Sparkling in the winter sun

A visit to Strumble this afternoon showed a small feeding flock of gulls auks etc about a mile out in a particularly active part of the tide race. I thought there would be porps out there but with bins it was hard making them out in the choppiness of the tide race. After a while of searching I noticed some occasional sparkles in the waves as the sun reflected of the porpoises as they surfaced. A guestimate aof 10 to 15 but could easily have been quite a lot more . One or two others showed elsewhere and then the wind increased from the NE making further veiwing difficult.

Mystery cetacean at Carfai

Whilst I was talking to Powell Strong, late afternoon yesterday on the landline, he took a call on his mobile. On the other end was Rob Kimberly who was watching a mystery cetacean close in Carfai Bay It was almost dark and Rob was having a job describing the animal. He reckoned it was blowing and about ten feet long and mainly dark. It was a bit odd with a three way conversation going on with poor Powell playing Piggy in the middle. After a few minutes the dark closed in and Rob had to give up... Guesses revolved around Risso's, Pilot Whale or Bottlenose Dolphin but we will probably never know! It did occur to us that it was pretty unusual for an animal to be so close in here and it could be unwell, Would be nice to know if it turns up stranded or anyone else saw it!

Bristol Channel Dolphins

From Andy - On the night of the 19-20 November 2010 whilst delivering a yacht from Penzance to Cumbria we first saw a group of around 10 common dolphins around 30 miles north of lands end this group stayed with us all night across the outer Bristol channel and by the morning some 50 miles later had grown to a group of around 150 probably more. This group left us as we approached the Pembrokeshire coast.

How indeed!

Hi Cliff,
just a little Ramsey Sound update

There have been small numbers of porpoise in Ramsey sound during my surveys
(October/November)
Today (Sunday) I arrived during ebb tide and immediately spotted a group of three porpoise, within a few minutes that became five and soon afterwards a tight group of nine (see photo attached), so I reckon at least a dozen in the South end of the sound at that time, I was excited at the thought of a good couple of hours of porpopise action, three more scans produced porps and then, whooosh gone!
How do they do that???
Conditions were calm and clear (a bit grey and overcast but a reasonable light and good visibility) I scanned,saw distant boats, birds and seals but not a sign of a propoise.
But science is about the negatives and the positive so I continued, It was an hour and fifty minutes when I next had a positive scan, these lasted for another 30 miutes before the porpoise headed off up the sound with the turn of the tide.

cheers for now
Malcolm

Day two...

Steve Rosser

Cliff Benson

After a pretty disturbed night with a rough sea banging the ship about, we awoke bleary eyed in Rosslare Harbour with a surprisingly calm sea and some wintery sunshine. Not long after we departed I saw what looked like a large dissapearing tail fluke which we failed to resolve but which sharpened our senses.

Soon we were spotting porpoises some with calves. Just past the Tusker we saw some distant splashing ahead and spread over a large area of sea. as we approached we noticed they were groups of Common Dolphins all around us. None got really close (see pic') but we estimated them to be over 7o in total.

The breeze picked up a little and a slight chop developed which with a low sun made viewing less easy. As we approached Strumble it died down again and we started picking up porpoises again with calves. As I searched the sea I caught a blow just off Strumble, followed by a couple of large fins and then more blows! Risso's almost two miles away but unmistakable.

They would have been really great viewed from the land and are probably a pod that has been frequenting the area for a few weeks.

I am not a scientist, I am a naturalist, observer and recorder. I try my hardest to get us out and find out what is happening and then report what we see. I cannot oversate the importance of getting favourable conditions for observation , calm seas and good light. Today was absolute proof of that pudding!

So another fantastic ferry survey with three species of Cetacean recorded, many thanks to Stena Line and all the crew and booking staff!

Winter draws on!

Aboard the Stena Europe with Steve Rosser and Verena Bolender, having completed the first leg of our November survey. It was quite bumpy coming over from Fishguard and by 16.30 getting quite dark. I saw the first flash of the Tusker rock lighthouse as Steve spotted a common dolphin on our bow! Soon after we gave in as the light failed, but incredibly we have opened the score. During our absence the crew on the bridge have been recording sightings and Charlie Morley after 40 years at sea recorded his first ever whale, a Minke, seen nice and close -" we nearly ran over it!"- well done and congratulations Charlie!!!

Making the most of the weather!

A sunny morning made a trip to see if we could see some more Bottles off Newquay Harbour Wall seem worthwhile. The first pod were seen coming into the bay as we were having lunch in the Mariners Cafe! I was a little complacent and finished my lunch (quickly!) in the knowledge there would be no boats to disturb them and high tide was a couple of hours away. Wrong!

They were a bit frustrating, I probably missed the best of them as by the time I got out they were keeping their distance and only hung around for a short time. But still their acrobatics made the trip worthwhile, probably three individuals.

Another brief sighting at high tide was equally frustrating as I missed the only close animal, but did get a shot of a big fish being flung out of the water, probably a Sewin (sea trout) or Salmon.

This pod contained at least four animals but again they kept their distance.

I suppose we have been a little bit spoilt over the past couple of months, but even though the crowds have gone away, the dolphins still come out to play!

Porp's popping up!

Image Michael Rich

Whilst watching seabirds from Telpyn Point, Carmarthenshire today I noted at least 4 Harbour Porpoises. This is the first time I have seen them from here. Derek Moore

A quick look at Strumble yesterday revealed a group of at least half a dozen porpoises riding the head of the tide, slashing and splashing. The Scallop Dredgers seem to be back in force again, trashing the seabed for miles around. I suspect that the disturbance will attract our porpoises for the easy pickings, it will be interesting to see if the fall in sightings we experienced in 2008/9 will be repeated. The scallopers are supposed to stay at least a mile off the coast and outside of any of the Marine SAC's but with no one to stop them during the hours of darkness (or most of the rest of the time) it will be down to the scallopers honesty... In several other better regulated scallop fisheries, dredging is banned during weekends and the hours of darkness which at least gives the fisheries protection vessels a chance to keep an eye on them.

So on the one hand we have the British and Welsh Assembley governments crowing about marine protection and at the same time the greater majority of Cardigan Bay even including some of the Cardigan Bay Marine Special Area of Conservation getting trashed again over the next six months.

I have seen the light!

Verena came round this afternoon to help me prepare for our day with Mathry School, working on learning about their marine environment and its wildlife, tomorrow.

I was hoping we would get an hour of daylight to check out the Strumble Porpoises and see if the recommenced rape of our inshore waters by the scallop dredgers was having an effect.
But it was getting on for four o clock by the time we got there , a small chop from the north west and the lowering sun combined for difficulty viewing so we went around to the lighthouse steps to look for seals. A late pup, possibly just weaned, was playing the cute card with its whitish coat and big soulful eyes.
About five or more miles out, a fishing boat had an incredibly bright light burning aloft its masthead. I was watching the boat trying to work out what it was doing, when two bottlenose dolphins leaped simultaneously in its vicinity. I heard Verena's gasped wow and amazingly we had both witnessed these distant dolphin aerobatics. They repeated the performance a couple more times just to prove to us it was not just wishful dreaming and then disappeared without a trace into the gloaming. A truly magical and almost incredible moment of reward for our effort!

At the end of the day...

At the end of a busy day I was taking Verena home and we stopped off at the lookout point above Fishguard harbour at Harbour Village.
In the shelter of Pen Anglas below the old magazine (where explosives were kept during the building of the harbour) a porpoise surfaced regularly and I thought i saw an accompanying pup. A couple more were a bit further out, the first porpoise we have seen there for a long time.

November between the storms

Newquay Pier was deserted, you could hardly get a whiff of chips and yet...

Verena and I watched a dolphin show much better than people pay to see, in Whale Jails all around the world. Not captive dolphins ripped off from the wild , genuine wild Cardigan bay dolphins just going peacefully about their business all for free! for just Verena and me...

Yesterday Cliff and I went to New Quay to have a look for Bottlenose Dolphins. We've been there about half ten and luckily the first Dolphins appeared in the distance showing nicely. The Sea was flat calm, so we had good chances to spot them. They were spread out over a large area and some of them came close to the harbour wall. There must have been plenty of fish, because we could see the dolphins hunting. After that first pod disappeared we saw some more dolphins, leaping in the distance and then again coming towards us. We can't be sure if they were the same ones or not. All in all there were about 10-15 Bottlenose Dolphins, including 2 calves. We had a great day at New Quay enjoying the Dolphins.

North and south

It looks lik our friends in the Coastguards up North are really getting their act together , well done all! Winter records are particularly interesting
Cliff.
Sightings of dolphins from Porthdinallaen NCI Station, for October 2010.
1/10 2 bottlenose dolphins
10/10 6 bottlenose dolphins
17/10 10+ bottlenose dolphins
Regards,
Peter
Stevo and Chris had a good time at Strumble as well!
Monday 8th November Chris and I went to Strumble Head at 2pm - 3-50pm the weather was clear with showers 1 sighting we had was a Risso Dolphin surfacing in the same place it was amazing stuff!

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.