Atlantic Tripletail (Lobotes surinamensis) caught near Peterstone, east of Cardiff. Original fish preserved in spirit.

Preparing a model of Atlantic Tripletail in a laboratory at Amgueddfa Cymru.

The finished model of Atlantic Tripletail.

In the past few years fishermen and members of the public have been reporting unusual catches and strandings of marine fish from around our shores — fish that would normally live in much warmer, tropical waters. Is this further evidence of rising sea temperatures around the shores of Wales?

These specimens are brought to National Museum Cardiff for identification, where they are incorporated into the national collections. In order to display their natural colours, painted casts are made and exhibited alongside the actual fish preserved in fluid.

The first UK sightings of tropical Tripletail

In 2006, an Atlantic Tripletail (Lobotes surinamensis) was caught in a fisherman's net in the Bristol Channel, near Peterstone, east of Cardiff. As the fisherman did not recognize the 60cm specimen, he brought it to the Museum for identification.

Tripletails are normally found in tropical and subtropical waters, and this individual is the first record from UK waters.

We know that these fish like muddy estuaries, which may be part of the reason it was in the Bristol Channel. They are semi-migratory, often associating themselves with floating debris, and it is possible it travelled here via the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.

Jacks, Swordfish and Leatherbacks

Another exotic catch was of a juvenile Jack, caught off the entrance to Milford Haven in August 2007. It is difficult to identify juvenile Jacks and the specimen needed to be X-rayed to confirm that it was the first Welsh record of an Almaco Jack (Seriola rivoliana).

This species is usually found in the warm waters of the Caribbean, but between July and September 2007 six were found along the south and west coasts of Britain, doubling the number of records since the first in 1984.

Then in 2008 a 2.2metre-long Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) was found dead on a beach near Barry in south Wales. Although this was not a new record, this oceanic species is seldom caught in Welsh waters.

These records of warm-water fish appear to be further evidence of rising sea temperatures. The findings coincide with increasing numbers of turtles, especially Leatherbacks, in the Irish Sea. However, the occurrence of exotic marine species is not new, and the Gulf Stream has frequently brought warmer water animals to our shores.

Most recently, two species of shipworm (Bankia gouldi and Uperotus lieberkindii) have been found in timbers washed up on the Lleyn Peninsula in north Wales. These are both warm-temperate and tropical species, and have not been recorded before from the UK.

The establishment of such exotic species around the British coastline, or at least an increase in their frequency, would reflect real changes in their geographical range.

The recording of marine species is vital to our recognition of such events, and the role of fishermen and the public cannot be underestimated — indeed we welcome this participation, and look forward to the arrival of the next mystery creature at the enquiry desk.

One of the greatest treasures in Amgueddfa Cymru's rich industrial photography archive is the Hansen Collection. The collection comprises 4,569 negatives (some two-thirds of which are glass) of ships at Cardiff, taken by members of the Hansen family between 1920 and 1975. They provide a marvellous photographic record of shipping activity at the port during those years.

For those who lived along the shores of the Bristol Channel, no summer was complete without a trip on one of P.& A. Campbell's 'White Funnel' pleasure steamers. Here is the newly-built Bristol Queen leaving Cardiff in the summer of 1947. (1179/1279)

Where Cardiff once exported coal, oil and petroleum products were being imported by the late 1940s. The 'BP' tanker British Success, built on the Clyde in 1946, was photographed by Hansen berthing in Cardiff's Roath Dock on 2 August, 1947. (1633/1720)

Ships of the major British cargo liner companies became a common sight in Cardiff in the years after the 2nd World War. Here is the City of Pretoria, built at Birkenhead in 1947 and owned by Ellerman Bucknall Line, arriving in Cardiff in 1964, with Penarth Head just visible in the background. (3633/180C)

Ships owned by Cardiff's shipping companies naturally figure prominently in the Hansen Collection. The tramp steamer Peterston, built at Sunderland in 1925 for Evan Thomas, Radcliffe & Co., is seen here arriving at Cardiff in 1947. (1181/1281)

The Collection was purchased in 1979 and since then numerous images from the collection have appeared in books published by Amgueddfa Cymru and the World Ship Society.

In 1993 an album of selected photographs was published jointly by Amgueddfa Cymru and the University of Wales Press, with financial support from the Baltic Exchange. Shipping at Cardiff: Photographs from the Hansen Collection, 1920-75 (ISBN 0-7083-1231-4) proved popular, renewing interest in and provoking many enquiries regarding the scope and contents of the entire collection.

A Danish seaman with an interest in photography, Lars Peter Hansen settled in Cardiff in 1891 and established a photographic business whose mainstay was recording shipping in the booming docks. He was succeeded in the business in 1936 by his third son Leslie, who continued to photograph ships until his retirement in 1975.

It is most unfortunate that no negatives appear to have survived from the pre-1920 period, although there are a few prints of vessels lost in the First World War in the Museum's collection that bear the Hansen imprint.

In 1979, Leslie Hansen's son, also named Leslie, decided to sell the remaining negatives and the entire collection was purchased by the Welsh Industrial & Maritime Museum.

The Museum's now-retired Conservation Officer, Mr Don Taylor, then undertook the formidable tasks of renumbering all the negatives, placing them in new negative bags and subsequently compiling a catalogue. Mr Taylor's wide knowledge of shipping and his characteristic thoroughness resulted in the publication in 1996 of The Hansen Shipping Photographic Collection (ISBN 0-7200-0437-3).

Readers wishing to order prints from this collection should contact:
Image Licensing Officer
NMGW Enterprises Limited
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NP
Tel. (029) 2057 3280 or email kay.kays@museumwales.ac.uk.

Please quote the ship's name and the catalogue number. Prices for various types of photographic reproductions are available on application to the above address.