Hazards of the Solent Area

Portsmouth Harbour Entrance     As many may be aware there is a Small Boat Channel on the Gosport side of the Portsmouth Harbour Entrance. What many of you may be unaware of is the fact that there have also been some changes in the harbour itself. The ONLY method of entering the harbour for small craft (anything under 20 metres in length) is through the small boat channel. Full details can be found at http://www.qhmportsmouth.com/index.php?previous=27&art=251 .

The limits of the small boat channel are at Ballast Beacon (near the Gosport Ferry) and No. 4 Bar Buoy (the green buoy just off Clarence Pier). There is actually a traffic pattern so vessels coming OUT are to be to the West (Gosport side). It means they will pass port-port. Mention is then made that small boats should remain on the Starboard side of the small boat channel, i.e. keep right!

It is NOT acceptable for kayaks to enter or exit the harbour on the Portsmouth side. Some vessels can do so having registered with the Harbour Master. Kayaks do not fall into that category.

The Camber area is also now subject to an exclusion to all PWC (Personnel Water Craft - i.e. US). Sailors can still access it but must do so having communicated to QHM on CH 11 beforehand. The large slipway in the camber is also OFF-Limits as it is rented by the Portsmouth Sailing Club for about £800 a year (and it is in the zone!)

The 50m exclusion zone around the naval base is still very much active. This is marked by a yellow buoy near HMS Warrior so stay away from the BIG GREY boats. Most security services are a bit tetchy right now!

Finally, take a note of the following directly taken from the regulations. "Contravention of the rules contained within this General Direction is a criminal offence".

Kayaks, Canoes and Wildlife - RSPB Langstone Harbour nature reserve    Back to Top
You’re paddling quietly through the beautiful channels of Langstone Harbour, minding your own business, just enjoying being out on the water. You pass by some uninhabited islands which look inviting for a quick stop off. Impressive flocks of what look like seagulls rise up as you near the shore, whirling noisily overhead.

What you may not know is that this spectacle is the RSPB Langstone Harbour nature reserve, one of the biggest seabird colonies in England, and within it are some of Britain’s rarest and most threatened species. Before the RSPB took over their management in 1978, very few birds ever bred here, it was too disturbed. Now it is one of the seabirds’ few sanctuaries on the south coast, and consequently the whole Harbour enjoys the highest level of international legal protection (as part of the ‘Chichester and Langstone Harbours Special Protection Area’).

You probably recognise the main species on the islands, the Black-headed Gull, a small gull with dark chocolate coloured hood in summer and a fine margin of black at its wingtips. Among them, however, are about 200 pairs of Mediterranean Gulls, which can be quickly identified by their entirely snow white wings. Amazingly this is over half of the entire British population.

Among the gulls are Sandwich, Common and Little Terns, all of which are relatively rare species, and the Little Terns in particular (tiny size, white forehead, yellow bill with black tip) are very threatened.

And although these birds all face many risks - from foxes swimming out to the islands to storms washing out the nests and drowning the chicks – the biggest threat is disturbance from watercraft, and in particular those that can get close to the islands such as kayaks and canoes. Any close approach will cause the adult birds to fly up, leaving the eggs or chicks vulnerable to hypothermia and predators, and larger chicks will often run into the water where they often drown as their downy coats rapidly become waterlogged.

Outside the breeding season, the islands are also used by roosting birds, particularly wading birds and wildfowl, which need to conserve their energies during the six-hour high tide periods in harbour when their food sources in the Harbour’s mud is unreachable. When disturbed into flight, they rapidly use up energy reserves that they may just not have – they may have only arrived the night before after flying direct from the Arctic!

This is not an article about blame or pointing fingers – this is just a plea for your support. Many people using the estuary are just not aware of either the potential damage they can cause, or of the laws they may be breaking (the Wildlife and Countryside Act protects all breeding birds and, for some of Langstone’s seabirds, it is an arrestable offence to disturb the breeding adults, the nest, the eggs or the chicks).

What we would urge you to follow is a three point code:

• avoid paddling too close to the islands. There is no golden rule as to the actual distance that craft may approach without causing disturbance – just watch the birds’ behaviour and be prepared to change course if they begin to get fidgety.
• If you want to land, use the landing area at the southern end of Long Island, which is open during daylight hours throughout the year and allows visitors to see some of the specialised, and often scarce, plants that grow on the fragile saltmarsh and shingle habitats.
• And if you see others breaking this code, please call them away and explain the issues

Your help is much appreciated, and hopefully this article will also help you appreciate the wildlife wonders of the Harbour from your enviable position of the people closest to the seabirds’ world.

Here are some of the birds that might be seen in Langstone Harbour:

April – July (the breeding season):

• Shelducks, Oystercatchers and Curlews roosting on Baker’s Island
• Mediterranean Gulls – more than half the UK breeding population on South Binness Island
• Black-headed Gulls – more than 4900 nests in 2006 – South Binness and Round Nap Islands
• Sandwich and Common Terns – often more than 100 nests - South Binness and Round Nap Islands
• Little Tern – the harbour breeding flock, sometimes the second largest in UK, uses South Binness and Baker’s Islands and the artificial island at the Hayling Oysterbeds.

August – September:

• Ospreys, on their leisurely flight to warmer climates, are sometimes seen fishing or roosting on channel marker-posts (particularly off the West Hayling shore)
• Oystercatchers and Curlews roosting on Baker’s and Round Nap Islands

October – March:

• Dark-bellied Brent Geese return in thousands from their breeding grounds in Siberia to feed and roost in the harbour throughout the winter.
• Dunlins, small waders, roost in thousands on the islands and on the outer bund at the Hayling Oysterbeds. Over 25,000 of these birds can sometimes be seen wheeling overhead in very tight flocks – a spectacular sight.

Throughout the year, Little Egrets, Cormorants and Skylarks can be seen and it is not unusual to see a Peregrine hunting.

Apart from birds, Common Seals are often seen; sometimes they haul up at low tide, typically in the Mallard Sands area.

Chris Cockburn Phone: 01243 378624
Langstone Harbour RSPB Reserve Warden Mobile: 07764 290629
Unit B3 WREN Centre E-Mail: chris.cockburn@rspb.org.uk
Westbourne Road
Emsworth
Hants
PO10 7SU

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