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Which sharks are in UK waters? Species in British seas after Bournemouth ‘sighting’ sparks beach evacuation

A popular Bournemouth beach was evacuated on Wednesday after a “large marine animal” believed to be a shark was spotted metres from the shore.

Lifeguards instructed swimmers to leave the sea at Boscombe Beach while they leaped on jet skis to search the coast.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) said it received reports of “significant movement” in the water. A witness described seeing a fin, but lifeguards were unable to formally identify the animal.

The UK does have a number of native shark species, though none are considered dangerous to bathers or fishermen.

Sharks native to the UK

At least 21 species live in British waters all year round, according to the Shark Trust, as well as 11 species of deepwater sharks who visit.

Angelsharks, smallspotted catsharks and nursehounds are among those you can see throughout the year – although they are rare.

“You’re very unlikely to encounter one during a trip to the beach. But you may find evidence of smallspotted catsharks or nursehounds,” the Shark Trust says.

“These species reproduce by laying eggs. And you can often find their empty egg cases washed up in the strand line.”

Sharks spotted in UK waters

• Angelshark - Angular roughshark - Basking shark - Birdbeak dogfish - Black dogfish
• Blackmouth catshark - Blue shark - Bluntnose sixgill shark - Bramble shark
• Common smoothhound - Frilled shark - Ghost catshark - Great lanternshark
• Greenland shark - Iceland catshark - Kitefin shark -  Knifetooth dogfish
• Leafscale gulper shark - Longnose velvet dogfish - Mouse catshark
• Nursehound- Porbeagle - Portuguese dogfish - Sailfin roughshark
• Sharpnose sevenfin shark - Shortfin mako - Smallspotted catshark
• Smooth hammerhead shark - Spurdog - Starry smoothhound
• Thresher shark - Tope - Velvetbelly lanternshark

Some of the deeper dwellers include the Portuguese dogfish, black dogfish, kitefin shark and gulper shark.

Between May and October you may be able to catch a glimpse of a basking shark – the second biggest fish in the world after the whale shark. Basking sharks eat plankton, and are not dangerous to humans.

Other seasonal visitors include the blue shark and shortfin mako. The smooth hammerhead and frilled shark have both been known to very occasionally visit British waters.

Some of these far rarer sharks can be dangerous to humans, however, there have been no unprovoked shark bites in British waters since records began in 1847. 

Reference: Microsoftnews: Alex Finnis

Dognappers face five years in jail as new law set to recognise pets are not ‘just property’

Dognappers face tougher sentences under plans to create a new criminal offence of pet abduction amid a sharp rise during lockdown.

The proposal, drawn up by the Pet Theft Taskforce, aims to acknowledge that animals are sentient creatures and should not fall under the category of “property”.

The proposed offence would carry greater penalties than theft and could mean five years in jail.

Under legislation drawn up by Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, judges would be able to take into account the welfare of the animals by allowing the “acknowledgement of the sentience of animals”.

A government source said: “Instead of making a tokenistic change to the law, we have been listening to charities, breeders and the police to get a better understanding of what we need to do to tackle this awful crime.

“Part of the package will be a new offence to better reflect the fact that for most people, pets are not just property and having one stolen is traumatic for both the owner and the pet.

“A purpose-made new offence will do this and mean those who steal pets will face tougher sentences than they do at the moment.”

The Pet Theft Taskforce was launched in May to investigate the rise in dognapping since lockdown began last March. Its report will be published in coming weeks.

Stealing a pet is already a criminal offence under the Theft Act 1968 and under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, anyone who causes an animal to suffer in the process of stealing it from its owner is liable to further prosecution.

But campaigners have argued that the Theft Act does not properly reflect the trauma of losing an animal and that offences rarely result in a prison sentence.

A pet abduction offence provides a “blank canvas” from which to work, the government has said, allowing acknowledgement of the sentience of animals as well as the loss to the owner and the welfare of the animal.

It is likely to be added to the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill.

Police forces have issued guidance for dog owners to avoid becoming victims. They have advised that pets should not be left unattended in public, walkers should vary their routes and owners should take basic security steps such as checking locks on doors and garden gates. 

Devastated by wildfires, Turkey's beekeepers see grim future

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s wildfires have left little behind, turning green forests into ashen, barren hills. The destruction is being intensely felt by Turkey’s beekeepers, who have lost thousands of hives as well as the pine trees and the insects their bees depend on.

Twelve days of deadly wildfires have dealt a major blow to Turkey’s honey industry and even its longer term prospects appear bleak.

Nearly all of the residents of Osmaniye, a neighborhood in Turkey's southwestern Mediterranean resort of Marmaris, are beekeepers. Their beehives once looked out to the green hills of Mugla province where Marmaris is located and provided the main income for many families.

Ali Kaya, 33, is second-generation beekeeper. After his father’s death, he took over the honey business his father had set up in 1979. Yet this week Kaya lost 250 hives in Osmaniye to the wildfires, as well as the entire ecosystem upon which his bees depend, so just buying new hives will not solve his economic woes.

He says the entire region is in shock.

“There is nothing left here, no trees left. Animals burned. Some people’s homes and roofs burned,” he said. “I have no idea what we’ll do. Our heads are all messed up, our mental outlook destroyed. We can’t think clearly here in Osmaniye."

The red pine trees endemic to Anatolia span the Taurus mountain system. They can be seen along Turkey's coast from the eastern Mediterranean all the way to the northern Aegean Sea, including a great number around Mugla. The pines provide a welcoming habitat for scores of shrubs and make an ideal environment for bees.

Bees in Mugla produce a special pine-based honey. Unlike most of the honey in the world, which is created from the nectars of flowers, bees in Mugla collect the secretions of Marchalina hellenica, a scale insect that lives on pine trees and feeds on their sap. What they leave behind, the bees take to make a nutritious honey.

Wildfires in Turkey started on July 28 amid a ferocious heat wave and raged on for days across more than half of Turkey's provinces. As of Sunday, some wildfires were still burning in the provinces of Mugla, Aydin and Isparta. At least eight people and countless animals have been killed. Villages and resorts had to be evacuated, with some people fleeing to beaches to be rescued by sea. The wildfires also threatened two coal-burning power plants.

The Turkish government has promised to rebuild the many burned homes and compensate villagers for their animals, along with providing other aid. But it has also been criticized for its lack of firefighting planes, poor planning and overall inability to stop the fires.

Samil Tuncay Bestoy, who heads the Environmental and Bee Protection Association, said hundreds of thousands of hives were saved purely by an accident of timing. Many nomadic beekeepers, including some from Mugla, each year move their hives to Turkey's inland upper plains in the spring and come to Mugla from mid-August on for the pine trees. Those beehives were spared from burning but their whole production cycle has been shattered.

“Now they don’t have anywhere to come back to, there are no forests left,” said Bestoy, a beekeeper himself. “The bees and the beekeepers are waiting at the plains with no idea of what to do.”

Since they cannot remain on the plains for long because of their feeding needs, the association was working to find healthy, temporary forest locations in Mugla, which is already highly populated with hives.

It’s a short-term solution to save the bees but points to the need for the close coordination between the government, bee-keeping associations and beekeepers to chart the way forward. Workers may have to find new beekeeping routes or even jobs in other industries.

Even before the wildfires, Turkey’s beekeepers were already suffering from climate change, with droughts and high temperatures reducing the pine trees’ sap and killing the bugs.

“Beekeeping is a fundamental culture of Anatolia and we were already warning that we may lose it to the climate crisis. These fires have added fuel to that fire,” Bestoy said.

Further to the east, forests in Antalya’s Manavgat district were also incinerated. Beekeeper Guven Karagol had to leave his hives behind once those flames grew near.

“The fires came quickly and my beehives were burning, I could only watch. Six years of my work, this year’s labor, burned,” he told Turkish IHA news agency.

When he returned at daybreak after the fires, he saw some bees emerging and realized that 20 out of 100 hives had somehow survived.

“I thought I can’t do this in a completely blackened nature, my hopes were shattered.” he said. “These 20 hives gave me hope.”

The Turkish government has said that the burned forests would be reforested and groups have launched campaigns for saplings but many experts say the forests need to be left alone to regenerate.

Medine Yilmaz, another second-generation beekeeper in Osmaniye, also lost her hives and had spoken to Turkish officials who visited the area. She wanted the remaining trees to be allowed to stay upright to see if they could regenerate but she said authorities were planning on tearing down everything.

“We rose up as younger people and stopped the bulldozers. If they come again, I will lay down in front of them and not let them cut the trees,” she said.

Her husband, Yusuf, was devastated.

“I don’t care about the houses that burned. Our only sadness is that nature has disappeared, our only livelihood were these pines," he said. “Homes will be rebuilt, wounds bandaged but nature will not heal for 70-80 years." 

Reference: By ZEYNEP BILGINSOY, Associated Press

Science’s next great leap: using squirrels to teach robots how to ‘parkour’

Reference: The Telegraph:  Joe Pinkstone