem years. In January 2007, a neighbour perfect but she became frailer and while the high mountains, the Daphne’s flying years and his mem- she never deviated from was about saw the upstairs light on at her home frailer and needed help to move MacGillycuddy Reeks, boil and ories of her, I spoke with Simon the monks on Skelligs Rock. she said over a couple of days but with no about. Indeed in the final months she smoke with rain clouds and swirling O’Flynn whom Daphne taught to fly. “they were fat, had a great life living sign of Daphne. He contacted Simon was confined to bed. One must mists. I turn above the level plain at He told me he first got to know her on puffins and donations from pil- O’Flynn and they called the Gardai. understand that for nearly ninety the head of Dingle Bay and out over 55 years ago. As a young man, grims and free from women”. Daphne was found unconscious on years this indomitable lady was a the long sandy spits that criss-cross Simon worked for his father at his I was so pleased in 1990 that the bed, guarded by her two Alsa- free spirit and to be confined was from the land on either side of butcher’s stall in Cork’s famous Eng- Daphne accepted our Sherkin Island tians and was removed to Cork like being a caged lioness. Daphne Castlemaine Harbour. To our right lish Market and every week, dressed Marine Station Environmental University Hospital. Her body tem- had wonderful friends who tried to are forty miles of the Dingle penin- in tweeds and wearing her brogue Award. To quote what I said at the perature was so low there seemed no help her in her final years. Sadly with sula, the high line of the Slieve Mish shoes, Daphne came to the market. time: “Whatever she undertakes she hope of her surviving. She was then a frail body she needed care. She leading on to Mount Brandon, Ire- She would talk about her flying trips does so with enthusiasm, immense nearly 87 years old. After nearly two should have stayed in one of the land’s second highest and perhaps during these visits and after a time thoroughness and dedication. She months in hospital, Daphne made a nursing homes that the health board loveliest mountain, and to Mount invited Simon to go up with her. He has an encyclopaedic mind on our remarkable recover but decided she had organised for her but she was Eagle, the height above Slea Head at said the first few trips were scary but great heritage of ancient monuments, had had enough and signed herself strong-will and determined. Her the tip of the peninsula.” soon he grew to love it. Daphne was buildings and ringforts. Her aerial out. At the same time she booked mind was so active she still believed Daphne died on 29th April 2014 at the first woman instructor in Ireland photographic collection will in time herself into a guesthouse some miles she had more to do and another book Cork University Hospital and and one day she told him he needed be talked about in the same view as west of the city. At first she was to write. She had one on Iceland donated her body to University Col- lessons and that he already had six the Lawrence Photography Collec- delighted with her new surroundings nearly finished but needed to make lege Cork. May she rest in peace. hours done with her! In time, under tion. Daphne is a most unassuming but in a short time she complained another visit there. Daphne’s instruction, he passed his person, a great friend, a great educa- about the smallest thing yet Simon To the end this extraordinary lady Matt Murphy, Director, Sherkin pilot’s licence. tor and has a commitment to the said the people were wonderful to was writing articles for Sherkin Island Marine Station, Sherkin Daphne loved flying and she environment, which is shown her. Each evening she would phone Comment and for each article she Island, Co. Cork. would say to Simon that it was the throughout her work. the ever-patient Simon and as he said wrote in the last few years, she didn’t key to archaeology – one can see so Daphne’s great tragedy were her “I just listened”. He eventually got have backup material available to her much from the air which is impossi- final seven years. I have slight reser- the phone call that she had moved to – her memory was extraordinary. In 10 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59

ECO ECHOES Images courtesy of US EPA The Environmental Legacy of the Gaslight Era Removing contaminated soil.

Though gaslight is no longer used in our the toxic pollution – or their corporate descen- 1 By Walter Mugdan homes or on city streets, it is still commonly dants – are legally responsible for the costs of used for camping and in places where electric- cleanup. Both the Welsbach and General Gas January, 2015 ity is unavailable. Gas mantles are, therefore, Mantle Companies went out of business FOR thousands of years humans could not do still in wide use around the world. decades ago, so initially EPA assumed there much better than candle light for illumination. Carl Auer von Welsbach, a German chemist, were no “responsible parties” who could foot The Welsbach and General Gas Mantle Superfund Site in Gloucester, New Jersey, USA. The soil at the Vegetable oils, animal oils, beeswax – all were invented the modern gas mantle in 1885, using the bill for this extremely expensive cleanup. used; and while some substances did burn site was contaminated from radioactive thorium various metal and rare earth compounds to Until 2010, that is. That year Elizabeth used in the manufacture of gas mantles from brighter than others, their “candle power” was strengthen and brighten the mantle. In 1890 he Lablanc, an EPA attorney, discovered a histori- 1890s to the 1940s. not significantly different. started using thorium instead, which gave off a Until 1792. That was when William Mur- much whiter and even brighter light. Alas, tho- doch – an employee of James Watt of steam rium – named after Thor, the Norse god of engine fame – first lit his house in Cornwall, thunder – is radioactive, and produces radioac- England with methane gas distilled from coal. tive radon gas when it decays. Worse yet, (Coal gas is chemically similar to the natural heating it until it glows (the very purpose of a gas in wide use today for heating homes, cook- mantle) causes radioactive radium and other ing food, and generating electricity.) elements to be volatilized and released; this Gaslight was brighter, steadier and cleaner happens each time the mantle is lit. These than light from other fuels. Gas streetlights radioactive volatiles can be inhaled, raising were being installed in London by 1814, and by safety concerns about their use indoors. (Nowa- 1819 close to 300 miles of pipe had been laid in days, mantles are often impregnated with that city to supply some 51,000 burners. alternative materials such as yttrium or zirco- Gaslight crossed the pond almost immediately, nium, though these are somewhat less efficient coming to America by 1816. For decades than the thorium-impregnated product.) gaslight was widely used for interior lighting, Welsbach established a factory in Camden, and for nearly a century it remained the domi- and a competitor, the General Gas Mantle nant form of urban street lighting. Company, set up shop nearby. These plants As I wrote in Sherkin Comment Issue #52 operated from the 1890s to the 1940s. Both Backfilling the excavated soil with clean fill. (2011), the manufacture of gas from coal left used thorium for their mantles. And both gen- behind a bitter legacy of coal tar waste – a erated large volumes of radioactive waste cal connection between the General Gas “fraudulent conveyance” lawsuit against its gooey residue loaded with toxic compounds materials during the extraction of the thorium Mantle Company and the Kerr McGee Com- former parent KM, and KM’s new parent such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the ores in which it is found. Those wastes pany, a huge, multi-national chemical company Anadarko. The lawsuit contended that KM had that are known or suspected carcinogens. The were used as fill material for residential hous- headquartered in Oklahoma. Ordinarily such a intentionally but secretly loaded Tronox with thick tar never really hardens. Commonly ing developments in the surrounding discovery would be welcome news, because environmental liabilities far exceeding the dumped on or in the ground, it would ooze communities. Testing in the 1990s showed ele- government funds for cleanup of hazardous value of its assets, thus committing a fraud down until reaching an obstruction like vated levels of gamma radiation – among the waste sites are severely limited. However, a against the company’s shareholders, creditors bedrock, where it would then move sideways – most dangerous for people – from soil under few years earlier Kerr McGee (KM) had trans- and environmental claimants. often into the waterways adjacent to which the and around many homes and nearby public ferred many of its environmental liabilities – The EPA, along with other claimants, joined coal gas plants were usually built. Everything places, as well as the factory properties and including those associated with the Welsbach the Tronox lawsuit as co-plaintiffs. After a in the path of the slowly moving tar became adjacent road beds. site – to a subsidiary corporation named lengthy and complex trial in which the plain- contaminated. For the past 30 years we have In 1996 the U.S. Environmental Protection Tronox. Then, in 2006, KM had “spun off” tiffs prevailed, the parties reached a settlement. worked at cleaning many of these coal tar sites, Agency (EPA) added the Welsbach and Gen- Tronox to become a completely independent Under the terms of the April, 2014 deal, always at great cost. eral Gas Mantle Contamination Site to its corporation. EPA’s claim regarding the Wels- Anadarko and its subsidiary KM will hand over In at least one place, another ecological echo national list of sites presenting the highest pri- bach site (along with claims involving many a whopping $5.15 billion, one of the largest of the gaslight era continues to reverberate. In ority for cleanup of hazardous wastes. Sites on other sites) was therefore against Tronox, and environmental payouts ever. Of this, some Camden, New Jersey (across the Delaware this list are eligible for government cleanup not against KM. $224 million will go to the Welsbach/General River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) there funding under America’s “Superfund” law No sooner had it spun off Tronox than KM Gas Mantle Contamination site in New Jersey was a company that made mantles for gas enacted in 1980. To date, EPA has spent some sold itself for $19 billion to Anadarko, a large to help pay for the ongoing cleanup. lights. Mantles enable gaslights to burn more $295 million at the site to remove over 380,000 and prosperous energy company. Gaslight is long gone, but it still casts dan- brightly and steadily, creating more light (and tons of radioactive contaminated soil and Meanwhile, things did not go so well for the gerous and expensive shadows across our less heat) than if the gas is burned by itself as it debris from more than 120 residences, plus newly minted Tronox Corporation. Saddled modern landscape. emerges from the pipe. Made of cotton or silk, ballfields, park areas, commercial properties with huge environmental liabilities that far out- the lacy mantles are shaped like miniature and roadways, and from the demolition of the weighed the comparatively meager value of the 1Walter Mugdan is Director of the Division of woven balloons. A mantle is affixed to the spout former General Gas Mantle factory building. assets with which it had been endowed by its Emergency & Remedial Response, U.S. from which the gas emerges, creating a broad But immense expenditures still lie ahead to former parent company, Tronox in 2009 Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, surface on which the actual burning of the gas clean the former Welsbach Company factory declared bankruptcy. It seemed that EPA would New York City, New York, U.S.A. Any get nothing more than a few cents on the dollar occurs, causing the mantle itself to glow building and other contaminated areas. opinions expressed in this article are his own, brightly. Surprisingly, although the mantle turns As I have written in past articles (Sherkin for its environmental claims. But Tronox did not go quietly into bank- and do not necessarily reflect the views of the to ash once lit, it retains its shape and remains Comment # 56 and 57, 2014) the Superfund U.S. EPA. functional as long as you don’t jostle it. law provides that the companies who caused ruptcy. Instead, it filed a multi-billion dollar

AN IDEAL GIFT: A Beginner’s Guide to Ireland’s Seashore – @ €7.00 (plus p&p €1.00) & A Beginner’s Guide to Ireland’s Wild Flowers – @ €7.50 (plus p&p €1.00) – see page 29 for details. SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______11 Predicting the unknown from the unknown Can we model our way out of ecological ignorance?

ecological events such as increased food production. But from, or where he is. This is By Prof Barrie Dale HABs, but can we ignore Nature paid a dreadful price; where the plot was lost, as these first steps? Can we and today, what started as illustrated by the example CHARLES DARWIN´S pas- really model our way out of “observing the ways of from HAB-research. sionate belief that “Ours is but ecological ignorance? Nature” has become an urgent, HABs threaten public to observe the ways of Nature” The early ecologist´s world headlong rush into “under- health, wealth and welfare helped lay the foundation for was very different, but they standing the ways of Nature”, worldwide, and hundreds of what we now call ecology – were at least as highly moti- as the ecological damage researchers are working on but his approach would not vated as present-day caused by our “progress” them. Some HAB-species in stand a chance in today´s fund- scientists. These were a few, threatens our very existence. the phytoplankton (micro- ing system for science. Is this independently wealthy, privi- “The gentlemen´s hobby” has scopic algae in the sea and because science has honestly leged gentry, able to pursue rapidly developed into crisis lakes) produce toxins causing developed beyond the “primi- basic science as a full-time management of the planet. sickness, or even death in tive” concepts he and his “hobby”. For them, it was suf- Today, basic scientific humans, other species kill colleagues gave us two cen- ficient to observe and record research is a “public service fish, while others interfere turies ago, or have we as a the ways of Nature for its own industry” – the public pay for with the workings of fishing society lost the plot? I was sake – revealing the wonder- research, and in return, they gear or desalination plants. provoked into thinking about ful “miracles” in the details of expect practical solutions for More than forty years of this recently by a powerful the natural world as an intel- serious environmental prob- research has seen great emerging trend in research on lectual exercise for the few. It lems: how damaged is the progress in identifying the harmful algal blooms (HABs took another hundred years biosphere, and how will it organisms and toxins for or “red-tides”). Here, as in before David Attenborough respond to future global short-term public warnings of many other fields of research, could bring such delights into change? By now, the initial up to a few weeks prior to any scientists are trying to predict the homes of the masses concept of observing the ways danger. However, this has not future events, but the available through television, but in so of Nature could, and should led to a general ecological background ecological data is doing, he too, always shows have led to a long-term moni- understanding of why these inadequate, and scientific the greatest respect for these toring effort that would give organisms cause problems modelling is being proposed to early pioneers – he certainly us at least one hundred years where and when they do, and somehow compensate for this. has not lost the plot! So what of ground-truth data on what both scientists and the public In my opinion, this is unrealis- has changed? has been happening in the nat- should be asking: why? This tic for HAB-research or the Society´s basic attitude to ural world. Sadly, however, is not just to point the finger term funding. Still, such mon- ing that the resulting ecologi- many other fields of science science has definitely not we have seriously neglected of blame at science – scien- itoring is the crucial first step cal data is inadequate. facing the same dilemma. At changed since Darwin´s time; these first steps, and scientists tists alone have not caused towards understanding chang- However, if the data is inade- its best, ecology involves society still expects a “pay- now feel pressured into mak- society´s problems with the ing environments and biotic quate for understanding past observing which organisms back”. Already back then, ing ecological predictions, natural environment, and they responses, and scientists and and present events, what pos- live where and when, in order there were huge socio-eco- even in the absence of ade- do not control funding priori- funding agencies together sibility is there for plausible to ask the important questions nomic benefits from quate data. This can be ties for addressing them – we bear responsibility for not predictions of future events? of why and how they do so. “observing the ways of likened to a person trying to are all in this together! having pressed more for this Surely, we need to get back to This might eventually offer Nature” – for example, greatly plan where to go, without Nobody should be surprised at the highest levels of deci- basics and concentrate efforts the possibility of predicting improved agriculture and knowing where he is coming at the lack of ecological sion-making. more on “good old fashioned” answers, here, or elsewhere in The alternative strategies environmental monitoring to science. Generally, there is no have usually identified “the find out what is really happen- long-term phytoplankton target species”, and attempted ing out there. monitoring prior to HAB- to study their ecological In Darwin´s time, customers events that would provide requirements with respect to a could consult a fortune-teller ground-truth data for asking few abiotic factors such as gazing into a crystal ball to “why here and now?”, and temperature and salinity, often predict their looming fate. researchers have to devise in laboratory cultures, and Today, science should be seen their own investigative strat- with little or no attention to the as doing better than re-invent- egy “after the fact”. It is hard complex biotic interactions ing the crystal ball! to understand why it has with other organisms within proved so difficult to establish the plankton. Basic ecology Barrie Dale, Professor long-term environmental teaches us that organisms live Emeritus, Department of monitoring programmes, but where they do in response to Geology, University of Oslo, it probably involves political both biotic and abiotic factors, Oslo, Norway. reluctance to commit long- and it is therefore not surpris- 12 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 EPA Publishes Focus on Urban Waste Water Treatment in report Images courtesy of EPA

• 38 of Ireland’s largest sewage discharges fail to meet the mandatory treatment standard. • Raw sewage discharged from 44 areas. • 9 large areas do not meet the European Union Directive requirement to have secondary (biological) treatment in place.

WASTE water must be treated prior to being duced to the environment from such areas. In released back into the environment in order to addition the Directive requires a more stringent remove contaminants that could pose an envi- level of treatment (nutrient reduction for phos- ronmental or health risk. The Focus on Urban phorus and/or nitrogen) at 26 large towns and Waste Water Treatment in 2013 report, pub- cities discharging to designated sensitive areas lished recently by the EPA, provides a review of that may be at risk of eutrophication. Second- the environmental performance of urban waste ary treatment alone may not offer sufficient water treatment plants serving over 500 cities, protection to these sensitive waters and more towns and villages across the country and out- stringent treatment is necessary to prevent the lines the waste water infrastructure in place. accumulation of excessive nutrient loads. The report covers 2013 which was the last Key findings regarding infrastructure and Figure 1. Assessment of effluent quality at 441 secondary treatment plants against the European Union year that local authorities were responsible for effluent quality in 2013 include: quality and sampling standards for the water quality indicator parameters of BOD, COD and suspended solids the management of urban waste water collection • 94% of the national waste water load and treatment infrastructure. Responsibilities receives at least secondary treatment. This Directive’s requirement to provide nutrient waters in 2013, including Clifden and Bal- for these assets transferred to Uisce is three times more than in 2000. reduction infrastructure and did not meet lyloughane Beach (Galway City). nutrient quality standards. Discharges from a further 4 areas, includ- Éireann/Irish Water in 2014. • Nine of the 162 larger urban areas did not • ing Youghal and Ardmore, were considered meet the Directive’s requirements to pro- 38 of the 162 larger urban areas, account- a significant risk to the quality of desig- vide secondary treatment. These include ing for 63% of the national waste water Waste Water Treatment load, failed to meet the mandatory effluent nated bathing waters. Killybegs and the Ringaskiddy- • Infrastructure and Effluent Quality Crosshaven-Carrigaline area where the quality and sampling standards set in the Urban waste water is the suspected cause of provision of treatment is now fourteen European Union Directive. These include serious pollution at 6 river sites, down from The European Union Directive concerning years overdue; and Clifden where dis- our two largest cities Dublin and Cork. 9 in 2009. Some of the urban areas linked urban waste water treatment requires a mini- • charges from an old overloaded treatment Raw sewage was discharged from 44 with serious river pollution include Moville mum of secondary (biological) treatment at plant are impacting on bathing waters. areas, including tourist centres such as and Raphoe in Co. Donegal and Tubber- 162 larger urban areas in Ireland. It also spec- • Bundoran, Spiddal, Ballyvaughan, Ard- curry in Co. Sligo. ifies effluent quality and sampling standards to Eight of the 26 large towns and cities dis- • charging to sensitive areas did not meet the more and Duncannon. A total of 49 waste water works have been be achieved for treated waste water reintro- • 35% of incidents reported to the EPA were linked with serious, moderate or slight pol- attributed to insufficient treatment capacity. lution of rivers, down from 56 in 2009. An incident is a discharge in non-compli- • 11 river sites where pollution in 2007–2009 ance with the requirements of an EPA was linked with waste water discharges waste water discharge licence. improved during 2010–2013 and were clas- • 50% of 350 infrastructural improvements sified as unpolluted during the most recent required by EPA licences before the end of monitoring. 2013 were not completed. • The EPA prosecuted Longford County Council in relation to an incident that occurred in 2013 where discharges from Operation and Management Longford Town caused a deterioration in the The operation, maintenance and management of receiving waters which resulted in a fish kill. treatment infrastructure is essential to optimise the performance of waste water treatment plants. Recommendations The EPA report identifies the following: • 71% of the 441 plants with secondary treat- Waste water must be treated and managed in ment achieved the minimum effluent order to protect our rivers and beaches and pre- quality and sampling standards, up 17% vent pollution. Continued financial investment in since 2009 (see Figure 1). waste water infrastructure is essential to address a • 37% of 759 incidents reported to the EPA legacy of under-investment, provide the upgrades were attributed to issues surrounding the and improvements necessary to protect receiving operation and management of the waste waters and ensure compliance with national and water works. European obligations. The discharge of raw, untreated sewage needs to be eliminated. • 45 of 246 audits conducted by the EPA in The management, operation and mainte- 2013 found that a maintenance programme nance of plant and equipment should be for plant and equipment was not in place. prioritised to optimise the performance of • The sampling of waste water discharges was existing infrastructure, reduce incidents and insufficient at 16 secondary treatment plants. improve effluent quality. The report, Focus on Urban Waste Water Treat- Receiving Environment ment in 2013, is available on the EPA website at http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/water/wastewater/ Urban waste water is one of the principal pres- uwwreport2013.html. sures on water quality in Ireland. The EPA report highlights the following in relation to the receiving environments: Environmental Protection Agency, PO Box • Waste water discharges contributed to poor 3000, Johnstown Castle Estate. Wexford. water quality at 4 designated bathing www.epa.ie

Please support Sherkin Island Marine Station’s publications, which help to fund its work (see page 29) SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______13 second photograph shows the By Lin Baldock situation in the autumn of 2013. The species-rich faunal SCALLOP dredging in Lyme turf was recovering dominated Bay off the coast of Dorset and by encrusting, erect and cush- Devon on the south coast of LYME BAY:Six Years On ion sponges, bryozoa and England was wreaking very hydroids. Occasional healthy considerable damage to the pink seafans and large, intact highly sensitive benthic com- colonies of Ross Coral were munities on the rocky reefs in also recorded. the bay. In order to protect these reefs a Statutory Instru- ment closed about 60nm2 to What are the gains? bottom towed fishing in July The closure of Lyme Bay 2008. This action followed has provided an opportunity to serious concern expressed over monitor the impact of this the damaging impact of scallop action on a large area increas- dredging on the boulder and ing our understanding of the bedrock reefs which support benefits of closing an area to diverse benthic communities mobile fishing gear both on the including the pink seafan target fishery and benthic (Eunicella verrucosa). This fauna. It has also kick started closure still applies in 2015. Fragmented Ross Coral colony, broken sponges and over turned Recovering boulder-cobble reef with pink seafan, coral worm and cobbles after pot hauling. encrusting fauna – 2013. cooperation between various Much of Lyme Bay has fisheries and conservation now been designated a candi- interests to achieve better man- date Special Area of aged and sustainable fisheries. Conservation (cSAC) by Nat- Concerns for over exploitation ural England largely for these of fixed gear fisheries has lead bedrock reefs with their to the development of a collab- diverse communities of orative study to monitor the sponges, seafans and bryozoa. effect of various potting inten- Unsurprisingly, there is a sities both on the habitat and complex mosaic of bedrock the fishery concerned. Without and boulder reef habitat inter- the closure the free-for-all spersed by patches of sandy approach to fishing would sediment and mobile waves of probably have continued in dead maerl locally called Lyme Bay despite local efforts “swanks”. These sedimentary at voluntary controls. Finally, habitats are ideal for king Lanes Ground 2013 –tassel sponges with encrusting sponges, Seafan on boulder reef. bryozoa and sea squirts continued monitoring of the scallop (Pecten maximus). recovery of the benthic fauna Mobile gear fishermen have voluntary code of conduct to monitored during the study. of SCUBA dives were made Improvement is most evi- has made it possible to begin to argued that they should be be implemented by participat- Here the damage caused by on four reef sites in Lyme Bay dent on the boulder-cobble evaluate the impact of the clo- allowed into parts of the statu- ing fishermen (the Lyme Bay the experimental deployment in the autumn of 2013. Sev- reefs which, because of the sure and the timescale involved tory closure and the cSAC on Commercial Fishermen’s Vol- and recovery of a lobster pot eral members of the survey nature of the seabed, suffered in the progress to revival of grounds that these are not clas- untary Code of Conduct). is shown with fragments of a team had dived in Lyme Bay the most severe damage from these fragile communities. sified as reef, the qualifying Measures include use of devastated Ross Coral (Penta- since 2004 maintaining care- scallop dredging. The first feature for the cSAC. There ful records and had noticed a image illustrates the situation Inshore Vessel Monitoring pora foliacea) colony and Lin Baldock is interested in have been some concessions Systems (IVMS) and limits to loose bits of yellow sponge. gradual improvement in the as it was in the summer of the distribution of temperate to this view resulting in the the lengths of net set and the As to the reefs themselves diversity of the benthic fauna 2006, two years before clo- cSAC having a more compli- number of pots worked by any there has been a dramatic in the years after the closure. sure. Here there is bare, marine invertebrates and cated boundary which follows one vessel. As a result of recovery in the complex ben- In 2013 there was a diverse shattered mudstone bedrock, algae and has a collection of the vagaries of the seabed extensive discussion with thic communities in these benthic community flourish- fragmented Ross Coral and underwater images from the types. This intricate limit interested parties an integrated habitats since 2008. A series ing at all the sites visited. heavily silted cobbles. The UK and Ireland. makes it even more difficult fisheries management plan effectively to police incursions has now been developed. into the protected areas. Recreational sea anglers As a result of the closure to have seen an increase in the mobile gear fishermen have diversity of catches within the turned to the use of fixed gear Lyme Bay closure which they (pots and nets) and there is attribute in part to the trawling now concern among the com- ban since 2008. This group munity that there is over too has drawn up a voluntary exploitation of these code of conduct. resources. This has lead to A study has been set up to consultations as how best to investigate the concerns of manage the fisheries in the over exploitation of some protected areas and discus- resources: the Lyme Bay Pot- sions have been had on ting Intensity Project. The capping the static gear fishery study is to run for over three for crab, lobster and whelk years and was established in (Buccinum undatum). Many discussion with fishermen fishermen engaged in these from local ports who have fisheries have been audited agreed the location of experi- and been shown to comply mental areas to be subject to with the Responsible Fishing varying fishing effort includ- Scheme (RFS) run by Seafish. ing no-take zones. Local The scheme was launched in fishermen have also taken on 2006 by the Seafish Industry the responsibility of ensuring Authority with the aim of that the agreed fishing effort is enabling skippers to demon- implemented correctly within strate compliance with good the experimental areas. fishery practice in the UK. The use of static fishing Members of the working gear is not without its impacts group behind the Lyme Bay upon some of the more fragile Fisheries and Conservation components of the benthic Reserve project have agreed a community. This too will be 14 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 By Eleanor Buckley

THE fishery for brown crab is one of the most valuable in Ireland – in the region of 6,000 Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority tonnes of edible brown crab is landed by Irish fishermen each year with a value of over €8 million. Declawing of Irish Brown Crab at sea will impact this fishery. It is the responsibility highlights adverse affects of of every crab fisherman in Ireland to ensure the sustainability of this fishery and to work with the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) declawing Irish Brown Crab to ensure stocks are maintained. As the Compe- tent Authority for the enforcement of sea-fisheries law and food safety law in the been accidentally lost during handling, stor- seafood sector, the SFPA works to ensure the age and transport. sustainability of these stocks and also to pro- Discarding clawed brown crab or using mote food safety in the seafood sector. them as bait has the potential to introduce seri- Crab claws are a popular choice as they are ous disease into the crab stock. A higher easier to cook and prepare than live crab and incidence of Bitter Crab Disease (BCD) has contain the best quality crab meat. However, been noted in Irish waters where declawing is brown crabs should not have their claws common. The survival rate of brown crab, removed at sea. Declawing of crabs is the which have their claws removed, is likely to be process whereby one or both claws of a live low and ultimately reduce the potential yield crab are manually pulled off and the animal is from the fishery. then usually returned to the water. Furthermore, if a crab survives declawing it Whilst the practice is defended by some, will be unable to feed effectively and may however, in Irish waters, declawing at sea is subsequently die of starvation. Most crabs use prohibited. Council Regulation (EC) No. their claws for capturing and eating prey – De-clawing of crab at sea is a poor animal welfare practice, which also has negative impact on the viability 724/2001 on the Conservation of fishery crabs with one claw would be disadvantaged of stocks. resources through technical measures for the in subsequent feeding and a crab with both To help ensure the safety and sustainability practice of throwing clawless, defenceless protection of juvenile and marine organisms claws removed would find feeding even more of this valuable fishery, the SFPA produced a crabs into the sea to be scavenged on by preda- does permit the retention on board of sepa- difficult. Moreover, declawing has been guide which can be accessed at SFPA’s Con- tors does not aid the fishery. The Irish crab rated crab claws not exceeding a maximum of shown to result in a physiological stress sumer Guide for Brown Crab industry is of major importance to many 1% of the total catch weight. This tolerance is response in the brown crab as well as resulting (http://www.sfpa.ie/Portals/0/Corporate coastal communities. The SFPA are committed to facilitate the landing of claws which have in bigger wounds. Affairs/Information Leaflets/Consumer Advice to working with this sector of the fishing indus- Brown Crab.pdf) – this highlights how con- try to promote compliance with conservation sumers can take some simple precautions when requirements and to deter the method of purchasing their crab. For example, when buy- declawing. This is a shared responsibility and it ing whole crab, whether live or cooked, it is is the responsibility of every fisherman to important to ensure that the product measures ensure that we maintain brown crab stocks.’ at least 130mm across the widest part of the shell – there is a legal minimum landing size of For further press information, please contact 130mm or 140mm for Irish brown crab Eleanor Buckley, Communications Manager, depending on the location the vessel is fishing Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority on 023 in. The sale and/or display of undersize crab is 88593 46/ 087 920 3658 or email illegal and highly damaging to stock survival and the SFPA requests that consumers who [email protected]. find undersize crab on sale as well as fisher- men who observe illegal activity in the fishery to report it to the SFPA’s confidential line at About the SFPA 1890 76 76 76. The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority is Susan Steele, Chair of the SFPA said: ‘We the independent statutory body, legally have to work together to change the practice of charged with the State’s sea-fisheries law clawing at sea. I use the word ‘we’ to include enforcement functions. The Authority both the crab fishermen and the SFPA. It is in enforces the EU Common Fisheries Policy everyone’s interest to maintain a brown crab and sea-fisheries law generally and food fishery in Ireland and to encourage more safety law relating to fish and fishery stocks. The legislation is there to protect both “It is in everyone’s interest to maintain a brown crab fishery in Ireland and to encourage more stocks. “ products. the industry and the crab stocks. The current

SFPA inshore patrols target illegal fishing Over 100 inshore inspections have been completed since the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) recommenced their seasonal inshore patrols last month across the south, west and north west coasts with the support of the Naval Service and Air Corps as well Inland Fisheries Ireland. The patrols are part of a range of conservation measures to help protect the long term sustainability of Ireland’s valuable crab, lobster and whelk fisheries. The infringements identified by Sea-Fisheries Protection Officers of the SFPA to date have included the discovery of under- size lobster and crab. Regulations are in place regarding the minimum size that can be harvested to ensure these species can reach maturity. Since 1 January 2015 new national regulations¹ on lobster sizes have included a maximum and min- imum size, recognising the important role that very large lobster play in the reproductive potential of stocks. Susan Steele, Chair, SFPA said: “The sustainable management of these valuable inshore fisheries is critical to safeguard their future and, importantly, the economy of many coastal communities. Illegal fishing by a small number of fishermen is unfair to those thousands who fish legally and jeopardizes the inshore industry. The SFPA along with the support of the Naval Service and Air Corps is committed to creating a level playing field and we are delighted that the excellent inter- agency co-operation between the SFPA, Naval Service and the Air Corps is resulting in enhanced compliance levels being encountered in these patrols,” she said. In addition to the SFPA’s ongoing RIB patrols, the Naval Services’ LE Orla and the LE Ciara have been involved in joint inspections with the SFPA while Air Corps are flying frequently on all coasts. The patrols will continue through the autumn. Sea Fishery Protection Officers from the SFPA who will be conducting inshore Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, Tel: 023 8859300 Email: [email protected] Web: www.sfpa.ie patrols across the south, west and north west coasts through to the autumn. SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______15 Cork’s Lough Wildfowl Society

Denis Twomey A Wildlife Group in the City in the 1960s & 1970s A flock of Canada Geese at the edge of the Lough. rated a small pond, built of As well as rearing wildfowl down into the soft peat type By Denis Twomey stone. This pond had to be and introducing them on the “soil” and took it up as if it refilled frequently as it leaked. reserve at the Lough, the Soci- was grit. This resulted in them THE Lough is a shallow, Perhaps at the time pond liners ety organised lectures and getting lead poisoning, which freshwater limestone lake near were not available or if they outings, distributed literature is fatal. To prevent it happen- the centre of Cork City and a were we could not afford the on its amateur findings and ing birds were confined for as popular amenity for the peo- cost. Our first clutch of mal- had a very successful stand at short as possible in the release ple of the area. Fed by lard eggs were obtained from the Cork Summer Show and at pen. In passing, the pen wire underground springs, it covers Major William Bell of Fota the Science Exhibition in City rusted very quickly where it four hectares and averages 1m Estate, and they were placed Hall in 1967. One of the most was submerged in the peaty in depth. It is a well known under a hatching hen (know adventurous outings was to the type water, which must have and important refuge for wild- also as a broody hen or in West Skelligs off the Kerry coast to been very acidic. fowl – such as ducks, geese Cork a clucking hen). We study the gannet colony. The You might wonder where and swans. reared five ducklings, which Society also encouraged other did the lead shot come from? On 18th June 1963, the were released on The Lough sanctuaries to be set up, The southwest part of the inaugural meeting of the on or about the end of July including one in Arklow, Co. Lough was in the flight path Lough Wildfowl Society took 1962 – our first introduc- Wicklow, to which the Society of duck and snipe and was place at 8 Ophelia Place, The tions. From time to time sent up mallards. regularly shot during the sea- Lough. It grew out of an idea I mallard may be observed on In July 1967, I left Cork to son. This was much curtailed Rearing wildfowl in the back garden in the 1960s for introduction into the Lough. developed, under the auspices different parts of the Lee, visit a number of wildfowl when housing developed in of the Lough Parish Guild of e.g. the tidal portion in front research reserves in Britain the area and it became an Muintir na Tíre. After a short of the City Hall and these and Denmark. The highlight amenity for people walking period it was realised that the could be descendants of of my visit was the Wildfowl and children playing in the idea of a wildfowl sanctuary, those that were originally Trust at Slimbridge. It was an surrounding grassed area. if it was to be developed, introduced on The Lough. unforgettable experience to be Snipe flighted regularly in required its own specialist The interest from the public able to study the finest collec- winter in and out of the bog. type organisation to work on was very heartening and we tion of Wildfowl in the world. This was in the context that it. Membership was £1 per had only a few cases of birds Of the then 147 species of bogs and wet areas were liter- year, with Associate Members being hunted by dogs. An ducks, geese and swans ally only a direct flight of a paying 5 shillings and Junior introduction sign/glass case known in the world, the Trust mile or two away. These areas Members 2/6. was erected on the banks of had 124 of them represented. have since been drained and In most countries, the areas the Lough and it gave details The resident birds that were most are gone, under a dual chosen for wildfowl sanctuar- of the birds released and their present on the Lough 60 years carriageway and warehouse ies would have a background sponsors. The purchase of the ago were coot, waterhen developments. We also had in wildfowl breeding in spring birds was made possible by a Photos courtesy of Denis Twomey (moorhen), mute swan – usu- visits from shoveler (a pair or A release pen on the island in the Lough. or of visiting birds in winter. sponsorship scheme, the com- ally one breeding pair and two) and water rail. The Lough, modest in size as panies that were involved to little grebe (dabchick). These The lake iced up most years places, with nature at its most Under the Wild Birds Pro- it is in a built up suburb, was the best of my memory/ were augmented in winter for perhaps one or two days or diverse all round – ideal tection Act 1930, the Minister up to standard as far as gen- records were Cork Gas Co., with the addition of pochard, a week and in some years for places to contemplate the made an order dated July 17, eral criteria went. Martin Mahony Bros, Cork tufted duck and a handful of several weeks. The birds that world while getting away 1963, under the above Act, The objects of the Society Milk Producers, Musgrave mallard and teal. Before the kept “open water” were the from the hustle and bustle of entitled “Wild Bird (The were the conservation of the Bros, W.J. Heaslip – Millers, Lough was declared a sanctu- coots, mute swans and in later modern living. Due to land Lough, Cork City Area) Order, Lough’s wildfowl and the Irish Refining Co, F.H. ary, these species of waterfowl years they got some assistance drainage and competition for 1963”. ‘In accordance there- education of people in general Thompson, Beamish & Craw- (to include our definition of from the small flock of other uses, even marginal with, the killing or taking of to an appreciation of the ford, Dowdall & O’Mahony wildfowl) could be observed pochard. The major problem wild places came under pres- wild birds and the taking or wildlife of the country. Arthur Guinness. The half either on the water or flighting with the frozen lake was that it sure and thus wildfowl had a destroying of the eggs of wild The collection of wildfowl century since has taken its toll in and out of the “bog” (the provides ready made bridges big challenge to survive. birds is prohibited in the Bird at the Lough enabled many on that list – a number are no island in the lake). Tradition- for a keen terrier to travel out Shooting people, conserva- Sanctuary, The Lough, Cork as people, who normally did not longer trading. ally the island was always to the bog and hunt it, causing tionists and other like-minded specified in the Order.’ This have the opportunity to do so, The following wildfowl were referred to locally as the bog disturbance, if no actual dam- people began to realise that official government order cre- to study and watch numerous released on 20th October 1962: on the Lough. If one men- age. Unfortunately a wing “pay back time” was here or ating a sanctuary did help as it species of waterfowl in their − 5 Atlantic Canada Geese tioned the word ‘island’ they clipped bird is unable to fly was on its way. Conservation gave legal protection to the natural habitat. It also enabled − 3 pairs of Carolina or probably would understand and may be killed unless its may be for all sorts of rea- birds and a situation where many wild duck to rest and Wood Duck what you meant, but would seeks whatever open water is sons, however even though authority had the backing of feed in peace. − 1 pair of Chiloé Wigeon think you were getting very available. What I have just late in some places, the con- even higher authority, includ- The Lough as a wildfowl − 1 pair of Mandarin grand in yourself. described did not happen very servation of wetlands had ing the local Garda who were sanctuary was modelled at the − 1 pair of Magellan Geese. The bog is technically often, but it is certainly a fac- begun. One project sparks very helpful. Fifty years ago time on the Wildfowl Trust at The winter of 1962/63 took described as a “floating tor in an “open” situation. another and a number of proj- crime was not having a light Slimbridge, Kent, in Southern its toll and a number of the scraw” and for its expansion The fascination of wildfowl ects got underway or, as on your bike! England, and the work of Dr. birds were lost. As I recall, we and development depends on is part of the story of man’s already mentioned, were up Though the Cork Wildfowl Jeffery Harrison who flooded certainly had a steep learning small sally trees spreading relationship with birds that and running in the UK. This Society ended in the early gravel pits and converted curve as all the factors in run- roots on rotting vegetation, provided food (when man sparked off a very moderate 1970s, the Lough has contin- them into a nature reserve. ning a wildfowl reserve came which would have build up was primarily a hunter/gath- practical interest in Ireland ued to be an important habitat The Wildfowl Trust that was into play at different times, year after year. Some of the erer) and at the same time many years before studies of for a large bird population and set up there has gone from due to weather etc... “trees” also fall and again fascinated him with their wildfowl were carried out, i.e. a place where the citizens of strength to strength and has At a later date a wooden vegetation builds on this. This migrations. For example, counts, records etc... Cork City can enjoy watching broadened its scope to the punt was purchased, which presented problems when where did barnacle geese The Society was instrumen- and studying wildfowl in their management of wetlands. helped with many projects for building a release pen for come and go from, in part of tal in getting Cork Corporation natural habitat. In the two years prior to the example the building of a birds, particularly the ducks. the West of Ireland? The to apply to Minister Micheál Ó Society being established, a release pen on the bog. The When confined to a small area places that wildfowl breed or Móráin, Minister for Lands, to Denis Twomey, rearing pen was set up in my boat was generously spon- the ducks exposed lead shot winter in tend to be generally make the Lough a wildlife Model Farm Road, Cork. back garden, which incorpo- sored by Guinness. that would have percolated wild and largely uninhabited sanctuary. 16 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______17

Canada Goose, descendent of the original geese introduced on the Lough 50 years ago.

Coots – widely distributed in Iceland, augmented The Domestic type of the swan goose is known as the Chinese Goose (Anser cygnoides). The wild swan goose is native to Northern China and is rare. in winter by migratory birds.

THE LOUGH Mallard feeding at slipway. Black swan, native to Australia and now New Zealand, introduced to the latter country over 100 years ago. Cork City Feral pigeons mopping up some grain left by Photography by Robbie Murphy wildfowl. Details by Denis Twomey

Mute swans feeding on bottom of lake. Domestic Geese. Greylag Goose, large and heavily built goose, probable ancestor of most of our domestic geese.

Path at the Lough. Mute swans. Mallard, one of our common wild duck. They have spread from the Lough and taken up residence in any More domestic geese. available pond/river in the Cork area. 18 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 TELLUS A major regional geological survey being undertaken by the Geological Survey of Ireland

By Emma Scanlon, The Ground Survey: Ray Scanlon & Samples of soil, stream sediment and stream water are taken by sampling Mairead Glennon teams, at a frequency of one site per 4 km2 or approximately 1000 acres. The samples are analysed for a suite TELLUS is a major regional geolog- of geochemical elements and com- ical survey being undertaken by the pounds, showing the natural Geological Survey of Ireland. The chemical variability of earth materi- project, consisting of low level air- als. Teams have recently finished soil Topsoil Geochemistry for Cobalt. Magnetic Anomaly. borne geophysical surveys and sampling in the north midlands ground based soil surveys, is planned region. to continue across all of Ireland in the coming years. Previous phases of the survey have resulted in an Past, Present and Future improved understanding of the envi- Since 2007, over 25,000 km2 of the ronment and natural resources and island of Ireland has been surveyed the data are available openly and through Tellus surveys. freely to all. In Roman mythology, The first phase of the Tellus Proj- Tellus was the goddess of the Earth. ect, comprised geoscience surveys of Northern Ireland completed between 2004 and 2007. These surveys com- The Air Survey: prised geochemical surveys and a In the current phase, Tellus North low-level airborne geophysical sur- Midlands, two specially equipped vey of the whole of Northern Ireland. planes will fly approximately 90m In 2011, a cross border partnership above the ground to collect geologi- between GSI, GSNI, Queens Univer- cal data in rural areas, rising to 240m sity Belfast and Dundalk IT were in urban areas. The two white, single successful in its bid for €5M EU propeller C208B Cessna Grand Car- funding to complete Tellus Border; avan planes have a blue stripe and an extension of the Tellus survey into Images courtesy of GSI red nose with registration numbers the border counties of Ireland. Tellus Aerial Surveying. Manually surveying and sampling for the Tellus Surveys. VH-ZKG and VH-ZKB. The sound Border successfully concluded in of the plane is less than that of a December 2013. Natural Resources. The current sur- Geological mapping – under- passing lorry. A small receiver • Tellus continues as a programme vey phase, Tellus North Midlands, Some of the benefits of standing underground geological attached below the aircraft takes area in the Geological Survey of is in operation mainly in counties structures, on land and in the measurements as they fly over differ- Tellus surveys Ireland, funded by the Department Roscommon, Longford and West- coastal near shore environment. ent types of rock, soil and water. of Communications, Energy and The data captured by a geochemical meath, and also in adjacent areas of survey is useful for: • Health for humans – for exam- Mayo, Galway, Offaly, Kildare, and ple, by measuring the radon • Geological mapping – identify- Meath. This survey follows south- ing the chemical and physical gas associated with naturally wards from the border region properties of soil, which is occurring radioactivity in rocks survey and aims to complete air- formed from the rocks beneath and soils, the data helps us to bet- borne geophysics data acquisition ter understand where the health • Agriculture – for example, helping and soil geochemical sample col- to better manage crop and animal risks may be. lection by mid-2015. health through understanding high The Geological Survey of Ireland or low contents of essential agri- Contact details: Tellus Survey, now aims to complete Tellus survey- cultural trace elements Geological Survey of Ireland, ing in 50% of the country by end of • Mineral prospectivity – identify- Beggar’s Bush, Haddington Road, 2017, with the view to completing ing areas of interest for mineral Dublin 4. Tel: 00353 (1)678 the country in subsequent phases. exploration An ongoing awareness-raising 2761. Email: [email protected] The data captured by a geophysical www.tellus.is campaign is continuing to alert ani- survey is useful for: mal owners and the general public to the details of survey operations if they have concerns about sensi- tive animals. Geochemical data Over 150 geochemical datasets, including cobalt in topsoil (above) revealing geological controls the chemistry of earth materials City Print Ltd., Carrigrohane Road, Victoria Cross, Cork Geophysical data T +353 21 4545655 F +353 21 4342996 Eight geophysical datasets including email [email protected] www.cityprint.ie total magnetic intensity (above) showing new detail in regional geo- Printers of Ireland’s Hidden Depths logical features, often obscured by soils and thick glacial deposits. Areas already completed and to be completed by 2017. SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______19 Wildlife of the Suffolk Coast

have shown resilience in one of three circular walks of areas of coastal wetlands in deal of work is done through- looking for its wildlife are By Anthony Toole bouncing back again when the around 2.4 kilometres that led the south of England. out the year to prevent scrub very unlikely to leave disap- weather has improved. to various viewpoints in the These reedbeds are home to vegetation from taking control pointed, whatever time of year I HAD been sitting for less There was plenty of bird reserve. A short detour the very secretive bitterns, of the heathlands and scrapes. they come. than a minute. The surrounding food here while I made my brought me to the North whose camouflage makes Excessive weed growth needs heather played a seemingly visit, for on my meanders Hide, and a first view over them almost impossible to to be cleared from the ponds infinite set of variations on the Anthony Toole, 65, Cheswick around the sandy footpaths, I the West Scrape, a shallow, see, even when one is looking and the reedbeds thinned out Drive, Gosforth, Newcastle theme of purple interrupted by saw countless butterflies: brackish lagoon dotted with at them. Marsh harriers can periodically. upon Tyne, NE3 5DW, U.K. contrasting yellow patches of hedge brown, small heath, islands, ringed by reedbeds often be seen searching for the The reserves remain open knee-high gorse. A sudden small tortoiseshell, red admi- and populated by terns, gulls small birds that are their main throughout the year to allow E. [email protected] movement, and a tiny bird dis- ral and peacock, as well as and greylag geese. In the dis- prey. In the afternoon heat, visitors of all ages to enjoy the http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ant appeared into a taller clump of dragonflies and damselflies, tance rose the incongruous however, only chaser and spectacles of the annual cycles honytoole gorse to my left. As I scanned while large areas of gorse outline of the Sizewell hawker dragonflies and vivid of life. Spotting some of the this with binoculars, it flew were covered with spiders’ Nuclear Power Station, shin- orange, green and blue dam- creatures requires patience, across to another bush, where webs. This bounty was also ing with what looked like a selflies shared the air above and a bit of luck. Though it paused for perhaps a second being enjoyed by the many pristine cleanliness. the reeds with the swallows. many of the birds that spend before flitting off again to dis- swooping swallows and the The track ran to the north While the wetland habitats the summer here will have appear into a line of gorse heath’s less shy residents, its of the scrapes, past reedbeds of Minsmere may be the gone south by autumn, they thicket. But that fleeting skylarks and meadow pipits. through which darted sedge most important in terms of will have been replaced by glimpse was enough to show In contrast to Dunwich warblers and possibly even bird life, the mosaic structure migrants from the Arctic. Vis- me the red breast and long tail Heath’s 87 hectares, its the occasional bearded tit. allows for the survival of itors to the Suffolk Coast that identified it as a Dartford southern neighbour, Mins- On reaching the beach, it other environments with their warbler, a rare bird that in mere, extends to more than turned south, past sand dunes own particular inhabitants. Britain is found only in a few 2000 hectares. It is owned by and the concrete cube relics To the northern and western scattered heathland areas of the Royal Society for the Pro- of a World War II coastal corner are the woodlands and southern England. tection of Birds, and its defence line and on to a fur- grasslands that are populated The scene of my brief mosaic of woodland, grass- ther series of hides. with small birds, such as the encounter with the Dartford land, beach and wetland The birds pecking in the many varieties of tits, finches Images courtesy of Tony Toole Images courtesy of Tony warbler was the National habitats make it one of the muddy margins of the East and warblers, along with Trust’s Dunwich Heath, one of most important wildlife Scrape included little ringed larger species like, wood- a string of wildlife hotspots reserves in the country. It plovers, greenshanks, lap- peckers and jays. that together make up the Suf- came to public prominence in wings, common and curlew Here can be found mam- folk Coast and Heaths Area of May–June 2014, when the sandpipers, dunlins and god- mals of all sizes, ranging from Outstanding Natural Beauty. BBC chose it as the venue for wits. Wading through the shrews through water voles, Indeed this thin strip of land, its 10th anniversary series of shallow pools were a few soli- stoats, rabbits, grey squirrels running for some thirty kilo- Springwatch live television tary herons and little egrets and foxes to badgers and deer. metres from just south of broadcasts. and several dozen avocets. In There are also introduced ani- Lowestoft, England’s most It was a month after these the deeper waters, mallards, mals like Muntjac and rare easterly town, is an almost broadcasts when I arrived at coot, moorhens and shelducks Chinese water deer. On the unbroken succession of Sites Minsmere, so perhaps I floated serenely, while Barna- drier areas leading up to and of Special Scientific Interest, missed the most exciting cle and Canada geese rested into Dunwich Heath, one may Special Protection Areas and period, in which the birds’ on the islands. find lizards, grass snakes and Ramsar wetland sites. At the breeding activity was at its The track crossed a sluice adders, with frogs, toads and northern boundary of Dun- most feverish. Nevertheless, through which water flowed newts in isolated damper wich is the Westleton Heath the sand cliff beside the Visi- to regulate the levels on the patches. And there are the National Nature Reserve, tor Centre, honeycombed with scrapes, then turned back past common and grey seals that while to the south lie the nesting tunnels, was noisy the extensive reedbeds of the frequently haul themselves lagoons and reedbeds of Mins- with the comings and goings North Levels. Scarlet pimper- onto the beaches. mere bird sanctuary. of dozens of sand martins, nels spotted the dull brown Like almost all nature These heathland areas were frantically feeding up their rubble footpath with specks of reserves, Dunwich Heath and created when early farmers, chicks in readiness for their colour. To the sides stood tall, Minsmere would not remain more than a thousand years southerly migrations. white blooms of marsh mal- in their present conditions if ago, cleared the trees to allow I followed the Coast Trail, low, a plant confined to small left to Nature alone. A great their sheep to graze. During Anglo-Saxon times, Dunwich Clockwise from top: was the capital of East Anglia, Scarlet pimpernel; Barnacle and a prominence it lost when Canada Geese, East Scrape, much of the town and its Minsmere; West Scrape, Minsmere; Lapwing (left); Marsh coastline were washed into the mallow (right); Moorhen and sea following severe 13th cen- chicks; Hedge brown butterfly; tury storms. In recent Small tortoiseshell butterfly; centuries, the encroachment Chaser dragonfly; Gorse and of agriculture has further heathers, Dunwich Heath. eroded the heaths, which remain as a rare habitat reach- ing to the very edge of the sandy coastal cliffs that con- tinue to disappear by the year. The Dartford warbler is doubly unusual in that, unlike its neighbour, the nightjar, and other heathland warblers, such as the blackcap, it remains in residence here throughout the year. In harsh winters, this has led to declining numbers when the insect food supply has been seriously depleted, though the small populations 20 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 before enclosure and herbi- cide spraying of the Tivoli wastelands, ended their glory days. Yet, a similar, scintillat- ing floral display of THE FLORA adventives can still be seen on Cork City’s limestone quay- walls, as, for instance, between Wandesford Quay and Sullivan’s Quay, on the OF CORK CITY south channel of the River Lee. Here, we find species of very different origins, sharing the same cramped space, such A Personal Perspective as: the yellow-flowered, North American Monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus); purple- By Tony O’Mahony Little Robin (Geranium pur- wort was endemic to the lava flowered Indian Balsam pureum) and Round-leaved slopes of Mount Etna, in (Impatiens glandulifera) and Crane’s-bill (G. rotundi- Sicily. Oxford Ragwort Chinese Butterfly-bush (Bud- CORK is a compact city, folium), both of which exhibit escaped from cultivation in dleja davidii); the red-flushed, neatly nested in the west-east an extremely localised distri- Oxford Botanic Garden in remarkably daisy-like flowers aligned valley of the River bution in Ireland, and are 1794 and, over time, spread Lee, upriver of the magnifi- mainly confined to lime-rich along the British railway net- of Mexican Fleabane (Erigeron cent Cork Harbour. Its soils. The widely-scattered, work. In Ireland it was karvinskianus) and the lush- geology consists of limestone extant populations of these established and of common green, mosslike, rampant and sandstone outcrops (an two rarities, are very vulnera- occurrence in Cork City and carpets of the Mediterranean aesthetically delightful fea- ble, given that their habitats its environs by 1838, and plant, Mother-of-thousands ture) and this arrangement is can easily be eliminated by similarly availed of the Irish (Soleirolia soleirolii). reflected in the stonework of infrastructural developments. railway network to very Cork’s beautiful old walls and Little Robin is a member of gradually extend its range to architecture. The city’s envi- the Mediterranean element in other parts of our island. His- The Future of Cork rons boast a wide range of the Irish Flora, and was first torical data of this nature, City’s Flora O’Mahony Image courtesy of Tony distinctive wildlife habitats recorded in Ireland from Cork adds immeasurably to the Oxford Ragwort (Senecio squalidus) . (e.g. rivers, streams, wood- City (prior to 1838) by study and intrinsic interest, Currently, the flora of Cork lands, saltmarshes, freshwater William Alexander, when he of local, regional and nation- City is diverse and species- ponds, hedgebanks and sand- was just twenty years of age – ally botany, and puts one’s rich, this being a reflection of stone and limestone quarries), a precocious botanical talent! finds in their proper geo- the wide range of ecological which in turn hold a diversity After 1848, this species was graphical context. habitats that are still present of wildflower species, both lost sight of in Cork, until I within the city limits. How- indigenous and naturalised. It happened to refind it in a Plant Aliens at Cork’s ever, Cork City Council’s is this admixture of native and number of Cork City stations plans for the repointing of the alien plant species that adds in June 1969. I continue to Tivoli Docks and on limestone quay-walls in the such zest to the recording of monitor the fate of these near future, may lead to the the flora of Cork City and its dwindling, relict populations the Quay-Walls elimination, or massive reduc- environs – a dynamic mix that on an annual basis. During the 1970s, Tivoli tion, of the very colourful is always in flux, with some Docks (the original location species thriving as the decades for the Cork-Swansea Car flora (i.e. native and natu- go by, whilst others wain, or The Alien Component Ferry) provided a further berth ralised species) that they die out completely. Born into of the Cork Flora for alien arrivals in Cork City. currently support. this environment in June This mixture of adventive Image courtesy of Tony O’Mahony Image courtesy of Tony In the nineteenth century, Image courtesy of Robbie Murphy 1949, I had developed a pas- species, unleashed a spectacle Cork City provided the first Tony O’Mahony, 6 Glenthorn sion for the study of of colour up to the late–1990s, One of the docks in Cork City. Spur Valerian (Centranthus ruber). anchorage in Ireland, for a Way, Dublin Hill, Cork. wildflowers by the age of ten, suite of adventive plant and this scientific enterprise species, some of which has become a lifelong obses- arrived (as seeds) in the stone- sion, providing me with a ballast of ships trading limitless source of interest, between Cork and foreign knowledge and pleasure, over ports. In response to congenial the past fifty years. living conditions, these adventives quickly became Cork City’s Rare established on walls and waste ground in the city. As a child, Native Plant Species I was intrigued and delighted Five decades of recording the each May, when local wall- flora of Cork City and county tops were aglow with the (i.e. 1964–2014) has provided pink, vermillion, or white a fascinating overview of the blooms of Spur Valerian (Cen- gains and losses of plant tranthus ruber) growing species within that time cheek-by-jowl with the radi- period. In Cork City in partic- ant yellow flower-heads of ular, it has been possible to Oxford Ragwort (Senecio ascertain the distribution and squalidus). To me, these two, frequency of all of its com- colourful plant species were a mon and rare native plant sure and welcome indication species, the latter (and their that the heady days of summer habitats) being highlighted for were imminent. Yet, despite special legal and environmen- their cohabitation on Cork’s tal protection, whenever walls, both had very different possible. In this connection, origins and histories: Spur the city’s wall-tops and hedge- Valerian being a native of the banks provide a home for Mediterranean region, and cohabiting populations of the established in Cork City by nationally rare annual species, 1818, whereas Oxford Rag- SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______21

Figure 1. Global Annual Landings of Dusky Grouper & Comber (FAO 1950-2012) GROUPERS (Family: Serranidae) in NE Atlantic & Mediterranean Waters

ing; some species do not mature until Dusky Grouper By Declan Quigley they are 8–10 years of age. During the brief (1–2 week) spawning season, (Epinephelus marginatus) GROUPERS (including Seabasses, some species form large aggregations Creolefish, Coney, Hinds, Hamlets, The Dusky Grouper is found in the at specific sites. The largest males SW Atlantic from Argentina (northern Anthiines and Soapfishes) belong to a often control harems containing three Patagonia) to Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), January 1938 (BMHN:1938.2.1.1)] relatively large family of teleost to 15 females. The fertilized eggs and Comber (Serranus cabrilla) fishes known as the Serranidae. in the E Atlantic from western Ireland would appear to be the most northern newly hatched larvae have a relatively The Comber is found in the E Although the systematics of the Ser- (rarely) to South Africa, including the European records. There are at least long pelagic phase lasting up to 60 Atlantic from the south coast of Ire- ranidae is still in a state of flux, it is all of the Macronesian Islands, 34 records of adult size specimens days in some species, following Mediterranean and Black Sea. It also land (rarely) southwards round the generally considered to currently rep- (22.5–27.0 cm; 400–822 g) from the which, the fully metamorphosed juve- occurs in the Indian Ocean from Cape of Good Hope to Natal, South resent about 64 genera including at English Channel dating as far back as niles (25–30 mm TL) settle and adopt South Africa to Madagascar and Africa (SW Indian Ocean), including least 475 living species which are 1832 (Couch 1832), as well as occa- a benthic existence. Mozambique (Irigoyen et al. 2005). all of the Macronesian Islands, found worldwide in coastal (depths The vast majority of Groupers are The species has rarely been recorded Mediterranean and western Black Sea. sional records of juveniles, pelagic <100 m) tropical, subtropical and bottom-dwelling solitary ambush from NW European waters (Wheeler It is a relatively small (maximum 40.0 eggs and post-larvae during temperate marine habitats, most fre- predators, feeding on a wide range of cm SL; 822 g), fast-growing, short- July–August (Stergiou 1997; Genner quently on coral reefs and rocky taxa, particularly crustaceans, lived (c.8 years), hermaphroditic et al. 2004, 2009), which would sug- substrates. Juveniles of some species cephalopods and fishes. Some species which occurs over a wide gest that a small oscillating are commonly found in the lower Groupers have been observed follow- range of habitats (rock, sand, mud, and population has long been established reaches of estuaries. ing Moray Eels [Muraenidae], Posidonia beds) and depths (5–500 in the area. The species has also been Although at least 20 Grouper Common Octopus (Octopus vul- m). In southern waters, the species reported on rare occasions from species have been reported from the Image courtesy of Fabio Crocetta garis), and occasionally other fish as reaches sexual maturity at 2 years of Welsh waters (Kay & Dipper 2009). NE Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea they forage over the reef, in order to age (13–15 cm SL). The Comber feeds The UK Rod & Line Record, weigh- (Table 1), only 7 of these have been catch the small crustaceans and fishes 1978). Indeed there are only three on a wide range of taxa, including ing 822 g, was captured off Mounts recorded, albeit rarely, from European that are frightened from their hiding records from Irish waters: Aran crustaceans, molluscs, cephalopods, Bay, Cornwall during August 1977. Atlantic waters northwards from places. Although some species, such Islands, Co Galway, November 1955 polychaetes, echinoderms and fishes, Although there are only five records Spain and only two of these from Irish as the Atlantic Goliath Grouper (E. [92.5 cm TL] (Healy 1956); Howth, albeit primarily crustaceans. The of adult size specimens from Irish waters: Dusky Grouper (Epinephelus itajara), can attain a maximum length Co Dublin, December 1956 [84.5 cm species exhibits two distinctive colour waters [3 specimens from the Labadie marginatus) and Comber (Serranus of 2.5 m, weigh up to 455 kg, and live TL] (Went 1957); and Skelligs morphs that appear to be segregated o o cabrilla). There is one unsubstantiated Bank (50 32’N, 08 12’W), off Co for up to 37 years, many species grow Islands, Co Kerry, November 1982 by depth: ‘red’ specimens are usually single report of the Eastern Atlantic Cork, c.1950 (BMNH:1951.2.19.17- no longer than 10 cm, and some [95.6 cm TL] (O’Riordan 1983), and found at depths <20 m while ‘yellow’ White Grouper (E. aeneus) from UK 19); one from 4.8 km off Ballycotton species, such as the Longfin Perchlet nine from the English Channel, eight specimens are usually found at depths waters (Cornwall) dating from 1832 Lighthouse, Co Cork, August 1969 (Plectranthias longimanus), a colour- of them dating as far back as 1846 >20 m. The Comber is commercially (Couch 1832) and another unusual, [24.7 cm FL; 250 g] (Went 1970); and ful zooplanktivore found in the (Couch 1862; Mahe et al., 2012). exploited by artisanal fisheries albeit confirmed single record of the another from Dingle Bay, Co Kerry, Indo-West Pacific, only reach a max- The Dusky Grouper is a sequential throughout its range; at least 147 Western Atlantic Warsaw Grouper July 1973 [19.6 cm; 77 g] (Went 1974)], imum length of 3.5 cm. protogynous hermaphrodite, late tonnes was landed by Mediterranean (Hyporthodus nigritus) from Brittany A small number of Grouper species, it is possible that this relatively small maturing (6–8 years), slow-growing, countries during 2012 (Figure 1). (NW France) dating from 1999 known as “Soapfishes” (e.g. the Indo- cryptic species may occur more fre- long-lived (50 years), territorial (Quero et al. 2000). There are also Pacific Goldenstripped Soapfish quently off the S coast of Ireland that species with sedentary habits, usu- unverified reports of the Rock Hind Grammistes sexlineatus), get their the current paucity of records would ally found in rocky areas at depths (E. adscensionis) from the NE name from the extremely bitter tasting suggest. Increasing sea water tempera- down to 80 m. It is reported to attain Atlantic (Canary Islands & Azores). toxin, grammistin, which is produced tures in the area during recent decades a maximum length of 150 cm and About 40% (N=7) of the species in the dermis. The latter species, as (Boelens et al. 2005), may eventually weight of 60 kg. The current IGFA Image courtesy of John Randall recorded from the Mediterranean Sea well as others (e.g. the Western facilitate the long-term establishment are regarded as non-native aliens, World Rod & Line Record, weighing Atlantic Yellowfin Grouper Mycterop- The species is regarded as rela- of the species in Irish waters. having naturally migrated either from erca venenosa), have also been 21.25 kg, was captured off Sardinia tively uncommon at the northern the Indo-Pacific region via the Red associated with ciguatera poisoning in during 1990. The species is very limits of its European distribution in Sea/Suez Canal (Lessepsian/Ery- humans. Nevertheless, several species heavily overexploited to the extent Declan T. Quigley, Dingle the English Channel (Wheeler 1978). Oceanworld (Mara Beo Teo), The threan Invaders) [N=3] or from the of Grouper are exploited by both arti- that it is now regarded as endan- Two vagrant specimens recorded Atlantic Ocean via the Straits of sanal and sport fisheries as highly gered. Indeed, from an estimated from the North Sea coast of the UK Wood, Dingle, Co Kerry. Mobile: Gibraltar (Atlantic Invaders) [N=3]. A sought-after food fish, with a dramatic peak of 7699 tonnes in 1994, global [48km NE Tyne, North Shields, 087-6458485. References are single Mediterranean record of the increase in commercial global land- landings have plummeted by 85% to November 1915 (Storrow 1916) and available from the author. Indo-Pacific Honeycomb Grouper (E. ings since 1950. During 2012, 1157 tonnes during 2012 (Figure 1). from near Scarborough, Yorkshire, Email: [email protected] merra) is thought to have been delib- estimated global landings of wild- erately released as an aquarium fish. caught Groupers amounted to Table 1. Groupers (Family Serranidae) reported from the NE Atlantic & Mediterranean Sea Most Groupers are monandric pro- 270,000 tonnes. However, over the togynous hermaphrodites (i.e. they last decade, an increasing number and first mature as females, and after quantity of species have been pro- spawning one or more times as duced by aquaculture units. Indeed, females, they change sex, spawning during 2012, estimated global aqua- thereafter as males). It is interesting to culture production of Groupers note that many species of Wrasse amounted to 118,000 tonnes. (Labridae) are also protogynous her- Many Grouper species are cur- maphrodites (Quigley 2009). The rently regarded as threatened. Tagging inducement for sexual transformation studies have shown that Groupers is thought to be related to exogenous occupy relatively small home ranges (e.g. behavioural) as opposed to and are generally resident on a partic- endogenous (e.g. size) factors. Other ular reef for long periods of time species are synchronous hermaphro- (often years). This site specificity, dites, with both sexes functional at the along with the species relatively slow same time in a single individual. growth rate, late onset of maturity, Although synchronous hermaphro- formation of large and easily captured dites can fertilize their own eggs, they spawning aggregations, and high eco- normally spawn in pairs and alternate nomic value, make them particularly the release of eggs and sperm in order vulnerable of over-exploitation by to have their eggs fertilized by other both commercial and recreational fish. Many Groupers are late matur- fisheries (angling & spear-fishing). 22 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 EPA Drinking Water Report

THE EPA Drinking Water Report 2013 is based on the EPA’s assess- ment of the 240,718 sample results reported by local authorities for pub- lic and private water supplies. In Images courtesy of EPA 2013 the local authorities were responsible for public water supplies. Public supplies are now the responsi- bility of Uisce Éireann : Irish Water, and local authorities continue to be the supervisory authorities for pri- vate water supplies. The drinking water regulations provide the EPA with supervisory powers for public water supplies. The EPA can direct a public water supplier to improve the management or quality of a public water supply. Under the regulations a public water supplier must notify the EPA of drinking water non-compliances or risk to public health from a public water supply. Public Supplies Some key findings of the report on the 978 public water supplies: • 174,644 test results submitted for assessment. • 99.82% of samples comply with microbiological parameters. • 99.51% of samples comply with chemical parameters. • 40 boil water notices and a fur- • Removing and preventing Boil ther 4 water restrictions were Water Notices by improving dis- The quality of issued during 2013. infection systems; • private supplies E.coli was detected at least once • Implementing a National Lead 2,070 supplies were fully compliant for in the 10 supplies, up 3 on 2012. Strategy to deal with lead related • E. coli, but 96 supplies had samples Trihalomethanes limits were The EPA can direct a public water supplier to improve the management or quality of water restrictions; a public water supply. taken that failed. All supplies were exceeded in 61 supplies, down • Optimising the treatment process 35 on 2012. to reduce trihalomethanes in water; 100% compliant for 12 of the chemical • • 33 samples (27 supplies) failed required disinfection system 140 supplies were on the RAL at • Prioritising EPA Remedial parameters. For a further seven param- improvements. the end of 2013, this reduced to the Fluoride standard; Action List schemes for eters, a single sample failed each. Of • 121 by January 2015. 7 samples (6 supplies) failed the Improvements to disinfection sys- improvement / investment and the remaining parameters: • 16 directions were issued by the individual pesticide standard and tems, better management of water • Protecting Sources and abstrac- • 2 samples (2 supplies) failed the • EPA in 2013. 104 samples (61 supplies) failed treatment and more investment in tion points by developing Copper standard; • robust and resilient infrastructure is More than half of supplies audited the Trihalomethanes standard. Drinking Water Safety Plans. • 5 samples (5 supplies) failed the required disinfection system required. Overall, the compliance rate in Fluoride standard; improvements. Water Restrictions public supplies is good but this • 11 samples (9 supplies) failed the Remedial Action List masks the specific and serious prob- nitrate standard and lems occurring in some supplies and The quality of and Boil Notices • 34 samples (33 supplies) failed Since 2008, the EPA has listed 449 the significant risk of future prob- During 2013 there were 57 boil water supplies on its Remedial Action List. the Trihalomethanes standard. public supplies notices and 12 water restriction lems. Investment is needed to • 309 were resolved at the end of • Two supplies (3 samples) failed 926 supplies were fully compliant notices active in 16 counties, affect- improve the supplies where people 2013. the individual pesticide standard. for E. coli. 11 samples (10 supplies) ing over 35,831 people. By the end cannot use their water and to reduce • 72 % of the original 339 listed on The EPA report shows that water failed the E. coli standard and 11 of 2013, 19 boil notices and 8 water the risk of other supplies failing to the RAL were removed. meet the required quality standards quality in the private water supply samples (8 supplies) failed the Ente- restriction notices remained in place • 140 supplies were on the RAL at in the future. sector lags significantly behind the rococci standard. across 12 counties, affecting over the end of 2013. quality in the public network. The 17,000 people. Further water restric- As of January 2014 there are 121 EPA will be pressing local authorities tions are also likely because of a Trend in the number of supplies on the EPA Remedial Action Private Supplies to make greater use of the powers more stringent lead standard for List. 36 of these water supplies (serv- Some key findings on Private Water public supplies where E. coli drinking water and a more system- available to them under the drinking ing over 187,000 people) have Supplies: water regulations to drive improve- atic identification of lead pipes. • was detected inadequate treatment for Cryp- 66,074 test results were submit- ments in water quality in the private All supplies were 100% compliant tosporidium. The complete list of ted for assessment. water supply sector. • 97.53% of samples comply with for 15 of the 23 chemical parameters. Enforcement of public water supplies currently on The EPA Drinking Water Report microbiological parameters. Of the remaining parameters: the RAL (including details of the 2013 is available at: • Public Supplies • 99.57% of samples comply with 1 sample failed the chemical proposed remedial measures and http://www.epa.ie/water/dw/. The full • 429 notifications of exceedances chemical parameters. parameters Antimony, Arsenic associated timeframes) is available at data-set of 2013 data is available at: of the standards were investi- E.coli detected at least once on 63 and Bromate; www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/water/d http://erc.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/ • 4 samples (3 supplies) failed the gated by the EPA. small private supplies, 32 private rinking. displayISO19115.jsp?isoID=3073. Copper standard; • 53 audits of public supplies were group water schemes and 1 public • 8 samples (7 supplies) failed the conducted by the EPA. group water scheme. Nitrate standard; • 16 directions were issued by the Strategic Issues The microbiological quality of pri- Environmental Protection Agency, • 13 samples (11 supplies) failed EPA in 2013. The priorities for Irish Water are to vate supplies, while improving, PO Box 3000, Johnstown Castle the Lead standard; More than half of supplies audited improve the water supply system by: remains inferior to public supplies. Estate. Wexford. www.epa.ie SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______23

This owl motif, printed at the end of all Henry Williamson Henry’s books, aludes to the barn owls in the roof of his first Novelist, nature writer and conservationist Devon cottage. Image courtesy of Henry Williamson Society Image courtesy of Henry Williamson

schools). Later, essays on nature and England’s flirtation with fascism, a stance arising from vanishing countryside that Henry wrote for The wartime experience. Daily Express – these and Rachel Carson’s A sturdy wooden writing hut on a Devon Silent Spring – made me a conservationist. hilltop, built with the Tarka prize money, is his There was also the thrill of discovering his memorial – fortunately recently purchased by other books, notably the 15-novel Chronicle of sympathetic buyers. Henry never achieved the Ancient Sunlight, a panorama of Edwardian literary fame he deserved, but was one of the England, World War I and its aftermath. Alas, first high-profile conservationists, creator of an Image courtesy of Henry Williamson Society Image courtesy of Henry Williamson Image courtesy of Henry Williamson Society Image courtesy of Henry Williamson these have frequently been overlooked by both otter loved by generations of children (though a readers and critics. very adult story) and someone many remember Henry Williamson (1895–1977) grew up in for his articles and broadcasts. Archive 1960s the then expanding south London suburb of film in recent World War I television coverage Lewisham. From the first he showed a passion- showed a dignified old soldier with a gentle ate love of nature and wanted to write, but mellifluous voice. Henry’s last years were seemed doomed to dull office life. Then in sadly marred by dementia, and he died in Lon- autumn 1914 he enlisted and was sent to the don far from his beloved Devon. There, on the Western Front, where he endured the First Bat- day he died, they shot the final scene for the tle of Ypres. One incident in particular would film of Tarka the Otter. But not everybody had remain with him always. He wrote home on 26 forgotten Henry Williamson. Distinguished Henry as a young man. December 1914 of the informal Christmas poet Ted Hughes, for whom Tarka proved a Truce, when he and others talked and revelation when he read it aged 11, gave the JOHN AKEROYD describes the exchanged gifts with German soldiers. Later he address at his funeral. neglected genius who wrote recalled how they felt their military cause was just and also learned that German cousins were Dr John Akeroyd has visited Sherkin for Tarka the Otter. fighting nearby. Falling ill, he returned to Eng- nearly 30 years, writing or editing botanical land, becoming a Machine Gun Corps transport and other publications for the Marine Station. EIGHTY years ago in 1935, an unusual best- officer. Dogged by poor health, maybe through He is Editor of the Journal of the Henry The cover of the Henry Williamson Society Journal seller took British publishing by storm, selling stress, Henry twice returned to France, for the depicts Henry’s life as farmer, soldier, naturalist and up to 3000 copies a day. No story of romance, Battle of Arras at Easter 1917 and for the Ger- Williamson Society writer, and as a young boy absorbed in nature. adventure or crime, although all featured, it man spring 1918 offensive that so nearly ended (www.henrywilliamson.co.uk). was the biography of a fish. Salar the Salmon the war. Shortly after, he again returned to Eng- was written by Henry Williamson, who in 1928 land on medical grounds. Letters and diaries had won a prestigious literary prize for another convey not so much horror as the tedium and animal saga, Tarka the Otter. Superbly discomfort of trench life. In fact Henry was observed and crafted, Tarka (never out of gassed, received minor wounds and near- print), Salar and Henry’s other animal stories misses, and an exploding shell killed his horse have deservedly remained popular, if perhaps – and gaps in his papers probably hide more less so in recent years. Yet this prolific author traumatic events. He saw enough to convey the of over 50 books preferred to dwell on another truth, and later avidly researched the war for theme, currently topical, the experience and the novels. effects of World War I on his generation. The war over and remembering an idyllic The countryside is a recurrent element in 1914 holiday, he moved to Devon for peace English literature, with a long tradition of and solace. Writing allowed this deeply sensi- authors who write about nature, farming and tive man to express his feelings. Today we’d landscape, and I’ve collected their books since say he suffered post-traumatic stress, and childhood. I discovered Tarka the Otter in 1960 although he married twice and had several chil- when a thoughtful teacher read it to us in dren, his family and private lives were fraught Nature Study (which should be taught in all and he could be a prickly fellow, if devoted father and friend. Even the suffering of his ani- mal characters, particularly Tarka pursued by otter hounds, reflects the uncertainty, pain and fear of battle. A self-taught writer – war was his university – his style was somewhat erratic but he possessed astonishing descriptive powers,

Image courtesy of John Akeroyd Image courtesy of John whether evoking the countryside and its wild creatures, portraying Devon villagers, describ- ing how he restored and managed a Norfolk farm, or recalling his Edwardian childhood as London engulfed fields and woods, and the car- nage of 1914–18. He wrote with love, compassion, humour and attention to detail, even if more an enthusiastic than skilled natu- ralist, and certainly no botanist! The Chronicle’s huge narrative of people and place should perhaps have been shorter but that might have blunted Henry’s vivid sense of time and place, remarkable descriptions of a now lost English countryside and devastated land- scapes in France and Flanders, and sympathetic depictions of the lives, emotions and foibles of ordinary people. The books sold well but are First edition of Salar the Salmon (1935), with jacket illustration by C.F. Tunnicliffe – John Akeroyd’s now too often forgotten, partly because some copy, bought in 1976. people have judged him harshly for a 1930s 24 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59

Birds of the Homeplace The Lives of Ireland’s Familiar Birds By Anthony McGeehan. with Julian Wyllie The Collins Press Publications of Interest www.collinspress.ie ISBN: 9781848892293 Britain’s Habitats showing the geology and climate the book, we find tips to help cluding the dangers and real life The Annual Price: €24.99/2014 and where special conservation wildlife and to help children con- rescue stories, and they also ex- Report of the What a won- A Guide to the Wildlife areas are found. Each habitat is al- nect with nature. Aimed at a young plored themes of community, fish- Irish Specimen derful book! Habitats of Britain and located two or four pages in which audience, the book would be an ing hazards, ocean safety, weather Fish Committee From the mo- Ireland its characteristics are summarised ideal pres- and loss. Thirty-two children from is always of in- ment you start along with its origins and devel- ent for fishing families in each coastal terest. In 2014 reading, it’s Sophie Lake, Durwyn Liley, opment, its conservation needs children in community were also invited to the committee like a cosy fire- Robert Still and Andy Swash and the flora and fauna that live primary participate in the workshops and, processed 578 side chat, with Princeton University Press there. The sections are each illus- school but with the help of artists Sharon claims, with 526 ratified. The year anecdotes and trated by up to a dozen excellent would be a Kelly and Orla Kenny and writer has seen the largest ever recorded stories really www.press.princeton.edu photographic images showing lovely in- Jo Holmwood, the conversations weights for four species of Irish bringing the book to life. This is a ISBN 978-0-691-15855-6 typical examples of the habitat troduction and art produced on the day were fish. They were rod catches: a carp book you can read from cover to and a small but representative se- to Ireland’s animals for adults too. It included in this book. (14.24kg/31.4 lbs), a thin-lipped Price: €39.99/2014 cover and then keep by your side lection of its plants, animals, birds is great to find a book dedicated to It becomes clear through the mullet (2.86kg/6.31 lbs), a golden as a reference guide. It’s quite ob- Subtitled ‘A Guide to the Wildlife and insects. Ireland’s fauna, especially one that voice of the children in the book, grey mullet (1.2kg/2.65 lbs) and a vious that the two authors have a Habitats of Britain and Ireland,’ Anyone with an interest in the will capture the imagination of any- what a big impression the sea has spur dogfish (11.06kg/24.38 lbs). wealth of knowledge and experi- this beautifully produced book outdoors will find this book indis- one remotely interested in nature. plays in many of their lives and how Two anglers received Gold Speci- ence between them. gives due prominence to such im- pensable. I will certainly be dip- Susan Murphy Wickens aware they men Badges having had over 50 The book itself is essentially in portant Irish sites as the Burren, ping into it frequently. are of the specimen awards over the years. Connemara, Kerry, the Shannon two parts; the first part explores Tony Toole Too Cold for Sharks dangers of They were Des Chew from Rath- the lives of birds, in general and and others. It that envi- farnham, Dublin 14 (awards from looks at nine specific terms, and goes on to sug- Kids’ Own Publishing ronment. 2008–2014) and Brian Cooke principal habi- My First Book gest equipment and techniques for Partnership Too Cold from Killiney, Co Dublin (awards tats, which it bird-watching. It’s here that you of Irish Animals www.kidsown.ie for Sharks from 1981–2014). All records for get a real insight into what makes sub-divides is a excel- 50 species of fish are listed in the By Junita Browne ISBN: 978-1-902432-94-6 birding so fascinating to so many into 64 vari- lent publi- book, including where and when people. The second part is called ants and a fur- Illustrated by Aoife Quinn Price: €10.00/2014 cation. It not only gives a glimpse the fish was caught, the name of ther nine that Species Accounts and looks at the This book is about ocean safety into the lives of children and fami- the angler, the weight of the fish, are rare. The Browne Books characteristics of individual birds, and fishing life by 116 children lies that live in or have a connection its length and methods used for vegetation that characterizes each, [email protected] but is much more informative than from all over Ireland. Commis- to coastal communities but it makes capture (maggots, sweetcorn, and hence the fauna that lives just an identification guide. The ISBN: 978-0-9550594-1-4 sioned by the Health and Safety it clear that the issue of safety at sea worms, mackerel, boilie etc...). there are determined largely by ge- whole book is illustrated with Price: €13.99/2014 Authority of Ireland, Too Cold for is important no matter where you There are excellent photographs of ology, climate and soil chemistry. beautifully clear photographs. Sharks helps children to learn live – whether it’s Castletownbere, anglers with their specimen fish None of these habitats is com- My First Book of Irish Animals is a Knowing Julian, I can confirm about the dangers of the ocean and Killybegs or Howth. Told in the and it is really good to see the pletely natural, but all have been, lovely book. It introduces the reader that his knowledge and dedica- how they can stay safe by the sea. words of the children, the book is an number of children included: for millennia, and are still being to 26 of the animals that can be tion to birds and the natural envi- Following a nation-wide com- effective way of helping children Conor Ward with his Roach/Rudd influenced by human activity. found in Ireland – some on land and ronment is astounding, and petition, 84 children were selected (and adults) realise the importance hybrid (2.61kg/5.75lbs), Sarah They overlap in places and are some in the sea. From the Red Anthony’s qualifications speaks as winners from every Education of safety at sea. Lynch with her Twaite Shad continually evolving. Squirrel to the Pine Marten to the for themselves. Between them, Centre catchment area in the coun- Susan Murphy Wickens (1.22kg/2.69lbs) and Emmet Hope The structured layout of the Bottlenose Dolphin, each animal is they have produced a lively, en- try. At six coastal venues around with his Pouting (1.37kg/3.01 lbs). book makes for ready comparison beautifully illustrated and is accom- tertaining and informative book, the country, they spent a day tak- I continue to find these specimen of the habitats described and the panied by very informative and ac- Irish Specimen Fish 2014 which will appeal to both experi- ing part in a workshop with the catches fascinating and was partic- text is easy to read and assimilate. cessible descriptions and facts. enced enthusiasts and right publishers, the HSA and those di- Annual Report of the Irish ularly impressed with a conger eel An introduction explains the clas- Alongside the animal’s name in through to armchair garden rectly involved in fishing organi- Specimen Fish Committee weighing in at 20.64 kg/45.5 lbs! sification, tells how each environ- English, we are given its Irish name watchers. Highly recommended. sations and sea rescue. There they Anglers will find this book of ment has formed and includes a and are also shown its size in com- Available for free download at Terry Farnell parison to a human. At the back of learnt more about life at sea, in- great interest. historical timeline and maps www.irish-trophy-fish.com Matt Murphy

FAMINE PUBLICATIONS I enjoyed the book which was very well Limits of the Visible: intriguing fresh perspective on this great researched and written and it gave me a tragedy’s social context. Examining the Available from Cork University Press www.corkuniversitypress.com different perspective on the Famine and Representing the Great Hunger advent of mass-printing and the emer- our attitude to it as a Country. The other By Luke Gibbons gence of the illustrated periodical as a Monuments and Memorials of Some monuments started to appear In thing that struck me about the book is that journalistic phenomenon in the nine- ISBN: ISBN: 9780990468622 the Great Famine the 1950’s but these tended to be local or it was published in America. teenth century, O’Sullivan demonstrates individual initiatives. An example of this Paddy Marshall Price: 2015 /€11.95 / 40pp how artists with little experience in de- type is the 50ft high cross erected by By Catherine Marshall In Limits of the Visible, Luke Gibbons picting humanitarian crises became re- Frank Sorensen, a Cork taxi driver, in the porters, and found a fresh visual ISBN: 9780990468608 Apparitions of Death and considers contemporary and retrospec- paupers graveyard at Carr’s Hill, Cork. tive visual responses to the Irish Famine, language to express the enormity of the € Price: 2015 / 11.95 / 40pp From the 1990’s onwards there was an Disease: The Great Hunger in contemplating the ability of these images trauma. The collation of such important This book looks at the Famine through “explosion” of monuments erected. This Ireland to demand ethical actions from the pictorial resources alone makes Tombs of the memorials and monuments erected to was brought about by the “Celtic Tiger” viewer, not just emotional re-actions. a Departed Race a fascinating study, and commemorate the event and it comes up and the monuments were commissioned By Christine Kinealy Evocatively illustrated by fascinating O’Sullivan’s analysis provides a power- by either the Government or wealthy in- with some interesting reasons why it took ISBN: 9780990468615 historical resources and more recent ful and moving testament to the effec- so long for the country to erect any me- stitutions or individuals. These tended to artistic responses to one of the nineteenth tiveness of images in creating a history Price: 2015 /€11.95 / 40pp morials and what the memorials that either depict the plight of the people, like century’s greatest humanitarian disasters, where words fail. were eventually erected had to say about John Behan’s monument, depicting a Gaping at the heart of historical discus- Gibbons powerfully argues that what is Catherine Prowse the famine. “coffin” ship, erected in Mayo in 1997 sion of the famine that swept Ireland from left out of these images through a “judi- The following are the reasons given as and it’s partner, depicting the “coffin” 1845–52 is the question of how such suf- cious obscurity” conveys the sense of a to why memorials were not erected for ship arriving with survivors, erected in fering could occur. Apparitions of Death tragedy too immense for adequate repre- generations after the Famine: New York in 2000 or else consist of a list and Disease provides a valuable and fas- sentation. An essential resource for stu- · Lack of funds. Poverty continued well of the names of the people who died in cinating insight into the conditions that dents, academics and readers interested into the 20th century in Ireland. In the event being commemorated, like the lead a nation to starve. Christine in the ability of the human imagination to 1910 some of the worst slums in the monument erected in 2007 at Eireann Kinealy’s interrogation of contemporary respond to ethical crises. British Empire were in Dublin. Quay in Toronto, Canada to honour the scientific knowledge of the potato blight’s Catherine Prowse · Lack of the will to commemorate the 1124 people who died there in 1847. causes, the British government’s inade- Famine. This came about because Ire- The book also identified a common quate responses to an escalating crisis and land was still under British rule problem faced by all the artists who pro- a succession of failed public and private The Tombs of a Departed Race: until1922 and Britain did not want to duced the monuments i.e. they were try- philanthropic measures examines the po- Illustrations of Ireland’s Great commemorate the Famine. As Ireland ing to capture the essence of a long past litical and socio-economic environment Hunger was still beset with poverty its people event using present day criteria as a that engendered a very human tragedy. did not want to commemorate people basis. Because of this I agree with Asen- This beautifully produced and illustrated By Niamh O’Sullivan who died in abject poverty. ath Nicholson who said the workhouses volume utilises a variety of sources, ISBN: 9780990468639 · The shame of the people who survived were the real monuments of the Famine from historical eyewitness accounts to the Famine along with the “relief projects” which recent artworks, providing a unique and Price: 2015 /€11.95 / 40pp · In the 19th century monuments tended still survive around the country as they comprehensive perspective on Ireland’s Niamh O’Sullivan’s comprehensive to be erected to heroes rather than the were used by or built by the people who Great Hunger. analysis of artworks and illustrations de- virtual annihilation of a people. were alive during the Famine. Catherine Prowse picting Ireland’s Great Hunger offers an SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______25 Heritage Houses of County Cork

A Review by Matt Murphy

THIS book was produced by the Heritage Unit of Cork County Council. It is the second in a series of guidebook-style publications on her- itage sites and buildings in the county. The first was the excellent Heritage Bridges of County Cork, which was published in 2013. This latest book highlights the rich architectural heritage of A Corrugated Cottage in Newtownshandrum – a the county, in particular the more modest of his- fine example of the rich variety of vernacular toric buildings – those that lie somewhere dwellings in the County. between the grandeur of the Country House and the quaintness of the Thatch Cottage. As we The Red House in Youghal, built in 1710, is a good journey through the book we are brought from example of a house built during the Queen Anne Prehistoric Houses right through to houses of period. 20th century Cork. Castle, build in the late 13th century, and Blar- Heritage houses have seen so many different ney Castle, Cork’s most famous and finest lives and lifestyles and have adapted to meet example of a Tower house. We learn that the changing needs over time. Most people today hole through which tourists are lowered to kiss would find it hard to picture home life without Images courtesy “Heritage Houses of County Cork” the Blarney Stone constituted part of what was running water or electricity yet for millennia originally used for dropping hot stones or hot The publication is part of the County Cork people lived without them. oil onto attacking enemies. The 18th century Heritage Plan and as part of the project, numerous The book looks at the history and develop- saw the building of the Red House in Youghal Heritage Groups and individuals throughout the ment of the ordinary house in Cork. The vast and many other “grand” houses are described, County were asked to get involved, by majority of these buildings represent the bulk of Front elevation of a late 19th century West Cork House. including Maryborough House, Douglas, Cork. recommending the inclusion of any houses in their our architectural heritage where the Irish people The book also explores the Architectural local area, together with any stories or details they would provide about them. live out their daily lives. To get a sense of when of the population were living in one or two Styles and Features in houses and how they these houses were built, included in the book is rooms. Overall 80% of the population lived in were influenced by fashions, economic trends provided us with a wonderful insight into the a most interesting timeline of house styles from 3rd and 4th class dwellings, compared to only and technological advances. We read about the heritage house of the County. Reading the book the Neolithic era 3900 BC to 1930 AD. 2.8% in 1st class structures. By the 1861 census types of houses in the Queen Anne, the Geor- certainly gives one a greater understanding It is interesting to read of the phenomenal however 80% of the 4th class dwellings had gian, Victorian periods and details of the about these buildings and it will make one look rate that villages and towns grew during the been demolished. The introduction of the 1890 materials used are extensively covered such as at houses in towns, villages and in the country- 18th and 19th century. Around the same time Public Health (Amendment) Act which for the chimneys, roof coverings, shapes and trusses – side from a different perspective. I hope they many members of the gentry began to build vil- first time enforced minimum standards in hous- all illustrated by photographs and drawings. continue to document Cork County Council’s lages which promoted industrial development ing form, fabric and number of occupants. The The book focuses on a selection of thirty wealth of historical information in future books. near their estates. Sir Richard Cox established a plans for these houses are described in detail houses in County Cork, which illustrate the and a drawing of a Labourers Act style house c. development of particular styles of houses or linen manufacturing village at Dunmanway, Heritage Houses of County Cork. Thomas Adderly built houses at Innishannon to 1890 from Aherla in Co Cork is included. those that can be considered good examples of encourage Huguenot and Ulster Scot linen Throughout history the houses built by the their type. There is a brief description of each Heritage Unit of Cork County Council weavers to settle there and James St John Jeffer- upper classes reflect their power and influence followed by a discussion of its overall impor- [email protected]. yes paid for the construction of a series of in society, also their wealth, privilege and edu- tance and historical context. The final pages of this www.skibbheritage.com/shop.htm houses at Blarney. cation. The 12th and 13th century saw the most interesting book has a further 57 photo- ISBN: 978-0-9525869-8-2. The condition of Farm Labourers or cottiers’ building of the first stone castles in Co Cork. graphs of additional heritage houses in the County. Price: €14.00/2014 housing from the 1841 census showed that 48% We see a picture of the impressive Liscarroll The Cork County Council Heritage Unit has

riences of these individual people outlined in this book. Skibbereen The Famine Story Accompanying the book is an app which uses the streets of Skib- By Terri Kearney & Philip O’Regan bereen town to trace the crisis as it unfolded using the voices of the people and places in the area." cian that was one of the most heroic kitchens contained six times that people who experienced it. It can be We learn of people living in figures of the Famine in Skibbereen, amount of beef – and the Skibbereen downloaded from the Skibbereen fourth class houses built of stone or states that in January 1847 “40,000 Union Workhouses, built to cater for Heritage Website for €5.00 mud with a thatched roof and an pawn tickets, some representing 8 to 800 people, had 3,784 inmates by www.skibbheritage.com. Both the earthen floor. Measuring 12’ x 15’ 10 articles, have been issued within April 1849. book and the app would be an in- the family sharing their living space 3 months’ in Skibbereen”. These are just an example of the credibly useful tool in schools, with an animal, usually a pig, which With the poor dying on the streets some of the reports documented in helping to put human faces and A Review by Matt Murphy was kept to pay the rent. By August of Skibbereen, a group to alleviate the book of the tragedy that befell the voices on the Great Famine. people of the Skibbereen Union dur- IN 1845 more than half the people 1846, with the total failure of the the suffering was formed. It set up www.skibbheritage.com living in Ireland were directly de- potato crop all but a few food depots one of the first large-scale soup ing the Great Famine of 1845–1849. ISBN: 978-0-9926242-1-7 pendent on the potatoes for their had run out of food. By December kitchen in Ireland, feeding up to The true enormity of this national food. That year a potato blight, car- thousands of people were slowly 8,600 people every day from the tragedy is revealed through the expe- Price: €11.99 / 2015 ried by imported seed potato from dying of starvation during that bit- Steam Mill Building at Ilen Street. north eastern USA, took its toll on terly cold winter. Many public relief In a report by Dr. Donovan he the Irish potato crop. By 1846, there works were introduced such as mentioned finding a decomposing was a 90% failure of the potato har- breaking stones for roads. A gang of body in a cabin and at its feet “lay a vest in the Skibbereen Union area in 150 old men, women and children girl groaning with pain; and by its West Cork, an area which stretched were working on a relief scheme at side was a boy frantic with fever.” from the Mizen Peninsula to Ross- Marsh Road, Skibbereen. The Elsewhere he gives an account of

carbery and north to Drimoleague. ground was covered with snow and the Barrett family living in a shed Image courtesy www.skibbheritage.com The book "Skibbereen – The there was a very severe frost - most 7ft x 6ft wide, surrounded by a ram- Famine Story" brings us on a jour- declared that they had not tasted part of human bones with six indi- ney through horrendous periods of food for the day. viduals close to death with fever. the Great Famine in this devastated In desperation, the poor pawned One reads of international aid in area. The book's authors aimed to their few possessions, fishermen 1847, government-run soup kitchens "make this complex period accessi- their nets and many people their – the recipe a quarter pound of beef in ble using contemporary reports of clothes. Dr. Dan Donovan, a physi- 2 gallons of water, while Quaker run Old Chapel Lane, Skibbereen, Co. Cork, during The Great Famine. 26 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 JUNIOR PAGES

The Unusual Suspects

While Great White Sharks have been portrayed in books and films as the most dangerous marine predator, the animal which kills the most people in the sea each year is the humble Box Jellyfish of which the most dangerous is the Australian species Chironex fleckeri. This little animal has dozens of tentacles, each up to five metres long and enough toxin to kill around 60 people each in as little as three minutes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that 100 people die every year because of box jellyfish stings, more fatalities than those caused by sharks, crocodiles and stone fish combined. Another small bottom-dwelling animal with a bad reputation is the Blue-ringed Octopus of Australia, which grows to only about 20 cm across but carries enough venom to kill around 30 people and whose bite can kill a human in about five minutes.

The Great White Shark is the largest predatory fish in the John Joyce ©

sea and though it is portrayed as the most dangerous shark, Images by John Joyce that dubious honour goes to its smaller cousin the Tiger Shark which attacks less human beings than the Great White but causes more human fatalities. Tiger sharks will eat anything – For more Fun Facts seals, birds, squid, small sharks, dolphins and even old pieces of tyres. check out It is worth noting however that the TOTAL number of human www.spindriftpress.com deaths in US coastal states caused by shark attack annually is still almost forty times less than those caused by lightning strikes and that only three species of shark – the Great White, Tiger and Bull Shark – have killed more than ten people.

Keeping a very low profile is the most venomous fish in the sea – the Stonefish which, because of its incredible ability to mimic part of the seafloor, inflicts injury by accident when barefoot beachcombers step on it and trigger its venomous spines. These produce a sting so painful that victims of Stonefish poisoning have been known to demand that the affected limb be amputated rather than endure the pain. Luckily, the Stonefish itself does not attack human beings and stings are usually the result of a barefoot swimmer stepping on one of these fish by mistake. Stonefish are even consumed as food in some parts of Asia. Their venom is harmless once the fish is heated by cooking and its meat is consumed with ginger in a clear soup, or – for those who like to live on the edge – even raw as sushi or sashimi. SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______27

This worksheet looks at the coastal environment and the animals and plants that inhabit it. It encourages children to study different factors that can affect the shore, developing a sense of Shore Watch responsibility towards natural environments.

ACTIVITY OVERLEAF

Fill out the four grids at the bottom of the box on the left. Each grid is designed for children at different levels of learning.

Discuss with the child/children the words in the dictionary work box. See if they can identify places or animals to which these words would be relevant.

Research one of the animals or plants overleaf and write a piece of information on each. Once you have completed this work, draw a line to where on the shore you might find them. Cut out the animals and plants and stick them into your notebook, alongside the piece of research. Colour them in.

Create characters for a story, based on some of the creatures overleaf. Choose a theme for the story: food web, dangers, human interaction, conservation, weather, etc..

FURTHER DISCUSSION

Ask your family has a local beach changed over the years? Is there less or more rubbish on it? Is there more or less sand? What may be causing these changes?

Who uses the beach – swimmers, walkers, sunbathers, boating people?

How does rubbish get onto the beach?

Who should pick it up?

If you were keeping the beach clean, how would you feel if someone left rubbish on it?

How do you think the animals feel when their home is polluted?

How would you feel if your home was polluted?

How can we prevent the rubbish getting into the sea?

Do you think there is much biodiversity in the ocean? Is it a different type of biodiversity than you would find in the countryside? 28 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59

The Hermit Crab, with anemone’s growing Sea Life & on its home. Camouflage

nimals that live in the sea face many dangers and one of the most dangerous is predators. Some animals use Acamouflage to protect themselves. This means that they have the ability to hide or blend in with their surroundings. An animal may be born with a particular colour or pattern and will therefore hide in an area that matches the colour of its own body. Others can change colour depending on the colour of their surroundings or if danger is near. The octopus and squid can change their colours rapidly in order to sneak up on prey or to warn Images courtesy of Paul Kay/Sherkin Island Marine Station off predators. Many This Scorpion Spider Crab is heavily camouflaged with sponges, which it would have picked off the rock and stuck to its shell. fish and animals are speckled so they can blend in with stones Fish that live close The skin of the Short-spined Sea Scorpion, which is mottled grey and brown on top and paler underneath, is well camouflaged in or sand without to the sea floor are seaweeds and shallow waters. The markings can sometimes change to suit the background. being seen and often dark in colour others are striped on the top side of so they can hide in vegetation. Some animals even mimic or copy their body, to other animals or plants to hide from predators. match the dark sea If a creature cannot change colour, it may ‘decorate’ itself bottom. This makes with leaves or seaweed in order to hide. It may also allow it harder for another animal to live on it, for example a sea anemone living on predators, such as a crab. The Sea Hare, changes colour birds and sharks, to according to what it is eating. If see them from it eats green seaweeds it turns Shallow waters and sandy-bottomed rockpools are often above. Fish that live hiding places for young flatfish. Flatfish often bury greenish in colour and changes closer to the themselves in the sand with only their eyes showing, so that they are camouflaged from any predators. to reddish in colour if it feeds surface are often on red seaweeds. This means lighter on the underside of their body to match the Sea Hares will blend in with their brightness coming from the sky. This makes them invisible surroundings as they eat. The Sea Hare. to predators that may be underneath.

Humans in Disguise Unlike animals, humans don’t have the ability to change the colour of their skin to suit their surroundings, however they use other means to blend into the background when necessary. People wear special coloured clothing to match their location: white when in the snow, black at night, browns and greens when in the forest. Humans also paint their faces and wear leaves and branches in order to blur the lines of their body. From a distance, it becomes much harder to pick out the human shape. SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______29

Camouflage Quiz WORD BANK Having read about Camouflage on page 28, see if you can complete this quiz. A word bank has been supplied to help you. Blend Change ACROSS Colour 2. To imitate or pretend to be Conceal something else. 4. Decorated with a design. Danger 6. Not moving at all. Disappear 7. To mix two colours Disguise together. Hide 9. Make different. Invisible 10. To vanish or cease to exist. Mimic 11. Something that can be a Motionless cause of harm. Pattern Protect DOWN 1. Something’s hue or shade. 3. Something that is not visible. 4. To guard against. 5. To keep in a place where it cannot be seen. 8. Change the appearance of. 9. Stop something from being seen. Answers on page 30.

Free po of sta €50.00 orgeono rd Sherkin Island Marine Station PUBLICATIONS more! ers

A Beginner’s Guide to Colour Books The Wild Plants of Bere, Ireland’s Wild Flowers A5 (softback) 32pp Dursey, Whiddy and other ISBN-13: 978-1-870492-23-2 SB. 140mm x 100mm (208pp). €1.95 per book (plus p&p .60c) Islands in Bantry Bay ISBN: 978-1-870492-48-5 SB 170 x 245 mm (240 pp) €7.50 (plus p&p €1.00) €11.00 for set of 7 (plus p&p €2.00) €19.99 (plus p&p €3.00) A Beginner’s Guide to Ireland’s Seashore Ireland’s Bird Life Ireland’s Hidden Depths ISBN-13: 978-1-870492-96-6 SB 140mm x 100mm (208pp). ISBN-13: 978-1-870492-80-5 SB A4 (160pp). ISBN: 978-1-870492-53-9. SB 277 x 227 mm (160 pp). €7.00 (plus p&p €1.00) €14.00 (plus p&p €3.00) Special Offer: €10.00 (was €17.99) The Natural History of Sherkin Island, (plus p&p €3.00) West Cork – An Introduction ISBN-13: 978-1-870492-38-6 SB 208 mm x 98 mm (72 pp). The Wild Plants of Sherkin, Sherkin Comment €2.00 (plus p&p €1.35) Cape Clear and adjacent ISSN: 0791-2447 Islands of West Cork Subscription €8.00 ISBN: 1 870492 86 2 SB (206 pp) On the Water’s Edge (4 issues per sub – p&p included) €6.00Special Offer (plus p&p €3.00) Price increase due to increased postage charges. €6.00 Special Offer (plus p&p €1.30)

NEW Books can be ordered through Paypal or by cheque or postal order from An A to Z of Geology Supplement the Station’s website ISBN: 978-1-870492-33-1 A4 SB 24pp ISBN: 978-1-870492-58-4 SB 246mm x 170mm (36pp). www.sherkinmarine.ie

€5.99 (plus p&p €1.00) €2.50 Special Offer (p&p €0.75) or contact us at Sherkin Island Marine Station, Sherkin Island, Co Cork. Tel: 028–20187 Email: [email protected] 30 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 GAISCE – the President’s Award John T. Murphy Director, Development, retires from Gaisce – The President’s Award

have felt the passion and energy with which they pro- moted the programme. It is no surprise then that the Award grew and within the first num- ber of years the number of applications went from 300 to 3,000. When John T retired in December of 2014 the number of Gaisce applications was in excess of 20,000. John T was always promot- ing Gaisce, in the supermarket the cashier could find them- John T. shares a joke with President Mary McAleese at a summer garden party at Áras an Uachtaráin in 1998. selves with a new pen, compliments of Gaisce, or Patrons of Gaisce, John T was small things that people miss Gaisce Thank him for his better still he might look for the lead on all three visits of in the end, and it is John T’s huge contribution to the the boss and see if there was a HRH Prince Edward, The Earl kind gestures and corny jokes development of the Award and team willing to play in the of Wessex to Ireland and the that we who have worked with we wish him health and happi- upcoming Gaisce Golf classic, three visits of HRH The Duke him for many of his 30 years ness as his next journey always with a smile and the of Edinburgh to Dublin in Gaisce will miss the most. begins. Slán agus Beannacht! Annalea Heffernan, Gaisce Award Holder and President's Award charm of a bee keeper. There including the hugely success- Not a man to let the dust Leader (PAL), with John T. Murphy. are many stories about John ful visit of Queen Elizabeth settle for too long, John will For information on Gaisce – bumping into people going with a special meeting of now just about have time for The President’s Award see about their daily lives who Gaisce sponsors and partici- all of his other interests and www.gaisce.org would come away from him pants in Farmleigh with The involvements. We here is with notions of Gold Award Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Challenges or the recruitment Philip in 2011. of new PALs, always promot- Behind all of the big occa- ing and encouraging. sions, John T went about his In 2004 at the second inau- business in an unassuming guration of President Mary manner. He could always be McAleese, John T was given called upon to remember a Work colleagues gather to give John T. Murphy a 'send off'. the huge honour of being name or a date of an event L to R: John Murphy (CEO of Gaisce 1985 to 2006), Margaret Murtagh asked to MC the event, which without referring to Google, (Office Manager), Catherine Kiely and John T. Murphy. he did with the same charm something he was very proud and enthusiasm with which he of. He could often be found By Marion Irwin-Gowran & Margaret Murtagh brought to all the great Gaisce leaving little treats or tempta- occasions. At the event, Pres- tions about the place, and HOW do you give an account Chairman of the European ident McAleese referred to always had a little supply for of someone in a few words Task force on Leader Training John T as Mr. Gaisce himself, when they were needed most. when they have become part and World Scout Training a fitting title to all who know It was always said of John T of the furniture, the very fab- Committee. John was also the him. Speaking of royalty, that he is a great man for the ric of an organisation? This is first Chairman of the commit- Millennium Gold Encounter. John T. Murphy also in the picture is having worked under four big occasions and while that is President Mary McAleese, who was Patron of Gaisce – The President’s the challenge of writing about tee on the merger of the Presidents of Ireland as very true, it is always the Award and HRH Prince Philip, Patron of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. John T Murphy’s 30 years of Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland involvement with Gaisce – and the Scout Association of The President’s Award. Ireland to become the new In December 2014, John T ‘Scouting Ireland’. Murphy retired as the Direc- In 1984 the ‘call’ came to tor, Development with Gaisce assist the government in set- – The President’s Award fol- ting up Gaisce – The lowing almost 30 years of an President’s Award and he illustrious career with the never looked back and Gaisce organisation. John T (so called kept moving forward. The because of the confusion with two John’s would often talk of Award Images courtesy of Gaisce – The President’s the first appointed CEO of taking out the map of Ireland Gaisce, also John Murphy) and drawing a line to divide began his working life as an up the counties, then get into articled clerk with the Institute their respective cars and hit of Chartered Accountants fol- every town and village in lowing two years as a student those counties with a second- in UCD’s medial faculty. He ary school or youth group to left private practice to join deliver, like evangelists, the Clerys of O’ Connell Street as word of Gaisce. I use the Management and Financial word evangelist deliberately Accountant. John T was also because anyone who would John T. Murphy with entertainer during this time an active have encountered the two Daniel O’Donnell at a summer 2006: Gaisce Silver Award Presentation Ceremony. L to R: John T with John Murphy (CEO of Gaisce 1985 to garden party at Áras an 2006), Mark Little, Barney Callaghan (CEO of Gaisce 2006 to 2013) and former board member Gerry

member of Scouting Ireland, Johns in those days would Uachtaráin in 1998. Costigan.

- 1. Colour; 3. Invisible; 4. Protect; 5. Hide; 8. Disguise; 9. Conceal. 9. Disguise; 8. Hide; 5. Protect; 4. Invisible; 3. Colour; 1. - Danger. 11. Disappear; 10. Change; 9. Blend; 7. Motionless; 6. Pattern; 4. Mimic; 2. - 29: PAGE TO ANSWERS Down Across SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 ______31 32 ______SHERKIN COMMENT 2015 Issue No 59 Sand, rarer than you think

cycles. Sand and gravel was created the US are scrambling to rebuild sands are the ones that beach users By Michael Ludwig or simply pushed ahead of the gla- homes and shorelines including frequently prefer but they move so ciers. The material was often left as beaches and dunes that were literally easily they require constant replace- SAND and gravel are the highest moraines or river deltas. As sea level swept away. Two of the biggest ques- ment on beaches. volume raw materials used on earth rose, later, the deposits were redis- tions facing the scramblers are; 1) Offshore sand and gravel mining after water. They are usually created tributed into plains and shoals by where will suitable sand come from is a rapidly growing industry as by nature, slowly. Unfortunately, oceanic processes. The maximum and 2) who is going to pay for it? upland sites become less productive. their use rate greatly exceeds their depth they occur at reflects the low- Many are finding that while the Currently, offshore mining in the US creation rates, and supplies are est sea levels created by the glaciers. answer to the first question is not too appears to produce about 20 million shrinking. Sand is rock weathered Sand grain shape is important in its complicated (offshore sources), the cubic yards per year. Although the (eroded) by wind, ice, water and/or use but as weathering continues it second answer is far more compli- consequences of offshore mining are chemicals. Natural weathering and becomes rounded. The more trans- cated. And, that is partly because not visible, they can be extremely transportation of sand and gravel ported, the more rounded it becomes sand is not a single, “one size fits all” destructive to aquatic resources. continuously produces smaller and and the less effective it is for good commodity and size is very impor- Mining can adversely impact the Sand is rock weathered by wind, ice, water and/or chemicals. smaller grain sizes. Variation in concrete mixtures. So, while sand and tant for different uses. Along with seafloor along with its population of wind, ice, and water energy also gravel resources around the world are sand type (shape and color) size flora and fauna. Removing habitat have been slowly filling for more causes sorting by grain size. The generally, plentiful, geographic distri- influences its residency time on a and the inhabitants is just the start of than fifty years without reestablish- amount of transport energy applied, bution, quality requirements, and project site and how it feels when the problems. Sorting the sand at sea ing their original form or function. separates the finer from the coarser environmental restrictions on its you walk or sit on it. And environ- dumps the finer particles into the Making matters worse is the deposi- (larger) sizes leaving those heavier extraction are making it more compli- mental impacts of mining must be water causing turbidity. Another tion of contaminated sediments into (larger) sizes behind. This is particu- cated and costly to obtain. The most understood. Sand when used in a unanticipated problem is the pits left them from throughout the Hudson larly visible when walking along a important sources have been glacial coastal setting, needs to be able to in the seabed. Some pits are almost a River catchment area. While some beach. One can often see uniform deposits, river channels, and river withstand some amount of wind and square mile in size with depths pits create habitat for pelagic fish to deposits of sand that vary in grain flood plains. However, while many wave erosion activity or it can be exceeding sixty feet below the use as water temperatures decline, size with their location. This is not as countries mine offshore deposits, the swept away in hours or days even in seafloor. Sand pits created in the the benefits are temporary. As food and water temperature decline finfish obvious after storms or glaciers use of offshore deposits in the United non-storm conditions. This can make seafloor often become silt traps accu- are trapped and can starve or freeze where the available energy moves all States is just becoming a growth restoration efforts impractical or just mulating soupy mixtures of silt, clay to death. the grain sizes. However, it is criti- industry. These offshore mining very costly. Sand is usually a mixture and organic materials. Many species Offshore sand mining merits com- cally important when looking for efforts are often driven by the lack of of grain sizes. Sharp sand can be find it difficult or impossible to sur- prehensive evaluation before being “good” sand deposits. For instance, local land sources as well as their painful to walk on but it is the best vive on or in these deposits. If the implemented. Paleozoic sand deposits are typically proximity to shoreline restoration and type of sand for use as concrete mine site is not receiving sandy sed- found in coastal waters no deeper resiliency projects. aggregate and it resists being moved iment relocated by currents or waves, than about 70 to 75 meters. These In the aftermath of Tropical better than round or heavily eroded the pits may remain unfilled for Michael Ludwig, COWI Marine, deposits were created usually during Storms Irene and Lee and “Super- or “weathered” sand that takes little decades or longer. Some of the sand N.A. 35 Corporate Drive, the four Wisconsin Glaciation period storm Sandy” coastal communities in energy to transport it offsite. “Sugar” mine pits in lower New York Harbor Trumbull, CT, USA 06611

his set of colourful stamps is striking and original T and represents each of the five senses. The stamps feature enhanced production techniques: Taste – strawberry flavoured gum, Touch – thermochromic ink, Sight – transparent paper, Hearing – thermographic ink and Smell – mint fragrance. In addition, all of the stamps contain image recognition technology to allow users with Smartphones with the CEE app installed, to link to specially compiled online material related to the five senses. Order these exciting stamps now at www.irishstamps.ie or by calling +353 (1) 7057400.