Writer Seeking Info About Guernsey & Other Channel Islands

[ep_haury]

For kelp, what;s a normal sized "grove"? What's the largest one you know of? What conditions does it favor growing in. (I understand its supposed to favor colder water, but what "terrain" does it prefer to grow on?

Also, what is the average size -- actually what I want is, the average weight -- for the edible portion of harvested ormer? I'm putting together a nifty little spreadsheet that will work out the caloric needs for my merfolk, including minimal needs for survival, how much they will burn form swimming, and different caloric contents of commonly availably foods. It's all cobbled together from estimates, and most of it will never end up mentioned in the book, but it should make the society I build be that much more realistic.

So related to that, which sea creatures, common or not, can you fish and catch easily in the English Channel? With you hands, with a spear? Whatever you see fit. Also, which fish could you imagine successfully chasing into nets dropped from the surface. Preferably, what fish could you chase into nets in sufficiently large quantities for it to seem worthwhile?

[foxfish]

The kelp we get does not grow very tall but does cover virtually every underwater reef between - say 20 - 100, deep at high tide, there are thousands & thousands of reefs!
Mackerel are the common shoaling fish but we have smaller fish (2-8'') that are common & are caught in nets. These small fish are called Sandeels & smelts.
An average ormer out of its shell 1/2 - 3/4lb?

[ep_haury]

Magpie, I finally was able to check out the videos you showed me. They will help significantly. I also was able to download “Toilers of the Sea” as a PDF file – older than Steamboat Willy, therefore not in copyright.


I think my favorite one was the dusk dive video. Hair followed by the Benny Hill show, eh? On a serious note, have you ever done a dive a night without light? Is it at all safe? IF there are significant irks (besides getting lost) care to share some with me? What do you fid at night that you don’t in the day? Or more easily find? (I have determined that Conger eels are night hunters, so they would be seen it different places)


I’m curious about “hunting” for fish. (I suppose it’s really fishing, but the spear gun approach looks a lot like hunting to me. And additionally, my question will be taking the spear out of spear gun fishing, so only hunting seems to fit the circumstances. A spear gun really isn’t 1700s equipment.) I don’t now what’s legal or what is deemed sporting in this era with fishing, but whether it would be practiced now or not, do you have any ideas about how successful anyone would be to fish with a sword, knife, or the like? That’s a bit vague, since here are so many swords, some stabbers some cutters. Let’s say a rapier (stabber) and a kitchen knife as the” default” things I’m asking about, but any hints I can get would be great. The mermaids won’t make swords and knives, but they can recover them from wrecks and even steal them – how successful would they be? What fish could you see being hunted by any of those weapons and what wouldn’t wok.


I recently put a calorie spreadsheet together, just to put some things together in my own mind about food sources, population, and other important foundation stones of how the mermaids will live. One thing I found was that of the Conger eel is particularly calorie rich. It would be a great thing to catch, but from what I’ve heard they would be hard to catch. Any ideas about Conger eel hunting? I understand that there are traps or pots used to catch them with what are they baited? (also, my understanding is that lobster traps in the Channel Islands were wire mesh back in the 1700s, so maybe eel traps were then as well. Any ideas?)


And now the last question for this go around: if one had to feed oneself completely from the Channel Island’s ocean life, how hard would that be? How much one’s time would be taken up, typically, with going after food for 1 adult? Again, a general question that can vary based on type of food acquired, but what seem like a typical time? What would seem like the best thing to go after to be most efficient?

[ep_haury]

Thanks, foxfish, for the data, BTW.

[Magpie]

The greatest risk night diving is nets. Over here it is common practise to set gill nets from shore and from small boats. They are long nets, up to 200m long and 2-4m high, stretch out in the bays to ensnare anything that swims into them. They are very hard to see and easy to stumble into, especially at night.

Congers would not be especially hard for a mermaid to capture but would need a bit of a wrestle and they'd probably get bitten once in a while, conger grow to over 100lbs so a big one would be more than a handfull! By day they hide in holes in reefs and come out to hunt at night. A mermaid with a sword could thrust it through the congers head and pull it out of the hole (as some of our members used to do diving, except with a spear, not a sword!). Yes they are often caught in crab and lobster pots as they swim in after the fish bait.

Various sorts of flatfish and rays could be caught with knives, but you wouldn't catch any freeswiming species, like bass, wrasse, mackeral, pollack etc.

By night lots of species come out to play and seem far less wary.

Well I've turned the torch off at night but you can't see a lot so its a bit pointless. You do get phosphoresence though, lots of little bibets in the water that glow when you agitate the water, for example swimming through it, it can be very impressive at times, think like the Millenium Falcon making the jump to hyperspace...

In the 1700's all fish would have been far more plentiful than they are now, conger especially!

[ep_haury]

As far as the bioluminescent dinoflagellates go, I have received the suggestion (or came up with; it was part of dialogue and I can't recall who thought up what) mermaids using recovered, corked bottles to contain water with dinoflagellates. They just have to shake the bottle to make it glow for a few seconds. (This is how the original torches/flashlights worked; batteries were so weak, initially, one could only turn them on for a brief flash of vision, hence the American name.) But the dinoflagellates probably would be shaken by the process of being carried while swimming, so the bottles would be best as tools kept in the colony for when the mermaids must see or hear something approaching.

On the subjects of seeing and hearing:

Seeing: How many of the Sark caves have permanently dark rooms, or are they small enough (or arranged in such a way) that there are openings to the outside all over?

Hearing: In the youTube theflatfishking's channel, I hear sound from the dives in the videos. Is that a good representation o the things one hears while diving, and how much of that was caused by air bubbles, which wouldn't work for my mermaids. (Except when they are breathing air, which they must do.) Any sounds you can her from fish?


Oh, and, on dinoflagellates: how often can their glow be seen in the C.I. waters? Large patches or small? Regularly located of a variety?

[ep_haury]

Would cod have been plentiful in the 1700s?

[Spaniard]

Cod were plentiful in the North Sea then and if sea temperatures were slightly lower than they are now then cod would certainly be more plentiful in CI waters than they are now. One was shot in a Jersey spearfishing competition a few years ago, in August.

[ep_haury]

A few more questions:

1) You probably don't go diving just to sit down on the and and rocks under the water, but can you give me a sense of how rough or smooth the rocks near and under the C.I's waters are? Is it easy to find rocks that it would be comfortable to recline or sit upon? I'm thinking of making the tail be less sensitive than skin and therefore what one could sit on wearing thin-ish trousers should be fine for a mermaid to sit on.

3) What about dolphins and seals? How prevalent are they in the Channel Islands area? How do they tend to behave towards people?

4) About those caves. I'll be contacting the Société Guernesiaise to get a pamphlet on one of the caves, but before that happens: How far does the light go into those caves? Only the first chamber, if even that far?

[Leo101]

I dont know much about the rest of it but last year when i was fishing on my boat off the back of sark it was not uncommen to see dolpens what kind thay wher is beond me but thay never got to close to the boat.
But as i understand it years ago it was not uncommen to see dolpens swiming close to the herm ferry witch ferrys people from gernsey to the little island of herm about two/three miles apart so theres somthing there for ya and over the years thay have beached themselfs a lot so thay are about.
Allso last year a friend of mine cought a poor beagle off guernsey and basking sharks are about too.
and in deep water off sark i hear and beleave it to be true you can get big deep water fish like ling and there are a couple of others that i cant remember the name of so all im saying is we as spearo fishers see alot but we dont get deep enough to see the real monsters and thay are about ber in mind mermaids would go all over the place and iv not heard the herd deep mentioned yet another line of investigation for you. in my opinion mermaid would be more likely to live in places like that and come up to see and help fishermen then thay would to live in caves that dry out allso you got to take into account alltho your book is a work of fiction as you know a eliment of trueth needs to be applied so in inorder for the mermaids not to be hunted and killed thay would need to be able to retreat to the deeps like the herd and outher areas like that around the channle island allso you got the golf stream witch passes os thats the stream of warm water from the golf or i think its mexico all the things iv sed hear need to be looked into by you but these are all things i would take into accout any how if iv got anything slitly wrong im shure the guernsy lads will correct me but i hope iv helped if even a little.

[Leo101]

O and most of the rockes around guernsey are grantie and alot are sharp jaggered things alltho there are some flat areas allso a lot of the coastle grantie are red but it differs around the island. ill go out at lowe tide in the week and take some pics for you frome diff coasts and post hem so you can see what sort of rocks we have.