Surveys and Seaweed

All of a sudden, we find ourselves into our final two weeks of the field work in New Quay. With the season creeping to an end we’ve still been working hard doing land watches and getting out on the water as much as the weather allows. We’ve had three incredible surveys in the last three weeks, with some amazing dolphin encounters.



The volunteers have witnessed plenty of Mothers showing off their cute newborns, while some of the juvenile pranksters were spotted playing with seaweed and generally getting up to no good! We are pleased to see that one of our more popular residents (and one of our adopted dolphins), nicknamed ‘Chris’ has given birth to a gorgeous calf, and we can’t wait to see more of them.





Some new faces have turned up in New Quay. A couple of Grey Seal pups have been spotted lounging around the coast – all fluffy and white - so cute! Don’t get too close though, they might not like it!

Back in July Sea Watch was lucky enough to secure grant funding from Environment Wales. This is for an environmental film educational workshops. These workshops are being run by Kirsten Hintner (a documentary film maker), alongside help from Sea Watch volunteers. One lucky class from Greenhill school in Tenby have been participating in the workshops this week. This project introduces the children involved to the process of producing short environmental films to encourage them to think about their local coastal and marine environment, while learning how to look after and conserve it.



Yesterday (Thursday), the group of ten came up to New Quay to learn about our work and film us in the field. While here they interviewed Jess and Kerry (two volunteers) asking them some important environmental questions about their chosen subject of Marine Pollution, the Cardigan Bay bottlenose dolphin population and the work of the Sea Watch Foundation.





The group also went out on one of the Ermol boat trips, run by New Quay Boat Trips. It turned out to be lucky, three bottlenose dolphins were spotted and several seals. It was a fun experience all round, and the weather managed to behave itself for most of the day.

So for another week it’s all still happening here at Sea Watch. Weather permitting we’ll be keeping track of the bottlenose dolphins. Soon most of them will head back to north Wales for the Winter (following the fish). It has been lot's of fun and we are all sad that the season is coming to an end so soon!

Love
The Sea Watch Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Risso Lucky!

It has been a busy fortnight here in New Quay. The August Bank holiday saw the Sea Watch team saying good bye to a couple of volunteers and welcoming two new recruits. The next 6 weeks will be exciting and educational for new volunteers. They will learn skills and techniques that will assist in the monitoring of the Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation. We hope that they settle well into life here by the sea and look forward to team bonding at the local pub!

Last week with the return of the glorious Welsh weather the Sea Watch team made the most of it. Dedicated surveys were conducted most days and not only in the south of the Bay. In fact, some of the Sea Watch team ventured up to the Lleyn Peninsula in the north of Cardigan Bay. Here we collaborated with the Countryside Council for Wales.

The two organisations surveyed from Bardsey Island and out east towards Harlech. A number of different marine mammals were seen during the surveys, grey seals, harbour porpoise, and bottlenose dolphin. On one lucky day ten Risso dolphins were seen. For many of the survey team it was the first time seeing this species. Risso dolphins are an occasional visitor to the north of Cardigan Bay and can be very active. They enjoy splashing , slapping and breaching, which is a great way to identify their location offshore.

Get Your Sighting In!

National Whale and Dolphin Watch week (7th - 15th August 2010) took off with a flying start on Saturday. Sea Watch volunteers were busy celebrating the start of the event with sand sculptures down on New Quay beach, Wales with further fun activities up on the pier wall.



Down on the beach the imagination was running free with a pod of bottlenose dolphins (Dolphina, Fin and Charlie) chasing fish with their calf Sophie, while Octo the octopus was trying his luck at catching Kate the crab. Meanwhile S.S.N. - the lost narwhale was busy trying to retrace his course back to the Artic.





Thanks to all the enthusiastic children who busily created amazing sculptures with us!



Up on the pier, joined by Bella the Bear (http://adventuresofedthebear.blogspot.com/) Sea Watch volunteers and children alike decorated themselves with aquatic inspired face painting, with colouring competitions and the resident bottlenose dolphins providing more entertainment for New Quay visitors.



Four days into the watch and we've received an astounding 100 sightings with an incredibly early 04:42am sighting of a minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) by Kevin Hepworth North East of Fraserburgh in Scotland! Check out our sightings webpage for the latest real time entries (http://www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk/event-data2010.php).

Our dedicated Sea Watch team will continue to be down on the pier and out and about around New Quay, and with many other voluntary manned watches going on around the country please feel free to join in! Check out our website for more details.

Go on get your sighting in!

Sea Watch Foundation Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Sea Watch to the rescue!

At around 4:00pm Monday afternoon, the Sea Watch volunteers in the New Quay office received a frantic call from volunteer Jess down on land watch at the pier. She had spotted a bird struggling in the water with something stuck on its bill! Not sure whether or not it would survive much longer, she called up for someone to come rescue the poor creature. Volunteers Danielle and Jenna headed down to the pier to take a look and try to plot a recovery plan.

After looking around for some kind of net to catch the bird in (it had swum out to far for them to grab from land), a local boater was asked to assist with the rescue by taking Danielle out in his boat so she could catch the bird. The bird was wary of the boat and dived every time it approached - so this plan was quickly abandoned. Plan B was soon decided upon and an attempt to herd the bird into the rocks by two kayakers(father and son) while Danielle stood ready with the net.

After a few tries it was plan C was created, this time to herd the bird towards Dolau beach. Danielle and Jenna bravely waded into the water with the net stretched between them waiting for the kayakers to bring the bird in.

After several misses with nets and buckets, the father of the kayaking duo was able to grab the bird and attempted to pry the shell off, but unfortunately the bird got free. After a few more catches and losses the young boy, Panos, caught him by the tail. A very kind onlooker offered his keys as a lever to get what turned out to be a massive clam shell off the cormorant's beak.

After being examined by a bird of prey handler, it was determined that there was nothing wrong with it, and it was released back into the ocean. All in all, the rescue lasted one and a half hours. We were all glad that it had a happy ending, and hopefully the cormorant will have learnt its lesson too!

A big thanks to all those that helped out in the rescue.

The Adventurous Sea Watch Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Don't play with your food!

We’re just over a week into our third period of the season here at the Sea Watch Foundation, and what a week it has been! Our new volunteers arrived on the scene and after finishing an intensive week of training have been let loose in New Quay. A weekend in town was kicked off with a round of Bingo at the Queens, followed by a dedicated survey out on our faithful boat, Dunbar Castle 2. Here our 'Newbies' were introduced to some of our favourite residents in Cardigan Bay, including a couple of Grey Seals and ‘Chris’ a female dolphin who has been sighted here in New Quay for around 20 years! The volunteers headed out for a hike on Saturday evening, walking the coastal path into Aberaeron. The views were magnificent and a cool cider at the finish line made it all the more worth while.

We’ve had some great encounters with Bottlenose dolphins the last few days, with plenty of action happening right off the pier! Our volunteer Helene, snapped some great shots of 'Spike' fish tossing a huge fish – what a naughty dolphin, did his mother never tell him off for playing with his food!



This was the first encounter of 'Spike' this season we've records for this dolphin back to 2001, so it's great to see him again this year.

We were also lucky enough see a curious Grey Seal having a spy on some fish right below the Jetty.



Hopefully the weather will hold out so we can get out on the water again this weekend, maybe heading up to Northern Cardigan Bay to see what animals we can observe, photograph and record as well as enjoying more of the sights of the beautiful Bay.




Sea Watch Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Hello, Goodbye

Well the Sea Watch team was as busy as expected entertaining the media last week. We were lucky on Thursday out on our dedicated survey with the Times newspaper reporters on board we had some fantastic bottlenose dolphin encounters near Aberporth. During one encounter two young adults swam alongside the boat eyeing us up and showing off with a fish in one of their mouths. The article in the Times newspaper is expected to feature in this Saturday’s (17/07/2010) edition.



The high sea state on Sunday meant an entertaining morning for the BBC Panorama film crew aboard the Dunbar. Fortunately we had plenty of dolphins feeding in New Quay harbour that morning offering plenty of filming opportunities - saving us the embarrassment of possible sea sickness off shore! The Panorama program on biodiversity is due to be aired over the August bank holiday; we will keep you posted with an exact date.



Its all change this coming weekend as it marks the end of another three month period for many of the Sea Watch Foundation volunteers. Those leaving the project are sad to say farewell to new friends, experiences and of course Cardigan Bay’s resident dolphins. Some of the volunteers are continuing along the road of marine mammal research in projects across the world. Sea Watch would like to thank the volunteers for their hard work over the last period and wish them all the best it’ll be sad to see them go, and offer a warm welcome to the new volunteers arriving on Monday.

Sea Watch Foundation Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Bay is Reporters Paradise

Sea Watch Foundation (SWF) has a busy few days ahead entertaining journalists from esteemed Medias.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will be joined by Simon a journalist from the Times newspaper out on a dedicated survey on board the Dunbar. He’ll be following us to report on our journey as we photograph the bottlenose dolphin population as part of our annual research here in Cardigan Bay.

On Saturday all of the volunteers and staff will be welcoming reporters from the Panorama programme on BBC 1 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/). They will be conducting some interviews and we will go out on Dunbar once again for a dedicated photographic survey. We are very pleased to welcome reporters from Panorama, as this is a great show, which has been running more than fifty years. They are currently gathering reports for a programme about biodiversity, which aims to show its importance/relevance to our lives.

The waters of Cardigan Bay are ones of the least polluted in the UK, and the area hosts two SAC’s (Special Area of Conservation), developed originally to protect the resident population of bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoise. The Bay constitutes an excellent example of the benefits of efficient protection, it’s rewarding that a quality programme and newspaper will be presenting the role of Sea Watch Foundation in this accomplishment.

Finger’s crossed that we’ll have some nice encounters to provide Simon and the BBC team with some fantastic shots of the dolphins, and us hard at work!

Sea Watch Foundation
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Leaping Calf

Danielle snapped some amazing photos while on land watch yesterday (29/06/2010) of a young calf leaping in the air. This aerial display is all the more exciting because the calf could only be a few weeks old.



When a calf is in the womb it is folded so that its tail is near its head. This creates lumps and folds in the animals blubber. Within the first week of a newborn's life, the folds and lumps smooth out. However, light coloured stripes will still remain visible on the flanks of the animal for a month. In the pictures of this calf those stripes are still very visible so it can not be a very old.

Boat Show

The Sea Watch crew met success at the 5th South Wales Boat show which ran from the 18th-20th of June in Swansea. The goal of attending was primarily to promote the sightings network to boat owners thereby encouraging sightings to be reported and added to Sea Watch's database. The weather was sunny and hot which brought lots of visitors to the show.



There was lots of interest shown by the public and all of Sea Watch's current campaigns were promoted including Adopt a Dolphin, Photo a fin and National Whale and Dolphin Watch Week. In addition to informing the visitors to the show, the Sea Watch volunteers also networked with other exhibitors who provided some interesting ideas of how to expand the sightings network. Overall it was a very worthwhile weekend.

Buckets and Spades to Celebrate

It was buckets and spades to the ready on Sunday 6th when Sea Watch Foundation celebrated World Oceans Day (June 8th). Children and big kids alike were kept busy constructing sand sculptures on New Quay beach. After a busy hour Cheryl the dolphin, Tom the Turtle, Diego the Jellyfish, Harry the harbour porpoise and Sandy starfish decorated the beach with many more people coming along to check out the creations and have a go at the blue whale challenge game.





Rain may have stopped play on the beach, however up on the harbour wall the hardy volunteer stuck through it, providing fun ebtertainment with dolphin watching, and marine themed activities for passers by till late into the afternoon. The event was a success despite the weather and we are planning on doing more activities through the summer months.



This Monday two new volunteer joined us in New Quay for our second period. Jenna has flown over from Vancouver, Canada and Tom arrived up from Pembrokeshire to join us. A warm welcome to you both, hope you love it here as much as the rest of us!



Sea Watch FOundation
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

p.s. view more of our sand sculpture photographs on our Facebook page

Land Ahoy!

Its hard to believe that it's the last week in period one this year already and it's been a busy few days too! The land surveys kicked off, with plenty of bottlenose dolphins venturing into the bay to feed - Saturday the dolphins came in close to the harbour wall with one steeling the spotlight of the windsurfer in the bay, delighting the tourist crowds!



The casual surveys have continued on both the Ermol and Islander boat trips with plenty of dolphins, seals and a lonely harbour porpoise still (bravely) in the bay with so many dolphins about!



Its wonderful news for the area, we can confirm that it was definitely an otter Helene saw last week (see What an Otter Nonsense), one of her photos held the proof, hopefully there are plenty more sightings to come.



In other news, lets's hope the winning streak carries on as the volunteers continue to win their beer money at the weekly bingo in the Queen's (the locals are threatening to ban us). While this Wednesday its 'Cream Tea' for dinner, a little farewell for those leaving the sandy shores of New Quay this weekend. Big thank you for your help, we'll miss you.


Meanwhile its celebration time on Sunday 6th June - we've arrange a few fun filled events to celebrate world oceans day, for more information check out our web page. Let's hope the sun continues to shine!

Sea Watch Foundation Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

What Otter Nonsense!

Once again over the last few weeks Sea Watch volunteers have been jumping on board the local tour boats, Ermol V and Ermol VI undertaking casual surveys. Ermol VI s a two hour boat trip running South East along the coast heading towards Llangranog and back to New Quay. We’ve been taking these trips nearly every day collecting data and interacting with the public. On these boat trips we also promote the Adopt a Dolphin campaign and increase public awareness of marine mammals through our talk. These trips also act as mini surveys; effort is recorded and we scan the water just as we would on dedicated surveys. So far this year we have been lucky with many sightings of harbour porpoise, grey seals and occasional dolphins which are feeding or travelling along the coastline in the sheltered shallow waters. Occasionally we are greeted by the Ermol crew’s seagull friend George who provides entertainment for the passengers as he flies alongside the boat, and perches on the bow tapping his beak in a cheeky manner for food.

Over the past week a total of 4 dolphins, 7 grey seals and 1 harbour porpoise have been spotted.

One of our volunteers had a lucky sighting yesterday whilst on The Islander; a wildlife tour boat that also runs from New Quay. Helene saw a European Otter (Lutra lutra) feeding on a crab – could this be the one that Michelle saw? Hopefully we will have more sightings of this illusive creature over the coming weeks and we will keep you updated with these.

Sea Watch Foundation Team

www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Score on Radio Four

On Monday the Radio 4 reporter Tom Fielding came and visited Sea Watch Foundation in New Quay, as they intend to do a short feature about the Photo-A-Fin campaign we are running on their Today show. Tom went on Ermol 5 with one of our volunteers Claire to experience how casual survey work is carried out and she explained to him the procedure for collecting data on dolphin, porpoise and grey seal sightings. We are waiting to hear when the SWF feature will be on air and we shall keep you posted.

SWF volunteers had a practice run on Tuesday on the land based survey. We were lucky and saw two groups of bottlenose dolphins in the bay, one group consisting of two adults and the other a mother and a juvenile. They were busy feeding for the hour we watched them. The land based survey is designed to provide SWF with information about dolphin movements around the harbour area, how they utilise it, how often and it will also provide data on how boat traffic affects them.

Finally, Sea Watch Volunteers are excited at the possibility of conducting a dedicated search for dolphins on Friday. The intention is to leave from Aberystwyth and focus our survey in the northern SAC of Cardigan Bay. Fingers crossed that the forecast stays fine!

Sea Watch Foundation Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

DEDICATION PAYS OFF!

The week started brightly in New Quay with the volunteers gearing up for a potential all day boat survey on the Thursday if the weather forecast held true.

The forecast changed and the trip rescheduled for Wednesday - a 07:30am start. We awoke early, fingers crossed for calm weather and the heavens were certainly shining for us. We boarded 'Dunbar', pushed off the quay, right on time and it was all hands on deck to get equipment set up, GPS turned on and the first two 'spotters' in position up high on the roof.


We travelled out west then headed south along the Ceredigion coast admiring large flocks of gannets (Morus bassanus) plummeting into bait balls. After two hours we finally had our first spot - four adult bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) feeding. We followed the dolphins, recording their activities, admiring their dexerity as they dived deep in pursuit of their prey, effortlessly leaping from the water. Once we were sure we had all the information we needed we
moved on leaving the dolphins to enjoy their mid-morning meal.


Heading north now, chasing time and tide we spotted another group of dolphns. This time three adults with a calf, once again we spent time following and recording their behaviour. This encounter was quickly followed by two harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena).


Our third encounter was a group of eight bottlenose dolphins, again with a calf and a juvenile. They were enjoying the sunshine, displaying social interactions with each other, breaching, leaping, and took an oportune moment to speedily bow-ride a large ship that was passing through the bay. Once bored with the large ship the group returned to spend time bow-riding alongside our boat.


We continued on our return leg back to New Quay harbour leaving a grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) in our wake, and were rewarded with a magnificent group of five adult bottlenose dolphins swimming and solialising.


Stretched for time we pushed on passed Bird's Rock and spotted yet another group of dolphins, but with time and tide really against us we headed on into the harbour leaving the pod to their games. With the tide too low for 'Dunbar' to dock alongside the quay, it was a climb into the tender and our gentleman skipper Graham rowed us safely ashore.

Our first dedicated boat survey was a wonderful success, with great memories already to take us through the season.

Sea Watch Foundation Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Otter Observation!

On a windy overcast Tuesday morning (11th May) Michelle one of the Sea Watch volunteers climbed to the cliff observation point to double check with the PhD research assistants that the sea state was indeed too rough for marine mammal observations that day. As the three of them glanced down onto Bird's Rock they saw a curious sight. In front of them they saw a head emerge from the waves, binoculars to the eyes and expecting a seal's head they were taken back by a brown creature with a fish in mouth, a long tail and four legs - an otter (Lutra lutra) catching his breakfast in the surf. Next time the camera will be poised ready, as you never know what encounters you'll have at 07:50am!

Sea Watch Foundation Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

2010 SEASON OFF TO A SPLASH!

The 2010 marine mammal monitoring and research program in New Quay, West Wales has started with a huge splash!

The first six volunteers of the season have arrived and settled into life by the ocean. Following an intensive week of training the casual watch boat surveys began. Everybody was excited when they were told of the first boat survey training outing on Ermol VI (http://www.newquayboattrips.co.uk/).

All aboard and equipment in hand the Ermol VI headed out on an hour trip south down to Cwmtydu (Seal Bay) following the beautiful rugged coastline. Rain began to fall but it didn't dampen the spirits of the bolunteers who were rewarded with the season's first official sightings of a harbour porpoise (Phocoena phoconea) and two Atlantic grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). Further sightings of both species have been recorded throughout the week, with seals in abundance.


It is estimated that the UK is home to approximately 30% of the world's population of grey seal, with about 5,000 found in south-west Wales. They can usually be seen surfacing in the water while feeding or hauled out on the rocks sunbathing. The males (bulls) can grow up to 3m in length and weigh up to 300kg. The females (cows) are much smaller growing to 1.7m and 150kg. An estimated 66 pups are born in the secluded bays of the Ceredigion SAC in autumn each year.


Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have also been observed this season feeding in New Quay harbour and off shore from the cliff top viewing point, which is great news as Sea Watch Foundation researchers believe that some portion of the population spends the winter in north Wales and come back during the summer months.

In other new, the Sea Watch team continued their winning streak in the Queen's bingo last night - congratulations Michelle!

Sea Watch Foundation Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk