Here we are awaiting another tourist season on the wild atlantic way. People come for  a sense of wildnerness and the unexpected perhaps. Remote ledges with screaming sea birds, thousands of hectares of soft bog or  waves crashing down on deserted shorelines.

In the seas around us life is stirring. This time of year the seashore is very green and brown and as the year pushes on the fronds of the seaweeds (e.g. pepper dulse and serrated wrack) will swell up with reproductive follicles  turning yellow in the process before releasing the new life to the sea.

The wild atlantic ocean west of us coast from Killary to Mannin Bay around us is internationally important for Marine Mammals. The sea here encompasses  a large range of marine features echocing the drama of  land above including cliffs, reefs, islets and valleys. A population of Bottle-nosed Dolphin lives in this area. This population is estimated at a minimum of 123 dolphins, with possibly up to 200 individuals living in this western corner of Ireland.

Bottlenose dolphins have little distinguishing features; they have white bellies and ventral areas but are uniform grey on their head, sides, tail and dorsal area They feed on squid and a range of fish species and give birth to their calves in the summer months normally June to August. Calves are very small and pale in comparison to the larger darker adults. I was lucky enough to encounter a pod in summer there 4 years ago off the Mayo coast. The young ones just one month old were being protectively kept away from our boat while adult dolphins wove their way at three different depths riding the bow of the wave streaming from the boat. I sometimes see them from White strand off renvyle playfully jumping in front of Cramp Island  or further offshore close to the mouth of Killary harbour.

However, bottlenose Dolphins are not the only marine mammal of interest to grace our waters. Seals are also often seen in the seas around us. We have two different variety of seals here; there is the common seal  and grey seal and despite their similarities they do prefer very different habitats.

The common seal is the smaller of the two seals.  Common seals are generally cuter in appearance with round faces, double chins and v shaped nostril slits. They prefer sheltered coastal areas with a sandier coastline and calmer waters than the habitat of the grey seal. In north west Connemara they are often seen hauling out on in Mannin bay and can often be seen in small groups of seven or eight individuals  on sand and mud banks at mid tide .  Common seal numbers counted at Mannin Bay in 2003 were 33 adults and 3 pups recorded.

The Grey seals are more regal in appearance with longer faces and straight slits for their noses.  They prefer areas of more exposed rocky coastline than that of the common seal species. Haul out sites can be found on areas of rocky coasts or on steep sandbanks. Traditional breeding sites to which individuals will visit every year for the mating and pupping seasons are generally be found on uninhabited islands, In north west Connemara the seals breed on Inishgort which is located relatively close to Inishbofin Island. The breeding Population on Inishgort is large with the population estimated at around 850 individiuals in 2005.

Common seals and Grey seals pup at different times of year perhaps in response to food availability. Common seals pup during June  on secluded sandy beaches. In contrast the grey seals pup in December on the Islands and the young have pure white fur covering them. Grey seal pups are weaned after losing their baby coat at 3 to 4 weeks of age. The pups live off these fat reserves whilst learning to feed, which may take several weeks. I spotted a young pup at White strand in 2004 and it quickly jumped in the water as I approached..

Common seals generally feed on herring, hake, sole and also octopus and squid in deeper waters. Grey seals tend to feed on bottom dwelling prey items such as crustations, flatfish and lobsters but will also hunt for cod, herring and whiting. Grey seals are also known occasionally to snatch resting seabirds.

The seals and dolphins here in these NW  Connemara waters are resident species but occasionally we also get some more glamorous varieties of marine mammals passing through. In 2010 a Killer Whale was seen between Inishturk and Clare Island. In Dec 2011 a sperm whale was washed up on Omey Island and In 2013 five Minke whales were spotted out off this coastline. So keep your eyes peeled…for who knows what we will see off our shores this year?

Fifteen years ago practically no one had heard of Freshwater Pearl Mussels and now mainly due to road schemes everyone has heard of these molluscs which are Irelands oldest living species living til they are up to 130 years old. For thousands of years these mussels have been quietly filtering river water and living side by side with us humans.

Large black FreshwaterPearl Mussels  grow to 15cm in size and  live in gravel of clean rivers. It is easy to age them as they have growth rings on their shells similar to growth rings of trees. They occasionally produce a pearl and this has been one of the main reasons that populations of these animals have gone extinct throughout the world. Many populations have been stripped out in the search for rare pearls.  They are considered to be living extinct species by some experts because there are no young in many of their populations.

This is no surprise ….We are living in the great age of extinctions. Our planet is now in the midst of a massive extinction of plants and animals. We’re currently experiencing the worst rate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

A recent report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that by 2020 populations of vertebrates (animals with a backbone) will have fallen  by 67% since 1970. Extinction rates are now running at 100 times their natural level because of deforestation, hunting, pollution, overfishing and climate change.

Some people think that conservationists seek a landscape without man, but nothing could be further from the truth. Over thousands of years animals, particularly birds, have adapted to the cycles of farming. We manage the landscape for many of these species,

However, with the common agricultural policy we have had massive changes in farming since we joined the EU in 1973. The birds simply couldn’t keep up and are now at the lowest levels since records began across Europe, including  Ireland. Their numbers have reduced by almost half, down from 600 million in 1980 to just 303 million today

Corn Bunting, once abundant in Connemara, has declined by 66% across Europe, and is now extinct in Ireland. The iconic bird of hay meadows the Corncrake have less than 200 singing males left in Ireland  and the Barn Owl is down to 300 pairs. The Curlew, with its characteristic cry has less than 200 pairs breeding in Ireland and could be next to go extinct in Ireland.

Freshwater species are faring even worse than farmland birds, with declines of 81 per cent between 1970 and 2012. Here in the west we have (had?) the best salmon rivers in Europe. Sadly our  stocks of wild Atlantic salmon have declined by over 60% in 40 years and at the Ballina Salmon festival it is difficult to get wild salmon to eat now only farmed salmon is plentiful. I need not talk about the complete collapse of sea trout stocks. These trends are  the same the world over….be it elephants, tigers or monkeys.

The Freshwater Pearl Mussel gets bad press. All that is needed to protect them  are  clean waterways in near natural state. They have an interesting lifecycle. The mussels release young to the water in May June and the young mussel attaches to a salmon it spends a year on the gills of the salmon before dropping off a year later and burying itself in the river gravels.  They are very sensitive to small amounts of sediments in the water as sediment uses up the oxygen available and the young mussels buried in the sediment die.

Republic of Ireland has an estimated 12 million individuals, or approximately 46% of the EU population. Two million of these are in the river at Oughterard. Thus the Owenriff River falls into the rare category of being one of the few remaining breeding populations in the EU and the world. However, its population is in decline,  two pollution incidents in the last 12 years have had a detrimental impact on this population.  Don’t  let the high numbers  deceive you. Most of the mussels here are old; there are not enough young mussels to sustain the population.

This pattern is being repeated the country over with the majority of mussel populations failing to recruit young mussels over the last 30 year period, and widespread extinction of mussel populations is predicted if water quality dosn’t improve.

It is not a case of road widening or Freshwater Pearl Mussels; we can have both. We are sophisticated enough now to carry out bridge and road works and protect water quality too. It means though that written words have to be translated into actions while works are being undertaken  and real steps taken to protect these sensitive aquatic ecosystems.

We would not want a planet devoid of wild animals and plants. Yes in that very sentence there is an inherent responsibility to protect our fellow passengers on the earth. It must be viewed locally …we cannot really help the elephants the lions and the tigers. We can however do our bit to protect nature on our doorstep. It would be to our shame if we allowed these rare species go extinct in the connemara wilderness  on our watch.

The farmer sitting beside me in Olivers Bar last weekend remarked on how quiet the pier is these days. He remembers not so long ago a bustle of activity as fish were landed here daily by dozens of small fishing vessels.

There is concern locally about the supertrawlers off the coast  a worry that inshore fishing is being pushed towards extinction. The poor deal we got in in 1973 when we joined the EEC is obvious. We were promised at that time that joining the EU would mean better regulation and management of our waters yet  what we are finding is that these waters have suffered massive overfishing since then.

The EU claims that 44 species of our fishing stock are at sustainable levels. If the industry was so good then there would not be the disparity between the statistics and what we see on the quays. One fisherman told me that the quota is so low that they could fill it in a week.

Whiting and Cod were super abundant off the coast of UK and Ireland. The UK studies show that the amount (biomass) of demersal fish from 1890 to 2008 has declined by 94% .  There is a serious  decline also in fish stocks off the west coast too. What has happened as one fish stock becomes depleted other fish species such as the deep sea species Orange roughy are found to harvest and to take their place. Landings of many species are on the decline. Cod harvest peaked in Ireland in 1992 but have fallen since, In 1981 15,600 tonnes of whiting were landed, but by 2004 less than 100t were caught Europe wide, Orange Roughy too are declining with 8000 tonnes landed in 2002 and only 450 tonnes landed in 2010.

The ecology of the ocean is changing;  in the past scavenger species like crab and Dublin Bay Prawn (Nephrops)were not in the high numbers that they are now. The top predators such as cod that would have kept their numbers in check are much reduced and so their populations are free to explode with a boom for fisheries. Nephrops landing soared from 200 tonne in 1955  to a record high of 9,500 t in 2008.

Our ocean ecology and balance is critical. Critical for our fish species and for the communities that they support. We need to manage our seas so as to harvest the maximum amount of fish and still have healthy fish populations . This is not happening The World Bank estimates that we  lose an estimated worldwide 83bn dollars a year due to poor fisheries management and 12bn of that relates specifically to the EU.

It is frightening to think that post Brexit most likely all those European boats with quota currently fishing in UK waters  will be fishing off these western shores putting even more pressure on our scarece resources. Management of our resource is key – the best way to ensure continuation of inshore fishing is to manage it at as local a level as possible. Though how to achieve that with current constraints is hard to imagine. Fish extinction will mean an extinction of a whole way of life not only for our fish but for our fishermen and local communities too.

Ref;

Fahy, E, 2004. Overkill

Now this very morning there are 7.38million people waking up (100,000 more than yesterday) say 1billion having an electric shower, 2billion putting on the heating, maybe 5billion making something hot for breakfast and of them probably 2billion getting in cars and driving to work. Fires burning all over the world either in homes or far away in power stations generating electricity. Every fire burning contributing to greenhouse gases warming the earth and throwing our climate into chaos.

Most of us in Connemara live close to the sea. Sea level rise is predicted 30 to 100cm by 2100. Perhaps your house is high enough. Will it be high enough during winter storms? Will it be high enough in 100 years time? People here tend to look at the long term. I am 980 years short of the qualifying criteria to be considered local! What if the ice cap does melt. Sure I wont be around to see it. The Greenland or the Antarctic ice sheets alone hold enough water to raise sea level by 65 meters. Even half of that would be enough to make Connemara into an Island as Galway bay would link Lough Corrib, Lough Mask, Lough Conn and Cullin through to Killala bay cutting off much of the west coast from the mainland.
We can already see changes in Ecology in Ireland as birds adapt and move north to a cooler more favourable climate. Mediterranean birds that were unheard of in Ireland 20 years ago are now breeding successfully. These are the Little Egret and great Spotted Woodpecker. But it is not only birds that will be moving. Many parts of the earth will become uninhabitable. In particular the so-called ‘climate hotspots’ – lowlying islands, coastal regions, large river deltas and underdeveloped regions and predictions for the number of possible ‘climate refugees’ are currently at 200 million by 2050. Add this to the millions of refugees fleeing war and we have a very unstable world.

It really seems such a massive problem that the solutions are not easy. Certainly there are difficult decisions that have to be made but there are easy ones too. Should I switch on the heating or put on a cardigan? Can I walk to the shop today? What matters here really is not us. We will most likely escape the worst ravages of climate change. We make sure our kids get the best education, see the dentist regularly, we’d be hoping they will build close to us but the greatest gift we can give them and all our descendents to come is security of a safe planet to live on.
We can support Global Climate negotiation by taking them seriously, by taking small actions in our own lives and encouraging the government to take big actions. Big actions could be as simple as allowing people generate electricity from solar and wind and be able to sell unlimited amounts back to the grid, it could be to stop Bord na mona industrially stripping our raised bogs which are the best carbon sinks and to encourage planting of Native trees. So maybe as a new years resolution take small actions… maybe plant a tree and wear a reindeer jumper as your gift to future generations.

I always think it is strange that Irish villages that are historically so linked to the atlantic ocean turn their back on it. Look here in Connemara we have Clifden right on the sea which 150 or so years ago had all its supplies brought in by boat and yet the feeling is not of a seaside town. The villages Carna, Rosmuc, and Ballyconneely, to name but a few, are just the same; they face away from the ocean.

The Altantic Ocean is certainly worth looking at; it offers us an ever changing landscape with waves crashing along the shorelines and other sections of the coastlines are calm shallow inlets and bays. The expanse of ocean and the ever changing light is a reason that so many artists make their home here.

The sea around us is also a hotspot for biodiversity certainly with one of the richest ecosystems not only in Ireland but Europe wide. Cill Ciaran bay is particarly interesting with a high number of species that are rare or in Ireland occur in the area. Including beds of red algae “Coral” or maerl. Within these communities there are a number of rare anemones; one of particular interest is a burrowing anemone called Mesacmaea mitchellii and known from only this location in Ireland. Some areas of this bay are characterised by the sea cucumber communities and other areas are dominated by oysters or sea grasses

Galway has some 70% of seaweeds in Ireland. The Sheltered shores are dominated by egg wrack (Ascophyllum) and in the more exposed areas rich Kelp forests (laminaria) are found off shore. On very low tides we can collect Carrageen and Pepper dulse to eat or serrated wrack for a seaweed bath. There are lots of seaweed to eat from dabberlocks, bladderwrack to channel wrack. Our shores benefit from our low population density with clean high quality waters and we are in the unique position of being able to eat direct from the shore in many locations.

The waters also support sea mammals. Seals are common around Inishbofin Island and these are mainly Grey Seals. Common seals can be easily seen hauling out in Mannin Bay on sand banks exposed at mid to low tide and over 100 of these use Cill Ciaran Bay for breeding and hauling out.

Otter are extinct in parts of Europe, for example in Switzerland, but are common and widespread in the west. Ireland is the stronghold for Otter in Europe and they are found all along the Connemara Coast. They are most often seen at dusk. One I regularly see swims from Renvyle beach around the coast as the light disappaers in the evenings.

Probably the most evocative mammals are the Dolphins and Whales that swim along our coastline. A pod of Bottlenose Dolphins range from killary harbour to Bellmullet. It is estimated that there are 120 or so of them in the waters here. I was lucky enough to encounter mother Dolphins with their 3week old calves a few years ago while up near Bellmullet. The Dolpins were weaving around the boat and the mothers were keeping the young well away but looking on from distance. Basking shark are seen a few times each year off the coast with Minke Whale seen occasionally.

Ireland has very important seabird colonies and some of the most interesting are just off our coastlines in Connemara. We have puffins, fulmas razorbills and Guillimots breeding on the Cliffs of Inishturk, Inishlacken Island supports 10% of the national Little Tern population and Inishbofin supports a breeding population of Corncrakes.

Every section of coastline here has something of marine interest be it rocky shores with red fan worms, Cormorants feeding at sea, princess scallops, seal haul outs, kelp stands or otter runs. It is time that we turn to acknowledge the Atlantic Ocean on our doorstep.

The 6 standing stones in Gleninagh are close to the Gleninagh River The rocks appear to be tapered at the top and are metamorphic in nature. There is a sensation of being at a meeting place of three valleys.

As we arrived the sun making its descent to the notch in the mountains and the shadows were growing longer one shadow blending with the next to form a line of shadow pointing just east of due north. There was also a circular depression beside the stones. I wondered if it was some type of a barrow or burial mound or was it formed more recent activity. Often standing stones are associated with burial sites. I wonder when it dates from? What was the landscape like then? Was it covered in trees with the streams teeming with salmon and deer hiding in the woodland or was it a world where bogland had started creeping in and drowning the landscape?

Standing stones are considered by many to be like clocks indicating the shortest day. Whatever their purpose there is a magical quality about standing there and watch the shadows align like people have done in this spot for thousands of years.

Discover Connemara www.theecologycentre.ie

I was surprised today 4th January  to find a small crop of Hedgehog Mushrooms in a small woodland area just less than 1acre close to my house in Renvyle. I guess I associate mushrooms with autumn and think of baskets full of chanterelles and rosehips making a splash of oranges and reds. Many mushrooms are frost sensitive and a lot are gone by this time of year but as we have not had anything but the lightest frost so far this winter in Connemara some are still around. Nonetheless these were an unexpected treat and on practically my doorstep too!
Hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum repandum)… a gift from creation for those of us wary of identifying the wrong fungi.  It is the ultimate beginners mushroom for novice foragers as it ticks all the boxes; easy to find, can’t easily confuse it with anything poisonous and tasty tasty tasty. Its distinguishing feature is that under the cap, instead of gills (as have most other mushrooms) or spongy pores (Boletes), these mushrooms have spikes around 4mm in length giving it the appearance of a spiny hedgehog. The underside of the cap is cream to orange pink and the colours range from creams to oranges through to salmon pinks.
These mushrooms are very light in colour and are like blobs of clotted cream scattered within woodland.

I was delighted to find them and just selected the 4 best. One was old-looking and some had been nibbled by our sheep. so that didn’t leave a lot so I carefully removed them and brought them back to the house they just had a little grass and soil which was easily picked off and wiped with a damp dishcloth.

We were having homemade burgers for dinner so I thought mushrooms sauted in butter would be perfect accompaniment and indeed they were!

Photo 1: My Hedgehog mushrooms …sliced and ready for the pan

Remember only pick and eat mushrooms that you are 100% sure of their identity.

Come find out more about wild food and the ecology of Connemara at The Ecology Centre.

Explore Renvyle Beach www.theecologycentre.ie

The weather has turned really cold and crisp. Yesterday morning (12th Dec)it was snowing as I travelled the Inagh Valley between #Kylemore Abbey and Recess. It is such a beautiful stretch of wilderness with the sun catching the golds of the landscape and the blue sky, between the snow showers, reflected in the clear lakes below. There was a rainbow (or snowbow) over Kylemore and a heavy dusting of snow over the Twelve Bens and Maamturks mountain ranges which flank this valley.

A white Christmas is a rare event here as snow doesn’t settle here for more than a few days as we have the benefit of the gulf stream warming the waters along the coast. Despite the high rainfall of up to 3000mm of rain at mountain tops little falls as ice or snow. The bookies odds are looking more and more  favorable for white Christmases in Dublin and Cork weather stations http://www.paddypower.com/bet/novelty-betting/weather/white-christmas-2013. No betting for Connemara but I’m hoping that we can spend days over the holidays crunching across frozen bogs and maybe even build a snowman or have a snowball fight!

Photo 1: Mweelin in Snow

Photo 2: Derryclare mountain with hand cut turf bank to the fore

Photo 3: Derryclare Mountain with Lough Inagh

Feel free to copy and use these pictures just credit www.theecologycentre.ie

Come explore Connemara with us summer or winter www.theecologycentre.ie

Photo 1: Eight Common Seals Hauled out in Mannin Bay

The common seal, also known as the harbor seal is the smaller of Ireland’s two seals.  The other is the grey seal which also is found in Mannin Bay though these tend to be found closer to the mouth of the bay. The seal’s body shape consists of a rounded streamlined design with an all over covering of fur. The fur coat is moulted once a year in August and is variable in colour from an almost white to sliver grey  to a black or dark brown coat .  The common seal has a rounded disc shaped face with a short snout with its distinctive V-shaped nostrils. They generally look much cuter than their grey realtives.

The common seal prefers sheltered coastal areas with a sandier coastline and calmer waters than the grey seal. They will establish regularly visited resting sites on mudflats and sandbanks in an area within their range such as at Mannin Bay. In Ireland the common seal’s preferred habitats are located along the western seaboard in any area that can provide quick access to sandy resting sites. The common seal species does not form large colonies as other seals do, they are regarded as being less sociable and will spend most of their time alone or in small groups. This week I counted just three and I counted eight hauling out in Mannin last week.

Common seals are carnivorous hunters . The preferred prey items of common seals in Irish waters are fish species including herring, hake and sole. They will also hunt for small crustaceans, octopus and squid in deeper waters .

The mating season for common seals in Ireland starts in July and runs until August. Once pregnant the gestation period lasts for eleven months with a single pup born in June  at the breeding ground. Grey seals by constrast give birth in December.

In Ireland the common seal is mainly concentrated along the western seaboard which can provide sheltered calm waters and have access to sandy haul outs. The current Irish population has been estimated to contain about 5,000 individuals.

Photo of Seal Pup: Spenser Wright

Photo of Seals hauling out Mannin Bay Marty Hilsden

Information sources: NPWS and Conserve Ireland