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Bute pays tribute to the flying blacksmith

Published Date: 19 September 2010

By Alastair Dalton

Transport Correspondent

HE took off in a plane built in his blacksmith's shop with silk wings sewn by his wife - and he became the first Scot to make a powered flight.

• Andrew Baird II and III - his son and grandson

Now Andrew Blain Baird's largely forgotten feat will finally win recognition this week with centenary celebrations to mark his epic achievement in the unlikely setting of the Isle of Bute.

On Saturday, the grass airstrip at Kingarth, which is used by air ambulances, will be renamed in Baird's honour, while a monument will be unveiled at the site of his historic flight at Ettrick Bay on the other side of the island.

A commemorative fly-past involving some 20 aircraft is also planned, with 200 island school children flying rainbow kites and the Rothesay Band playing the newly composed Baird of Bute, by Charlie Soane.

Baird's 91-year-old son Andrew, and his grandson, also Andrew, who live in Arbroath, are due to attend. They will also take part in an unveiling ceremony for a centenary plaque on Baird's headstone in Rothesay Cemetery.

Galloway-born Baird, then 48, constructed his aircraft weeks after being inspired by designs at an air show in Lanark.

He had also corresponded with early aviators such as Louis Bleriot, and his plane was similar to one flown by the Frenchman, who had crossed the English Channel for the first time the previous year.

Baird, below, never flew again after crash landing on his maiden flight from a Bute beach, but his plane influenced aircraft manufacturer Thomas Sopwith, who was responsible for the Camel fighter in the First World War.

Chris Markwell, who is organising the events, also hopes to establish a museum on Bute to display the aircraft's engine and propeller. The engine is in store at the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, while the propeller is on loan to Lanark Museum.

Markwell, a Bute-born former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Canada Insurance Group, who divides him time between the island and Toronto, said although Baird could not claim the first powered flight in Scotland, he was the first Scot to have achieved it, in a Scottish-built plane.

He said: "It was the first all-Scottish flight.

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seaweed and salmon

Diversifying salmon farms works: researcher

Growing mussels and seaweed with fish improves farms, UNB prof says

Last Updated: Monday, September 27, 2010 | 10:53 AM AT Comments1Recommend4

CBC News

Growing mussels and seaweed alongside farmed salmon makes sense financially and environmentally, a New Brunswick research scientist says.

Thierry Chopin at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John has been studying the benefits of growing the animals and plants together for 15 years, and has been working with the salmon aquaculture company Cooke Aquaculture to test the integrated system at eight salmon farms.

At $190-million a year, farmed salmon is New Brunswick's biggest cash crop. However, fish waste and uneaten feed pose environmental concerns and force farms to move their cages to let sites become clean.

Having mussels and seaweed alongside the salmon balances the ecosystem because after the salmon release nutrients into the water, the mussels absorb the organic components and seaweed takes in the inorganic parts, Chopin says.

Diversified sites can weather bad years for salmon better than sites that grow fish alone, providing economic stability to farmers, he says.

There's another perk, too: Chopin says the mussels are considerably plumper than the ones people would normally see at the grocery store, with a high concentration of omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega 3 fatty acids reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/09/27/nb-aquaculture-salmon-seaweed-mussels.html#ixzz10jraiy5P

a bit of fame at last

Featured Producer: Iain at Just Seaweed

Ever tried proper seaweed? Not the chopped fried cabbage you get in a Chinese restaurant, the real plant from the sea.
Full of essential vitamins we seem to ignore this great source of food. Luckily you can now buy it in the BigBarn MarketPlace from Iain on the Isle of Bute.
Born in Bute Iain retuned after years on the mainland and researched the product he could see through his sitting room window, seaweed, and tons of it.
The more research he did, the more he discovered about seaweed’s many uses, both for bathing and for eating. As well as the two edible varieties, Iain gathers two types of bathing seaweed: knotted or egg wrack and bladderwrack. Seaweed is naturally rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements. In hot water, it turns a lovely spring green and releases a silky sort of gel into the water.

‘It’s very relaxing,’ Iain says. ‘People use it for soothing the symptoms of rheumatism, arthritis, psoriasis and eczema. They also like the softening effect it has on their skin and hair. When they try it, they come back and order again.’
Although seaweed gathering has been popular for centuries and is still practised in Ireland and Wales, Iain found very little evidence of it being done in Scotland nowadays, except for its use as fertiliser.

‘It seems to have all but died out and I don’t understand why,’ he says. ‘Seaweed’s benefits are becoming increasingly well known and this is a prime area for it. There are fast-flowing currents of seawater rushing in from the deep waters of the Sound of Arran twice a day and countless gallons of fresh rainwater run down from the mountains into the Kyles of Bute, so this is an ideal location. Fortunately for me, this is a designated seafood fishing area, too, so I know the water is pure because it is tested every three months by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.’
To try some seaweed on the plate, or in the bath, click here. And please let us know what you think.

IN PHOTOS: Seaweed Farming's Underwater Bumper Crop

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Malaysia’s recent announcement that it would invest millions into researching new seaweed products, from health products to restaurant items, brought the aquatic plant’s versatility back into the spotlight. With Ireland, a traditional seaweed leader, and a major Norwegian oil company investing, the watery plant may be the product of the future.

After all, seaweed can be turned into fuel, made into cars and could possibly be the best dietary drug ever.

But where does it come from? Well… seaweed farms, of course.

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A Balinese farmer cultivates a bed of seaweed. (Photo: jumhullot/Creative Commons)

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Seaweed farmers in Bali tend to to their crops. (Photo: Yusuf Ahmed Tawil/Reuters)

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Seaweed farmer Nyafu Juma Uledi tends her crop in a tidal pool on Zanzibar Island in Tanzania, which exports thousands of tons of the greenery to Asia annually. (Photo: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

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Farmers guide boats through fields of laver, a type of seaweed, in Fujan Province, China. (Photo: Getty Images)

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A boy walks along the edge of a seaweed farm in Bali, Indonesia. Climate change and rising sea levels threaten many farms in the region. (Photo: Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty Images)

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Two boats filled with seaweed head for a market in the Philippines. (Photo: Stringer/Reuters)

we need more ntz in scotlasnd

Flamborough Head named North Sea’s first No Take Zone

21 Sep 2010

The North Sea’s first ‘No Take Zone’ (NTZ) has been formally established to protect marine wildlife off Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire. This is the third NTZ to be designated in British waters and the first to incorporate intertidal habitat.

Lobsters, crabs, fish and kelp will all benefit from this newly designated marine protected area, which has the support of the local community and fisheries.

A No Take Zone means nothing can be removed from within the designated area, either above or below the high tidemark. Fish, seaweed, shellfish and rocks all have to be left where they are.

The NTZ covers an area of one square km and stretches from the Bridlington edge of Danes Dyke to Sewerby Steps for a distance of 700 metres seaward from the cliff base.

A formal byelaw protecting the area was confirmed by fisheries minister Richard Benyon on 21 July 2010 and has been fully supported by commercial and recreational fishers and associated onshore businesses.

David McCandless, chief fishery officer at North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee (NESFC), said: “To receive formal confirmation that the NTZ is now fully established is very exciting, particularly since it is only one of three similar sites located in UK waters. This designation will provide a valuable insight into the role and value of No Take Zones in both marine fisheries and environmental conservation and management.”

Natural England and NESFC will conduct a monitoring programme over five years to see how the management of the NTZ affects the size of edible crabs and common lobsters.

Leanne Stockdale, the marine adviser who will be carrying out the programme for Natural England, said: “The data we collect will help us to understand what works and what doesn’t, and that will benefit all stakeholders in our collective management of the North Sea.”

The other two NTZs in UK waters are Lundy Island, which is also a Marine Conservation Zone, in England; and Lamlash Bay on the Isle of Arran in Scotland.

seaweed feed 4 coows

The researchers in Townsville are endeavoring to create a seaweed supplement for cattle to provide them enough proteins, which will be available by next year, as expected.

The cattle in New Zealand are already fed by seaweed and it is also food of some breeds of sheep in Scotland.

The researchers from the James Cook University School of veterinary and bio-medical sciences started the project named as "Reef and Beef", about a year back. They are undertaking how to develop protein meal from algae.

Dr. Tony Parker is also participating in the research, and he is of the view that with the development of seaweed meal, there will be benefits for producers and the environment.

He said, "It is a protein supplement, it can be tailored to the producer's own needs".

Adding to this, he told that the meal would help the environment by dampening the methane. The meal is unique as it is not widely used in the market, and even if used then that too in meager quantity.

Meanwhile, in Queensland, there were supplies of cattle for sale. The sales of the cattle were boosted due to the nearness of the supply area to transport services. The other factor that contributed to this was the participation of Longreach and Silverdale to the selling program.