Thursday 21 November 2019

Risso's in residence?

Risso's Dolphin breaching during  annual Sea Trust "New Years Day Porpoise Watch" 2016.
Risso's have been regularly sighted from Strumble Head for at least the last four decades that I know of, and probably before. They can turn up in any month but it seems to be from October into the New Year when they are seen almost daily given suitable conditions.  The fact is we probably only average less than 10 hours coverage a week out of 168. So were we able to mount some kind of surveillance 24/7 it seems likely that we would be able to say they were resident for at least three months of the year!
I have begun going through our archives on this blog, a truly remarkable record going back over ten years now, of weekly often daily cetacean sightings. I am looking for images of our Risso's that i can
identify. using scars etc.
Its been a wet and stormy Autumn but even so, our  Porpoise Photo ID  volunteers along with Holly (our Citizen Science Project Officer) have been out there getting images and records, several times a week
Distant Risso's 18/11/19  Holly, Strumble 

Enlarged/cropped image.
These images make a good record shot but unfortunately are a bit too distant for scars or other points of identification to be resolved. None the less its another addition to our remarkable archive!