Sea Watch at the South Wales Boat Show

From Friday 17th June to Sunday 19th June, Danielle, Katrin and Rachel were in Swansea representing the Sea Watch Foundation at the South Wales Boat Show. Despite spending the majority of Friday preventing the gazebo from carrying out an escape act, the weekend was successful in terms of meeting boat operators that could report sightings to us.




We arrived in Swansea on Friday and were greeted by rain and wind which meant that a limited number of people visited the show that day. After setting up our gazebo and stand we spent the rest of the day preventing the display items from flying away in the wind. The horizontal rain also meant that the items, and ourselves, got a little bit soaked! The weather was however an excellent conversation starter and allowed us to get to know some of the other exhibitors.

The sun finally broke through on Saturday and we were able to fully set up our stand as originally planned.




The sunny weather held through to Sunday and on both days the better weather attracted more visitors. Several people visited our stand and asked us general questions throughout the day and we even got a chance to practice our face-painting skills. The weekend was far more successful in terms of boat owners/fishing-boat operators talking to us about their encounters and offering to report any future sightings to us. These valuable sighting reports will be used to monitor whales, dolphins and porpoises around the U.K. which in turn will be used to conserve and protect these vulnerable species.

Sightings should be sent to sightings@seawatchfoundation.org.uk or entered online using the online sightings form found on the Sea Watch Foundation website, www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk.

Sea Watch Foundation Team

Sea Watch Celebrates World Oceans Day

World Oceans Day 2011 occurred on Wednesday 8th June. In order to celebrate this International Day of Ocean Conservation, recommended in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and recognised by the United Nations, we decided to host a day of ocean themed events. Since children were our target audience, we held the event on Saturday 4th June, the last weekend of their school holiday.

Our day began at 11am when we set up our stand on New Quay pier and our beach spot. Public awareness and education was the focus of our place on the pier with posters about our research and adopt a dolphin scheme.








Meanwhile, on the beach we carried out our cetacean based activities. These included badge making, sand sculpturing, bracelet making and face painting. After painting each others faces we each made a badge in an attempt to advertise our activities and draw in interested audiences. Unfortunately, the glorious weather acted as a hindrance as children and adults were more interested in swimming in the Sea than getting their face painted. In an attempt to attract some attention, Rachel and Deborah began making a whale sand sculpture which did attract the help of one little girl.




After lunch, we were more successful with several children interested in either building sand dolphins or making badges. As the afternoon drew to a close, we found ourselves inundated with children either wishing to make friendship bracelets or have their face painted. As Deborah demonstrated how to make the bracelets, Rachel found herself surrounded by children either wanting their face painted or queuing up to paint her arms and face!






After calling in some re-enforcements we successfully managed to paint all the children’s faces whilst describing the biology and ecology of the animals being drawn. Despite the slow start to the day, the end was highly successful and the children involved seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed their time with us.

First Dedicated Survey of the Season!

We’d been waiting for this chance for weeks. Finally, after a long spell of rough weather, the wind and seas calmed and the date was set for the first dedicated boat survey of the season.

On Thursday, the whole Sea Watch Cymru team was up a little after the dawn chorus and long after the dolphins, but before most of New Quay’s residents. Conditions were perfect – the skies were lightening to a deep blue and the sea was like a mirror, a true sea state zero (something that we’d been told about, but had never got to see). A few bottlenose dolphins had already been spotted not far from New Quay pier and having gathered together all the equipment – life jackets, binoculars, cameras, the Photo Identification flag, a GPS receiver, clipboards, sightings and effort forms, many pencils and erasers, layers of clothing and lots of water, food and sun-tan cream – we set out on the Dunbar Castle II just before 8am.

But what is all this effort for?

A dedicated boat survey has many purposes. One is to gather information on sea mammal numbers, locations and behaviours. A further, important goal is to get photographs of as many of the dolphins as possible, specifically the fins, to build upon the identification catalogue Sea Watch already has. Identifying the animals individually is crucial in order to develop a clear picture of each dolphin’s life: where it usually lives, where it travels to, which other individuals it socialises with and if it has any calves. Each time a dolphin is identified, it makes this ‘life picture’ clearer. To read more about the process of identifying a dolphin through photographs, take a look at the blog entry for 25th May, 2011.

During the boat survey each team member regularly swapped roles – scanning from the roof, taking down ‘effort’ information (including the boat’s location, course and speed, the sea and weather conditions), noting down marine mammal sightings (including location, number and behaviour of the animals), taking photographs, counting and re-counting dolphin numbers (as dolphins can appear and disappear rapidly, counting how many dolphins there are in a group is often a challenge).

When any dolphins were sighted, the team went into identification, or ID, mode, which means putting up the Photo ID flag to show that the boat is on a dedicated survey and has permission to get close to the dolphins for a limited time to photograph them (normally, boats must follow the marine code for the Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation and not pursue dolphins in any way).

Over the six hours of heading down the coast to Cardigan Bay and back, we met at least 12 individual dolphins – although we haven’t processed all the photographs to confirm that yet. And we were lucky enough to get lots of close-up photos as the dolphins swam alongside the boat, dipped under the boat, leapt out of the sea and slapped the surface. One female, Top Notch, a Sea Watch adoptable dolphin, was easy to identify and was seen with her calf.

By 2 o’clock the skies were clouding over, the sea had lost its glassy texture and the Sea Watch team was exhilarated and exhausted. The first dedicated survey of the season was at an end.

(photos by Sea Watch Foundation/Elena Gladilina/Katrin Lohrengel/Gemma Veneruso)

One month with the Sea Watch Foundation!

One month of volunteering at the Sea Watch Foundation has already passed. The beginning of this season has already given us – the volunteers – some unforgettable experiences with many sightings and some impressive dolphin behaviour. The events ahead, such as the World Oceans Day, and the regular monitoring sessions, which will continue until early October, will surely bring more exciting surprises and special moments.

Daily land-watches and regular one or two-hour casual watch boat surveys (done when the weather conditions are favourable) have allowed us so far to spot many grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Cardigan Bay, West Wales. Studies have shown that Cardigan Bay harbours semi-resident groups of bottlenose dolphins. While on duty, the close and clear photos of dolphins taken during a land-watch session or a boat survey, which provide a good lateral view of the dorsal fin showing its unique marks and nicks, are used for identification and the tracking of individuals.

It is truly impressive to experience relatively close contact with these beautiful marine mammals. The curious grey seals, for example, which usually stick the head out of the water just for a few seconds before continuing their slow and gentle swim, can get very close to the pier, the place from which all land-watches of marine wildlife in the area are carried out. Similarly, the bottlenose dolphins, which are usually seen in small groups performing long dives and sometimes showing the fluke while looking for fish in shallow waters, can also get very close to the pier. Furthermore, while on a boat survey, bottlenose dolphins can be seen swimming really fast alongside the boat and even performing some aerial behaviour. On one occasion, when I was doing a boat survey, I was lucky enough to witness a couple of bottlenose dolphins – a mother and its calf – swimming very fast and close together less than 50 metres away from the boat.

All this wonderful experience is particularly touching to me, a Brazilian biologist who had never had any experience in Marine Biology prior to arriving in Wales. Everything is new, interesting and exciting. The beautiful surrounding landscapes and the harmony of nature only make my volunteering at the Sea Watch Foundation even more special. I am looking forward to learning even more about marine wildlife in Great Britain.