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| Verena |
Sea Trust has attracted excellent interns over the years and they have made a massive contribution to the data base. I will single out a few anecdotes from my experiences on the ferry.
When Verena joined the team I was doing a lot of residential volunteering with the RSPB so I missed her first few months. Anyway I turned up for a ferry survey and was introduced to this petite young lady who seemed very knowledgeable and confident. On the first Ferry Survey with her, we set up and then she disappeared into the Bridge. She returned lugging the biggest tool box I have ever seen. What on earth is she going to do with that? She plonked it down by the forward facing screen and stood on it because she was too short to look over it!
Subsequently a member of the Bridge crew was also rather short so a small wooden step was constructed by Charlie the bosun!
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| A Risso's In the Risso's Triangle! |
Later Verena did a survey and was joined by a senior member of another cetacean surveying organisation. This guy had a PHD in Ocean Sciences but no experience with the southern Irish Sea. Risso's dolphins are quite uncommon around Britain but we are fortunate to have regular sightings. Indeed there is an area from about ten miles out from Rosslare Harbour, where sightings of Risso’s are so frequent we named it the Risso’s Triangle! Verena saw a cetacean in the distance and called Risso's, but this guy tried to correct her claiming it was a Bottlenose. She was not overawed by his status or reputation and stuck to her guns.As they got closer she was proved correct, and the learned doctor was thrilled to see his first Risso's!
An aerial survey for SCANS-II (2006) recorded White Beaked Dolphins in the area we call the Risso’s Triangle. Both species have very large raked fins. In hundreds of surveys, we have never recorded White Beaked Dolphin, whereas we have only quite rarely failed to record Risso’s there! No Risso’s were recorded by SCANS II so they do not officially exist in the Irish Sea but through some clever calculations there is officially a small population of White Beaked Dolphins! Incidentally SCANS III (2016) recorded no Bottlenose Dolphins in Cardigan Bay!
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| Bottlenose Dolphins Cardigan Bay (2016): Ken Barnett |
In 2017 Rens and Laura joined Sea Trust as interns. Their first ferry survey was a disaster. We had 2 porpoise before Strumble but then ran into a huge bank of fog which extended to within a mile of Rosslare, fog horn blaring all the way. We were about to leave the Bridge to keep out of the way during docking when the Captain, realising how disappointed Rens and Laura were, invited us to stay to try to see the resident Bottlenose. It appeared right on cue and was the first dolphin species for either of them. As Stena Europe turned to maneuver into the berth, we lost sight of the dolphin so the captain gave them permission to climb onto the Bridge roof, (monkey island), to keep enjoying it.
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| Rens, Cliff and Laura on Stena Europe Bridge wing
While surveying from the Bridge all new volunteers are advised to look ahead or to the side to an angle of about 45 degrees because the Stena Europe is cruising at about 17 knots (20mph Sorry Christina I have no idea in kilometres). Any sighting will be disappearing astern at that rate with no chance of photos and making identification difficult. While this is not a rule it is sound advice but all such advice is proved correct by exceptions. Rens and Laura’s first minke was one such sighting. We had a volunteer called Daisy with us who looked back only to see a minke surface pretty much alongside our stern. She called it and we all got on it.
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Rens and Laura were very lucky with Minke's, so much so that I nicknamed them ‘Minke Magnets’. Here is a photo of them on the Outer Breakwater greeting us back from a ferry survey
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One of the best trips for minke that I remember was In June about 2006 or 2007. We had 5 minke between Tusker and Rosslare going over. The light was so good we surveyed 9.00 – 10.00 pm coming back and had 4. The following morning we had another 4. A total of 13 sightings. Possibly only 5 animals but what a trip.
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| Minke Whale. |
I have mentioned the Rosslare resident Bottlenose Dolphin a couple of times. The buffet breakfast in the Tuckers lounge is exceptional, add to that the anticipation of a survey packed full of cetaceans, then look out of the window while tucking in to bacon and eggs and seeing a Bottlenose Dolphin... BLISS!
Doesn’t everyone take binoculars and camera to breakfast? (pic' taken through window of Truckers Lounge Stena Europe at her berth in Rosslare Harbour!
I think one of the reasons that Sea Trust's Stena Europe surveys are so successful is that we only do them with a favourable weather forecast. Sometimes it is wrong but it is the best we can do. I remember on one occasion I had arranged to go shopping to Cardiff with my wife the following day. 10.05 pm the phone rings. Cliff has spotted a weather widow that has just opened up for tomorrow, can I come for a survey?. Well you can shop in Cardiff in a gale! So I was on the Stena Europe the next day!
It is tough being retired.
Steve.
Steve.
Post-script
I
did enjoy Christina’s blog, particularly the Mars Climate Orbiter intro. However here is one useless piece of information on the US space program which
suggests that the dimensions of the rockets were set 2000 years ago by the
Romans.
1.
The first roads in Europe were rutted
paths carved out by Roman war chariots, which determined the standard for any
other type of wheeled vehicle that wanted to use those paths. The wheel width
of those chariots was constrained by the width of the two horses required to
pull them.
2.
The first railways in the 19th
century were built by the same engineers who built wagons, and those wagons
still used the specifications laid out by the ancient Roman chariots. The gauge
for the width of the tracks was determined by the typical width of the wagons
that could traverse those ancient Roman paths, which were now the standard.
3.
The first American railways were
created by English engineers, who used the same gauge for American rail tracks as
they did for English ones.
4.
When NASA designed the booster rockets
for the space program, the rockets were assembled in Utah and transported by
rail to Florida for launch. Since the rockets had to fit on the existing rail
cars, the design of the rocket was constrained by the width of the rail tracks,
which in turn had been historically constrained, in a long chain of causation,
by the “specs” of ancient Roman horses.
Or is it an urban myth?