I had the chance today to leave the comfort of Strumble and join the survey team on a trip to Ramsey Sound. We met up at the Ocean Lab at 09.30 with myself, interns Jack and Hannah, and volunteer Dawn in my car leaving Fran with volunteers Ben and Maddie in her car. A thick mist most of the way to St Davids but thankfully by the time we walked to the old copper mines it had mostly cleared. With the kit set up we waited for the porpoise to transit the sound from north to south on the dropping tide.
Maddie was the star spotter of the day, calling numerous sightings as the tide started ripping through the sound, with Ben, Jack and myself on cameras trying our best to keep up in the by now surging tide race. Long lenses and close fast moving subjects only on the surface for a brief moment make for trying and challenging shooting but I think between the three of us we managed fairly well with all three of us capturing some porps at least.
The first porpoise was a marked animal that I have seen many times at Strumble with a very distinctive notch on the back of the dorsal fin. Several sightings followed but the action didn't last long as they were all quickly washed through in the speeding tide race. There was a lull for a while before we spotted another four animals later in the survey. On processing the images I found I'd captured another marked animal which was new to me and I'm sure will be new to the catalogue too.
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