splashy surfy porp dudes!

Image: Micheal Rich


Its possibly kind of a afficianado thing but those of us lucky enough to have a reasonably regular (if tenuous) relationship with these mini-whales always seem to be left a little puzzled by our encounters. I have watched porpoises probably at least once a week for the past fifteen years. I always feel guilty that I don't invest the time and effort into them I should but whenever I do they go and confound my efforts by changing their habits or dissapearing for a couple of weeks.

I suspect at Strumble this is probably due to the incredibly variable tidal conditions dictating the
whole behaviour of the porpoises or more particularly their prey.But there is one behavioural type that seems to be seasonal which is the repeated tail slapping of autumn/early winter. Dont get me wrong, tail slapping can happen any time but there is some behaviour that goes on from now on into the winter whereby, repeated tail slapping is an integral part. It may be a related to the other winter-ish action of the leapfrogging behaviour which also seems generally to be a back end / winter thing.

Sadly today just as I saw a few tailslaps, it started to rain just as the porpoise activity of 20+ began to increase. We must be bonkers trying to sort out such small and insignificant cetaceans, yep probably! Occasionally I have mistaken this tail slapping when it has occured in choppy confused water as some kind of "enigmatic blow" such is the power and effort our porpoise put into it.