New Volunteer Training

It’s been a busy week here at Sea Watch! Three new volunteers have arrived to join the team and replace those who finished their placement. Indeed, it was mainly a week of training in field work and data protocols; because even if our enthusiastic volunteers all have some degree of experience in the marine field, it is necessary that everyone be on the same page.


During the week, our new recruits were introduced in detail to the work Sea Watch Foundation does in Cardigan Bay and beyond, with its coordination efforts of the observer network in the whole of UK and Ireland (which new blog readers may be interested in discovering here). Then they were trained in various protocols of data collection, including, for instance:

• Land watches from the New Quay pier, where dolphin sightings and boat encounters help scientists understand the use cetaceans make of the harbour, and how best animals and humans may coexist in coastal environments;
• Dolphin encounters on boat trips or dedicated surveys, emphasizing how to best estimate the number of animals encountered and their behaviour, and also how to take good note of the observation effort. This is a very important piece of information as it may influence the data collected; it is a truism to say that with clearer conditions, you might spot more dolphins, but it has to be taken into account when studying the data. Hence, it is necessary to know whether the visibility was good, whether the reflection of the sun on the water might hamper your sightings, and so on.

But all this is theory, and nothing is better than practice! One important piece of information to gather is the distance between you and the dolphins sighted, and estimating distances precisely with the naked eye is a lot more difficult than it seems. The volunteers were thus taken around town and asked to estimate various distances for a small practice session – it must have been a funny sight for the residents and tourists of New Quay to see this small group going around town with very concentrated faces and shouting distances to one another! All this training was concluded by an informal exam, when they were shown short footage of dolphin groups in various conditions and asked to judge in one short look the number of individuals, group composition, and sea state – that is, all the data that will make the observations both reliable and valuable. It is a bit like passing your driver’s license all over again – but in a more ecological way! Now, after being teamed up for their first shifts with experienced volunteers, they are ready to go on their own with a trained eye, ensuring that they miss nothing on their shifts.


Beyond the interesting and sometimes funny aspect of such training, all this emphasizes a very fundamental aspect of scientific work: the paramount need for consistency and reliability in the data collected, especially when it comes from the field and multiple people. When sea conditions are not ideal and you have to think quickly on your feet, ensuring that the protocols become reflexes makes things more comfortable and greatly reduces the risk of mistakes. This goes a very long way to help making informed decisions about wildlife management and conservation in the Cardigan Bay waters.

By Lionel (volunteer)

Our First Line Transect Survey

On Sunday 12th July the Sea Watch team gathered on the pier in anticipation of the day ahead. The previous day all the volunteers had been trained with the new protocol and were eager to put it into practice at sea. We had all been involved in surveys before but line transect surveys would be more scientific than ones previously encountered. With 10 hours planned we all knew that it would be a long day with few breaks to rest, there is always a job to be done on-board.

The weather looked ominous when we first set off with some dark clouds and a sea state 2. We had to head north, just passed Aberaeron to find the edge of the SAC (special area of conservation), the point at which the line transect would begin.

Transect line i1 was chosen at random from a hat, we had no trouble finding the start and set off in a southerly direction zigzagging our way down the coastline following the coordinate waypoints as indicated on the map. Other differences from previous surveys were that two independent observers had to be on look out at the stern of the boat scanning the horizon for dolphins using binoculars. This caused much amusement among a few members of the team as it is much harder than it seems to hold binoculars to your eyes for an hour whilst at sea, regular arm shaking was the first sign of struggling followed by many inventive techniques of holding up the binoculars to stop your arms aching.

Another difference is that when a dolphin was spotted it should be recorded in the usual fashion but no-one else should be notified until they had passed the 90° angle, perpendicular to the boat. At this point the transect line is left and photographic ID of the dolphins follows. After which the survey continues from the point that the boat left the line. When nothing had been spotted for a while one of the volunteers rather over excitedly yelled “Dolphin”, letting everyone know that there has been a sighting, not exactly protocol.

Just as we were passing back by New Quay, Rachel spotted three dolphins in the bay, one of which was Bond but by the time we had positively ID’d him the other two dolphins had disappeared out of sight.

The line that we chose was an inner transect, it meant that we only had to travel out halfway to the outermost boundary of the SAC, still, even this was 5km out from the coastline. We went all the way out and back to the coast without seeing anything until we met a group of three dolphins closely followed by a further two. After these encounters the sun came out and it became a lovely afternoon as we continued on to the most southerly boundary of the SAC south of Cardigan Island.

Overall the survey was a great success leaving everyone on board happy, spotting a group of 5 dolphins on the transit back to New Quay was a great way to end the day. In total 13 dolphins, a harbour porpoise and a few grey seals were seen.

Killer Whales in Fair Isle

Thursday 30th June heralded a spectacular encounter with one of the most awesome predators of the marine world: a pod of killer whales (otherwise known as orcas) arrived close to the shores of the little island community of Fair Isle. This was a fitting display for Britain’s remotest human outpost, which on Saturday 2nd July is to officially open the four million pound new building to mark a new era for Fair Isle’s world famous bird observatory.
The first person to spot the whales was Fair Isle Bird Observatory (FIBO) seabird staff member, Dr Will Miles. In his words:
“I was surveying a guillemot cliff, recording feeding rates, when in the corner of my eye the sea was cut by a black and white back. Had I imagined it? I stared at the spot, waiting… in a swirling vortex of fins and spray, the water suddenly erupted as eight killer whales hit the surface all at once! They were huge, powerful and feeding, and staying close in under my watch point - incredible views, mind-blowing, and I felt the adrenalin begin to kick! Struggling to clutch my phone, and nearly losing it down the cliff, I dialled the Bird Observatory to share the sighting.”














Soon to join him was FIBO assistant warden, Jason Moss. He takes up the story:
As the shout of “ORCA in Furse” rang through the Fair Isle Bird Observatory dining room, the split-second decision of whether to run to a vantage point or jump into a van was a big one and, on this occasion, I made the right choice! Reaching the tip of the Yessness Peninsula with Jane Reid and Becky Langdon, two of the orcas gave us the show of a lifetime, one after the other drifting slowly through the crystal clear water right under our feet! An utterly magical, unforgettable experience!”
After that, everybody ran out from their lunch to see the killer whales, which by this time had circled round the east cliffs and moved into the South Harbour. FIBO warden, David Parnaby, describes the climax of the event:
“The one thing guaranteed to empty the Observatory is a ‘phone call to say that there are killer whales showing and today’s sightings coincided nicely with the whole Obs sitting down to lunch – needless to say, the soup was abandoned as all the guests and staff went dashing out to try to catch a glimpse! We were amazed at the spectacle they put on, first of all off the north of the island, but then again in South Harbour where four of the killer whales surrounded a seal on a tiny piece of rock.

To be close enough to the killer whales to be able to hear them breathing as they came to the surface was incredible and it was a real moment of high tension as they circled the seal. Although there was a lot of sympathy for the seal, everyone was amazed to see a wildlife spectacle like that so close up. It was very typical of Fair Isle that the whole event was witnessed by all the schoolchildren, most of the islanders and many guests; everyone wants to see something like that if they get the chance. We know how lucky we are to live somewhere as amazing as this for wildlife and we see some pretty special things every day, but there’s no doubt that this sighting will really stick in the memory.”

The killer whales were first spotted at the shores of Fair Isle around 1.30pm and remained in the vicinity for two hours before departing south towards Orkney.

Heading south at the same time, but unfortunately a few hours behind, aboard the Fair Isle ferryboat, the Good Shepherd, was Sea Watch research director, Dr Peter Evans. He arrived on the Isle to be greeted by a mass of glowing, grinning faces full of joy at their afternoon experience.

Check out more photos on Sea Watch's facebook page.

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.