Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the Glamorgan County History (Tattersall, 1936) has a photograph of a school of false killer whales that
were washed ashore in May 1934 (Fig. 69).
FIG 69. False killer whales washed ashore at Llanmadoc in 1934. (Colin Matheson)
Melvin Grey for Figure
There has been a surprising variety of species stranded on the Gower shores over the years, including
a white-sided dolphin Lagenorhynchus acutus which was washed up on Rhossili beach in October 1967.
Contemporaryrecordsrevealthat'Attemptsweremadetoreturnittothesea,butitfinallyhadtobeshot.'
(InBritain thetwooptionsemployed inthemanagement ofstrandedcetaceans areeuthanasia andreflota-
tion, that is the release of animals after a variable period of treatment on the beach of origin, or close by.)
Other species stranded at Rhossili include lesser rorqual Balaenoptera acutorostrata and common dol-
phin Delphinusdelphinus .InadditionRisso'sdolphin Grampusgriseus hasbeenrecordedfromPort-Eyn-
on, Sowerby's whale Mesoplodon bidens at Mumbles, and a bottle-nosed whale Hyperoodon ampullatus
turned up in Broughton Bay in 1965.
THREATS
Located as it is, on the northern shore of the Bristol Channel and close to the main shipping lanes, Gower
is constantly at risk from oil pollution. Half of the world's extracted crude oil is transported at sea by su-
pertanker, and an important mainstay of tonnage at Avonmouth Docks, further up the Bristol Channel, is
petroleum, with nearly two million tonnes of related products imported each year. A much greater quant-
ity is transported to the Pembrokeshire refineries. Most of the oil released into the sea by shipping occurs
fromroutinetankcleaning,duringwhichoilisdeliberatelyreleased.Muchofthisdispersesnaturally,and
major oil pollution incidents are fortunately rare. To date there have only been two notable events that
have seriously affected the marine environment around Gower.
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