Hi Cliff. Hope you're OK. I went up to Ramsey Sound today, Tuesday 27th December & watched a small number of porpoises coming down at the start of the ebb tide. The only sightings after that were of a group of 5 foraging in the waters between the tide race & Ramsey Island at the south end of the Sound. I also spent a couple of hours up there on Christmas Eve before the prevailing weather got the better of me but had no porpoise sightings so it was good to see them today even though the numbers were low. All the best, Alison
Great stuff Alison, great to have you back on the internet! Not sure if the winds will ever die down but we will be hoping to see some Porpoises at Strumble Head at our annual New Years Day Porpoise Watch which starts at 2.30 (14.30) , on New Years Day. Hopefully a reasonable time to let hangovers clear. All are welcome, bring binoculars and something/someone to keep you warm! Obviously if the weather is really atrocious don't bother, but there is the shelter so unless its really bad we should be OK!
Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Happy Christmas!
A very Happy Christmas to all readers of the Whales in Wales blog. A big thank you to everyone who has sent in their sightings and a special thanks to Cliff Benson who has found time to post the sightings and keep the blog topical and up to date.
A reminder that Richard Crossen's book of photos taken on Sea Trust boat trips over the past few years is available to order. Follow the Book link on the right or click on the book cover below for details.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Fishguard Harbour Porp's
A late afternoon visit to the outer breakwater in fading light was rewarded with a mother and smallish calf close in to the seaward end of ther breakwater.They indulged in the behaviour I have noted on several occasions where the mother leaves the calf near a bouy and then goes off to feed in the area occasionally returning to the calf to reassure it/check up on it. It usually ends quite suddenly with mother and calf heading out to sea again. There was another individual about, keeping a distance but seemingly in attendance . Its really hard getting a good view of all this when they are popping up in different places and extremely haphazardly, but I think the odd one was a large subadult rather than an adult. The fins of adults seem slightly more pronounced or kinked on the trailing edge, as against juveniles whose fins are more uniformly triangular. As usual when animals are close up, my camera was out of battery ...Rats!
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Not a happy ending but not really suicidal!
Pic by Rachel Emmerton 
Apparently a few of the dogwalkers on the central breakwater out braving the storm saw me in the briny and thought it was a suicide attempt! Believe me theres got to be better ways!
It all started with a call from Amanda from a local vets practice who told me there was some bloke in the sea at Goodwick with a dolphin or porpoise. I told her I would be there ASAP, rang Rod Penrose (Strandings) and asked him to ring Terry Ledbetter (Marine Mamal Rescue). I was in the cold sea nursing a baby porpoise a couple of years ago, and it aint funny so I thought whoever was doing it now would probably be looking forward to a bit of help. Then I realised my partner was out in my car, so when in trouble call the Lucas's.
Delyth Lucas arrived at speed and we were soon on the beach where we found "H" (Aeron Harries) up to his waist in the briny with a sick adult common dolphin. He looked pretty pleased to see me as I waded in to give him a break! I have a bit more blubber than "H" and did not really feel the cold but it was obviously going to be a while before Terry arrived from Milford. The tide was dropping and the bottom was stony so I had to move the exhausted dolphin further out to keep it afloat . I could feel its heart pounding and did my best to reassure it. If I let go it flipped over and could not breath so I had to hold it upright.
Some time later Terry arrived with some volunteers in dry suits who took over until the vet could get there. Unfortunately the poor creature was past saving and had to be euthanized.
Well done "H", we couldn't save it, but at least its last hours were spent afloat and supported with some caring folk rather than thrashing around on the beach. Next time we meet up I hope its in a nice warm pub! Hopefully Rod will get it post mortemed and we will maybe find out what was wrong with it.
Also thanks to Rachel Emerton for standing by in the wind and rain, keeping an eye on us as well as taking pic's!
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Roger's Not Happy!
Hi Cliff
Having seen your post on the Whales in Wales Web site I was sufficiently incensed to write to John Griffiths, the Environment Minister of WAG as follows:
“Sir,
I write to draw your attention to reports (for example at http://www.whaleswales.blogspot.com/ ) of “a dozen or more scallop dredgers trawling their heavy sets of dredges over the sea bed of Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation” just last Sunday.
I would like to mirror the comments made by Cliff Benson in the above mentioned forum where he says that “there can be no more effective way of destroying the marine animal communities for which the bay is world famous and for which it gained this designation”.
On Saturday, the fishery protection vessel HMS Tyne was moored off Aberporth. Why was it not protecting the CBSAC on Sunday?
I should welcome your explanation.
Thank you”
His eMail address is correspondence. john.griffiths@wales.gsi.gov.uk and I would urge as many people as possible to write to him with their views.
Regards
Roger Watkins
Hi Roger,
Sorry, I overlooked this, apologies for not adding it to the blog sooner.
Although the blog is preeminently about sightings its difficult not to occasionally get into some of the underlying issues. Its a fine line and I think in terms of airing views we will restrict it now to this and the previous posting as it does give an example of how and who to get in touch with. My local fisherman contact tells me that all fishing boats will be fitted with electronic trackers from next year. He says that this will mean far fewer smaller boats fishing for scallops because they don't want to have trackers fitted that would give away their movements during the dark hours. By inference this would seem to suggest they may be fishing where they should not be now. It would seem be extremely sensible to at least restrict the fishing to weekdays and the hours of daylight which would give fisheries protection a better chance of effective policing and cut down on expensive overtime payments. I know and respect some of our local fisheries officers, but they appear to be underresourced. It seems crazy that whilst millions of pounds worth of scallops are being taken from our waters by skippers from away, that the fisheries protection budget here is so small. Perhaps there should be some local landing tax to help pay for the Fisheries Protection levied on boats from away. Of course the best thing would be for the fishery to be suspended until an environmental impact study was carried out.
Having seen your post on the Whales in Wales Web site I was sufficiently incensed to write to John Griffiths, the Environment Minister of WAG as follows:
“Sir,
I write to draw your attention to reports (for example at http://www.whaleswales.blogspot.com/ ) of “a dozen or more scallop dredgers trawling their heavy sets of dredges over the sea bed of Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation” just last Sunday.
I would like to mirror the comments made by Cliff Benson in the above mentioned forum where he says that “there can be no more effective way of destroying the marine animal communities for which the bay is world famous and for which it gained this designation”.
On Saturday, the fishery protection vessel HMS Tyne was moored off Aberporth. Why was it not protecting the CBSAC on Sunday?
I should welcome your explanation.
Thank you”
His eMail address is correspondence. john.griffiths@wales.gsi.gov.uk and I would urge as many people as possible to write to him with their views.
Regards
Roger Watkins
Hi Roger,
Sorry, I overlooked this, apologies for not adding it to the blog sooner.
Although the blog is preeminently about sightings its difficult not to occasionally get into some of the underlying issues. Its a fine line and I think in terms of airing views we will restrict it now to this and the previous posting as it does give an example of how and who to get in touch with. My local fisherman contact tells me that all fishing boats will be fitted with electronic trackers from next year. He says that this will mean far fewer smaller boats fishing for scallops because they don't want to have trackers fitted that would give away their movements during the dark hours. By inference this would seem to suggest they may be fishing where they should not be now. It would seem be extremely sensible to at least restrict the fishing to weekdays and the hours of daylight which would give fisheries protection a better chance of effective policing and cut down on expensive overtime payments. I know and respect some of our local fisheries officers, but they appear to be underresourced. It seems crazy that whilst millions of pounds worth of scallops are being taken from our waters by skippers from away, that the fisheries protection budget here is so small. Perhaps there should be some local landing tax to help pay for the Fisheries Protection levied on boats from away. Of course the best thing would be for the fishery to be suspended until an environmental impact study was carried out.
Interesting perspectives from the northern end of Cardigan Bay
Hi Cliff,
It's interesting to read some of the blog comments on scallop dredging. At the NCI station at Porth Dinlaen we watch over a small protected area from where dredging is prohibited, we have good contact with the local fisheries officers who have promptly attended and launched a RIB to intercept rogue boats in the zone when we have reported them. Between us we have also compared details of suspect boats and their skippers / owners have been approached at their home ports.
I don't know if this communication exists elsewhere but it would certainly be effective if it did.
With regard to porpoise their spread in the north is interesting. I know if I spend a little time around Bull Bay on Anglesey or between Criccieth and Harlech there is a very good chance I'll see some but, I have never seen porpoise around the lower end of the Llyn, despite it being between these other two locations. I suppose it is possible the winter dredging in waters between Bardsey and South Stack could be having an impact.
It is also apparent in the north we have different groups of bottlenose. On many occasions over several years I have canoed out to the old lifeboat slipway near Abersoch at 1 - 2 hours after high tide and been joined by bottlenose dolphins feeding in the tidal overfall. This is despite the heavy summer leisure boat traffic, so I'm sure these particular animals are resident.
The sightings pattern at Porth Dinlaen is very different, the animals show up at sporadic intervals, will be around for several days then disappear. They also seem to appear at various states of tide so I suspect they are a much more nomadic group possibly ranging over a large part of the Irish Sea.
Unfortunately we don't have enough boat based observers in this area to take fin shots and carry out a proper study so we can only speculate. I don't however think it is unreasonable to suspect that any form of intensive fishing would be disruptive to the marine mammals in a confined area like the Irish Sea, especially those of a nomadic nature.
Regards.
Martin Moore.
NCI Porth Dinllaen.
Thanks for this Martin, food for thought which clearly illustrates the value of your work!
It's interesting to read some of the blog comments on scallop dredging. At the NCI station at Porth Dinlaen we watch over a small protected area from where dredging is prohibited, we have good contact with the local fisheries officers who have promptly attended and launched a RIB to intercept rogue boats in the zone when we have reported them. Between us we have also compared details of suspect boats and their skippers / owners have been approached at their home ports.
I don't know if this communication exists elsewhere but it would certainly be effective if it did.
With regard to porpoise their spread in the north is interesting. I know if I spend a little time around Bull Bay on Anglesey or between Criccieth and Harlech there is a very good chance I'll see some but, I have never seen porpoise around the lower end of the Llyn, despite it being between these other two locations. I suppose it is possible the winter dredging in waters between Bardsey and South Stack could be having an impact.
It is also apparent in the north we have different groups of bottlenose. On many occasions over several years I have canoed out to the old lifeboat slipway near Abersoch at 1 - 2 hours after high tide and been joined by bottlenose dolphins feeding in the tidal overfall. This is despite the heavy summer leisure boat traffic, so I'm sure these particular animals are resident.
The sightings pattern at Porth Dinlaen is very different, the animals show up at sporadic intervals, will be around for several days then disappear. They also seem to appear at various states of tide so I suspect they are a much more nomadic group possibly ranging over a large part of the Irish Sea.
Unfortunately we don't have enough boat based observers in this area to take fin shots and carry out a proper study so we can only speculate. I don't however think it is unreasonable to suspect that any form of intensive fishing would be disruptive to the marine mammals in a confined area like the Irish Sea, especially those of a nomadic nature.
Regards.
Martin Moore.
NCI Porth Dinllaen.
Thanks for this Martin, food for thought which clearly illustrates the value of your work!