Gower Dolphins

From Stephen Hawkes - Thursday 17th March 5.30pm- Limeslade Bay Gower 2 Common Dolphins (I had been told that a dozen or so dolphins had been sighted a short time earlier).
Saturday 26th March 11am - Limeslade Bay whilst kayaking with my 9 yr old daughter we spotted 3 Common Dolphins including one young.

Gaynors got em!

Gaynor (Mc Morrin) was on the Sulaire with us on Monday and managed to catch this rather nice little snippet on her video camera!

Malcoms report...

Hi Cliff, after a stormy quiet February, followed by a calmer but equally quiet start to March there has not been much to report from Ramsey Sound, Yesterday I kayaked from Porth Clais to Aberiddy not a single porpoise, today however there was a bit of an 'event', At least 15 porpoise down in the South of the Sound with at least 4/5 calfs, meanwhile at the same time a smaller group c6 with a calf were being seen by Jacob and Lisa off St Davids Head, Its the most porpoise in Ramsey Sound for some time.

Bottlenose Bonanza

A hastily arranged survey trip aboard the "Sulaire" today proved to be a real day to remember. Seven Sea Trust stalwarts left Newquay with skipper Steve Hartley shortly before 11 a.m. with a flat calm sea, a pleasantly warm sun and slightly hazy visibility. We headed straight out to sea with the plan to head north along the coast. A lone Porpoise was encountered a little way out and we then began to see several large groups of birds on the water - mainly gulls with some auks and a few Manx Shearwaters mixed in. Eventually some splashing was seen near one of the rafts of birds and this turned out to be our first pod of a dozen or so Bottlenose Dolphins, nearly all mothers with calfs or juveniles. They came over to inspect the boat and and gave some wonderful views as they cruised slowly around us and briefly rode the bow wave.
We were all very satisfied with that encounter but things got really exciting some time later and a good distance up the coast when we found a group of 30 or so Bottlenoses in a very exuberant mood. Sections of this large group came very close at times and there was an amazing amount of interaction with Dolphins leaping, tail slapping and rolling over. What we could see above water was fantastic - heaven knows what was going on below!
After some time in this group's company we headed back for Newquay around 4 p.m. and saw another group of a dozen or more Dolphins. again with several calfs. This pod seemed to be on a mission however and took no interest in us but traveled steadily on with long periods submerged.
A further lone Porpoise was seen on the way back and our total tally of Bottlenose Dolphins was 57. A truly wonderful day and a great first small boat survey of the season for Sea Trust. Many thanks to to skipper Steve Hartley and to Cliff Benson for arranging the trip.

For more photos click here

Lodsa bottles!

The weather was too good to miss and a last minute call from Steve Hartley letting us know Sulaire was available had eight of us meeting up at Newquay this morning. We headed out into the Cardigan Bay. Yesterday Steve and Sarah had been out with only a few Porpoises to show for their efforts. As such Steve suggested we go North and came across loads of bottlenose dolphins! I will leave the people who really know how to take photographs to continue this story but it was one amaising way to start the Spring!

Round up!

Re, " Vigilant on the Vigilance" I was on my way to Cumbria with Powell Strong to deliver a Wildlife Observer Wales course to QinetiQ and saw the "Vigilance" as we drove past Aberaeron!

A lovely smooth voyage for them with Mark and Martin but as Rich said, a great trip but not so many cetaceans, luck of the draw. I have since heard in relation to their report that a pod of around 40 bottles were seen off Mwnt /Cardigan Island (from Dan Worth and later again from Steve Hartley). This would possibly tie in with an earlier report last month from the Stena Europe. Perhaps there is a mobile group moving around together ?

Ramsey Sound Porpoise

We haven't been able to devote much time to looking for porpoise but have noticed their presence this past week. Difficult to say how many - max 5 at any one time but maybe more.

Lone Porpoise, Mwnt

On charter to the EA....A lone Porpoise showing well equidistant between Cardigan Island and The Mwnt at midday today (last of the flood). Hung around for a few minutes, surfacing around 30 metres from the boat (whilst drifting without engines off) then moved on.

Shot a video, but poor /not worth posting. Lots of seals 100+ laid up at the Cemaes colony also...

Gower Porpoises

From Jackie Coates - Location: Broughton, Gower  looking south west into the south channel, alongside Burry Holms. Tide ; low water + 2 hours Saturday March 19th 15;00 hrs Weather - flat calm, no swell.

Observation: 2 discrete pods, one central channel the other closer inshore by Burry Holms.

very discrete, occasional dorsal fins showing. Centred on a patch (not moving) . Most seen at same time 3 (offshore) 2 (B Holm group). Group size speculatively 6 - 10 & 3 - 5?

Vigilant on the Vigilance

Morris North & I joined Briggs vessel, the Vigilance today as it made it's way from Aberystwyth to Neyland  after a few days surveying in North Wales. As with the ferry trip mentioned below visibilty was not the best with very hazy conditions for most of the trip. However, the sea was, for the most part, flat calm and with the sun shining bright it was great to be out on a boat motoring down this wonderful stretch of the coast.
Sightings were few and far between with just 7 Porpoises seen the entire trip and most of these near Mwnt or further north. The previous day skipper Mark and mate Martin had a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins join the boat up near Pwhlleli and had also received a report of 20+ Bottlenoses off Mwnt. That's the way it goes with cetaceans - right time right place! Nevertheless it was a great trip and many thanks to Briggs for giving Sea Trust the opportunity to join the Vigilance and to Mark and Martin for looking after us so well.

Half wrong , half right!

Image: Steve Rosser


A knee injured sustained dreaming about catastrophic results for Wales and England kept me off the Stena Europe Ferry survey this week but vetran surveyor Steve Rosser led instead with the extremely capable Dave Cunnilife and new boy Peter Boyle. Of course, flat calm as predicted but I sent them off into thick fog, (not forcasted) which ruined the outward leg, The return was much more succesful with a small pod of Common Dolphins followed by a single and then several porpoise sightings. I had to content myself withh watching them pass by from Strumble but also got a couple of Porpoises ! well done all!

Stevo Scores again!

Thursday 17th March
Chris and I went to Strumble Head between 3pm and 4:30pm and over a period of an hour and a half saw 9 Harbour Porpoises feeding in the flood tide Cheers Stevo

I got it wrong!

Image Rich Crossen

I looked up weather reports etc and given we needed to do a ferry survey and pressures to get other things done, opted to survey on the ferry 15th /16th , yesterday and today.

What was particularly obvious was that we are on the hinges of winter and spring, with at least 6 Manxie sightings and little brown jobs tracking the Stena Europe both today and when I walked the top deck yesterday night.

The only positive sightings yesterday were sightings of avian migrants... 8 Chaffinches (females) yesterday afternoon and a couple of Manxies. Given the blustery overcast conditions even an "A team" of observers were bound to struggle finding cetaceans.

Today dawned brighter if not much calmer but as we progressed things improved. A pod of about a dozen Common Dolphins east of the Tusker relieved the threat of a double blank after yesterdays unproductive leg cetacean-wise. Strumble repaid the efforts of our team with several more Porpoise sightings as we passed by.

Wooltack Point

There were some good views of porpoises off Wooltack Point over the weekend. The very best was Saturday, when up to 10 could be seen in the north-flowing tide, in 2-3 separate groups. They were very active, breaching quite energetically at times. On Sunday and Monday there were fewer visible (2-3?), although similar numbers of Gannets to mark them out.

Bottles still a bit scarce around Newquay.

Photo: Steve Hartley CBMWG

Chatting today with Steve Hartley of Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre about Bottlenose Dolphins around Cardigan Bay. It seems there is not many people looking during the winter months but some were seen in the bay about 6 weeks ago.

We have seeen them further out during the winter months from the Vigilance, and although some may take a winter holiday, others stick around. Apparently the scallopers say they all go...

Any winter sightings would be particularly appreciated (see details of how to report them opposite this posting) . As spring approaches we are looking forwards to getting out on small boats again, maybe a day out with Steve on "Sulaire"!

Stevo's Sightings...

Sunday 13th March
Mum and I saw 3 Harbour Porpoises at Strumble Head around 12:00 noon - 12:45pm feeding in the flooding tide race with a couple of Gannets flying over.
Cheers Stevo

Catch up with reports.

Cliff,
I spoke to you today after spotting an otter on my paddling trip.I saw it on the rocks for a second before it dived in 5mins later it surfaced in front of the boat.this was on 06/03/11 at approx 1130 at Cerrig Duon point.Last week, friday 25/02/11 I saw 4 maybe 6 Harbour Porpoises on the outer side of the north break water Fishguard Harbour. I was out there between 1600 and 1700 paddling around and they were spread along the wall approx 100m off.
From steve Parker
Libman, Dave "C", was out and about at Newquay and seeing porpoises in good numbers , sadly my internet is playing up and I lost his message but thanks Dave and also for your contribution to the Ferry trip.
allthingsgood, cliff

New Quay - Bird's Rock

What a beautiful day, perfect observing conditions: sun out, visibility 10 miles plus and sea state 0 - 1. Arrived at Bird's Rock at 14.00 and for the next two hours had porpoises almost constantly in view, including what could have been a mother and calf. Numbers were almost up there with Strumble. Great to see the birds returning as well.

Don't know if you'll read this or not Cliff, but just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the Survey trip with you and Elfyn.

Strumbling with Stevo!

Image Rich Crossen

Thursday 3rd March
Chris and I went to Strumble Head at 10am- 11:15am. We saw 18 Harbour Porpoises feeding in the ebbing tide. With several gannets feeding over them
Cheers Stevo

I had also paid Strumble a visit earlier in the morning and seen quite a lot of porpoise activity although the tide race was very rough and the porpoises were in a low profile mood.
They were often extremely difficult to detect were it not for gannets betraying their presence. Having spoken to Stevo, his report actually refers to 18 sightings some of which were of more than one porpoise. I would be surprised if there were any less than 50 individuals present. Good work Stevo, and also Chris who is a great help to Stevo'!

Nice one Elfyn!

Well said Elfyn, it seems Mr Cawardine is a great bloke and I think I would join him in Baja if I was not tied up here doing what I love to do, despite the rather more extreme conditions of theIrish Sea/ Bristol channeL
To see Elfyns photo's or to get in touch with him to join one of his wildlife tours...


Full Name Elfyn Pugh
Address Caegogrydd Isaf
Aberhosan
Machynlleth
Telephone 01654 703160
Email address elfynpugh@btinternet.com
Flickr account is http://www.flickr.com/photos/wild-about-whales/
cheers

Elfyn

Dolphins, Red Wine & Irish hospitality!

Thanks Cliff for another good survey trip on the 'Stena Europe' across Murphy's channel! I've missed being at sea on my home patch! Great to meet Dave again too and as you say a damn good spotter (maybe I should try the Guinness next time!).
I've downloaded onto my 'flickr' account my photos of the common dolphins just before the little blighters disappeared behind the bow of the ship I know they look the size of salmon but take my word for it they 'are' dolphins! I took a photo of the black guillemots ('Tysties') in Fishguard harbour from the bridge deck of the ferry too, aren't they lovely, yes I know I'm soft but these are truly stunning birds.

Mustn't forget the birds we saw on the survey too which were numerous auks (razorbills, guillemots) gannets, kittiwakes, fulmar, common gull, diver species, and on the Irish side a few black guillemots in Rosslare harbour and hooded crow and shelduck from the ferry.

I feel I need to enlarge a bit on what Cliff said about me sharing a cabin with the 'legend' Mark Carwardine. I have just returned from a boat trip to Baja California and the 'Sea of Cortez' with a group led by Mark who was a truly outstanding and inspirational leader. This was my 2nd visit to this magical place. Mark has no doubts about it being the 'best' all round whale watching destination in the World and to prove it I can declare that on our 11 days at sea we encountered no less than 14 species of cetaceans which included a sighting of the very rare Pygmy or 'Peruvian' beaked whale which was only officially recognized as a new species in 1991. Mark was one of the first people to see a 'live' animal. Other cetacean species we saw included the mighty blue whale, Fin whale, sperm whale, humpback whale, Bryde's whale, dwarf Sperm whale, and of course we interacted with the famous 'friendly' Gray whales in San Ignacio lagoon in Mexico. With regard to dolphin species we saw pilot whales, Risso's, bottlenose, long & short beaked common dolphin, Pacific white-sided dolphin. We also visited a breeding 'rookery' of Northern Elephant seals we saw Guadeloupe and Californian sea-lions with whom we 'cavorted' (snorkelled). One yearling Calif sea-lion with sharp teeth and a whiskered snout nuzzled my face mask! On top of that there were the shark sp. mobula rays, colourful reef fishes, ocean sunfish as well as a host of birds.
This is one trip you should put on your list of places to visit.

I hope you don't mind Cliff but here is the link to Mark's website just to give him a plug. He is certainly one of Britain's 'true' and genuine conservationists and deserves to be applauded.
http://www.markcarwardine.com/

One story I feel must tell you about the trip is that we were cruising down the Pacific ocean and a few miles offshore of the Baja peninsula when we came across a young humpback whale which had a considerable amount of nylon fishing net entangled around its tail stock and both flukes (no doubt one of the vast amount of 'ghost nets' which circulate around our oceans) the skipper of the boat Mike Keating hatched a plan to attempt to free it of this unwanted 'garbage' and so he launched one of the boats 'skiffs' which had two members of his crew and Mark Carwardine on board they made valiant attempts to free it of the netting using a knife and boat hook as the animal surfaced for air and they had some degree of success sadly though we had to leave the whale to its fate which left us all rather subdued and despondent but alas on our return home we received an e-mail from Rachel Ashton (Mark's PA) that a message had been relayed to the boat skipper by a chap called Michael Fishbach, who is a marine expert, that he had come across the same whale the day following our encounter with it and he had successfully freed it of 'all' the net entanglement. The humpback whale which he described as a young female 'celebrated' by 'breaching' and to quote his words 'maybe to say goodbye, maybe something else'! What a great happy ending to this tale. I hope you don't me sharing it with you.

February 2011 by the skin of our teeth

The Stena Europe was dry docked for her annual refit earlier in the month and the weather was wet and blustery otherwise. We have surveyed every month since April 2004 so our survey yesterday on the last day of the month, in reasonable if not perfect conditions managed to keep the run going.
Several porpoises were seen on the outward leg and a small pod of between 6-10 Common Dolphins came in to our bow as we approached the Tusker Light. St David's Day dawned reasonably calm and sunny in Rosslare but despite improving conditions we managed only three porpoise sightings on our return although good veiws of a mother and attendant calf were very satisfying.
The crews log had an extremely interesting entry of a large pod of around 50 bottles entering welsh waters. We Stevo Lucas and Neil Couzins had a similar experience a couple of years ago in February.
New recruit David Cunnilife proved to be an excellent addition to the team spotting several animals before myself (or the man who shares cabins with the legend Mark Cawardine) , Elfyn Pugh...