Two weeks after the Magellan seismic survey ship left, we managed to get out there thanks largely to a donation from Sian Borley and some other Sea Trust volunteers who came out with us on the survey. When millions are spent on consultants, box tickers and careeristas who lobby with soundbites in the corridors of power and do ineffectual paper searches, it seems a bit unfair that the actual gathering of real knowledge is left to a few individuals using their time and resources with little or no help from government or their advisors in JNCC.
The fact is they,JNCC would seem to prefer to ignore us because we make them look inadequate. They have failed to create a single Porpoise SAC in Welsh or English waters despite us giving them all the evidence needed to do so here in Wales, (as would be obvious to any regular reader of this blog). And now the EU commissioners have taken them to court for not doing so, In real terms they have totally failed to implement any effective safeguards for our cetaceans in UK waters south of the Scottish border. I wonder if any of them will actually read this?
Steve Rosser and Rich Crossen gathering photographic evidence.
Conditions were perfect and over 600 Common Dolphins were recorded in and around the area, predominantly females with young, Some were clearly pregnant and there were lots of juveniles. This is consistent with what we have witnessed and recorded over the past decade.
From the outer Bristol Channel out west into the Celtic sea and north towards the Smalls we have recorded several Super-pods in the thousands and many more pods of hundreds.
All have a large proportion of females and young which clearly proves this area off the Pembrokeshire Coast is a breeding and nursery area of international importance for Common Dolphins and should be protected as such.
These are not just wild claims. We have filmed and shared this knowledge which has been featured by the BBC and seen in homes all around the world, but still the oil and gas companies are allowed to endanger these free spirits of the Ocean! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8206177.stm
Whoever allowed the environmental consents for Magellan to do seismic surveys in the area were clearly unaware of these facts which just goes to show how totally useless our system is in terms of information being shared.The weather when Magellan's seismic survey was happening in terms of marine mammal observation was far from perfect and it would not have been easy to see dolphins. I shudder to think what the effect would be on calves and pregnant females. As always conservation always comes second best to commercial interests...