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)
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