Saturday 1 June 2013

Strumble Diary May 31st Risso's as well as Porpoises!

Hannah and the Walrus arrived at Strumble to a completely different sea scape from yesterday. The sea was flat calm and we started our porpoise click count with nothing showing until half way througfh the first five minute session. And then we saw a couple of large hooked fins at dead 12 o clock about half a mile out, The fins would surface and then go back down again  reappearing  a minute or two later a couple of hundred metres away. They were not giving much of a view until the scarred head and back of a female showed with a juvenile shadowing.
Its difficult to tell at the distance but there were at least two others which seemed smaller than the mother. The Risso's moved furtively off towards the North West before dissapearing entirely, as is often their habit. Obviously our porp count had been disrupted so we settled down to start again. several Porps began to appear and soon, if not quite porpoise soup there was quite a lot of rather subdued activity. at the end of the survey we averaged out over 40 sightings per the hour.
We are hoping to do a mini Dolphin-Othon aboard the Stena Europe whilst this phase of good weather continues, watch this space!
A typical view of Risso's from the ferry (Steve Rosser.