Marine News from John Kinsman

Mystery beach carcases could be polar bears

Scottish islanders claim to have found the badly decomposed remains of three polar bears washed up on a beach. Three giant corpses washed up at different points on the west coast of Colonsay in August.

At the time nobody was able to confidently identify the bodies, as they were covered in debris and smelled so bad no one wanted to approach them. After being left for three months the debris has blown away to reveal the animals have white pelts, and locals are convinced they must be polar bears though such was their state that even vets could not identify them initially.

They believe that the arrival of the dead creatures on the beach some 1,400 miles from the nearest habitat of polar bears could be symptom of global warming.

Lifejackets safety plea.

The wearing of lifejackets on commercial fishing boats should be made compulsory, accident investigators have said. This year has been particularly bad for drownings, the marine accidents investigation branch, MAIB, warned. It has launched probes into nine deaths of commercial fishermen who were on UK registered vessels this year.