Aberporp!

Wednesday 23rd December 2009 I was thrilled to see a porpoise off Castle Point, Aberystwyth at 8.30 yesterday morning, heading North. It is several years since I saw a porpoise in the Aberystwyth area, and although I no longer live here, I visit frequently and as a birdwatcher I am always looking for anything of interest around the harbour/South beach area. I notice that the majority of your porpoise sightings are from the Strumble area so I hope that a sighting from this area will be of interest to you. Helen Herbert
Hi Helen, Bottlenose Dolphins tend to be seen around Aber' So yes very grateful for the porp! allthingsgood, cliff

Donner und Blitzen und Porpoises!

Hi Cliff. Hope you're well & I wish everyone a very merry Christmas. Just catching up with recent visits to Ramsey Sound. Sun.20th.Dec.- watched porpoise moving down the Sound at the start of the ebb tide & in the tidal race at the south end, probably about 8-10 that day. An awful lot of weather up there today, Christmas Day. Wind,rain,sunshine(only very little!),hail, thunder & lightning but I did see porpoise moving down the Sound in the ebb tide. I think not as many as were there last Sunday but good to see some were there & well worth getting cold, wet & I have to admit, a little bit frightened for, in all that weather! All the best.....Alison

Dear John getter (from IWDG)

Killer Thriller off Galley Head, West Cork
17 December 2009
There is a build up of whale activity in West Cork, as favourable northerlies take hold, with some recent sightings of large whales and evidence that there may at least be some humpback activity among them. But Galley Head produced a lot more than we bargained for this morning.
Following from a short watch on Wed afternoon from Dunnycove, Ardfield, at least two large whales were seen within 2-3 km of shore in Clonakilty Bay area. Neither could be confirmed to species level, so anxious to put this right I headed back to my vantage point at the Ardfield Signal tower. The hazy conditions were far from ideal for scoping but panning to my west off Galley Head, I detected some rather puzzling "blows" which were too large to belong to dolphins and not quite tall enough to belong to either fin or humpback whale.
In order to get a closer look, I drove across to Galley Head and focussed my watch effort on an area of concentrated commercial fishing activity. Within minutes the 1st awesome black dorsal fin carved through the water, followed by two more. Yes, killer whales.
It’s been about six years since I’ve seen killer whales in Irish waters, and boy but it was well worth the wait. At relatively close range of 2-3kms the easily recognizable dorsal fin of KWIRL 2 known in the Scottish Hebridean Islands as #001 or “John Coe” was apparent. This bull has now been well documented in Irish waters in recent years, but is the 2nd sighting of John Coe in Irish waters in 2009, as he was also seen on 5th July 09 in Galway Bay.
I watched them for about 80 minutes as they seemed to spend a lot of time loitering due south of Galley within clear view of the lighthouse. They then headed east and as I started to struggle to follow them with my scope, I picked up a 2nd much larger group of 5 killer whales about 1km to their west. Travelling in a classic killer whale line formation, with at least another 3 adult males (bulls) and two smaller animals which in hindsight were likely to be adult females. This group were travelling eastwards very fast and were further offshore, but still produced stunning sightings for another 45 minutes, and obliged by staying in view long enough for William Helps to see his first killers.
We later established from Edward Helps that there were 7-10 bottlenose dolphins in Dirk Cove, and one can only wonder whether they were seeking refuge from this apex predator which passed with a few kilometers of the mouth of the cove as they passed Galley Head. Meanwhile over to our west, another IWDG local member, Calvin Jones was watching a series of large blows off the cliffs behind Rosscarbery pier, which he feels were more likely to be humpback whales.
So on one morning alone in a tiny part of West Cork we can confirm either fin/ humpback whales (x2), killer whales (x8) and bottlenose dolphins (7-10). Not bad for mid-winter. Let’s hope these favourable viewing conditions continue long enough to give us a real opportunity to carry out photo ID research on these visitors to our inshore waters.
What an adrenaline packed Christmas present and a great way to sign off on another year monitoring whales along the Irish south coast. Pádraig Whooley
Sightings Co-ordinator www.iwdg.ie

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!

Unidentified cetaceans off Anglesey

Hi Cliff and Catherine,

I asked Dylan Walker to take a look at the photo's and read Catherine's report and he has come back to me by e-mail stating that he has no doubt whatsoever that they were bottlenose dolphins that she saw. I guess its easy for something to look bigger if there is nothing to compare them with. I bet they are the Cardigan Bay lot 'wintering' in Liverpool Bay. (Any nicks on the dorsal fins!). Maybe someone can enhance these images using a bit of computer wizardry.

WOW! anyone else got anything on this one?

I am hoping to get more info from Catherine, has anyone else any idea what was happening here?

On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 2:47 PM, Catherine Mary Stanley wrote:
Just witnessed the most incredible sight - was walking along the beach at Newborough near to Llandwyn Island when we witnessed a few whales - dont know what kind, they were in the distance. They were followed by wave after wave of other whales coming in. In total there must have been about 100. I was so excited that I phoned the coast guard at Holyhead to see if they could contact someone to witness this incredible sight. I got the impression the guy I spoke to thought I was a bit of a crank - not so. These were definitly not dolphins. These were huge creatures. The weather at the time was sunny, cold, frosty and very bright and the whales were between Llandwyn Island and the North wales coast, towards Caernarfon. The whales were sighted about 12.30pm. Just wish I could have got closer to them and photographed them. Also did not have my binoculars with me.

A bit closer to home and not quite as mindblowing, but really nice to get winter sightings...
David Cunniffe
Dec 12
Hello Cliff,
There was quite a bit of Bottlenose activity at New Quay Harbour this afternoon. At least 6 individuals including 2 pairs (mother and calf ?). I have never seen such an extended period of very boisterous activity.
Best wishes - David C.

And then closer still...

Yesterday I was happy to watch a small group of porpoise in Ramsey Sound in good conditions.
It was my first porpoise seen during my last five surveys, although I have had a couple of sightings East of St Davids Head.
It has been a strange few months, last year October, November and December were the peak months for Porpoise sightings in Ramsey Sound which is certainly not the case this year.
Still seeing a few new born seal pups.
Malcolm G Barradell

In an Octopuses garden in the Ocean Lab

At last we have an Octopus in the Ocean Lab!

This fulfills the legend of "Ollie the Octopus" which was the working title for an exhibit that preceded our Sea Trust exhibit, that has been up and running since Easter 2009.

"Ollie" was caught in a pot by Rodger, a local fisherman who saved it in a box (above). We then collected it and transfered it safely to our tank in the Ocean Lab, Fishguard Harbour. (below).

Come and see Ollie while you can! if he looks happy and we can feed him, we will keep him in our big fish tank for a while, but if we think he is not happy we will put him back in the sea.

incredibly Octopuses kill lobsters by enveloping them in their tentacles and then biting them with a hard parrot type bill inbetween their legs, so fishermen do not usually like them. But fisherman, Rodger, found "Ollie" , and saved him for us instead of feeding him to the gulls. Thanks Rodger from us and hopefully thousands of people who will visit the exhibit who will be amaized to see what we have in the waters that surround us here in West Wales!

Rewards

Hi Cliff. Glad to see you & Steve got a ferry survey in & had some sightings. Porps at last in Ramsey Sound! After spending 17 hours watching there over the last month or so I'd had only 2 sightings of a single porp in all that time. On many occasions I asked myself, what am I doing sitting out in the wind & rain? But I was rewarded today with good sightings. Difficult to be sure of how many were there, one can only make an educated guess but I would say there were 10-12 today, in the ebb race & moving north at the start of the flood tide. All the best.....Alison

Grampus Greetings

After writing off November as a dead loss without a "Stena Europe" ferry survey , the first month missed since we began in April 2004, I was relieved to get aboard again yesterday.

Steve Rosser had responded to my last minute call for help and it was he that saw the splashes as we were making our way out of Fishguard Harbour, out into the bay. The sea was pretty choppy but the splashes were big enough to be discernable about a mile away. We were not sure what to make of them untill the boat got a bit closer and we saw the large raked dorsals of Risso's as they tail slapped and breached. Sadly we did not get much closer as they were heading north but it was a great start to the survey.

We added a single porpoise on the outward leg and again in pretty choppy conditions only managed another just off Pen Anglas on the way back. The forcast had looked pretty favourable but but it was certainly worth going despite the fact it was not as good as the forecast predicted.

Interestingly Risso's Dolphins (Latin Name Grampus Gresious) are a bit of a Christmas time speciality in the inshore waters of Pembrokeshire, with sightings over several years around the Christmas holidays from Strumble Head and last year Ramsay Sound !

here and then gone

I arrived at Strumble a little after dawn this morning looking for porp's and saw some nice birds ( see birdblog) but as the lowtide was not particularly helpful when combined with a big swell crashing twenty feet above the tide line, I realised I was not on a winner. A visit to the outer breakwater at Fishguard Harbour was strangely more productive apart from the fact that the pod of about half a dozen porpoises seen on arrival about 150 metres from where I was standing , including a mother and small calf (probably recorded earlier in the month) just vamoosed within a few seconds of my arrival and totally dissapeared , shows their almost super natural ability to dissapear at will.

Bouying Porp's

No wind , no rain for a couple of hours this morning so I had a look off the outer breakwater of Fishguard Harbour. It took a while to spot anything but after a while I noticed a mother and calf "bouying" The much smaller calf was bouying and quite distant, near to a couple of lobster pot bouys. It took a while before I managed to ascertain the small dark shape was actually a baby Porpoise and it was only when a large adult surfaced alongside that I realised it was a mother and calf.
I am not sure "bouying" is a phenomena that has been described before but It seems to happen not infrequently.
When a mother porpoise has a youngster that is still pretty dependant but she needs to feed, quite often she will leave the youngster swimming around near a pot bouy. This then allows her to go off and feed. every so often she comes back to check her pup which seems to just bobble about around the bouy for the few minutes between parental visits This can go on for quite a while but if some threat of danger occurs like a boat approaching from a distance of say several hundred metres, the mother will come and take the calf away.
I have seen this happen quite a lot over the years and on a couple of occasions several calves left together in a kind of crèche situation. at these times the youngsters eseem to indulge in some quite playful behaviour with tail slapping and splashy behaviour!

Pair of Porps off Cemaes Head

Spotted a pair of Common Porps on the rising tide today at around 3.oopm ish.

Today's sighting wasn't from aboard "Razorbill".....I've been out on assessment with the Lifeboat....

The sea was flat calm until midday when onshore S /SE wind really picked up. As we were at anchor inside Cemaes Head, we spotted the Porps. They were pretty close in and were slowly making their way past the headland down the coast (toward Ceibwr direction). The seals were out in force and I was also distracted by a Peregrine which took off after a Fulmar...it half heartedly bombed it for a while and then decided to give up on it.....was hard to concentrate on assessment when all that was going on!

Was glad to get off the water as it got dark...it's the first time I've felt properly cold this year! Dan.