Basking in Glory-ish!

Our first small boat survey of the year! It was a marginal forecast but we decided to give it a go despite a bit of a NW breeze blowing. We headed out first for South Haven, Skomer where the sea bird colonies were in full swing with plenty of close views of Puffins Kittiwakes, Razorbills and Guillemots. We then ventured out to the seemingly snow covered island of Grassholm, but the "snow" is 40,000 nesting gannets the, snowflakes are Gannets coming in to land and taking off!

We then made a big sweep around to the south but the choppy seas made things difficult and we failed to connect with any cetaceans.
None the less we did connect with a much rarer creature for our waters, a basking shark! 
For Hannah (whose sharp eyes spotted it), and also  for most of those on the boat, it was their first encounter with this gentle marine  giant.  We estimated it at no bigger than 8-10 feet in length so a juvenile  and not really a giant as such! Baby Basking Sharks are between 5-6 feet long at birth. so I expect this was no more than a year or two old! We tried to get some pic's and hopefully someone did better than me as we were rocked about slowly following it at a reasonable distance. After a couple of minutes we left it in peace although to be honest it did not seem to realise we were there!
We have seen them every now and again over the years but this was the first one for at least five years so something of a treat even though we failed on Dolphins!

Film from the trip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5494fKhFBkA&list=UU9WgsTMCKUMJ7PDPcHDCABQ

Holyhead-Dublin route - yesterday's report from Ian Coote

We are extremely fortunate in the support Stena Line have been most generously providing and we are now operating on both the Fishguard-Rosslare and the Holyhead-Dublin Irish Sea Routes. Many thanks to all the Stena crews and shore-side support that makes this all possible.
Next week we will be adding another route from Rosslare to Cherbourg in France.a really exciting new development! 
We also depend on experienced  Sea Trust volunteers such as Ian Coote, Katy Hobson and Janette Humphreys who were aboard the "Stena Nordica" for this survey. 
Here's Ian Cootes report;
  
The conditions for the outward leg of the survey were sea state 3, overcast, with good visibility. We had a steady number of all the usual seabirds seen with very little feeding activity observed. With the one instance of a number of birds active, Janette moved to the starboard side of bridge and was rewarded with a Minke Whale, close up to the ship. Katy and myself did see the animal from a distance as it surfaced several times again. This was the only sighting on this leg of the survey 
Conditions were similar for the return from Dublin, with the exception of a prolonged period of sea state 2. Again, scattered numbers of the usual bird species showing little activity, but we did have another Minke sighting and 4 individual Harbour Porpoise records (towards the Welsh Coast).

Ian

Strumble Diary

At least 12 porpoises moving fast in the tide between the lighthouse and Ynys Michael this afternoon at around 12.30pm, accompanied by plenty of diving gannets. 

Celtic Deep today

We went out up to 20 miles due SW from Skomer today as part of Oxford University's Manx Shearwater research work. Fantastic birds (see the Pembs Birds blog) but, arguably, even better cetaceans. As well as a handful of very obliging Porpoises around Skomer, we found multiple pods of 20+ Common Dolphins across a c.5 square mile research area. and more pods on the (long) trip back.

I have commented before on how hard I find it to count dolphins, even in such optimal conditions. All I can say today is that, in 90 minutes of drifting research work and slow-speed motoring we almost never lacked for the very close presence of Dolphins (including a single small pod of Bottlenoses). Interestingly almost all were mature adults;  sub-adults composed less than one fifth of all the animals.

We saw 3-4 Minke Whales, including two that circled our drifting RIB for nearly half an hour, frequently passing directly under us, the large white fin patches easy to see even 10+ ft down.

And one other much larger whale along with a couple of Minkes. At least 50% larger than the accompanying Minkes, this larger whale did not arch its back on diving, and had a proportionately much larger, more vertical fin. We think it may have been a Sei whale.

An astonishing experience, and one that reinforces Cliff's long-held view that our waters hold astonishing numbers of cetaceans.

St David's Head Risso's

Nick spotted 5 rissos again NW of SDH about 11 am Wednesday lots of porpoise activity too!
Malcolm

Risso's Return!

Our Strumble Risso's turned up again whilst we were delivering a one day bird  ID WOW course for the Pembrokeshire Outdoor Charter Group. along with Pembrokeshire College. We had already been treated to plenty of porpoises including at least two mothers with calves. We went around to the Lighthouse car park to study the gull colony when one of the group noticed a dolphin leaping. Soon after we were all enjoying the spectacle of Risso's coming around past Strumble with some nice close views!I managed to video them so enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0sGlG-zhwo&list=UU9WgsTMCKUMJ7PDPcHDCABQ

SUPERPOD

Footage of the superpod of common dolphins we had off the Stena Europe on Friday morning about halfway between Fishguard and Rosslare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pItGqp6_X7E&feature=youtu.be

Once again, many thanks to all our friends aboard the Stena Europe and shore-side for their great support!

Closer to home

Dan Worth got in touch to let us know that they had porpoises around Pen Anglas on all their SeaSafari trips on Sunday, he also sent in this shot taken by Maria Davies on their last trip out.

From New Zealand!

These were sent in to us by Stephen Davies from his son Matthew in New Zealand. Amazing stuff!

The dolphins in the waves are Hector's dolphins!

Aberavon sightings

porpoise / possible risso dolphins in aberavon beach by the yellow bouy spotted 21:00 18/5/14

Regards,
couchy

Historic sightings!

Cliff - about 20 ,or more , years ago, Tony Lucas delivered a yacht from Fishguard to Swansea, and I clearly remember seeing a school of Pilot Whales , close to the boat, about 5 miles west of the Worms Head.

Regards,
Ian Hotchin

Risso's rumble past the Mumbles! (Via Glamorgan Bird Club/Steve Rosser)

Steve Rosser

Hi Cliff

I have tracked down the Glamorgan Rissos. Two (possibly 4) were seen and photographed on Thursday morning just off the Kenfig River. They were heading in the direction of Mumbles.

I am excited about this because it is just about my patch. The Kenfig forms the boundary between Bridgend and Port Talbot and one of my regular fishing marks is only about a mile east.

Tight lines

S

< ^o ) ) ) > <

I have had reports of Risso's in that area before and also Pilot Whales in the past. I am told there is, or was a small scale Squid Fishery off Bardsey that may be some explanation.

Porp's Minke's and a superod of Common Dolphins from the Irish Sea aboard the Stena Europe

A Phenomenal last minute survey aboard the Stena Europe, yesterday. I was concerned about fog so phoned the ship as it was on its way to Fishguard in the morning to make sure it was clear. Rush the duty officer said it was so we jumped aboard that afternoon! Really great of Carl and the staff to sort it at such short notice!
And so we sailed off towards Ireland on an azure sea spotting porpoises as we went along until just off the Tusker we spotted something a bit/lot bigger! Eventually it turned out to be Minke whales in fact three Minke whales. The fog did catch up with us yesterday morning but not until after we had been approached by a super-pod of over 300 Common Dolphins! The fog cleared off the Welsh coast and we ended with lots more porpoises!
These photo's are from Steve Rosser, we will try and sort out some video later!

porp's and Risso's from Malcolm!

14th May 2014

Hi Cliff,

a few porpoise doing their stuff in and around Ramsey Sound and St Davids Head and a group of 7 rissos spotted by Nick 2000 metres NW of St Davids Head about 2pm today

cheers

Malcolm

More Strumble Risso's sightings.

Yesterday Wdigbirder and the Walrus had an early evening Strumble watch. There were several Porpoises showing but a pod of 3-4 Risso's were the real stars although pretty distant. At least two of them were very dark, seemingly black. They could easily have been mistaken for Orca's at that distance, one was big and looked like the one pictured previously.

Cardigan bottlenose dolphins

These dolphins were seen on the 19/4/14 between Mwnt and Cardigan island if i remember correctly. They seemed to be busy (feeding?) as they were not interested in the boat at all!

David Nunn

WOW! Storms and surprises!

Newquay: staring into a storm....

A weekend two day "Cetaceans for Beginners", Wildlife Observers Wales course, loomed and as the weather forecast worsened, we wondered how we would fare with 40+ mph winds whipping the sea into a maelstrom.

Putting newly acquired ID skills into practice....(the only dolphin in Newquay)

Saturday arrived wet and blustery, we spent the morning in the classroom doing ID lectures and tests. After lunch we boarded the minibus and headed off to Newquay in search of some bottles, only to learn they had been around in the morning but moved off out to sea about an hour before our arrival. We watched and waited for an hour as the fierce south westerly piled up the waves in the bay but to no avail and we left the harbour thwarted. I figured we should get them the following morning but no, another long wasted journey.

Strumble/Paradise...

I have to say our students were great and suffered the long unrewarding journeys philosophically, in fact we had a lot of laughs but as we arrived at Strumble to see more mighty waves and churning waters. I thought we were in for another disappointment. Not so... 

"Small cetacean,small triangular fin...Porpoise!

Our Strumble porps did us proud and soon everyone was getting their eye in as our porps kept popping up giving everyone the chance to put their training into practice. It was cold and blustery but everyone was loving the experience of observing and recording our smallest cetaceans in the white water created by two days of gales. At some point a single common dolphin leaped clear of the breakers really adding spice to an exciting watch. 
All good things come to an end and  our course schedule meant we had to get back to the Ocean Lab to finish the paperwork.  At the end of the day it takes reliable observers in the field to help us to document and protect our wildlife.
We met Sea Trust supporter Adrian Roger (wdigbirder) above the hide,  little did either of us know that Strumble was about to spring another final surprise...

Happy cetacean observers....

.... Thankfully, Adrian was there to finish the job we started! see below...

Strumble Head 11th May 15.15 - 17.45 ( Risso's Soup )

Probably at least 14 different animals seen during the watch with some quite lively behaviour.

Sunday May 18th all day Dolphin and Sea bird Trip aboard the Cartlett Lady...

We really can't wait to get out on our Dolphin Survey trip aboard the Cartlett Lady, our first small boat survey of the year! Join us on a day long voyage around our Pembrokeshire  Islands with their teeming breeding sea bird colonies... Puffins Guillemots, Razorbills and Kittiwakes around Skomer and Skokholm, forty thousand + pairs of Gannets on Grassholm, providing great photographic opportunities. Hopefully we will connect with Porpoises and Common Dolphins (sometimes in pods of hundreds) as we cruise out beyond the Smalls Lighthouse also a location where hundreds sometimes thousands of Manx Shearwaters congregate ...

Photo Rich Crossen.

Risso's Dolphins and Minke Whale are possible and even an outside chance of a killer whale  as the male Orca "John Coe" and his pod tend to pay their annual visit during May-June.

No guarantees, but if you aint out there with us, you aint going to see anything! Cost for the 7-8 hr trip is a very reasonable £80 which all goes towards allowing us to continue our long term monitoring project which we could not afford to do without your support this is real conservation based  Eco tourism!.

The Cartlett Lady is a superb, fully coded, insured and licensed 40 ft Lochin Sport Fisher. Her skipper Andy Rickard  knows these waters like the back of his hand and the extra height  of the flying bridge helps us to locate cetaceans..Equipped with powerful engines she also has a spacious cabin and flush toilet.
We only go out in relatively calm seas as these are surveys based on our ability to find identify and monitor the cetaceans we are surveying.

Your Whales and Dolphins need you! to book email us with your phone number at  seatrustwales@gmail.com 

Update from Stevo in sunny Spain!

At last we were lucky and we got out into the Straits. We had a great trip and we saw about 14 Bottlenose Dolphins, 12 Pliot Whales, 1 sunfish and about 15 Common Dolphins. We also saw loads of Cory's Shearwaters and a couple of flying fishes. 

See you Friday love Stevo

Update 2 I crammed in another quick 2 hour trip just before we left Tarifa and that was good as well.
I saw about 10 Pilot Whales and some Fin Whales swimming quickly towards the Atlantic. Maybe we will see them again at sharks corner in the Irish Sea soon
Bye Bye Tarifa
Hello Fishguard
Cheers Stevo

Porpoise in Jack Sound

Loads of porpoise in Jack Sound yesterday while we were doing some seabird ID with our WOW course from the Deer Park. Some really nice views under the waves with the sun catching them - must have been at least 8-10 animals there.

Stevo in sunny Spain!

• We have arrived in Tarifa safe and sound on the southern tip of Spain on the border where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean.It is a great area for cetaceans I am going on the research boat trip tomorrow but fingers crossed about the windy conditions that we've got today because the sea looks rough out there. We hope that the wind will die down by tomorrow hopefully.Anyhow I was talking to the company called firmm in the town centre of Tarifa. They say they have sighted Fin Whales last week but it is guess work of what they are doing maybe traveling up the Atlantic Ocean. By August in the summer you never know they might be in the Irish Sea never can tell! Will update you on any sightings. Cheers Stevo

  
  
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Reports from Strumble and the Stena Europe

Sean and i were at Strumble from 2-4 pm Sunday, several porpoise and one Risso's dolphin, one love rich.
A telephone call this morning from Gareth (Duty Officer on the Bridge of the Stena Europe) to report a pod of 30-40 Common Dolphins about ten miles east of the Tusker Light, thanks guys!
The continued presence of the Risso's is particularly interesting! 

Porpoise

Single porpoise in Newport Bay, not far from Cat Rock last night around 7pm.

3 animals seen off Pen Anglas this afternoon in the tide.