Ferry Survey Fri/Sat

Laura, Rens and Steve set off full of hope on Friday. Our first sighting were two Sea Trust stalwarts Ken and Brad doing a survey from the end of the outer breakwater. See Ken's blog for his photos of us. The sea state was not too bad and Laura soon spotted our first porpoise shortly followed by Rens finding one. The sea state deteriorated to SS 4 and our sightings stopped and never restarted. The sea from Tusker Rock in to Rosslare was back to SS3 but nothing. We made a determined bid for the Rosslare resident bottlenose dolphin as we docked...no sign of it. Laura and Rens checked for it as we set off at 9.00pm...nothing. Steve was on deck looking before breakfast...still nothing and finally when we sailed at 9.00am not about. We had much better sea conditions for the morning crossing but other than 2 porpoise just beyond Tusker a complete blank. Not even the usual porps off Strumble. We were on the verge of packing up when Laura spotted Cliff on the breakwater. Well if Cliff is there he must be looking at the Fishguard bottle nosed dolphins. Laura spotted a fin and yes a disappointing survey was changed by 3 bottles. As it transpired Cliff was there to tale photos of our return and never saw the bottles!! Where are the common dolphins? We would have expected some. Is there a really good food source somewhere so they have formed up into a superpod?? Questions Questions.