Cartlet Lady Survey 6/9/21

The weather forecast for Monday looked good and as our merry band of wildlife enthusiasts gathered at the Neyland Marina Cafe, there was hardly a breath of wind. As the Cartlett Lady edged out of the Heads, a bank of low cloud sheltered us from the burning sun and the sea state soon dropped to zero giving perfect spotting conditions, flat sea, good visibility and no glare.

Our first encounter was a typically brief one of a single Porpoise, which only showed enough for us to record it. Notoriously boat shy we left it and moved on towards Grassholm when out of nowhere a couple of Risso’s Dolphins surfaced on our bow, only giving brief views in our wake, obviously unwilling to prolong the encounter. A brief view of a handful of Common Dolphin’s with at least one small calf also did not want to play. Small pods with calves often seem to feel vulnerable so we went on towards Grassholm leaving them in peace.

Approaching Grassholm it looks like it is covered in a blizzard of snow with thousands of gannets nesting and above it, hundreds more, flying in to feed their young. Even so late in the season there were lots of Gannets still feeding their large dark fledgelings (Guga’s). Grassholm is always worth a visit just for the sheer drama of this noisy gannet splattered rock with attendant Grey Seals, A real treat for sea bird lovers, Gannets are always impressive but on-mass they are a real spectacle. With around forty thousand breeding pairs + non breeders and young you have almost a hundred thousand fish eaters producing tons of Guano. The smell this produces is hard to ignore as is their cacophonous braying and cackling as they all interact,all part of the Grassholm experience. The other obvious noise was the clicking of cameras as most of our passengers were equipped with serious photographic equipment and filling their memory cards with memories!

Our next objective was the Smalls Lighthouse on its isolated rocky perch, and the Celtic Deep’s beyond. Andy our eagle-eyed skipper Andy, spotted another pod of a dozen or so Common Dolphins as we approached the Smalls but as we approached them, they seemed reluctant to allow us to get close and also had small calves, so we went on to continue our survey. The Smalls with its towering grey stone lighthouse is an eerie outpost perched on the emergent part of the Smalls reef, twenty miles out from mainland Pembrokeshire.

The Celtic Deep is a deeper trench leading into the Irish Sea from the continental shelf. As such there is a mix of nutrients that creates a kind of huge plankton bloom in the spring kicking off a rich food chain. In the past we have encountered Minke and Fin whales, Ocean Sunfish, Turtles as well as Blue and Basking Sharks. More recently huge Blue-Fin Tuna have been a feature of late summer.  Previous trips this year had produced quite a lot of Minke whales, and we were full of anticipation as we cruised along the edge of the deeps.  But for some reason we failed to connect with anything as we cruised on mile on mile.

Eventually, we turned back on a south easterly course looping around back towards St Annes Head. Soon after we came across nasty looking patches of dirty orange/red scum some of which were quite extensive. No idea what it was but it did not look healthy. (I later spoke to old friend Nick o’ Sullivan skipper of the Celtic Wildcat who reported that there had been very little wildlife out in the Celtic Deep recently, when he was shark fishing out there and catches were poor. He blamed the large patches of grungy red scum he had also encountered.)

After a while we encountered pods of Common Dolphin, Fifty here seventy there, ten or twelve and then more! The Cameras were Clicking the Dolphins were more obliging though many had calves, The sun had emerged and there were smiles on everyone’s faces and so it continued until we were almost home in the Haven.

But a drama was unfolding when we were alerted by the Coast-Guard of a swimmer in trouble. The Angle lifeboat was in the vicinity and so we joined in the search. Half an hour or so later a helicopter arrived and winched someone off the cliffs. Presuming there was nothing else we could do we headed back to Neyland after quite an  and eventful day.