Stena Survey

On Friday Elora, Odette and Steve did a cetacean survey from the Stena Nordica. We had a fine welcome from the Master and all the crew both onboard and shoreside. We had word that a passenger had seen a minke during the week, the weather was excellent so we were full of hope for a productive day. The usual porpoise near Strumble were missing so we continued over. About 20 miles out the first porpoise surfaced close to the bow and shortly after a very distant pod of 5 common dolphins. We then had a mystery splash very close to the bow, a lively porpoise possibly but non of us got a good view. Another porpoise completed the outward leg, the Irish side being very quiet. We had an excellent dinner on board and went to the sun deck to wait for the return leg. The bottlenose dolphin was patrolling just outside the breakwater so we got a few photos. When we got back to the bridge for the return survey we again failed to see the bottlenose so while we have photos it does not appear in the statistics. The return leg was warm and sunny with calm seas devoid of cetaceans. We were just a couple off miles out from Strumble after a blank 2 1/2 hours when a pod of 6 common dolphin were spotted in the distance off to starboard. 2 pairs of porpoise just off Fishguard completed the day.