Rising temperatures are bringing “new” marine life to Britain
On August 17th, The Telegraph ran an article with the title Rising temperatures are bringing new marine life to Britain
The article stated that:
Sunfish, Risso’s dolphins, Balearic shearwaters and whales are appearing in greater numbers off the Devon coast.
But as two readers point out, there is nothing new about any of these arrivals:
Sunfish, for example, are native to the temperate and tropical waters of every ocean in the world.
Source: wikipedia.org
Although strong swimmers, sunfish move around largely by drifting with ocean currents.
Balearic shearwaters are also common around Britain’s south coasts:
Source: oap.ospar.org
As for Risso’s dolphins, they are actually most common around Scotland, though often seen around Cornwall as well, which rather spoils the Telegraph’s argument that they have been drawn to Britain because of warmer waters!
Source: wildlifetrusts.org
The main motive for this latest piece of Telegraph nonsense seems to be that it is a blatant plug for sight-seeing boat trips:
Source: telegraph.co.uk
So the reporter gets a nice break in Devon, the tour operator gets a free plug and the Telegraph gets to fill a page.
Everyone’s a winner!
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Header image: Indigo Scuba