Skomer in trouble :(

Box Brownie

Box Brownie

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Hi all

Driving home this evening I heard a news bulletin/interview about the battering that Skomer suffered in the past couple/few weeks.

Many seal pups lost, damage to bird population yet to be assessed plus the buildings all damaged even they said the lighthouse was affected.

They mentioned that the Welsh wildlife trust was trying to to raise money just to help with the repairs.

It sounds like it will take a while for the wildlife to recovery.......... structures can be repaired but I hope the fauna and flora bounces back quickly.
 
The Farne Islands has a similar problem a couple of years ago but the wildlife bounced back pretty well ... fortunately this event was after the main breeding season for birds.
 
Skomer_Island_Devon_map1.jpg
 
I live in the area and the last couple of weeks has been terrible on the coast. I think it will recover quickly though, the area has been tested much worse than this with the likes of the Sea Empress disaster and bounced back.
 
Surely the bird won't be nesting right now? But looks bad for the seals indeed :-(. For once we seem to have avoided all this bad weather up in the north of scotland.
 
I had an email from them regarding a £25K appeal fund.

https://www.welshwildlife.org/islands-storm-appeal/

I'm sure the seals will bounce back from this set back. Storms like these come at an unfortunate time during the breeding season. It was only 4 years ago that the east coast was hit by the December storm surge where hundreds of seals were displaced or lost. Sadly it's part of nature that storms like these occur that the woes possible time of year.
 
So I can understand repair the roof, better prepare the buildings, how are they going to storm proof an island?
Look at the poor dead baby seals, but they cannot change the environment to do anything about that.

Tried to get over there 3 times this year, last time in July, but the weather meant the boats weren't running.
 
Once the most destructive species to inhabit this planet finally destroys itself, the Earth will start to recover. Might take a while but it'll pull through. Unless the aforementioned species manages to destroy the whole globe...
 
For sure Gaia 'rules' provided the bipedal species that insists on holding dominion over everything else that lives does not completely screw the planet up.........??? ;)
 
Affected Skokholm island as well unfortunately
Lot of seal pups lost and damage to buildings
At least most of the birds like the puffins won't be there at the moment so they should be ok but I do wonder if they have been affected by the storm while out at sea
I've been to Skokholm many times one of my favourite places planning to go back next year
 
To be honest there are storms every year. The seals will have lost some of their young but in the great scheme of things it will not be a huge problem.

if buildings and/or structures on the island have been damaged then one might wish to contribute to the repairs.........
 
Been there many times to both islands and this won't hurt the wildlife on a long term basis, it's a natural disaster which they've evolved to cope with it's the man made ones that throw the balance out. Of course it may have been exacerbated by man kind with global warming but that's another matter with one or two storms proving nothing.
 
Big Andy said:
it's the man made ones that throw the balance out.
Click to expand...

Indeed, probably not as bad as the disaster on Grassholm with so much plastic being brought in by the Gannets for nesting material that many youngsters have died as a result of being tangled up in it.
 
BBC 1 Countryfile now has something about the seals at Skomer.
 
Apparently of 128 seal pups counted in the annual survey just 33 survived the storms. :(
 
In have recorded Countryfile to watch later.......does not sound like good news. :(
 
gramps said:
Apparently of 128 seal pups counted in the annual survey just 33 survived the storms. :(
Click to expand...

I watched it nature is brutal mate, hard !! Damn hard to watch, and to hear that outcome especially,but it is nature mate this will always happen,just lets hope it isn't repeated again for a good while and they have chance to bounce back
Small Island pops are so vunerable we probably loose species in these storms we didn't know we had, but the flip is they probably start island populations too

Rips ya guts out though, all the same !!

stu
 
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