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)