Dolpinothon day two just gets better...

We get about an hour in between arriving in Fishguard and then setting sail again on the afternoon sailing to Rosslare. In that time we have to drive to and from my house , I sort out emails etc try and work out what the weather is likely to do, eat something and then meet the next team get onboard and set up for the next leg. Its hectic but with a calm sea, nice overcast sky and plenty of sightings this morning, Jessica and the Walrus wer still pretty keen to get back out onto the Ship and see what else is out there...
The afternoon session began with the Gambicatsteam (Frances, Helen and Godfrey) joining us, we clocked up more Porpoises, Risso's as well as a couple of enigmatic but distant large whale sightings , all very exciting but also a little frustrating, as they were unresolved as to species.

Image: Jessica Creak

This morning has dawned bright with a bit of breeze, its not going to be easy on our eyes but with a bit of luck we will add a few more animals to our score!

Dolpin-Othon day two! Rosslare -Fishguard leg.

Second day out from Rosslare and started dull overcast with choppy sea dying down to almost nothing on the Welsh side. 15 sightings some better than others but Rissos and Porpoises added to species list more later.... Ps, thanks for Phone message Ian, yep we got the Bottles from the ship!

The Dolphin-Othon Begins!

Sea Trust volunteer monitors (Jessica Creak and Ana Cowie and the walrus)  met up with the Fishguard Ladies Jemima Rowing Team, aboard the Stena Europe yesterday (Monday 29/8/11) to begin this years annual Dolphin-Othon.
The voyage started with a bang when we spotted the bottles off the breakwater, a female with a young calf, probably the same ones as seen by Ian Hotchin on Sunday.
Sea State was quite choppy which with a bright sun made for difficult viewing conditions. None the less distant feeding gannets were seen and under one the splashes of dolphins. Not particularly satisfying for our Jemmima's but about half way across, I spotted Common Dolphins breaching in the distance. To squeals of delight they came racing into our bow (see Jessica's pic)

Another distant sighting brought the total to four, about thirty animals, a great start!

Fishguard Bottles report again from Ian

Unfortunately I could not get there immediately to see them yesterday, but Ian reported a mother and calf hanging around the harbour entrance and some more further out into the bay. We arrived a couple of hours later and could not find them so perhaps they have had their weekend holiday in Fishyguard and returned to the north! Ian said that was the direction they were heading in when he last saw them.
We will be starting our annual Dolphin-Othon today finishing on Sunday Morning. the forecast looks good for the next few days so lets hope our teams see some really good stuff!

Backyard Bottles are Topnotch!

Another call from Sea Trust supporter/yachtsman Ian Hotchin yesterday afternoon had me rushing out to the outer breakwater at Fishguard to try and photograph the bottlenose dolphins he had reported.
It seemed there were two seperate pods, one off the end of the breakwater, the other out towards Pen Anglas 
I took a lot of photo's and have not managed to go through them all but I think one was "Topknotch" who seems to be a regular visitor though more often seen around Mwnt/Cardigan Island. More later...

Strumbler Stonier, had a whale of a time!

I had permission to use this image but can't remermber who I got it from, apologies!

*** Humpback Whale ***




Seen at 1410 for at least 5 mins moving East into bay and breaching. It must have breached (complete breach) at least 8 times. (Lost count in excitement!)


Sunfish - 2


Common Porpoise - Showing quite well late afternoon in reasonable numbers


Posted by Richard Stonier at 6:17 PM (passed on by RS from Pembs Bird Blog)
 
This is the second,  Humpback sighting from Strumble and a just reward for one of its most concientious observers... Well Done Richard! First sighting was in June 2005 during a Sea Trust National Biodiversity Week event seen by Bethan Cox, Chantal Bloomink and the Walrus. I filmed it and its on You Tube although its not very good as its very distant and only really distinguishable as as Humpy in the last couple of seconds of the clip. None the less it is a good record shot! Heledd (nee) Phillips reported a large whale she suspected of being a Humpback a year or so before that, but was not certain.I have to say we were all a bit sceptical at the time but I am inclined to believe she was right! Its certainly worth a mention,so this is probably the third ever reported Humpback for West Wales although only the second confirmed sighting.
This year I had  a brief sighting of one from the Ferry but in Irish Waters. Last Weeks Fin Whale encounter inthe Celtic Deep had a distant whale that breached several times which we suspected of being a Humpy...  Just goes to show its always worth having a look at Strumble, with two whale species this week

Cardigan Island sweep-up

We are still working away in Grimsby, and also (mid week) in Milford Haven on Enviro Monitoring Charter, but have managed to get out of Cardigan /home over the past few days, so wanted to post up a few sightings:

Weds 24th - Cardigan Lifeboat: 1900hrs pod of 7 Bottlenose heading towards Mwnt three juveniles in the pod.

Fri 26th - Two Bottlenose briefly surfaced alongside the RIB as we made way through Cardigan Island Sound towards Mwnt (heavy chop)....surfaced twice each to see what we were, and then dissapeared.....

Belatedly from "Stevo"...

Saturday 20th August



Mum and I went to Mwnt at 1-3pm and


We saw a group of 5 Bottlenose Dolphins with a calf at 2pm.


They were travelling across the headland but very closely in and then another group of 3 Bottlenose Dolphins came in to Mwnt bay and


they were feeding and milling around in front of us when they were still there when we left the watch and we also saw a couple of gannets circling and diving in the sea.


The sea conditions was south westerly wind force 3


Cheers


Stevo


P:S 3 species in 24 hours Commons / Fin Whales/ and bottles awesome stuff!

Yep Stevo, and with Bottlenose Dolphin frome Steve Hartleys boat "Sulaire" on the last day of our Wildlife Observer Wales Cetaceans course three species (Porpoise, Minke Whale and Bottlenose Dolphin) we finished the course in grand style. As you say the cetacean watching in West Wales is awesome!

WOW... a Minke Whale.

Day two of WOW course and after Biology lecture /exam in Ocean Lab we went on to practice ID and Recording skills at Strumble Head.
Around 30 Gannets were wheeling about foraging about a mile out. Porpoises were present but not making much of a show, certainly much more restrained than yesterday. whilst scanning ,Powell and a couple of others were left off balance by a small whale that made a subtle low key appearance before disappearing without a trace! it was undoubtedly a Minke when all the relevant details were put together, a rare but valuable sighting from Wales premier land based cetacean lookout! two species logged with the hope of Bottlenose Dolphin with Steve Hartley on "Sulaire" tomorrow on our last day!

WOW Course Porp's in Ramsey Sound

Image: James Davis

Just a brief visit to Ramsey Sound yesterday afternoon with our WOW course Students produced some smashing views of Porpoises (from the Copper Mines) , surging down the sound against the tide, their blunt snouts and silvery sides clearly visible!

A surprising lack of cetaceans ...

A last minute ferry training session for new volunteer Jessica Creak in less than perfect conditions, although today better than yesterdayday, produced a small surprise.Yesterday a couple of Risso's sightings and common dolphins, today nothing except a dead seal! surprisingly no porpoises. Despite it being a training sessiomn with only myself and Jessica, we were trying hard and Helmsman, Alan Murrow, was also trying hard to spot animals adding a couple of sightings yesterday. Senior Master, Collum Claire, rushed out from the bridge to try and get us onto "a fin" off Strumble but we could not find it... seems we were just a couple of hours too late...

Good Afternoon Cliff ,
At about 8.15 this morning i had 10 to 15 Common Dolphin move East to West quite slowly ( it took about 20 mins ) , 1 obvious small animal in the group.
Cheers
Adrian

Fin Whales!

What an experience yesterday! The hour or so that we spent with the 10 to 12 Fin Whales some 36 miles out from Pembrokeshire in the Celtic Deep was truly wonderful. The Whales were busy feeding, coming to the surface to breathe for a few minutes then disappearing for 5 minutes or so to reappear with much splashing. On occasion they could be seen rolling over showing their Pectoral Fins -see gallery of photos here . One animal, a long way off was seen to breach twice. The Dolphins and 1000's of Manx Shearwaters in attendance added to the drama. Click here for a BBC Wales News article on the encounter

So, another successful Sea Trust cetacean survey despite the rough sea conditions and the grey skies. The surveys have become very popular attracting people from far and wide. On yesterday's trip we had a family of five from Norwich (including an 86 year old grandmother who enjoyed it immensely despite a soaking), a couple from Sussex honeymooning in Pembrokeshire, a chap who had driven down from Cambridge overnight to join us and a photographer who is currently putting together a Hungarian language photobook on Wales! The next two trips are sold out but some places remain on the trips on 15 and 29 September.

Zippedydoohdah! fintastic Whales in Wales!

I sat in my garden at 6.30 am, drinking tea, sadly aware of the fact that the sunny calm morning was going to deteriorate. The only question was when? Would we be able to get out to the Celtic deep before the forcasted winds got up and made a mess of our hopes to see the fin whales we knew to be out there?
Hardly a breeze as we ate our bacon butties at Neyland Marina and the party gathered whilst Nick readied the "Celtic Wildcat" for our mission , for we were most definately on a mission...
Plan was, bat on out to Nicks happy hunting grounds with the rising wind in our teeth and hope when we got there:
(A) there would be some Whales
(B) the sea would not be too rough to see them!
Well the wind was increasing and we were certainly batting against a choppy sea. Passing a couple of small pods of Common Dolphins without giving them more than a second glance, we were on a mission. Eventually soaked and thirty odd miles offshore, Nick picked up a blow and homed in on it! Fin Whales, lots (ten+) of Fin Whales, thousands of Manx Shearwaters ,and hundreds of Common Dolphins, all intent on hoovering up the small fry that must be there in huge quantities. Photography was rather challenging as the boat lurched around in the heavy seas but Rich Crossen got some shots which set the scene -a couple here, more tomorrow.
I also got some film, a lot of it pretty wobbly but some bits are reasonably good and really show what was going on out there.
A professional cameraman equipped with the latest gear and editing facilities would have really done it justice. And it deserves that kind of coverage, the BBC's Natural History Unit is based no more than a four hour drive away. Our research since 2004 has proved this is an aannual occurrence with Fin Whales seen in August whenever our boats can get out. It would need some planning but if they got their act together we could prove Welsh Waters can produce wildlife spectacles to match any in the world!

More big blubber! and more Risso's and other stuff from the ferry...

Images: Steve Rosser

We did another Ferry survey yesterday/today aboard the Stena Europe. Although weather was not quite as good as we hoped, we still managed four Risso's sightings , two Common Dolphin sightings and eight porpoise sightings,  sadly all the risso's were \a bit distant for photography but Steve managed to snap these commons speeding into our bow!
Whilst confirming our trip for tommorow with Nick o' Sullivan, skipper of the Celtic Wildcat, he told me that whilst shark fishing today they were surrounded by up to 30  whales... sleepless night ahead!

Blue Shark - Amroth

There is plenty going on in the seas off Pembrokeshire at present! The wonderful sightings of Fin Whales some 28 miles off St Anne's Head yesterday as reported in the posting below confirms Sea Trust's belief that Fin Whales pass through the seas off Pembrokeshire's waters in numbers each year.
Rather closer to shore the Blue Shark pictured was found on Telpyn Beach, just east of Amroth, by Mrs Campion this morning and reported to Sea Trust. The shark was approximately 5.5 feet long and did not have any wounds on it. It had clearly been washed up or stranded earlier today and had apparently been seen close inshore yesterday. Blue Sharks are rarely seen close inshore although they are regularly seen in the Celtic Deep some 25 miles plus off the Pembrokeshire coast (see posting of 30 July below). It seems likely that this shark was ill to have been washed up on the beach.
Many thanks to Mrs Campion for contacting Sea Trust and to the members of her family for showing me the shark.

Offshore on Celtic Wildcat - 17 August 2011

A group of members from the Mid Pembs and Bird Group section of the Wildlife trust went ‘Offshore’ on the Celtic Wildcat to watch sea birds and marine mammals.

What and an absolute treat for all. Having seen many seabirds, a few porpoise and some pods of Common Dolphin our skipper spotted Whales in the distance. As they came closer to us we had many exciting views of them, as best as we could at the time we decided there were between 10 and 12. They were accompanied by ‘bow wave riding’ common dolphins and Manx shearwaters. A couple of hours later we spotted another two animals which may or may not have been from the initial group.

Good luck for the Sea Trust trip tomorrow and hopefully for those on board the animals will still be there

Fin whales

Yesterday in the Celtic Deep on a trip on Celtic Wildcat we had at least 10 fin whales. A quick preliminary look at the fins showed a group of at least 8 and one group of at least two. They appeared to be feeding when we first encountered them, though there were few birds there were common dolphins in attendance. The photos will be sent to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group who have a photo ID catalogue of Irish fin whales.

Stevo the Strumbler!

Monday 15th August
Chris and I went to Strumble Head and we saw 3-4 Harbour Porpoises maybe more in the flooding tide. The time of the sighting was roughly 1:45pm. We also saw Gannets circling and diving into the sea. The sea conditions was flat calm and hardly a ripple
allthingsgood
Stevo

Good spotting Stevo, I visited Strumble last night and there were at least ten feeding in the tide along with half a dozen gannets!

I guess thats why they call it the blue...

Blue Shark image: Richard Stonier.

When I was a kid the word Shark was generally proceeded by the words "man eating" or followed by the words "fin soup"  neither appelation serves these magnificent creatures kindly, both being used as an excuse to kill them.

Richard photographed this specimen (8ft long and around 150 lbs) being caught off the Scillys.

Once upon a time it would have been killed and hung from a gallows back at the home port, but now they are tagged and released...

We saw a couple very briefly from our last "Celtic Wildcat"  trip, indeed Nick our Skipper also does angling charters which also are part of the tagging scheme.

Thanks Richard for sending this picture of what is primarily, and should be respected as one of the oceans most  graceful and beautiful creatures.

Newport sighting from John Goss & Playful Piniped video

We're currentkly working a long contract in the Humber so haven't posted for a while....... But here is a report sent in by a friend, John Goss, who holidays in Newport.....

"There were 2 dolphins which we observed on Friday evening at 6pm . We first saw them at Dinas Head and they proceeded towards Cwm Y Eglws .... It was thought that it was a mother and youngster due to the difference in size .... They just headed in 1 direction so assume they were chasing mackerel .... funnily enough i saw another one in the same location at 8pm on Saturday but it looked darker in colour so i'm thinking that was a porpoise..... very exciting.....tried taking vid but it was too far away..."

We're back to the Humber next weekend, but a programme of water sampling in Cardigan Bay before-hand.....Not a cetacean I know, but thought that blog followers might like to see this video of a very inquisitive and playful one eyed seal we encountered on the Humber.....I've never seen one playing with a buoy like this.....she kept us very amused for an hour whilst at anchor....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsgWmy7OM-Y

All the ferry best for Verena!

Verena' last day with us on the ferry yesterday, before heading back to Germany and her place in Heidelburg University to study biology. All who have met and worked with her will have been impressed by her good humour, common sense and problem solving capabilities, we will all miss her, Good Luck Verena!

She has been an outstanding volunteer, helping Dr Rob Davies to sort out the teething problems of our new Arcview GIS recording system which is now up and running. She also managed to transfer all our previous ferry sightings onto the system and is the main author of the new Sea Trust Stena Ferry Report we hope to launch at the end of the month. The main reason for the trip was to test the fool proofing of the system with me (the fool) doing the data entry. I managed fine, it works, it is now officially foolproof !!!

Allthough some of our ferry surveys back in July rank as some of the best, the weather was not so good on Saturday and we only had three sightings. These included two porpoises and some Risso's that we did not see until they were alongside us, close enough to see them and a small calf, visible underwater as they dived to avoid the ship.
There have been Bottlenoses seen from the ship and from the shore in recent days around Fishguard Harbour but they were gone as we came into Fishguard at lunchtime. It is interesting to note that although we see bottles reasonably often in Fishguard Bay, the number of sightings from the ferry are few and far between...

Great to see the Swansea-Cork ferry sightings of Fin Whale, thanks Peter. It will be interesting to see if we can locate them again from the "Celtic Wildcat" on Friday, hopefully the weather will allow us to get out there!

Swansea Cork Sightings

From Peter Howlett: -A little late but thought you might be interested in a few sightings from the Julia from the sailing 7/8 August. We were probably the only people on the boat happy that she was delayed as it meant a full day at sea on the Monday.

Westbound: 100+ Common Dolphins in mainly small groups and mostly south of Pembs, also 9 Porpoises.

Eastbound: 4 Fin whales about 15 miles off the Irish coast only 2 hours out of Cork. Minke Whale 11 miles south of St Anne’s Head. 70 Common Dolphins again mostly in small groups with last 4 being seen just 12 miles SW of Worms Head. Half a dozen Porpoises.

Large numbers of Manx (not surprisingly) and a couple of Great Shearwaters as well.

Cheers

Peter

Take Care...

I, like many others, thoroughly enjoyed the BBC programme about TV personality/marine biologist Monty Walls helping the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and taking Photo ID images for them last night.


However I would point out that to do this in the UK, you require a licence from CCW/English Nature/Scottish Heritage depending where you are doing it.

The danger is that if everyone with a boat and a camera goes out chasing them, they could panic and either strand or mothers and calves become separated. Its a job for trained researchers
To chase, follow or disturb dolphins or other protected sea creatures to photograph them is illegal and anyone doing so without a licence could be prosecuted. That is not to say merely taking photo's of animmals you encounter by chance is illegal but you must not chase them for photographs.
For more info see: http://www.pembrokeshiremarinecode.org.uk/code-of-conduct/
Cliff /Sea Trust

Bottles around Fishguard still.

Image:cb

Another call from Ian Hotchin out on his yacht, this afternoon, reporting a pod of 8-10 bottles off Pen Anglas. I drove down to Fishguard Harbour to see I f they were off the breakwater just in time to see a couple of adults  including one with a calf  making their way out towards Dinas Island. Spoke to Ian when I got back and he thought they may be a seperate group or the pod had split. He also described a big adult seen earlier in the week that had a patch of what looked like barnacles on the tailstock just above the tail.

I have seen this on common dolphins before but not on a bottle. Dolphins are constantly shedding their skin to prevent this kind of infestation but I think sometimes where there is some kind of scar tissue this may sometimes occur...

Newquay Bottles

Hi Cliff,
Saw sightings of two adult bottlenose dolphins that looked to be feeding just off the harbour at 1:25 pm this afternoon whilst visiting Newquay
Faye Donoghue

Bottles Fishguard yesterday.

Only three miles from Strumble, we added another species for the Fishguard area yesterday as Ian Hotchin, Sea Trust volunteer and  yachtsman, phoned us to alert us to the presence of a pod of Bottles off Fishguard Harbour! Ian reported a pod of six to seven with a very small calf exhibiting foetal stripes.
We rushed down to the harbour (Stevo&Tony Lucas, Faye, Paul and the Walrus) in time to catch them fishing just off the end of the breakwater in the harbour enterance.They put on a great display for about an hour befor leaving moving out to the North .

Strumble stuff, three species in one day!

From John o'Sullivan via Pembrokeshire bird blog:
Went over to Strumble Sunday 6-30-8 a.m. a massive feeding flock of Gannets/Manxies/Kittiwakes/Auksacross the horizon along with porpoises and common dolphins...

Today  WinW blogger and Sea Trust volunteer Adrian Rogers and several other regular Strumblers were at the Strumble lookout :

Common Dolphins from Strumble lookout, Photo: Richard Burns.

Hi Cliff ,  

The Cetacean Roll Call at Strumble today for the 2 sessions :
3 or possibly 4 Risso's approx 10.15 moving East to West about tide race distance.
Later on another 2 Risso's moving in same direction approx 17.30 but much further out.
The highlight was 6 Common Dolphin at 16.45 , moving through close in, E to W , picked out by Richard. His photo of 2 attached. Small numbers of Porps showing on both visits.Are these the first pics of Common Dolphins from Strumble ?

Cheers


Adrian Rogers &and ; Richard Burns

Hi Adrian, yep probably the first image taken from the land, a nice record shot leaving no doubt about the species. To the best of my knowledge Common Dolphins were a very rare sight from the coast here until the late 1990's.  GHR, myself and Jim Poole probably had the first record of them back in 1997, although Sarah Earl also recorded them off Ramsay Island from the shore, the same year.They are now recorded regularly every summer now, even entering Fishguard Harbour on several occasions.
 
On Friday we did a crossing to Ireland on the Stena Europe to try out our new mobile recording system. It worked perfectly and although the weather was rougher than we would normally go out in Verena managed to spot us a nice pod of around fifty common dolphins which showed well from the bridge-wings.  

Common Dolphins  from the Stena Europe, photo:CB

National Dolphin Watch- no show- not us!I have been contacted by several people asking us why we were not at Strumble Head on Tuesday for the much publicised Sea Watch Foundation National Dolphin Week watch as advertised on their website. Sea Trust does not take part in this, we are a local based organisation and are out there every week of the year, not just one week or in ths case not at all!
As it happens some of our volunteers were there birdwatching coincidentally and had a great result (see above) At the end of the day its probably best left to the locals! Interestingly their somwhat garbled publicity about Bottlenose Dolphins on the BBC was mixed up with our Common Dolphin superpod footage, a howler  that a lot of people have  commented on ovewr the past couple of days...

Mumbles Porps

From Richard Davies - 19 Porpoise off Mumbles head Gower this morning in scattered formation with no more than 2/3 together at any time. Sea flat calm ideal for counting.

Strumble Porps: from Ian, via Stevo

Thursday 4th August
Ian Hotchin saw 5 Harbour Porpoises 200 yards out of Strumble Head at 2:15pm sailing out on his boat.
Cheers
Stevo

Either end of the day, north and south ...

Hmm, quite a rewarding day in terms of land based cetacean watching! A flying visit to Newquay produced what seemed to be two female bottles with well advanced calves, along with another single (young looking) adult off the harbour wall . The trip boats seemed to be working well within the Ceredigion marine code although a small RHIB and an even smaller inflatable with outboard seemed intent in chasing the dolphins, as did a Kayak.

To be expected given the time of the year I suppose, and the amount of holiday makers, although the Ceredigion County Council Water ranger seemed to be just getting his act together in the harbour as we left at 11 am. At least they have one!

The speed boat illustrates the potential danger stupid people acting thoughtlessly can pose to the dolphins as it went scything through them. The red trip boat was progressing sedately with dolphins surfacing around it, and playing with a large fish, seemingly unconcerned by the boats unhurried progress.

A look out from the Fishguard outer breakwater this evening produced a bit of a surprise with a pod of around 12-20 Common dolphins about a mile offshore patrolling at speed across Fishguard bay and back!

Would love to see your dead cetacean pic's Steve!

Porthcawl Porps

From Steve Rosser - On a fishing trip today I saw one porpoise about a mile south of Porthcawl harbour. Later south of the Scarweather Sands an adult and calf slowly circled my drifting boat at a range of about 200 metres. Visible for about ten minutes.

On a less pleasant matter on my way home I came across a very decayed body of what I believe to be a small porpoise floating and drifting with the tide. It was not even attracting gulls. I took a couple of photos in case anyone wishes to examine them.

More from Phil...

Hi Cliff


Had an hours sea watching this evening at Porthgain Beacon - one adult porp making its way north east along the coast on the flood tide, 300 - 400m out.
Hwyl
Phil
Although  not far from Strumble, Porthgain rarely gets a mention, nice one Phil!

Strumble still there...

A brief visit in the early evening saw the porpoises of Strumble following the generally accepted pattern of moving at the head of the tide.
A few Strumble regulars including myself think the numbers are down on what we saw in the past, but anyone who really understands cetacean observation would tell you that counting them is a nightmare.
We have protested about scallop dredging which could be one reason for their apparent decline but nobody in authority seems able or willing to enforce or interperate the laws that are there to protect them objectively.. 

Porp's at Strumble: Michael Rich.

I scanned slowly and reckon ther were about forty present at the peak of their appearance . Forty would be good elsewhere but does not come close to estimates in previous years...