The times they are a changeing! Winter Bluefins feeding with Common Dolphins in Fishguard Bay!

 About twenty years ago i heard Bluefin Tuna were being seen of the west coast of Ireland. around twn years ago we started encountering them out in the Celtic Deep. Four years ago we saw them off strumble feeding just off the lighthouse. This last weekend Chris Pierpoint had them feeding with common Dolphins 

At 0915 fron Chris on Sea Trust Supporters watsup..." Pen Anglas on fire! Lots of Commons and Tuna jumping with lots of birdsfeeding off the Pen Anglas foghorn!" Thanks Chris!

All of our previous Bluefin sightings have been during the late summer autumn this is the first winter report.It kind of parallels early Common Dolphin sightings where we first recorded them offshore and then a few summer sightings off Strumble around the millenium. Sightings increased inshore during the Summer and autumn and then maybe ten or twelve years ago they were increasingly present off Strumble and into Fishguard Bay during the winter months!

Obviously they are finding plenty of prey but what has brought tem inshore? Porpoises were the only regularly seen cetaceans year round but although still present  they are now outnumbered by Common Dolphins throughout the year .

Sadly as the Common Dolphins have increased and now Bluefin Tuna, Sightings of the Risso's Dolphins that we used to see frequently, mainly late Autumn and into the New year have rapidly declined over the past three or four years.

So locally, the dynamics of potentially competing marine apex predators  seem to be evolving, Something that were it not for our year round observations over almost three decades, might otherwise not have been witnessed and recorded!The question remains what has triggered this evolved dynamic?