Risso's

My impressions for many years now, are, also that the larger Risso's are larger than Bottle Nosed Dolphins in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion waters at least . However, many WEB sites suggest otherwise, but, they maybe have a tendency to copy each other.

Early bird catches the Risso's!

I was feeding my chickens around eight o clock this morning when the phone rang. I dashed indoors and it was a call from our local fisherman, Tich Rees from his boat just off Pen Anglas.



Tich told me he was getting views of a really big white animal with some smaller ones, as he was lifting his pots. What he was describing was obviously a Risso, which he described as "shining white with a big dark fin". Given the murky character of the early morning it was obviously a sight to behold and close enough to get a good view. I asked Tich if he could get a photo with his phone, he said they were pretty wary and moved off whenever he started his engine but would try.

It is interesting that although we have seen plenty of Risso's over the years , they don't seem to have been catching the attention of the fishermen until recently. Risso's around here are notoriously boat shy, perhaps they are becoming less so in order to exploit whatever food that is attracting them into our coastal waters. Maybe its just that the fishermen are becoming more aware...



Another issue is the one of size. In the available literature they are variously described as being less than four meteres in length (a little over 12 feet), averaging around three (under 10 feet). This would make them similar size to our big northern Bottlenose Dolphins.
Tich and everyone I know that is familiar with our Bottles consider the Risso's to be significantly bigger. I would estimate the larger ones presumably old bulls, to have been over 4 meters around 15-16 feet and generally bulkier in proportion.

It may be that our northern Risso's are larger than those found further south (as are our Bottlenose Dolphins) Size is always difficult to define at sea but we are extremely experienced observers and it is our distinct impression.

Newquay Bottles

We took two of our work experience volunteers to Newquay today, Amy and Faye along with Verena and Matthew, as it seemed unlikely we will show them cetaceans from a boat this week due to the windy weather.

It was a good call, we first saw the Bottles from the car park feeding off the fish factory. A trip boat pushed them around the corner but we saw another group off the harbour which were still there by the time we got down to the harbour wall. They were feeding and we saw them throw a fish in the air but the boats pushed them further out by the time I got my camera set up . Still sorting through photo's but sadly the animals were quite distant and the tripper boats seemed to be intent on following them and they kept moving further out.

This is something I have not seen before in Newquay... Bit of a shame for all of us on the harbour wall who were really enjoying them! The Bottles had at least one calf and did not seem keen to be close to the boats so the passengers would probably have been better off watching from the land with the rest of us!

Dead Risso Calf washed up at Gwbert

We've been reporting quite a few dead seals at Poppit /Gwbert to Rod Penrose lately (usual pups, as well as a decapitated cow last week - prop strike??....Rod also collected another cow last week which he tells me had badly congested lungs as a result of a disease /infection...he's awaiting the biopsy results...

Today brought yet another reason to call Rod, albeit a different one...received a phone call from a fisherman reporting a dead Dolphin washed up at Gwbert (Patch) and bounced it on to Rod....

I was on lifeboat exercise so popped over with the D Class to see the recovery effort....It turned out to be a Rissos Calf (female). It was in a fairly advanced stage of decomposition, and the throat had been scavenged out, but due to it's relative 'rarity' will be sent off for PM.

It was very skinny and had visible scratching /teeth marks in the side (see pic) which Rod felt may have been Common Dolphins....possibly as a result of interaction with a common dolph pod.....may have been orphaned?

Sad, but fascinating...here are some images....apologies to anyone who is squeamish!

Minke for sure!

Hey Cliff...

hear you had a good day on Vigilance.....
Anyhoo....this chap joined up to our Razorbill You Tube group. On checking out his page found this link to some Minke footage he took off Strumble this year (posted up in last few days)....made a comment on his page and said I would forward this on to you....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr205eTyom8

Pretty cool....nice shot early on and then it reappears /makes a few passes at the 2min mark onwards....The boat isn't making way and the Minke seems to be checking them out....very cool!

D.-- Daniel WorthRazorbill RIB Charter (part of Worth Consulting)web: http://www.razorbillribs.co.uk/mail: info@razorbillribs.co.ukmobile: 07702 887363

Wow, nice one! as a fishing video it aint going to hit No1, but best view of a Minke ever recorded in our waters I suspect! shows white flashes on flippers really well which confirms its a Minke, definately! brilliant...

Would love a copy to put up on our Pembrokeshire Educational Portal link for local schools etc!

More Risso's news

I bumped into local fisherman Tich who had seen three Risso's off Strumble last week and some other fisherman had seen them off Abercastle. I looked for them today at strumble but saw neither Risso's or Porpoise...
What I did see in the distance was a huge trawler working, as well as a couple of smaller ones. It seems our forgotten corner is no lnger forgotten.

Early birds got the Risso's

Adrian told me he was going to Strumble today and invited me to join him this morning . A load of things were piling up so I said I would try but did not get there until this afternoon, The sea was big and nasty and I saw nothing, too late!

Hi Cliff ,

Got to Strumble this morning to find Red Liford from Ceredigion on the 2nd day of a two day visit. Not much in the way of birds but at approx 10 a.m. i saw a large Dolphin breach at the 11 o'clock position about half way out which made a huge splash. The only feature i had was it showed quite a large tail. Later on at 10.30 ish Red called he had a Large Fin , Tide race distance in the same area.The animal showed again which i got onto then another showed slightly further out which we both saw & we then both watched 2 Risso's Dolphin surface another time before they disappeared not to be seen again. Porpoises very tricky to see this morning because of sea conditions but there were a few about.

All the best
Adrian

Strumble with Stevo!

Monday 18th October At 3:30pm

Dad, Chris , Verena and I went to Strumble Head and spotted 4-5 Harbour Porpoises fishing in the flood tide.It was quite choppy the sea conditions westerly forcc 4/5.I hope this report will make your cold much better!
From Stevo

Interesting bits!

Some of our time aboard the Cartlett Lady yesterday was spent tracking down several concentrations of feeding seabird congregations that strangely failed to produce the attendant cetaceans we were expecting! Steve Rossers pictures show part of the reason why...

"You wondered what the gulls were feeding on. They look like baby herring to me. What a clever gull managing 2 fish."

Nice one Steve, another little clue that we would never have had a few years ago when high quality digital cameras were less available . It was porobably predatory fish pushing these herring fry/whitebait up to the surface , Bass or maybe even sharks as our old mate Nick o' Sullivan had apparently been catching both Blue and Porbeagle in the area during the week. In themselves the whitebait were probably not big enough prey for dolphins to consider worth the while. We hung about for a while becaiuse it was a classic Minke situation but failed to see anything other than the sea birds. Ah well all that shines is not silver!

A Frosty end to the Season

With the prospect of a calm day a trip on the Cartlett Lady was hastily arranged for Sunday. Sure enough the day dawned with bright blue skies but those on board had to clear the frost off their windscreens before making their way to Neyland Marina for the last Sea Trust small boat cetacean survey of the 2010 season. A short way out of Milford Haven the seas were a little more choppy than the Indian Summer of the last few days promised but skipper Andy Rickard soon had us amongst a pod of 15 or so Common Dolphins. They were, however, more intent on fishing than playing and this was to be the pattern for the day as we encountered a number of pods totalling over 90 Dolphins in all but none showed more than a passing interest in us other than one, lone, individual, pictured, which rode the bow wave for a few minutes before going on its way. Few juveniles were seen with the vast majority of the Dolphins we did see being adults.

Grassholm was eerily quiet with just a few young Gannets still gathering the courage to leave land and a look for Rissos Dolphins beyond the Bishops and Clerks drew a blank. Two Porpoises in the flooding tide through Ramsey Sound completed our tally for the day.

After a windy summer when many scheduled trips were cancelled it was great to get out on a crisp and invigorating day.

Who's afraid of a little porp!

While fishing 200 metres off Porthcawl Pier this morning (Thursday) I encountered two porpoise. They did not stay long enough to give good views but did frighten away the fish!! Tight lines, Steve Rosser

You weren't the only ones out on the silky smooth Bristol Channel yesterday Steve! Verena and I joined Mark Williams on the "Vigilance" and surveyed from Swansea around Worm's head into Carmarthen bay and then on to Neyland on an inshore route. Many thanks to Sponsors Briggs Marine for giving us the opportunity.

Pictured L-R: Skipper, MarkWilliams, Anna Prior, Environment Agency Survey Manager & the Walrus of Sea Trust!

The sea state was 2, diminishing to 0, despite the usual wrong Met Office warnings of force 3-4 in the West! We picked up several porpoises along the route and one unidentified animal but given the perfect calm and overcast conditions, we saw less than I expected. Particularly off West Angle and around the entrance to Milford Haven where we have seen quite a lot in the past ,given similar conditions. This is of course the beauty of being able to repeat surveys along the same route, a clearer picture should emerge over time. With Briggs help we should be able to continue and expand these surveys developing a bigger more accurate picture of our inshore waters and its marine wildlife. An added bonus is the ability to see the fantastic birdlife particularly Common Scoter feeding in Carmarthen Bay, see Pemb's Bird Blog...

Ramsey and Grassholm

Thanks to Crispin, skipper from Thousand Islands, for reporting a group of Risso's dolphins moving through Ramsey Sound this morning at 08:30. Out at Grassholm today we didn't see any dolphins but encountered a small group of porpoise a long way out on our return journey.

"Vigilance" is required!

Whilst speaking to Mark Williams , (Master of the MV Vigilance) this morning, arranging a survey trip with him for tommorow, he told me he had 30+ common dolphins around the bow! He was on passage from Padstow to Swansea, where we will meet him for the next leg bound for Neyland. weather is looking good, can't wait!

Today at Strumble there were plenty of Porpoise around but they were a bit spread out (as were the gannets) and not showing so well.

Bottles from Peter !

Cliff,

Dolphin sightings for the NCI Porthdinllaen station. During September 2010.


2.9.10 Bottlenose 20 approximately
3.9.10 Bottlenose 12 approximately
7.9.10 Bottlenose 10 approximately
8.9.10 Bottlenose 6 approximately

Good to see you on ‘Coast’ at weekend.

Regards,

Peter

Thanks Peter, though I suspect a few people are thinking it might be too much of a good thing!
Interesting news from Cindy of Thousand Islands, that although they did not connect with the Orca "John Coe" last spring, somone else did with three others so he is still ok! and also plenty of Common Dolphins seen on their offshore trip today.

Bird's Rock (New Quay)

Tuesday afternoon was bright and still and I guessed that it would be a good opportunity to see some Bottle Nose, however after about an hour I had only seen a very distant "something" in the water. Then, at 3.45 I quite clearly saw a splash, probably about 800 metres out. The splash turned out to be a pair of Bottle Nose heading in. As I was observing them, I noticed other splashes and after 10 minutes I had six dolphins, some 350 - 400 metres out.

At this point the dolphins turned and began to head towards New Quay and were joined by another pod so that in total there were at least 10 - 12 animals either swimming individually or in groups of two or three, although at one point I did see four in "line abreast". There then followed an amazing display of what looked like "competitive" breaching, with multiple dolphins out of the water at the same time, and some pairs crossing in the air.

I didn't have a camera with me (of course) but two animals stood out because of markings on their dorsal fins: one had the top third of it looking almost white, whilst another had a slightly smaller area in an off-white/grey colour.

I know that some people have been fortunate enough to see mega-pods, but a dozen dolphins at one time is impressive enough for me.

who saw what when!

Thursday 30th September
From 7am until about 11am.I have had a report that Fishguard Bay from the outer breakwater to almost. Dinas Head was full of Bottlenose Dolphins. They were very active as well with lots of breaches, and somersaults etc The numbers quoted were about 100!

Verina and I had a look at about 9am from Harbour Village and again at about 5 pm from the Outer brreakwater, but couldnt see anything of the animals that were about last night so this is interesting. 100 bottles all together around here would be unusual but there did seem to be a lot all spread out last night and our views were far from good due to distances. we will be looking again tommorow so I hope we can confirm this exciting spectacle!

Hi I saw something on Saturday 2nd Oct 4pm approx in Rhossili/Llangennith but I am not 100% sure what it was.I am used to seeing seals and very very occasionally a porpoise when I am surfing but this was a huge smooth black shiny bulk that came up about 300mtrs away from me. It looked sort of like the domed head of a dolphin from the beak up but much, much bigger. I would say it was about 1 – 1.5 mtrs across. It was definitely a living thing and not just something floating.
Steve McElroy

Wow this is the sort of thing that gets the brain ticking over, will try and contact Steve and see if I can get a bit more info but it sounds exciting!

Boisterous Bottles

Was just dropping Verena off having got wet and cold being caught in a downpour previously . Decided to have quick look over Fishyguard Harbour from the viewpoint at the end of Harbour Village , Goodywick, when Verena spotted some splashing off the outer breakwater it looked like a couple of adult bottles and a calf.

We shot off back down to the harbour and out onto the breakwater, praying they were still there. They were, but mooving out to the tide race of Pen Anglas, and lots of them! My guess would be 15-20 but they were well spread out surging, breaching, head slapping, a few really majestic full out of the water breaches by adults that seemed almost to hang in the air. To far for cameras (so one I took earlier!) but thrilling through our Bino's twenty minutes of cracking entertainment and then in that enigmatic way of cetaceans just dissapearing!

More porps from Stevo!

4th October Dad, Verena , Chris and I went to Strumble Head at 2:50- 3:55pm. We saw loads of Gannets diving and circling about from the hide, below them were a lot of porpoises.Unusually as well, we saw lots of the Harbour Porpoises breaching right out of the water We all saw 20/30 including many juveniles or maybe more . They were feeding in the flooding tide race. there may have been a lot more as we watched continually and they were spread out over a long distance.
Yep Stevo, wish I was there with you, sounds great, well done!

porps and props not good.

Thanks to Andrew and also Sarah Britton for sending this pic'

Hi Cliff

Just taken a phone call from a gentleman; Andrew Britton, who spotted a Porpoise washed up at Cold Knap in Barry over the weekend. He took some photographs as well so i'm sure he would be happy to pass them on to you if you wanted. He also mentioned that it had some marks on it so wasn't sure if it had been hit or not, but it was also washed up in the same place as the Minke Whale was last year.

Thanks
Nic

Nicola Cornock

Membership Officer

Office Tel/Ffon: 01656 724100
Direct Tel/Ffon: 01656 726993
E-mail/Ebost: n.cornock@welshwildlife.org

A good example of the Wildlife Trust's ability to get things done!
Nicola emailed me, and within minutes I had Rod Penrose of Welsh Marine Mammal Strandings (see links) on the case.
If you want to help us look after all our wildlife both on land and sea, give Nicola a bell or email her and she will sign you up as a Wildlife Trust member! Its all about local people caring for their own wildlife!
End of advert!
...anyhow it looks like Andrews porpoise may have been struck by the propellor of a boat although some of the damage looks to have been caused by scavengers. It seems to be a full grown adult and from the abrasions on the fins and tail etc looks to have been dead for at least a few days although Andrew said it seemed /smelled reasonably fresh!

Speaking to Rod earlier, another Porpoise that we had reported to him from Newport Pembrokeshire, last week also appeared to have been hit by a boat. Rod said it also had healed wounds caused by being attacked by a Bottlenose Dolphin.
Shame it escaped the bottles only to get clobbered by a boat!

Of course with boats and cetaceans both sharing our coastal waters occasional accidents will inevitably happen but there are things we can all do to lessen the risk; see Marine Code on the right !

Up north with Michael Rich!

Hi Cliff, pictures taken last Monday at North Stack Anglesey.

Porp pics taken at very long range, so quality not brill

regards Michael

Hmm one of the most difficult of all our cetaceans to photograph Mike, well done mate and keep

sending them in please!

Whilst on the subject of porpoises...I should also like to comment on Michael's photo on the right, that this looks like a behaviour i have referred to in the past as "leap-frogging", where one animal seems to leap over or onto another. It seems to be largely a winter game from my observations in the past but probably not exclusively so. I have caught it on video in the past and I think I remember Janet Baxter also recorded it in a stills sequence.
Why they should be "leap-frogging" is open to conjecture but presumably it has some purpose of one porpoise conveying some message to the other. My favourite theory is that the leaping animal is pestering its mother having been weaned, something I have noticed in dogs (I often get the impression the interaction is between a well grown juvenile and an adult) although there often seems to be another animal in reasonably close attendence, sometimes a small calf.

On the other hand it may be courtship behaviour...

Hi Cliff,
I went to Strumble on Saturday between 0815 and midday. There was a constant feeding flock of Gannets mostly in front of the observatory but fairly loose in concentration. They were diving often and on occasion I noted that a bird would surface with quite a large fish. It would appear that there was plenty of food in the area. The feeding dropped off just after midday and by 1230 there was just an odd bird or so in view. For most of the morning, I estimated from counts that there were at least 150 Gannets in view at any one time. Associated with this was an excellent display from the Porpoises. At one point, it seemed that anywhere I looked, there was a Porpoise. I did some slow scans and on several occasions I logged 20 individuals and I was certain that they were different individuals. However, there must have been many more than this. I have not experienced this amount of both Gannets and Porpoises for that length of time for a long time if ever. I noted from the blog that Elfyn had been at the Head for the week before me and had seen similar situations.

Regards

Colin

Yep Colin, thanks for this. I was there yesterday afternoon and had similar counts that would suggest at least sixty animals present, spread out over a large area (as were the 60 + gannets) , although they were not being particularly showy. This also matches up with recent reports from Stevo Lucas, and Richard Stonier.

Vigilance pays off!

From the "Vigilance" (on contract to Briggs) via Dan Worth; a fine Leatherback Turtle with what may be an injury on its head, I cant make out if it is or not. Photographed off Saundersfoot in the first week of September.
Our renewed working relationship with Mark Williams and his crew, and Briggs offer to have us survey with them is great, cant wait for a bit of decent weather to get out on her again! A lot is made of Leatherbacks visiting our waters and it does seem they are recorded annually at least, although the big Rhisostoma/Barrel Jellyfish they eat have been less obvious around here and Rosslare in the past couple of years. They, Leatherbacks, can be huge I remember Steve Berry describing one he saw at Strumble as about the size of a ford fiesta!
As for the bottle with calf, Elfyn, it may be the same one Verena and I saw a couple of weeks ago. she seemed to be loosely associating with another adult animal. It may be she is not a part of any of the other families up north or has moved down here with her calf for a quiet life, it will be nice to know if she continues to hang around. I doubt a female with a calf is going to bother the porp's but three species of Cetacean in the same couple of square miles of sea and Risso's not that far away last week, just shows whata fantastically rewarding place Strumble can be for those willing to put the time ! I think there is a group of circa 50-60 Commons pretty much resident in the area at the moment but they split into smaller groups and are pretty mobile between here and St Davids Head.
Re mark on turtles head... according to Rod Penrose (Strandings) this is a marking naturally occuring on all Leatherback turtles heads, although it apparently fades when dead.

Re- Bottlenose dolphin and calf

Hi Cliff - It was interesting to read about the bottlenose dolphin and calf that were seen off Pen Anglas by the fisherman because I've been birding at Strumble most mornings this week and I saw a bottlenose and calf foraging just north of mackerel rock last Tuesday (29th) at about 9.30am and again yesterday morning (1st October) at 8.30am. Last Tuesday there was a great deal of cetacean activity at Strumble especially during the incoming flood tide which must have brought in a pretty decent fish delivery! There was a lot of porpoise activity and I even recorded common dolphin in the tide race I don't know how many just a couple perhaps. There was some 'tail slapping' going on beyond the tide race which I reckoned to be dolphin but not sure and when I looked over towards mackerel rock that's when I saw the bottlenose and calf. They were foraging there for some time as indeed they were yesterday too. Then they were gone only to be replaced by foraging porpoise with a calf! (and I thought they didn't get on!). There was an awful lot of gannet activity within the tide race and mackerel rock last Tuesday and of course they led me to the animals. The birding certainly took a back stage role that day as I was just trying to figure out what was going on in the turbulent murky depths. Yesterday morning just after I had seen the bottlenose off mackerel rock I saw a gannet plunge dive in that area and it came up to the surface with a large fish in its bill (bass perhaps?) which it manipulated around to the desired position and then gulped it down head first! So maybe that's what the bottlenose and calf were after. I have a feeling too that this duo may have been foraging in the tide race yesterday as an animal breached a couple of times in the tide race in front of the observation building to a much higher degree than I have seen a porpoise breach.

Incidentally on Thursday the 30th there seemed to be some naval activity in the area again with what appeared to be an 'aircraft carrier'! Way out on the horizon in a SW direction and a hovering lynx helicopter (or similar) in the north of the bay (searching for subs perhaps!).

NB- Thanks for your comments on the bottlenose & calf sighting Cliff I had thought that there was another bottlenose with the duo in fact at one stage I thought that there were two sets of mother and calf bottlenoses but I thought my eyes were playing tricks with me! Anyway I guess its a possibility. As you say Cliff these animals may hang around now that they have found a good food source so others may spot them too. I was wishing (and looking hard) for a Risso all week too to make it a foursome species tally but sadly couldn't achieve that score! My next visit perhaps!

Closer Risso's from Stena Europe

We have had a couple of pic's in from Edd Parrott of the Risso's we saw on Sun/Mon's Ferry trip

also news in from fisherman Rodger Strawbridge of a Bottlenose with a calf seen off the Fishyguard outer breakwater that followed him out to Pen Anglas on Thursday morning!