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| On Thursday 28th
January 2010 a small film crew from the Teachers' TV channel arrived in St. Osyth
to film a programme to be seen on the ‘Teachers’ TV’ digital channel 88, or on
their web site at
www.teachers.tv.
The programme was on the subject of the ‘Weather’ and how it affects people in
their daily work and lives including the effects of ‘Climate Change’ and the
problems this could cause in the future. They wanted an opinion from those both
farming the land and fishing the sea and to this end made arrangements with Guy
Smith, St Osyth Farmer and Tony Talbot, St Osyth Fisherman to be interviewed in
their respective working surroundings. The pictures on this
page are mostly of the filming with fisherman ‘Tony the Fish’, because he was
easily available to the photographer.
Above shows his catamaran MollyT (named after his daughter) pulled up close to
the beach for the camera crew to climb aboard. They were taken out to be shown
the catch in his Lobster and Crab pots all of which were filmed.
This was not his first work for television as on 20th & 21st July 2006 he was
filmed for a programme in the BBC 'Coast' series, though he comments you had to
be quick to spot him!
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The small TV team were
Beth the producer, Joe the cameraman and John the sound engineer on the
beach prior to boarding MollyT. Needless to say it was quite a cold day at
about 3 degrees centigrade and not normal beach weather.
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Tony Talbot is being
filmed explaining the feature on his small weather station he uses each day,
which shows wind speed and direction, maximum wind gust speed since last
set, outside temperature and barometric pressure.
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After they returned and disembarked Tony took ‘MollyT’ back to her mooring
in the Bay. This picture was taken to show his normal method of return to
shore. He might stand like a Venetian Gondolier but any similarity ends
here! Joe the camera man is crouching to take some low level shots of him
returning to shore.
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Tony is seen here on his balcony reading into
the TV camera the words prompted by an 'Autocue' machine.
He read a
specially written poem about Global Warming and the changing temperature
with its consequent sea water rises.
After reading the
poem he was asked a number of questions on camera, the answers to which,
gave him the chance to express his own point of view. He said first a
distinction must be made between 'weather' and 'climate', the former
being day to day changes, whereas the latter referred to the longer term
changes over many years. He then spoke of a potential water temperature
rise changing fish stocks with more temperate species coming into our
waters such as Anchovies and Red Mullet only occasionally caught today.
Bigger species like Porpoises will appear more frequently and existing
stocks may move northwards towards colder waters as the sea temperature
is a crucial factor in the breeding pattern of our native fish and
shellfish.
Tony was asked about any memories of the
Great Storm of 15/16th October 1987and was able to produce an album
of photographs taken of the destruction at the Bel-Air Caravan Park,
adjacent to St Osyth Beach, where his parents had their caravan lifted
and thrown upside down yards away, along with many other caravans, some
of which ended up in the surrounding dyke, an occasion when winds gusted
over 100 mph. This storm he said caused devastation over the whole of
South Eastern England and not just in our locality, with barometric
pressure falling below 960 mb.
After filming with Tony Talbot the team moved on to explore the effects of
weather and a changing climate on the land, by visiting Wigboro Wick Farm,
St Osyth, a large farm with the sea as its southern boundary. Here they
interviewed Mr Guy Smith, (left) who farms this land.
In 2003 Guy Smith won the title of
‘Columnist of the Year’ in the ‘Periodical Publishers Association
Awards’. He writes a regular column - ‘Smith’s Soapbox’ in ‘Arable
Farming’ magazine and local media for his forthright opinions on
agricultural matters.
In 2004 Guy won the National Farmers Union award for East Anglia with
the title of Farming Ambassador of the Year. Now he has taken the next
step electronically, by allowing all Internet users to share with him
experiences, month by month, of farming and countryside based subjects
in the East of England. These talks are on subjects with information of
appeal to both adults and youngsters, with a love of the countryside.
The following URL will link you to a page on ‘Facebook’,
www.face-online.org.uk/podcasts.
Guy has been reported in the past as describing the Government's sea defence
plans for coastal areas known as 'Managed Retreat', as another word for
'flooding'! - No doubt Guy's Facebook report will reflect the visit from
Teachers' TV in due course.
10/2/10.
M.J.T.
The above
article was taken from the official website for the parish of St Osyth
www.stosyth.gov.uk.
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