Dolphins make a splash and plenty of Porp's on our Stena Europe ferry survey...

The sun shone yesterday as we sailed out of Fishguard on our three and a half hour crossing of the St Georges Channel to Rosslare. We started off  slowly with a couple of Porpoises about ten miles off Strumble and and then waited almost another half hour for our next sighting a pod of around 40 Common dolphins feeding below at least 50 Gannets. They came in to see us and we got some pic's and some film.another reasonable fruitless half hour passed and then we started a series of 11 Porpoise sightings in the last hour of survey for a total of 37 individuals!Another splendid meal in the Harbour View topped off the day before returning to the ship for a good nights sleep. Up bright and early and after a splendid breakfast we set off at nine into a rather murky Irish Sea. There was little evidence of the Porpoises we saw coming in and a choppy sea state three and hazy horizon made spotting them a good deal harder.none the less during the course of the trip we managed nine separate sightings . Eight were of Porpoises but we also had another of two Common Dolphin. so all in all a pretty eventful Trip for team Sea Trust!

22 sightings
20 porpoise, 2 common dolphin

Individuals
56 porpoise, ~40 common dolphin

More photos: 
https://www.facebook.com/532791560088466/photos/pcb.753979091303044/753977931303160/?type=1&theater
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eekw4-JMgHQ&feature=youtu.be

More common dolphin shots from Steve Rosser: