There is a harbour porpoise out there – somewhere – 040423
Today’s blog post celebrates the River Mersey, and is a combination of a wonderful wildlife encounter I experienced earlier this month and a poem written in response to Lancaster LitFest’s call-out for its ‘From Source to Sea’ poetry co-creation project to celebrate the rivers of the North West of England, to be permanently displayed on the website’s special poetry map (https://litfest.org/fromsourcetosea/).
The Magical River Mersey
This river estuary has many faces
Today it was opalescent
A milky ribbon, serene in the sunlight
Its flat surface giving little away
But it is home to so much life
From the smallest invertebrates
Nestled in the mud
To harbour porpoise
Arcing through the waves
On wilder days
White-capped waves bounce alarmingly
Gulls whirl through the air
Turnstones huddle on stone steps at high tide
The Dazzle Ferry churns through the water
A splash of colour in the monochrome landscape
Tonight the river is dark and still
Venus and Jupiter hang above it
Shining brightly in the cloudless sky
And the lights from the boatyard
Cast long, rippling shadows on the water
On other evenings
Thick fog wraps itself around the buildings
And the mournful sound of foghorns
Echoes in the hazy air
It has been and still is
A facilitator of commerce and trade
It is a place for leisure and living
It gives so much and asks so little
We should revere, respect and protect it
This marvellous, magical River Mersey
The encounter was with a harbour porpoise: I had purposefully gone to the river near Festival Gardens, knowing from past experience that this is a good place to see these fantastic creatures. This morning, I was still hurrying down the path to the Prom when a shiny black fin arced above the grey, white-capped waves. It is hard to contain the delight that such a sight brings, as the heart swells to see these magical creatures that grace the river with their presence, and I was pleased to get four other people onto this one as it worked its way under the water, surfacing over towards the Wirral, then back near the Liverpool side. In the end, I watched it for half an hour, and enjoyed chatting to the other watchers about whale and other wildlife encounters. I really enjoy these encounters with other people, brief though they may be, in spreading the word/love about ‘Liverpool’s’ harbour porpoises, and making a connection.
A dark fin rises from the water – harbour porpoise 160420
A note about harbour porpoise and the Mersey
Harbour porpoise use the Mersey for hunting during the spring and are more likely to be seen two hours either side of high tide, when it is safer for them to navigate the treacherous sandbanks. They have been spotted as far down as Garston and even Hale, and have travelled past boatyards, factories and open sewers to get there. Their presence is a testimony to the improvements in water quality since the 1970s. Before then, it was one of the most polluted rivers in Europe, a position it held for 200 years from the Industrial Revolution. In the second half of the 20th century, efforts were made to clean up the river, which led to improved oxygen levels and a renewed ecosystem*, although there is still much work to be done, as evidenced from the facts and figures about the raw sewage being poured into all Britain’s rivers by water companies across the land. It would be a shame to see the river return to those highly polluted days, to think that, walking along Otterspool Prom, buffeted by the westerly winds, there would be no hope of spotting a slick black fin curving out of the water; to turn inland at Speke-Garston Coastal Reserve after watching the black-tailed godwits, teal, pintail and other water birds feeding in the nutritious Mersey mud as they over-winter at this internationally important site for waders, and be filled with concern about what they may be ingesting along with worms, shrimps, shellfish and other invertebrates. Although that site is part of a Special Protection Area, water-borne pollution is no respecter of such intangible barriers – and then there’s the oft-discussed barrage, a tangible barrier which would affect the tides flowing in and out of the river, and everything that depends on them. Green power, but at what cost?