Saturday 16 June 2018

Gower Common Dolphins

On Wednesday I went on a small boat survey with the Gower Marine Mammal Project from Swansea Marina. We were lucky to catch the last of the high pressure system but the forecast was for deteriorating conditions during the day. It was decided to head offshore as quickly as possible so any poor weather would be behind us coming home. We got to Worms Head in good time and in sea state 1 conditions,
before turning to port and heading out in the general direction of Lundy. We had a few porpoise but then started picking up common dolphins. We had pod after pod varying in number from 2 or 3 to 20 or 30. Rob kept the records and I am not aware of the total yet. We were surprised by how few gannet were in the area, but we did have 4 or 5 storm petrels. As with Cliff's trip on the Cartelett Lady we stopped to try a little fishing very unsuccessfully. We got a good 9 1/2 hours in before the weather and fatigue sent us back to Swansea Marina.