Monday, 7 September 2009
Commons, Risso's, Basker and plenty of Porpoises at Strumble
Richard Stonier and Graham Rees continued to clock up the marine mega fauna at Strumble over the weekend with sightings of Common dolphins with a probable Risso's on Saturday The Risso's or at least a larger dolphin with a largebroad based fin wsas seen amongast a pod of commons feeding off Strumble on Saturday morning in choppy conditions. If it was a Risso's and Richard seemed pretty sure it was, then this is the third example of Risso's associating with Common dolphins in recent months. At pod of least 6 Risso's including a small calf passed by heading East early on Sunday. Later a very large Basking shark passed by close in giving excellent views. This morning Richard Graham had another encounter with Common Dolphins which came close in and small calves were seen but no more Risso's!
Risso's do get around a bit which is only to be expected but not often proven. Marijke De Boer has managed to prove that Welsh Risso's wander at least as far as Cornwall see; http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8233000/8233875.stm
This is all good stuff but some time ago we offered to work with WDCS on a project looking at Risso's in the Irish Sea. We record many more sightings than they do so I think it would make sense but so far no response...