Mini Fish and Tub Gurnard

For a special family occasion we booked onto a fishing boat sailing from Barmouth, Viking II, skippered by John, the man who also runs the only lobster boat in the bay. It was a great day out, gentle swell, no rain and good visibility.  We had the excitement of two dolphins and their fins breaking water about a mile out of harbour; I wished we had switched the engine off and just watched, but we had serious fish business ahead.

Anchored safely just south of Sarn Badrig, the twelve mile reef running out from Talybont, John told us that the Aberdyfi lobster boat had sunk on the reef down the coast the previous week; less competition.

Ten of us fished away with multiple hooks, feathers, with squid and mackerel as bait, in all the hot spots. The water was at its warmest and the sky was cloudy so conditions were as good as they could be but in four hours, nothing big enough to eat. We caught nine different species and all but the mackerel were returned with tub gurnard the most spectacular (see note below).

Back on land I couldn’t help but think that George Monbiot is right and that the Irish Sea is empty apart from abundant jellyfish. Peckish from the fresh air we sauntered over to the chippy and on the menu, a glimmer of hope, ‘mini fish’. I asked what it was and the answer was a small piece of cod, priced at £1.60 as opposed to £3.25 for a full portion. Sitting on a bench overlooking the harbour I thought this was the right sort of downsizing.

Tub gurnard? Initially I described this as a red gurnard but Professor Ivor Rees, a regular contributor to this blog, suggests from the blue on the leading rays of the pectoral fins, that it is in fact a tub gurnard. Chelidonichthys lucernus = Trigla lucerna. So now you know! Many thanks Ivor.

Natur Cymru 48 - a rewilding theme

Artwork by Rich Edwards.
Prizewinner in the Natur Cymru wildlife art competition 

The theme for this edition is rewilding, prompted by the publication of George Monbiot’s Feral.

Pandora’s Box or future perfect? - Lizzie Wilberforce. Issues around a wilder future for the uplands.

Room for elephants - Andy Jones. More thoughts on Feral.

Optimism rewarded: Cwm Idwal 15 years on - Barbara Jones and David Parker. Returning diversity and attractiveness to an upland site.

Bringing back the beaver - Adrian Lloyd Jones. Progress with plans for a Welsh re-introduction.

One farm’s flora - Neil Ludlow. A Carmarthenshire smallholding in the 1970s-80s.

Fungi ha-ha and fungi peculiar - Pat O’Reilly. Some examples from a fascinating kingdom.

A mysterious moth – the Welsh clearwing - Rhiannon Bevan and Dan Forman. Discovering the secrets of a potential Welsh icon of nature.

Troad y rhod - Twm Elias. Adfer twrbein Tan y Bwlch a'r ystyriaethau amgylcheddol.

Bee Cause – action plan for pollinators - Bleddyn Lake. A campaign for bees and friends.

Green Books - James Robertson, Andrew Lucas

50 Years Ago - John Harold. Moths and mothing – 50 generations on.

Plants at large - Simon Goodenough - Stuart Smith. Hedgerow harvest - Crug-y-byddar.

Discoveries in science - Alan Orange. New lichens from Welsh rivers.

Marine Matters - Blaise Bullimore. Gloom or hope? Marine Conservation Zones update.

Islands - Geoff Gibbs. Two goodbyes. News from Bardsey and Ramsey.

Life lines - Kathryn Hewitt. LIFE Natura 2000 Programme.

Woods and Forests - Rory Francis. Trees benefit bees.

The autumn 2013 edition of Natur Cymru is available now. To ensure a renewable source of Natur Cymru delivered to your door please subscribe here.

Feral – a book about rewilding by George Monbiot

Kayaking out of the Dyfi in pursuit of non-existent mackerel; reassuring to know it’s not just me who can’t catch them but I’m worried that no-one seems to know why.

Rewilding the seas is probably the easiest to achieve, just exclude commercial fishing from a percentage of the seas and stocks will recover. Fishermen protest that they will be out of business but examples around the world show that short term loss is soon recouped with abundant and sustainable stocks. The economic cost of making and policing exclusion zones would be quickly offset by a healthy and productive fisheries industry yet governments around Britain are just dithering. To authorise scallop dredging in the Cardigan Bay SAC, our highly prized and most strictly protected bit of the sea, is a ministerial decision rightly ridiculed in the book. 

Rewilding the land is more problematic with upland farming and sheep coming in for much flack. I met George to interview him for Radio Wales (Country Focus, Sundays 07:00) and he took me to a hillside from where we could see the Cambrian Mountains. There’s a website promoting this wonderful area cambrianmountains.co.uk as comprising ‘some of the most beautiful, unspoilt landscapes in Europe, as well as rare wildlife habitats’. As far as George is concerned this is a green desert munched by sheep into a bowling green with contours .... ‘with the exception of the chemical monocultures of East Anglia, I have never seen a British landscape as devoid of life’.

As a person surrounded by upland farmers, whom I like very much, I scarcely dare mention the maths in Feral. On average our upland farmers receive £53K in subsidies and at the end of the year earn £33K i.e. the contribution farmers make to their income by raising sheep and cattle is minus £20K. This vast expenditure of public money (£3.6 billion a year in UK) supports the private businesses of a very small proportion of the rural population, just 5% in Wales, and delivers ecological destruction.  It’s a light the touch fuse and stand well back sort of opener to a conversation.

Between the maths and the science there’s some interesting history and surmise about the plants and about the animals that once roamed here. Rhododendron Ponticum was with us long before the Victorians but why was it not such a problem as today? Could it be that our long gone elephants and rhinos grazed on it? To me this conjures up a fantastic picture of safari in the blooming purple foothills around Beddgelert.

This book will provoke a lot of debate for sure.