Part of the superpod , Photo : Rich Crossen

I was just getting into eating my crunchy nut cornflakes when I heard Bill Turnbull (anchorman of BBC  Breakfast News) mention our Superpod. The film was a bit flakey and I had hoped they might have edited it into some shape, but I was only expecting BBC Wales, so its something of a bonus. I am not sure everyone including myself is really understanding the relevence of this, in that it may be a regularly occuring phenomena.  The first time we saw a superpod seven or eight years ago we were pretty inexperienced and we just took it as a one off. The second time the media got hold of my film and it got world wide coverage.  Its just happened again so on the basis we only manage to get out a few times per summer  3 superpods  recorded  in seven years begins to look more than just coincidental!

 I have just recieved a call from Phill Davies who was on his yacht (Broganza III)  coming across from Lundy on Friday/Saturday and  had dolphins with him for over four hour as he made his way across the Bristol Channel and into  Milford Haven. It seems there are literally thousands out there at the moment God knows what carnage the round Britain  powerboat race would have wreaked if it had been taking place now!!!

Sunday, 28 June 2009

Yep Rich, a pretty hectic few days on the Dolphin Coast, including now a wall of Common Dolphins a mile long and several deep! I rekon 1500 minimum but we will never know for sure! If it had been as calm as the last superpod in 2005, It may have been even more because the distant ones were lost in the chop!

Had not time to put in results of Stena Ferry Trip I did Friday/Saturday and it seems a bit of an anticlimax now but produced 3 seperate Minke sightings, Common dolphins and most gratifyingly Porpoises at Strumble.

Just to make sure I was not deluding myself after hours of hardly seeing any over the last few weeks, I got off the ferry and drove to Strumble where 20 minutes of Click Counts (4x Five minute click counts within an hour) produced a total of over four hundred sightings or 20+ per minute! Back then, but will they stay?

After the numerous recent sightings of Dolphins off Pembrokeshire expectations were high for a Sea Trust survey aboard the Cartlett Lady arranged at short notice by Cliff Benson.

Nearly two hours out from Neyland we had not seen a cetacean of any sort but then a pod of 50 or so Common Dolphins appeared and after a while they came over to us and several, including some calfs, rode in the bow wave. A nice foretaste of things to come.

A little later approaching the Smalls Lighthouse things really got exciting as there were several thousand Gannets milling around and fishing. Under them there were really large numbers of Common Dolphins and as we motored along we just kept seeing more and more – some close to the boat and others some way off. Sea conditions were rather choppy so it was difficult to guage numbers but best estimate was of 1500 plus animals strung out over a mile or so with a range of ages from small calfs to full adults. Needless to say a real spectacle!

 Hi Cliff, A small pod of approximately seven Common dolphins were spotted by volunteer researchers from the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre in New Quay on Saturday 20th June 2009. The sighting took place while the volunteers were conducting the Dolphin Watch Survey, a land based survey on behalf of Ceredigion County Council from New Quay harbour wall on Saturday afternoon. The sighting was a very exciting one for the volunteers and the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre as Common dolphins are not usually seen so close inshore in such shallow waters in Cardigan Bay. The CBMWC’s volunteers man the “Dolphin Watch” New Quay harbour site and collect data on behalf of Ceredigion County Council who also have other “Dolphin Watch” sites along the Ceredigion coastline including New Quay headland (Birds Rock), Ynys Lochtyn, Aberporth & Mwnt. The sighting was later confirmed by other “Dolphin Watch” volunteers who were manning the site on New Quay headland and also spotted the dolphins travelling fast past the headland a few minutes later.

 Come to Cardigan Bay you never know what you might catch a glimpse of! All the best, Sarah

 Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre, Newquay.

This follows a report from Jane Williams;

 Hi Cliff At 13:30 last Tuesday, on our way to Dinas head, coming back from watching seals half way towards Moylegrove, we headed ½ mile off shore towards 4 circling Gannets, and thanks to them, we saw 5 harbour porpoise, heading in towards the cliffs / Moylegrove way. After we got back on course to Dinas, only a few minutes later, we couldn’t believe our luck! We saw 2 Common Dolphins, 1 juvenile and 1 adult, heading in the same direction, sadly, we only caught one glimpse of them, unlike the porpoises, who were very busy.We count ourselves very lucky, as none of our Newport Boat Club fishermen, that we had spoken to, had seen any and were complaining at the lack of fish, so we weren’t expecting to see anything! Because of the location I had been slightly hesitant as to the species ID and had questioned Jane later, but all seemed well. This report from Sarah confirms the sighting which are the first two sightings north of Fishguard I had heard of in recent years.

Dolphins popping up all over, but where are our Strumble porps? A message on my answerphone from “Vigilance” Skipper Mark yesterday, offering a trip from Newport to Neyland was too good to miss so I dropped everything and headed for Newport.These inshore transects give a really unique view of what is happening around the coastline and I was anxious to get another view of the Strumble peninsular in particular. The conditions were good and as we rounded Dinas Head out of Newport Bay I felt sure that any Porpoises would show well. We had nothing from Dinas Head to Strumble Head, no gannets or any other sign of activity. Our first sighting was a porp off Pen Brush and then a couple more off St Davids Head. We caught three more of the “Shoe” In Ransay Sound followed by nothing more thasn a few nice puffins and auks as we crossed St Brides Bay, passaged through “Jack Sound” and enterd into the Haven. In the bar at the marina, Pete from the range boats had been seeing lots of Porpoises and dolphins in the Bristol Channel and around Caldy. He reckoned unusual amounts ogf porpoises which corralates with Rob Colleys observations in early June. Andy rang to say the “Cartlet Lady” was ready , and he had seeen Common Dolphins actually enter the mouth of the Haven on Tuesday night…

We may have a survey trip out on Sunday on the Cartlett Lady if weather OK and people are interested,£50 per head, allthingsgood,

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

A call from Titch a local Fisherman yesterday evening , told of a “small dolphiny thing ” in the harbour (Goodwick) by the slip. I motored down there and found a throng of locals with Gethin (Tich’s Brother). Apparently another fisherman had found it stranded on the rocks high and dry and put it back in the sea. He said it had screamed when he touched it !

The animal was bobbing around in a confused manner obviously in a bad way. We watched for a while in the hope its mother would turn up but it soon became apparent she was not around. Meantime Rod Penrose of the Marine Strandings Agency and Phil Lewis RSPCA/ BDMLR had been contacted.

I decided we aught to try and recapture the animal as it seemed unable to swim and was just bobbinng around on the surface. Gethin got his boat andf we gently approached. The baby porpoise was floundering and I easily caught it.

we went back to the slip and I realised I would have to sit in the water with it until help arrived.

It was a cold hour but a little group of people including a gang of local lads kept me company. It was nice to see these “tough guys” showing real concern. All the time I waited I could feel the little animals heart beating as it breathed regularly, blowing water in my face.

I have seldom felt so dispondent because it was obvious that without its mother it had no chance of survival and inevitably we would have to take the sad decision of putting it to sleep. Eventually Andy of Fishguard Vets arrived and quickly administered a lethal dose. The baby died peacefully in my arms.

I had been watching Bottlenose Dolphins the day before just outside the harbour. Some divers who were with Celtic Diving staying at the nearby dive base mentioned seeing a dead cetacean “about a metre long ” floating off Dinas Head. It is a well documented fact that Bottles will kill porpoises , a mother with a young baby would be extremely vulnerable.

I was up and about early this morning and spent an hour on the outer breakwater. It took a while to find them but a distant spout and a glistening of water running of the back of a bottle was just visible in my Binoculars. I set up my scope and as I focused on the area off Dinas head a couple of miles away a bottlenose dolphin surfaced accompanied by several more. They were fishing under a dozen or more gannets.

Guilty or not guilty? we may never know and in a way it does not matter as we should not judge animals in terms of human morality. All we can do is try and protect their environment and hope they continue to grace our Pembrokeshire coast.

If ever anyone doubted that we are the “Dolphin Coast” of Wales this blog provides ample proof of that!

Sunday, 14 June 2009 from “Stevo” Lucas… We were at Mwnt yesterday for a couple of hours, and we saw a group of about 9 bottlenose dolphins playing in front of us for about half an hour. Wonderful. Have you had any sightings in this great weather? Allthingsgreat, Steve Posted by walrus at 10:40

 Nice way to start a day! I awoke around sixish to look out of the window to see fog. It cleared by 6.30, I took it as an omen and shot off to the Harbour (Fishguard) The sea was smooth and I saw nothing for an hour I decided to call it a day and drove back to the gateof the outer breakwater. I then remembered some rope I had found, hmm leave it ? go back for it Hmm it was a nice bit of rope back we go… BINGO! a bottlenose had sneaked in , I caught him just off the end of the breakwater. A scan around revealed a few more, all were running on “unobtrusive mode” just surfacing to breath and then mooving before surfacing, difficult to second guess where and when. I have said this before and will say it again counting cetaceans accurately is almost impossible. I know there were two mothers with Calves as they surfaced miles apart within a short distance of time There were probably at least for more adults but could have been six. They were well spread out and reacting to a few boats, really difficult to keep a track on. They were still around when I had to leave to organise our porpoise watch for this afternoon. Best place to view them from is probably the car park above the harbour at Harbour village, I just hope they stick around and are not too hassled by all the boats taking advantage of a sunny Sunday,

Sounds good for Alison! Pic’ 

 Alison Ross came on one of our WOW (Wildlife Observer Wales) courses and I think it changed her life! At the time Malcolm Barradell was in the middle of his study of the porpoises in Ramsay Sound and I sugested she might utilise her new found skills by helping Malcolm. I think it is fair to say she made a big contribution to Malcolms work and has gone on to continue this work on her own. There are a lot of people that try and mysticise and overcomplicate wildlife observation but its really all about stickability, the patience, the endurance and a little bit of obsession. There are days when the conditions are difficult even days when the conditions are perfect but you still draw a blank. Alison had been having a lean time at Ramsay Sound recently with porpoises almost as thin on the ground as at Strumble. Today her perseverence paid off and the porpoises seemed to have returned including one sighting of a mother and small calf. As she was preparing to leave, some big splashes on the far side of the sound caught her attention and was delighted and thrilled to see a pod of around 20 common dolphins indulging in some extreme arobatics leaping, twisting and crashing back into the sea! Alison enjoyed the spectacle for around 40 minutes when for no obvoius reason, they suddenly decided to go and left! A just reward for a lot of effort and her third species along with Risso’s and porpoises in Ramsay Sound in under six months. Sounds good to me too! Posted by walrus at 22:13 Friday, 12 June 2009

Friday, 12 June 2009

A Strumble first! and one of several sightings of marine otters in recent months in north Pembrokeshire! It saved the day as we searched in vain for any sign of a cetacean in an otherwise mammalless sea, except for the odd grey seal.
PCC County Ecologist Trevor Theobald and Biodiversity Officer Bethan Cox had joined us for a Biodiversity week event which the public stayed away from in droves, perhaps put off by a lousy weather forcast. Trevor noticed some gulls were mobbing something below us and found the otter making its way in the surf along the foot of the cliffs. By some small miracle I managed to get this shot as it surfaced!

Friday, 12 June 2009

Yesterday I spent two barren hours looking for porpoises at Strumble Head and Fishguard Harbour in the morning. Last evening Richard Nichols invited me on his boat and we motored up to Strumble Head, arriving there at around 8pm. We cut the engine and spent two idylic hours just drifting back to Fishguard on the tides edge. Not one porpoise, no feeding birds, plenty of Plankton, I dont understand this… Today and Sunday as part of Wales Biodiversity week we are running a “Porpoise Picnic” (today 11.45 – 14.30) Sunday 14.00-1600. weather permitting.

Lets hope its not porpoiseless picnics…

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

A worrying lack of porpoises around Fishguard and Strumble over recent weeks although we have had a sighting of a mother and small calf at Strumble last week and two mothers with small calves seen by Alison Ross in Ramsay Sound yesterday.

 An early morning visit to the Outer Breakwater at Fishguard Harbour was produced no sightings. An hour spent at Strumble this morning produced only a brief sighting of four or five animals.

I have passed on my concerns to Dr David Worrall of the countryside Council for Wales.

Cliff

Thanks for your e-mail and the information

I have passed this on to others who know far more about this subject than I do.

 

We are now in dialogue with the WAG re the future management of scallop dredging

 

so can build the issues that you have raised into those discussions.

I will ask my colleagues to keep you informed of progress.

Thanks again

David

 

Dr  D. H. Worrall

Regional Manager West/Rheolwr Rhanbarthol Gorllewin

Llanion House/Ty Llanion

Llanion Park/Parc Llanion

Pembroke Dock/Doc Penfro

Pembrokeshire/Sir Benfro

SA72 6DY

01646-624000

 

>>> “Cliff at Sea Trust” <frederike.sjacob@virgin.net> 09/06/2009 12:47 >>>

Dear David,

 

                        I have had protracted email correspondence with Phil

Coates of the South West Wales Sea Fisheries Committee, in the hope of

making the case for banning inshore Scallop dredging in the Fishguard Bay/

Strumble Head/Bank area. This is due to the fact that we have evidence to

prove these areas are particularly attractive to exceptional numbers  of

both breeding and foraging Harbour Porpoise Phocoena. phocoena (as well as

smaller numbers of Bottlenose Dolphins Tursiops truncates) These areas for

whatever  odd reason lie outside the current SAC’s but I believe that they

should be included and in the case of HP be attributed HPMCZ status.

 

 

 

I think the situation is well illustrated in the draft report we presented

to you with and we have a great deal of additional data collected from

coastal observations as well as filmed evidence. We are (as you know) a

volunteer group with limited funds and the processing of data is something

we have unsuccessfully applied for funding for in the past. Data processing

is a specialised  task and those of our volunteers such as Dr Steve Morris

who have the necessary qualifications to do so are currently snowed under

with other work.  I am doing my best to find someone to put the data

together but it is unlikely that we will have anything published this year.

Until then I can only do my best to make the case that the precautionary

principle be put into force.

 

 

 

From March until the end of the season a vessel known as  “Flowing Tide”

(currently  awaiting a court appearance for taking undersized scallop)  +

one or two others have fished this area day and night , according to  my

knowledge and the observations of Officers on the Stena Europe. You only

have to look at how much land a tractor and plough can break in a day to

realise just how big an area must have been dredged in that time.

 

 

 

 Scallop dredging is acknowledged to be a destructive form of fishing with

heavy metal towed gear trashing the seabed and it’s biological communities.

The disturbance would be threefold acoustically, firstly from engines and

propeller, secondly from electronic fish finders etc, and thirdly from the

dredges clattering over the seabed. In twenty years of observing Harbour

Porpoises in this area of Pembrokeshire,  my experience is such activity is

avoided by Harbour Porpoise and they will not tolerate the close proximity

of noisy vessels. As such these dredging activities must be denying

porpoises the use of favoured feeding grounds on a regular basis over

several months.

 

 

 

In recent weeks on several visits to Strumble and other survey sites

including the Ferry and the outer wall of Fishguard Harbour, there has been

a conspicuous lack of Porpoise sightings. There is no way I can prove that

this is due to the scallop fishing activity but I can think of no other

obvious factor that might be the cause. As the season has now ended, it may

be that things return to what we perceive as normal, although the amount of

damage to the seabed locally and the possible effects on benthic communities

may have a longer term effect than the mere physical presence of the fishing

boats.

 

 

 

I am not aware of any scientifically based benthic surveys of this area

having been carried out  in recent years but casual reports from divers I

know say the destruction of habitat is likely to have been extensive.  I am

aware that you and your opposite number in North Wales wrote of your

concerns with regard to scallop dredging to the NWSFC  making the case that

no more licences should be issued without appropriate environmental

assessments. It is my belief that if there is displacement of fishing effort

from the north or even  continued inshore dredging at the levels seen in the

last two seasons we are in danger of severely compromising the well being of

Harbour Porpoise populations in this  area. We discussed the situation at

our last committee meeting and I was given their support to try and resolve

it by approaching both yourself and the Welsh Assembly Government.

 

 

 

We would be extremely willing to help  CCW in any  way possible to asses and

deal with this issue and will continue monitoring the situation to the best

of our ability. In turn we would  hope you will contact SWWSF on our behalf

to make clear our concerns, allthingsgood, cliff

 

 

 

Cliff Benson,  Coordinator . (On behalf of the Chair and Committee of Sea

Trust South and West Wales)

As part of our national biodiversity week contribution we will be holding porpoise watches at Strumble;
Friday 12th June 11.45-14.30
Sunday 14th June 14.00-16.00
let’s hope the porp’s turn up!

Saturday, 6 June 2009

Common Dolphins, Turbot Bank

Sighting and photo from John Mc – About a hundred or so Common Dolphins were feeding around the Turbot Bank, to the south-west of the entrance to the Milford Haven waterway, yesterday at about 2pm.

Posted by Whales in Wales at 19:10

Thursday, 4 June 2009

Wednesday, 3 June 2009

Tuesday, 2 June 2009