2019/09/24 Flapper Skate and Maerl Transects
In September 2019 a weeklong survey was carried out to survey the maerl transects at Fada-Tanera Beg, Fox point and Planet Rock and establish a new and fourth transect in Loch Ewe. The maerl in Loch Ewe was in poor condition and smothered by filamentous algae. It had similar algae growth to the channel between Tanera beg and Fada in the Summer Isles. Professor Jason Hall Spencer, the leading expert on maerl saw images of the maerl bed in Loch Ewe and said it showed signs typical of salmon farm damage. We suspect this is the fact but it could be a mixture of salmon farm impacts and pollution from Poolewe. The Fada- Tanera beg maerl bed in September 2018 and March 2019 was quite thick and pink but in September 2019 it was quite different – it seemed to have shifted and so the conclusion was it was a very dynamic and ‘mobile’ maerl bed in a high tidal area. We were lucky to have the excitement of Chris Rickard filming a flapper skate on it shortly after the excitement of the flapper skate on the Fox point transect too.
For more visit our archive.
