4th December: Ocean-Comms and Cormorants

A conference on Communicating Ocean Science “Ocean-Comms” was being held at the Football stadium and on the 4th December the accompanying exhibition was open to the public. I went along and had a longish chat with Kate Fortnam, Campaign Manager for the RYA’s “The Green Blue” initiative. Apparently bathing water quality at Cowes dips markedly at the times of Cowes Week and the Round the Island race!

Walking there via the board walk I saw a group of several cormorants fishing as a group along the shallows (it was near low tide at the time). I’ve noticed this behaviour before once or twice, but usually they fish alone. The group were being harried by seagulls which were probably hoping to steal a fish of two as the cormorants adjust them in their bills so that they can swallow the fish head first.

Here’s the original photos from my iPhone…