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)