Cartlet Lady Survey 25/08/2019

Cliff termed it a short survey but despite the shorter time on the water it was packed with the wonderful natural wildlife we have just off our coastline. Just two miles out we encountered our first small group of commons only three but that gave a sense of anticipation for what may be ahead. The usual lull then until we got eight or nine miles out where we started picking up larger pods. The weather was overcast which made spotting them at distance quite tricky and whether it was the oppressive nature of the weather or not but all of the pods we encountered were very quiet and not playful at all.
     Steaming on we encountered a few more groups of commons before we then spotted the bottlenose dolphins that Cliff mentioned in the previous post. This was exciting as it is the first time that we've encountered bottlenose in this area since our Cartlet Lady surveys started a number of years back. A large number too but difficult to estimate the totals. Could this be why the commons were so quiet I wonder with these big bad boys in their territory. Sadly it was time to head back in and we soon came across a seal in over 200ft of water making a meal of a rather large and tasty flatfish. A long way down to get lunch me thinks.
    With time against us skipper Andy pushed the throttles to max and we came up to eighteen knots or so and this seemed to wake up any commons we passed with several coming to the boat, surfing the wake and generally leaping for joy whilst trying to show us they were mush faster than us. We entered the haven just after 4pm having had an enjoyable day in great company with Skipper Andy once again doing a sterling job and getting us out and back safely. Here's a small selection of some of the images captured on the day.  ENJOY!!