100 Whales and a tale of two ferries!

Further stuff from Cath
Sadly I did not have my binoculars with me on Sunday. It is difficult to say how far out they were, but my best guess is that they were up to a mile off shore from where I was., I can definitely say they werent dolphins. I sometimes go out with a friend who has a boat - we go near to the Skerries off Anglesey, and we regularly see dolphins in the summer. In fact I have some excellent video footage of one large pod of dolphins last year. I would say the creatures we saw - well some of them at least appeared to be 20 feet long. Again difficult to estimate because of the distance. They were too far away to detect, without the aid of binoculars, whether or not they were blowing sea water. I told a friend of mine about them and she went yesterday, around 12.30pm. She had binoculars and said that she saw them and they were blowing sea water. I did not get any more particulars off her. I saw them off Llandwyn Island, Newborough. I would guess they were somewhere between Llandwyn and Nefyn. (I have now looked at the area on Google earth) I believe there is a mass migration of Bass in the winter and they congregate at a place in the sea known as the Pinnicles before they go to "ground" for the winter. I think the Pinnicles is around that area. I did have a camera with me and took some photos, but the sun was in the lens of the camera and the whales were too far away to be captured. I have attached one photo, which shows a black blob on it, but I cant say it was one of the whales. It would be really helpful if someone with a good boat could go out to that area. If they had been there on Sunday they would have seen a phonomenal sight - better still if they could have captured this on film. Regards, Cath



from Kathryn Driscoll

Hi Cliff and co I recently travelled across to Rosslare from Fishguard sailing 2:30pm
The crew told me you carry out the surveys so I am passing on the record of what we saw; 10/12/09 1 adult porpoise 500m outside of Fishguard harbour 15/12/09 The return trip was on Irish ferries to Penbroke at 08:45 We saw 1 porpoise a km east Grasssholm Island Not too Exciting but thought it may be useful
All the bestKathryn Driscoll

all gratefully recieved Kathryn!