Exploring The Waters Of St Andrews Bay Neil Dobson St Andrews Harbour Trust St Andrews Bay • The Deil’s Head, Arbroath to Fife Ness. • River Tay and the River Eden mix with the North Sea at 10- 15m depths. • The bathymetry consists of a relatively smooth seabed topography from 0m at the shore to 35m at the boundary line. • Predominant winds are SW and W then E and NE • E’ly gales have 300-400 miles of fetch • Tides: Springs 4.7m Neaps 3.2m Average tidal range 4m Geology • Fife forms part of the central Belt of Scotland geologically known as the Midland Valley. • St Andrews Bay is made up of two main rock groups. • Devonian (Old Red Rock and Spindle Sandstone) 400 to 350 million years old. • Carboniferous rock 350 to 290 million years old. Maiden Rock • Igneous rocks, molten rock from lava flows, 380 to 290 million years ago. • Three main glacial periods the Kinkell Dome last was 15,000 years ago. Nautical Chart John Adair St Andrews Bay 1703 Shipwrecks 2nd March 1987 - Russian motor vessel Znamy Oktyabrya (October Banner) whilst at anchor driven ashore in a strong N’ly gale and on the rocks at Kinkell Ness. Got off the rocks and escorted to Dundee and dry dock for repairs. 1st October 1912. St Andrews lifeboat John and Sarah Hatfield attending the Prinses Wilhelmina of Halmstead, Sweden. A wooden barque, with cargo of firewood, driven ashore below St Andrews castle. Smuggling • The smuggling trade in the bay was principally with Holland, Scandinavia, France and Germany. • Spirits and tobacco being the main smuggled items in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. • The Coastguard Service came about mainly as a result of a re- organisation of other existing services used at combating smugglers during the early part of the 19th century. Robert Boyack, tidesman, (A customhouse officer who goes on board a merchant ship to secure payment of the duties) St Andrews, seized 37 casks of spirits, 10 of which were hidden in the house of Andrew Cochrane, weaver at Rabbit Hall, Links, St Andrews. List of goods seized by custom officers in St Andrews Bay in the 19th century. aniseed cassia pepper aqua vitae brandy gin rum Dutch cotton vinegar butter chocolate currants figs prunes liquorice raisins sugar candy cambric damasks wine cordials Spanish silk lace black silk thread bone linen muslin candles tallow china coal combs bone feathers gunpowder pearl ashes cards soap starch wool coffee train oil berries tea snuff tobacco salt paper Fishing • Early settlers were fishing in Scotland around 7,000 BC. • Inshore fishing in small open boats from the Fife shores. • Dutch fishermen came to the Scottish waters for the herring and taught local people methods of fishing and curing in the 17th and 18th centuries • Big growth in the fishing industry in the latter half of the nineteenth century, with many advances in boat design. • When sails were replaced by steam power. Technology of fishing gear improved and expansion of markets through improved transport. • Fishing seasons. White fish through the winter, followed by the main herring fishery through the St Andrews fishing fleet in the upper harbour. summer and autumn. A smaller winter herring fishery in the Forth itself. Fishing • The peak of the herring fishery industry and its main decline came between 1900 and WWI. • The beginnings of the seine net fishing began in in 1921 but the use of the large inefficient steam-boats greatly hindered this new fishery. • After WWII, the Scottish east coast fleet, with government assistance, was totally regenerated becoming mainly a whitefish industry. • This in turn declined in the 1970s and 1980s due to overfishing and the subsequent imposition of quotas by the St Andrews commercial fishing fleet in the outer harbour . European Union. Mussels on the Eden • The herring industry continued to shrink. From the 1960s, trawling and purse-netting were the main methods of pelagic fishing, which not only including herring and mackerel. • Following more E.U regulations on conservation of fishing stocks, the fishing industry is now in decline. • St Andrews is now home of a small fleet of inshore lobster and crab boats. Lobster creels Lobster/crab boat Nets drying on the East Bents Salmon Fishery Salmon net posts on the Eden Heather Boner • Salmon net fishing on the Forth and the Tay started hundreds of years ago and by the mid 1700's, had become a huge business, especially on the Tay. • Restrictions on net fishing on the Tay began in the 1960s. The final net was pulled in on 20 August 1996. • Salmon were also caught in St Andrews bay with salmon traps along the West sands The Gatty Marine Laboratory The original timber laboratory on the East Bents 1884-1896 was paid for by the zoologist Charles Henry Gatty, along with a new stone building opened in 1896. Its first Director was Professor William Carmichael McIntosh. The Gatty Marine Laboratory is now part of the University of St Andrews and home to the Scottish Oceans Institute, an interdisciplinary research institute studying the marine environment, the behaviour, ecology, physiology, population biology and functional genomics of marine organisms. 2019 1900s 1960s St Andrews bay is rich with various habitats for coastal plants, wildlife, dune systems, estuaries, cliffs and rocky shores. Laminaria Fucus (wrack) Ascophyllum The industrial gathering of kelp took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. Kelp was burned to make kelp ash (an alkaline). Iodine extraction. From the 20th century alginates and artificial sweeteners made from kelp. Farmers used it as a fertilizer. Kelp was harvested from the beaches and rocky shores of St Andrews and out at Kinkell Ness. St Andrews Bay has large healthy colonies of seals About 40% of all grey seals live in UK waters, and about 90% of this number breed at colonies Seal along the pier at in Scotland. St Andrews harbour. Grey seal. (Halichoerus grypus) There are about 100,000 harbour seals in Europe. About 30% of this population is found in UK waters, and 80% of these in Scottish waters. Marta Droszkowska Raynor Harbour seal. (Phoca vitulina) Bottlenose Dolphins in St Andrews Bay The River Tay is important for migrating salmon and sea trout in Scotland. The east coast of Scotland population of bottlenose dolphins has shown a marked change in distribution and is increasing. The estimated number of dolphins using St Andrews Bay and the Tay estuary during the summer increased from 91 in 2009 to 114 in 2015, representing, on average, 52.5% of the total estimated east‐coast population for that period. Sea Mammal Research Unit University of St Andrews Black dots are dolphins 2009-2015 Gordon Cation Beneath the waves of St Andrews Bay are some of the finest marine habitats. Brown Crab Lobster Reef off St Andrews pier Tom Ashton Mussels Sea Potato Urchin Razor clam Clams Urchin Flatfish Common Hermit Crabs Starfish Cuttlefish Pollock Codling Squid Mackerel Herring Spotted Dogfish Squat Lobster Conger Eel Octopus Historical marine strandings in St Andrews Bay Shark on West Sands in 1935. The longest bootlace worm (Lineus longissimus), in the world Dead whale washed was found on the West up at Boarhills in Sands, St Andrews in 1935. 1864 after a storm. It was 55 m (180 ft) long. Threats to the waters of St Andrews Bay – Humans Pollution Plastics Minke Whale 2016 Dolphin Gary Cumming John Fettes Ian Beaton Sea bird Conger eel 2018 Seal.