Monday, March 05, 2007

Rathlin Island yields 28 sponge species new to science

Dr Bernard Picton is curator of marine invertebrates at the Ulster Museum. He is also an outstanding underwater marine photographer.

His team's recent dives in the region of Ireland's tallest underwater cliffs at Rathlin Island, as part of a research programme, have confirmed 128 species of sponges, almost one third of all species known from Ireland and Britain. This includes 28 species that are new to science.

Information derived from another stunning article by Michael Viney in his 'Another Life' column, p9 of the Irish Times Weekend Supplement, 3 March 2007.

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The island of ireland

Once upon a time, and for 15000 years, ice a mile high blanketed Ireland. When the lingering Ice Age finally released and the Irish ice departed it left a landscape scoured. Across land bridges linking Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe plants and animals arrived to colonise the new lowlands, mountains and valleys. The world’s ice continued to melt, the sea levels to rise, and some 8000 years ago Ireland became the island we now know, accounting for just 0.01% of the world's total land area and the most westerly point of Europe.

Though at Alaskan latitudes, the country's climate is tempered, due partly to the neighbouring waters of the Gulf Stream and partly the prevailing southwesterlies that veering and backing make landfall on our sodden coast. These offerings from the Atlantic mean it is never too hot, never too cold. But without doubt it is wet. Rain lingers year round, never far away, though is most frequent in winter, the western counties and, inevitably, on the day of your parade.