Guernsey Post introduced a set of six stamps featuring Alderney's sealife. This issue features the animals that live in Alderney's protected Ramsar site, which covers 1,500 hectares. They are a seal pup, shore crab, a gannet, a beadlet anemone, an ormer and a cushion star.
Alderney's west coast and the Burhou islands were recognised by the United Nations as wetlands of international importance in 2005, becoming the first designated Ramsar site in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The area contains Alderney's main seabird colonies, a small population of grey seals and a huge diversity of marine habitats.
The first stamp shows a grey seal that is charismatic, large seal found along the shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. The second item features a shore crab - a medium-sized crab which lives amongst rocks and seaweed from mid shore down to beyond the low tide mark. The third stamp depicts a gannet that is a large white bird with yellowish heads; black-tipped wings; and long bills. Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the North Atlantic.
The next item features a beadlet anemone - a common sea anemone found on rocky shores around all coasts of the British Isles. The fifth stamp shows an ormer – one of the most interesting representatives of Alderney’s sea life. And the last item depicts a cushion star - a sea star that gets its common name from its inflated, pillow-like appearance.
See also other fauna stamps.
