Strumble Dairy, from Francis, 1/6/24 Risso's return! (we hope)

 I thought you might be interested in a sighting from today. I observed 

during the falling tide, between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.and saw just one 
porpoise. As we were leaving, at about 3 p.m. one of my group spotted a 
Risso's dolphin surfacing in front of the building, not as far out as the 
tidal race. It surfaced quite slowly and was close enough to give good 
views of the fin. I observe whenever I'm in Pembs and I've chatted with Ken 
a few times.

Regards,
Francis Hickenbottom

Risso's have been absent (as far as we know) since mid-November, 2023. 

In recent years they have been seen pretty regularly recorded right into the New Year although the last sighting in 2022 was also in November..There may be an answer as to why this should be the case. 

Firstly why were they there? According to local fishermen, they start getting squid eggs on their pot lines in late summer /autumn. Squid are Risso's favourite food.. 

In recent years we have seen growing numbers of Common Dolphins overwintering here something unheard of a decade or so ago.  We have had pods of 100+ in the last couple of years and Common Dolphins also eat squid. Not only that but very recently Bluefin Tuna have been spotted off Strumble  (22/11/23).  

It seems likely, that both these incredibly fast species would out-compete our larger less numerous Risso's, therefore explaining perhaps, their early departure in the past two years. We will continue to monitor the situation but Frances's sighting after a brief distant sighting of Risso's a few days ago by Ken is encouraging!