Sharks and Dolphins

I feel like I should clarify that I am not actually living in Bangor. I barely even go to Bangor. I live on the Isle of Anglesey, in a small town call Menai Bridge that lives just along the Menai strait that separates Anglesey from North Wales. Maps in first blog. I only say this because I think Menai Bridge is hella prettier then Bangor.

Joining the SCUBA club. I'll be getting a bunch of dives in once my semi-dry suit comes for my Birthday (thanks mom and dad). I'm looking forward to diving with Dog fish, apparently when you hold them, the form a ring presumably to protect themselves. Then, if you want to be extra special, you can put your Dog fish crown on your head and they will stay there for a minute or two before they realize you're not going to hurt them and swim away.

For those not in the know, Dogfish are actually small sharks. As seen in one of the photo's I've attached. We caught a bunch of them on our first fishing trip on Conwy Bay.

So far we've been out on the research boat twice, once to do a benthic survey of the creatures living in the mud at 5,8,12 and 15 meters under the water. And again to help participate in a fish population survey they've been doing at the University since the 1970's.

We caught a bunch of mackerel and using the skills I picked up from my father and working at Braun's seafood, my roomies and I had quite a delicious mackerel dinner that night. I know what you're going to say, we're eating the very animals we're studying. It's very sad. However only dogfish, skates, rays and other types of sharks really live through the fishing process. So if we don't eat them, they get tossed back so something else can. And there's nothing quite as satisfying as catching and eating your own dinner.

We caught lesser and greater spotted Dogfish. The Greater spotted Dogfish is a rare catch, and we got a large female. Beautiful animal, we kept her so she can be donated to the local aquarium. She was over a meter long. We also caught a bunch of thorned rays and one or two sand rays. They all got tossed back with the lesser spotted Dogfish.

Oh, and I saw Dolphins. They were playing at the front of the Prince Madog (our ship). Funny animals. They are larger here then ones seen in warmer climates. Presumably they need more blubber to keep them warm. Sharks AND dolphins in one day. Emily was a very happy lady.

So yeah, really excited to go SCUBA diving were I can adopt the much more humane "look but don't disturb" stance on interactions with the surrounding bays and the animals that live within. Most of us in my course are joining the club, including two of my roomies, Beth and Sarah. A bunch of us drove to Holyhead (pronounced Holly-head) yesterday to check out the SCUBA shop. We drove through the town with the longest name in the UK. I've included a picture with the phonetic spelling if you wanna give it a go. ;)

Okay, back to work. As fun as going out on the boat was, now I get the great pleasure in statistically analysing all the data. Oh, what fun. :-)~

Emily
School of Ocean Sciences (SOS) - Menai Bridge.

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