Orkney Today Newspaper 13/04/2010

http://www.orkneytoday.co.uk/news_item.asp?newsItem=6429

Lessons in skate tagging on offer

ORKNEY'S sea anglers are being invited to learn the art of 'skate tagging' with the aim of assisting in the monitoring and conservation of a critically endangered species.

The two day course is being organised by Dan Wise of the Orkney Skate Trust and the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme.


Common Skate are globally scarce and populations have declined dramatically over the last few decades. Recently the species has been reclassified into two separate species, the Blue Skate and the Flapper Skate. The latter is the larger of the two and this is the one most likely to live in Orkney waters.

Despite the Flapper Skate's size - up to 2m in width from 'wing tip to wing tip' - their elusive nature means that little is known about the number of individuals in Orkney or their habits. This is where tag and release fishing can help.

Anglers on the course will learn how to safely catch skate using the correct equipment as well as how to correctly insert a small dart tag into a Flapper Skate before releasing the animal back to sea. Experienced skate angler Davey Benson will be tutoring the event which will take place on April 21 and 22 in Scapa Flow onboard the Welcome Home. A further two courses will be run further into the project.

Following the training, anglers will be able to tag skate independently. The long term aim is to build up a picture of the population by recording the location of tagged skate when they are re-caught. In the coming months the Orkney Skate Trust and the Scapa Flow LPS will also be producing a leaflet to raise awareness of the threats faced by Flapper Skate and the aims of the tagging scheme.

Orkney Islands Council 12/04/10

http://www.orkney.gov.uk/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=15351&tt=orkneyv2

JOINT PRESS RELEASE: Scheme to tag and release endangered Orkney Skate
Release Date: Apr 12, 2010

Orkney's anglers are being invited to learn the art of 'skate tagging' with the aim of assisting in the monitoring and conservation of a critically endangered species.The two day course is being organised by Dan Wise of the Orkney Skate Trust and the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme.Common Skate are globally scarce and populations have declined dramatically over the last few decades. Recently the species has been reclassified into two separate species, the Blue Skate and the Flapper Skate. The latter is the larger of the two and this is the one most likely to live in Orkney waters.Despite the Flapper Skate's size - up to 2m in width from 'wing tip to wing tip' - their elusive nature means that little is known about the number of individuals in Orkney or their habits. This is where tag and release fishing can help.Anglers on the course will learn how to safely catch skate using the correct equipment as well as how to correctly insert a small dart tag into a Flapper Skate before releasing the animal back to sea. Experienced skate angler Davey Benson will be tutoring the event which will take place on the 21st and 22nd of April in Scapa Flow onboard the Welcome Home. A further two courses will be run further into the project.Following the training, anglers will be able to tag skate independently. The long term aim is to build up a picture of the population by recording the location of tagged skate when they are re-caught. In the coming months the Orkney Skate Trust and the Scapa Flow LPS will also be producing a leaflet to raise awareness of the threats faced by Flapper Skate and the aims of the tagging scheme.TheScapa Flow LPS, which will run 48 heritage projects heritage in and around the Flow over the next 3 years, is funded by Heritage Lottery Fund. The boat-building project also receives financial support from the Scottish Government / European Community Orkney LEADER 2007-2013 Programme.

 12th October 2010 - Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership website

Spreading the word about Orkney's rare skate

A new leaflet has been published about one of Orkney's rarest and most endangered animals - the flapper skate. This fish is now extinct around most of Europe's shores - the waters around Orkney and the Hebrides are its main remaining strongholds. The decline in the population of this huge fish has been so severe that it is danger of global extinction, and it is 'Red Listed' as being even more threatened than the blue whale and the giant panda.

The leaflet promotes the newly-formed Orkney Skate Trust's project to raise awareness about the species and to encourage anglers to join a 'tag and release' fishing scheme to help monitor and conserve the Orkney population.

The Orkney Skate Trust joined forces with the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme to produce the leaflet which is part of a larger conservation project to monitor and conserve the Flapper skate.

Despite the flapper skate's size - up to two metres in width from 'wing tip to wing tip' - their elusive nature means that little is known about the number of individuals in Orkney or their habits. The tag and release scheme aims to find out more. Fish are caught and tagged with a small dart tag before being safely released back to the sea. The long term aim is to build up a picture of the population by recording the location of tagged skate when they are re-caught.
Two successful 'tag and release' short courses for anglers were run during the summer, with a third planned for Summer 2011.

For more information about the Orkney Skate Trust and the work they are doing, please email mail@orkneyskatetrust.org.uk

14th October 2010 - Orcadian Newspaper

 Orkney Today Paper 21st October 2010