Aberystwyth & Porthmadog Bottlenose Dolphins

A sunny and generally flat calm couple of days working our way up through Cardigan Bay from Newport Pembs to Porthmadog working rivers, estuaries and outer sites (middle of Bay) on the way (water sampling). Day one revealed no cetaceans and relatively little else of note......but today made up for it. Heading out of Aberystywyth Marina (immediately outside the harbour wall) we met a lone young Bottlenose who was idly milling about (0830hrs BST). We sat at rest (engines off) and he briefly headed over to check us out before going on with his bimble.....(last image above)

At sea there were large rafts of Razorbills in their winter plumage as well as Shearwaters.....As we headed in from our final site 25Kms outside Porthmadog (at around 5kms out) we were met by a feeding frenzie of 6 Bottlenose (with calf) with one breaching clear.....all joined by lots of Shearwaters and several Gannets. We then headed in further and picked up another pod of six animals also feeding......all go in Porthmadog!