Interesting Stena Europe Survey.

Pic': Mick Brown

Taking advantage of the weather we were going to do a trip with a film crew but they cancelled last minute so it was Hannah and the walrus in the end. We were really expecting great things given the calm seas but it was interesting rather than full on. It may have been to do with the tides but we saw little enough other than odd porpoises on the way out untill we got into the Risso's Triangle,  in fact we were almost at the Tusker Rock when we saw some distant Risso's and they remained distant as did all the others we sew but there were at least forty animals in the area even within half a mile of the harbour at Rosslare.

With the late night light we saw several more on the rerturn evening trip, but again distantly. Same went for the way in, I got up for at 5am in the morning in the hope they would be closer but my noble efforts were poorly rewarded with only two sightings but both distant. Same thing on the  9am return trip. they are there and in numbers but getting a biyt shy it seems.

We had several Porp's but the lack of Common Dolphins yet again on the Irish side begins to be of slight concern Happily we met up with a pod of about ten Common dolphins as we passed Strumble which gave us some nice views.All in all around a score of sightings of which at least forty animals were Risso's. with Porpoises and Common Dolphins making three species for the trip not bad really but a bit frustrating!