Every Monday on Global Comment, we share Something Special you don’t want to miss. To fit with the six core pillars of the magazine, these will alternate between the themes of watch / listen / read / see / taste / place.
It will be something different every week, but it will always be about something worth seeing, hearing or watching, or a place worth visiting or a food worth tasting.
This week, I’m taking you to Wales. More specifically, the seas around Wales. Alec Moore, a lecturer in Marine Top Predator Conservation at Bangor University has written about his research into the “loss and change in the fishes and fisheries” around Wales for The Conversation, and it’s fascinating to imagine how different those seas were 100 years ago, compared to the beaches I paddled on around Rhyl as a child.
Picture the nature documentary scene. Vast schools of baitfish “miles long” being pursued by “thousands of seabirds”, “great shoals” of dolphins and porpoises, sharks and cod. Huge fish the size of a tree trunk (sturgeon) or a garage door (skate) cruise above the seabed. Catches of fish so big that boats nearly capsize, and the surplus is used to manure local fields.
Where do you think this might be? A remote and pristine corner of Canada, or Alaska perhaps?
Try Wales, where I live and work as a marine scientist. Specifically north Wales, on Liverpool’s doorstep and just across the Irish Sea from Dublin.
Read the full article here: We gathered centuries-old written records to show the seas around Wales once teemed with life.
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