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