Reluctant Goodbyes

When the phrase “6 weeks” was mentioned the time seemed to stretch before us, but as all good things must come to an end it has crept upon us and soon our goodbyes must be said. Those first few days seemed a very daunting prospect to the five new volunteers due to the sheer number of tasks ahead. However, we couldn’t have asked for a better start as during our first week the weather was fantastically calm so our first few days consisted of learning the ropes on two boat trips as well as office training. Being thrown in at the deep end did have its advantages though – the sightings of bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises were absolutely worth the hours spent surveying Cardigan Bay. To be honest, that original excitement of a cetacean sighting hasn’t decreased one iota!

 

After the exciting first week, it settled down into regular routines of important office-based tasks (sightings, data recording and entry, photo ID matching, and public awareness responsibilities), land-watches and boat-based surveys when the weather was calm. With all of these jobs to keep us busy it really is no wonder that the time has gone so swiftly. The age-old saying “Time flies when you’re having fun” is definitely true in this case.

With the end of season tasks beginning in earnest one can’t help feeling that the normally cheeky office atmosphere has gradually developed an edge of sadness. However, the office is still as busy as ever as all of the jobs are being completed and the office is undergoing a frenzied cleaning operation which will leave it sparkling for the next group of lucky Sea Watch volunteers. 

 

The last 6 weeks working as a research volunteer have been one of the best experiences for all of us. Favourite parts include the friendly and helpful atmosphere in the office, learning all about the work Sea Watch undertakes and becoming part of it, spending time with the other volunteers and of course spotting the cetaceans (especially the calves and newborns) on survey. 

If these experiences sound like something that you would be interested in then please visit our research volunteer page to find out more details!

By Ollie (volunteer)

Boats, behave! A review of the Marine Code of Conduct

Sea Watch seeks to educate and inform the public about various aspects of marine mammal conservation in the UK. Read on for an explanation of one of these topics, the Marine Code of Conduct.

 

Because of the magnificent wildlife that is found within the UK waters, an increasing number of wildlife boat tours are being offered and the public is taking advantage of these opportunities. This may not seem like a big problem, for why shouldn’t we go and watch the wildlife that is on our door step? However, boats can cause disturbances to marine mammals in addition to other threats they face, like water pollution and accidental capture in fishing nets.

Injures that are caused by boats can be fatal to marine mammals. Boats can cause trauma to marine mammals by accidentally bumping into them, causing head injuries, which can lead to internal bleeding. Any boat that is powered by a propeller can cause serious injuries to marine mammals by causing deep cuts that are unlikely to heal, like the one seen in the photo below.

Over the years there has been an increase in the number of marine mammal strandings on beaches in the UK and one of the main reasons for the strandings is trauma, usually caused by boats.

Noise from boats can also cause stress to the animals as well as disturb the frequencies that they use to carry out daily activities. Dolphins, porpoises, and whales use sound for locating and communicating with one other as well as for finding food and detecting predators. When the noise of a propeller blade interrupts this frequency then it can cause stress to the animals, especially pregnant mothers or those with young calves.

So, is there a way to stop harm or disturbance to marine mammals? Fortunately there is a Marine Code of Conduct in place, which is there to inform people about the safest and best way to watch or interact with marine wildlife and hopefully help minimise any disturbances.

Some of the rules included in the code are:

• If you sight dolphins at a distance, continue forward at a steady speed, slowing to 6 knots or less when they are within 1km
• Do not approach or steer directly towards dolphins; let them approach you
• If you see dolphins, do not make sudden changes in speed or course
• Do not attempt to touch, feed or swim with them
• Take extra care to avoid disturbing animals with young
• Avoid any unnecessary noise near the animals
• Do not stay longer than 15 minutes within 300m of the animals

For more information please see the Marine Code of Conduct page on our website. The code of conduct applies to all vessels including motorboats, yachts and even kayaks and canoes.

Signs like this help educate the public and boat operators about the code of conduct. 

If you go on a wildlife boat tour, you can look out for the WiSe Scheme sticker to make sure that your tour is sticking to the code. This means that the crew on the boat are aware of the code and have been given training in how best to interact with the marine wildlife.

There is no reason why boats and dolphins should not be able to co-exist if care is taken to observe the code of conduct.

By Abby (volunteer)

Sunfish!

Thursday 15th September we began our second line transect survey of the last period. The Dunbar Castle II left New Quay harbour bright and early at 8.30 a.m. On our way to the first transect point, a sunfish was spotted floating just beneath the surface, its fin protruding from the waves.

Sunfish (Mola mola) are found in both tropical and temperate waters and are usually seen just below the water's surface basking in the sun. They can reach up to approximately 4 meters vertically and 3 meters across, and are the heaviest of all the bony fish.

Once on the transect line, the independent observers took their places in addition to the primary observers and the search began.

Three pairs of harbour porpoises were sighted during the morning and 9 grey seals throughout the day, inquisitively watching us pass them by.

Bottlenose dolphins however were not observed until much later in the afternoon, with the first encounter taking place at 3.38 p.m. Three adults, three juveniles and one calf were recorded, and photos were taken for ID purposes. It wasn't until we started to return home after completing the transect survey that we had our second encounter of three adult bottlenose dolphins at 6.34 p.m., within sight of the New Quay harbour.

An eventful weekend for the annual Cetacean Survey Training Course in New Quay

This past weekend, Sea Watch Foundation held its annual training course, where members of the public could attend lectures and gain fieldwork experience in cetacean research. Lectures covered topics such as the marine mammals found in UK waters, how data is collected, and the importance of the Sea Watch sightings network for understanding the distribution, behaviour and habitat use of cetaceans as well as implementing and maintaining Special Areas of Conservation.

Trainees joined us first thing on Saturday morning, ready for the weekend ahead. After initial introductions, the trainees were launched into the amazing world of marine mammals, learning how to identify them from their fin type, body size and other features. Survey methods that Sea Watch uses were also covered, as well as the use of underwater acoustic monitoring. 

Land watches from Birds' Rock and boat trips in Cardigan Bay were also conducted on both Saturday and Sunday so that the trainees could put into practice the techniques that were learnt during the lectures. Observers took turns filling out the effort and sightings recording forms, which provide valuable data.

The weather had been pretty dire over the weekend, but we were fortunate to still see dolphins on the land watches as well as the boat surveys, despite the poor sea state.

There was a mix of apprehension due to the weather conditions and excitement at the prospect of what we might see on the second boat trip of the weekend. The trainees and Sea Watch volunteers and staff boarded our survey vessel and prepared the equipment and observers for our search. Upon leaving New Quay harbour the conditions were really not favourable; the swell reached over one metre and the sea state left much to be desired. 

However, approximately fifteen minutes into the survey the observers spotted a group of seven bottlenose dolphins, one of which was a newborn calf. Thirty metres off the bow a commotion ensued and a small body was seen being flung into the air amongst some of the adult dolphins. Initially it was thought to be a porpoise that was being attacked, but after multiple observations it was confirmed to be the newborn calf. Looking back through photos of the incident and comparing them to individuals in our photo ID catalogue, Sea Watch staff concluded that the dolphin responsible for the calf’s aerial activity was quite possibly its own mother. 

The reasoning for this behaviour is not clear, but Peter Evans, Sea Watch director, suspected it was a form of scolding, perhaps to ensure the infant did not come too close to either a hostile male dolphin or to the survey vessel. Another possible explanation is that the behaviour was just playful. The calf luckily was seen swimming very closely alongside its mother from that point onwards, suggesting that the calf was not injured badly. The spectacular event was also witnessed by a volunteer and guest conducting a landwatch from the cliff tops of New Quay and from the harbour wall.  It was an occurrence rarely seen and one that will certainly be remembered by all of the trainees and Sea Watch staff.

You can read more about the encounter here in our news piece.

Overall, the training weekend was a busy, information-packed experience, but was thoroughly enjoyed by all those who attended.

By Kate (volunteer)

Bad weather and long days at the office for new Sea Watch volunteers!

The Sea Watch team in New Quay recently welcomed five new volunteers for our last period of the research season. Read on to find out what they've been up to so far!

In the first week as the newbies at Sea Watch, the volunteers experienced a week of fantastic calm weather resulting in two boat trips and a number of bottlenose dolphin and harbour porpoise sightings. Thrown in at the deep end, the five newbies participated in a 12 hour long line transect survey of the northern SAC from Aberystwyth. The day was a steep learning curve with observation and effort recordings as well as a large number of sightings and ample photo ID opportunities.

The fantastic weather resulted in excellent sightings from both land- and boat-based surveys, however, this week has started with heavy rain, strong winds and a dull atmosphere here at Sea Watch Cymru!

So what do the Sea Watch volunteers do when we can't actually observe the marine mammals in question? Office work!!

After a week of exciting sightings and boat trips we are now faced with the dreaded paperwork side of marine mammal research… And it's not so bad! After receiving training on sightings, data recording and entry, and photo ID matching, as well as a string of public and scientific correspondences, the volunteers have set up camp in the office and are cracking on with a variety of computer based entries – which is all an intricate part of Sea Watch's work providing up to date public and scientific data on the semi-permanent bottlenose dolphin residents of Cardigan Bay.

  

Surely a little bad weather doesn’t stop a true scientist collecting data; it’s only a little light rain and wind, right?! Unfortunately in the field of marine mammal research observation conditions are of utmost importance dictating sightings opportunities and affecting accurate interpretation of numbers and individuals.

While undertaking observation efforts, we record a variety of factors including sea state (Beaufort scale and swell presence), precipitation and visibility; the more favorable these conditions are the more likely a sightings opportunity will arise.

 

 

Sea state measures the condition of sea surface activity in respect to wind waves and swells. Here at Cardigan Bay ideal observation states range from 0 (glassy and calm) to 4 (longer waves and many white caps). After 4, observation of surfacing marine mammals is hindered to the point of unidentifiable fins and confusion with white cap occurrences.

See the difference between observing dolphins in excellent sea state...

 

...and in not-so-good sea state!

 
Swell is determined by small swell height (<1m) to larger swells (>2m) with increasing height detrimentally affecting the identification of marine mammals. Visibility also affects sightings opportunity as visibility of only 1-5 km may result in the identification of close range marine mammals but not individuals out of range, resulting in inaccuracies in data collection.

Public awareness is another one of the main activities undertaken by the volunteers; raising awareness of the cetaceans occurring in the area as well as other marine mammals gets the public involved and promotes the conservation efforts of Sea Watch. This is a great opportunity to promote our work as well as get kids and grown-ups alike involved in raising funds and enjoying the work Sea Watch does.

Sadly with the onset of cold wind and rain we see the departure of our target audiences from the pier in search of dolphins to the warm dry pubs of New Quay in search of a hot cocoa!

So with poor weather conditions, even raising awareness of Sea Watches activities takes a back seat alongside the practical observations. And looking outside at the miserable view…office work seems like a bit of treat right now!!

By Siobhan (volunteer)

National Whale and Dolphin Watch celebrates 10 successful years

The Sea Watch team in New Quay had a very busy weekend 5-7 August hosting events for the 10th National Whale and Dolphin Watch. This annual event encourages people from all over the UK to submit sightings in order to create a snapshot of cetacean species distribution in British and Irish waters.

To raise awareness for the event, we were busy entertaining the media last week and were featured on several programmes:

• BBC Radio Wales: Country Focus
• BBC: Cardigan Bay dolphin survey marks 10 years
• ITV Wales Tonight
  

We kicked off the events in New Quay on Thursday night with a Sea Watch sponsored Pub Quiz at the Dolau Inn. We were pleased to see a lot of locals and visitors come in to join the fun. Also, thanks to the kind donations of prizes from several local businesses, we raised £100 selling raffle tickets! A huge thank-you goes out to all who participated and donated.

Friday saw the beginning of our photo exhibition at the New Quay Yacht Club. This exciting new event was part of our special celebration of 10 successful years of NWDW.

In an effort to showcase the amazing diversity of wildlife in the UK – and hopefully sell some prints! – we chose photos from the Sea Watch photo library, which is made up of many amazing contributions from Sea Watch photographers throughout the years. Narrowing down our favourites to 50 images proved to be harder than anticipated! In the end we settled for a balance of eye-catching photos and a good representation of species that can be seen around the UK. All of the photos were accompanied by interesting facts researched and written by the Sea Watch volunteers.

Did you know that a sperm whale's click is the loudest noise produced by any animal? It is thought that these clicks may help it stun prey during deep dives.

Throughout the weekend we welcomed over 100 visitors to our exhibition! We hope that the locals and visitors in New Quay enjoyed learning about the various marine mammals, seabirds, and other species that can be found right in our backyard.


Saturday was when the real watching fun began. We held regular land watches on the New Quay pier from 7 AM to 9 PM all weekend and invited members of the public to join and try their hand at spotting wildlife. Because of the local music festival taking place the same weekend, New Quay was packed with visitors and many wandered out to the pier in hopes of spotting dolphins.


Sunday proved to be our most eventful day with consistent sightings all morning and afternoon. All three marine mammal species regularly spotted around New Quay – bottlenose dolphin, harbour porpoise, and grey seal – were visible from the pier.


The unusual presence of both dolphin and porpoise in such close proximity was interesting and even slightly concerning, as two of our volunteers witnessed a suspected attack on a porpoise by a group of dolphins. Although thrashing and other movements were seen from a distance – indicating a possible attack – no porpoise body was found and we cannot know for sure what happened. Rarely witnessed, and not fully understood, these attacks are believed to be a significant cause of porpoise mortality around the UK. (Check out our news item from May 2010.)

Fortunately, there was plenty of playful action for the public to enjoy as well. Two of our most frequently seen dolphins, Moneypenny and her calf Tuppence, drew crowds with their antics around the pier for several hours. Although rain sent us inside a bit early on Sunday evening, we were glad that the weather cooperated just long enough for people to enjoy dolphin watching on the pier before retreating to the music festival marquee for the main event.


Back on land, the rest of our volunteers were busy at the stand all weekend painting faces, selling dolphin toys, and talking with the public about the important work that Sea Watch does. Our “guess the marine animal” interactive display proved popular with children and adults alike; many were stumped by the whale baleen, sea urchin, and harbour porpoise skull!



Outside New Quay, our volunteers and regional coordinators were also busy conducting land and boat watches throughout the UK. Three of our volunteers hosted a watch at Aberystwyth Castle on Friday, and four more travelled down to Strumble Head near Fishguard on Monday.


So far, we have received nearly 200 sightings from across the UK, including the following six species: bottlenose dolphin, harbour porpoise, minke whale, Risso’s dolphin, white-beaked dolphin, and short beaked common dolphin. These sightings help improve our scientific understanding of the distribution, behaviour, and habitat use of cetacean species around the UK.

Watch for a NWDW 2011 report to be released after all our sightings are in. Until next year – thank you to everybody who helped make this year’s event a success!

By Cara (Education & Awareness Assistant)

New Volunteer Training

It’s been a busy week here at Sea Watch! Three new volunteers have arrived to join the team and replace those who finished their placement. Indeed, it was mainly a week of training in field work and data protocols; because even if our enthusiastic volunteers all have some degree of experience in the marine field, it is necessary that everyone be on the same page.


During the week, our new recruits were introduced in detail to the work Sea Watch Foundation does in Cardigan Bay and beyond, with its coordination efforts of the observer network in the whole of UK and Ireland (which new blog readers may be interested in discovering here). Then they were trained in various protocols of data collection, including, for instance:

• Land watches from the New Quay pier, where dolphin sightings and boat encounters help scientists understand the use cetaceans make of the harbour, and how best animals and humans may coexist in coastal environments;
• Dolphin encounters on boat trips or dedicated surveys, emphasizing how to best estimate the number of animals encountered and their behaviour, and also how to take good note of the observation effort. This is a very important piece of information as it may influence the data collected; it is a truism to say that with clearer conditions, you might spot more dolphins, but it has to be taken into account when studying the data. Hence, it is necessary to know whether the visibility was good, whether the reflection of the sun on the water might hamper your sightings, and so on.

But all this is theory, and nothing is better than practice! One important piece of information to gather is the distance between you and the dolphins sighted, and estimating distances precisely with the naked eye is a lot more difficult than it seems. The volunteers were thus taken around town and asked to estimate various distances for a small practice session – it must have been a funny sight for the residents and tourists of New Quay to see this small group going around town with very concentrated faces and shouting distances to one another! All this training was concluded by an informal exam, when they were shown short footage of dolphin groups in various conditions and asked to judge in one short look the number of individuals, group composition, and sea state – that is, all the data that will make the observations both reliable and valuable. It is a bit like passing your driver’s license all over again – but in a more ecological way! Now, after being teamed up for their first shifts with experienced volunteers, they are ready to go on their own with a trained eye, ensuring that they miss nothing on their shifts.


Beyond the interesting and sometimes funny aspect of such training, all this emphasizes a very fundamental aspect of scientific work: the paramount need for consistency and reliability in the data collected, especially when it comes from the field and multiple people. When sea conditions are not ideal and you have to think quickly on your feet, ensuring that the protocols become reflexes makes things more comfortable and greatly reduces the risk of mistakes. This goes a very long way to help making informed decisions about wildlife management and conservation in the Cardigan Bay waters.

By Lionel (volunteer)