Don't play with your food!

We’re just over a week into our third period of the season here at the Sea Watch Foundation, and what a week it has been! Our new volunteers arrived on the scene and after finishing an intensive week of training have been let loose in New Quay. A weekend in town was kicked off with a round of Bingo at the Queens, followed by a dedicated survey out on our faithful boat, Dunbar Castle 2. Here our 'Newbies' were introduced to some of our favourite residents in Cardigan Bay, including a couple of Grey Seals and ‘Chris’ a female dolphin who has been sighted here in New Quay for around 20 years! The volunteers headed out for a hike on Saturday evening, walking the coastal path into Aberaeron. The views were magnificent and a cool cider at the finish line made it all the more worth while.

We’ve had some great encounters with Bottlenose dolphins the last few days, with plenty of action happening right off the pier! Our volunteer Helene, snapped some great shots of 'Spike' fish tossing a huge fish – what a naughty dolphin, did his mother never tell him off for playing with his food!



This was the first encounter of 'Spike' this season we've records for this dolphin back to 2001, so it's great to see him again this year.

We were also lucky enough see a curious Grey Seal having a spy on some fish right below the Jetty.



Hopefully the weather will hold out so we can get out on the water again this weekend, maybe heading up to Northern Cardigan Bay to see what animals we can observe, photograph and record as well as enjoying more of the sights of the beautiful Bay.




Sea Watch Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Hello, Goodbye

Well the Sea Watch team was as busy as expected entertaining the media last week. We were lucky on Thursday out on our dedicated survey with the Times newspaper reporters on board we had some fantastic bottlenose dolphin encounters near Aberporth. During one encounter two young adults swam alongside the boat eyeing us up and showing off with a fish in one of their mouths. The article in the Times newspaper is expected to feature in this Saturday’s (17/07/2010) edition.



The high sea state on Sunday meant an entertaining morning for the BBC Panorama film crew aboard the Dunbar. Fortunately we had plenty of dolphins feeding in New Quay harbour that morning offering plenty of filming opportunities - saving us the embarrassment of possible sea sickness off shore! The Panorama program on biodiversity is due to be aired over the August bank holiday; we will keep you posted with an exact date.



Its all change this coming weekend as it marks the end of another three month period for many of the Sea Watch Foundation volunteers. Those leaving the project are sad to say farewell to new friends, experiences and of course Cardigan Bay’s resident dolphins. Some of the volunteers are continuing along the road of marine mammal research in projects across the world. Sea Watch would like to thank the volunteers for their hard work over the last period and wish them all the best it’ll be sad to see them go, and offer a warm welcome to the new volunteers arriving on Monday.

Sea Watch Foundation Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Bay is Reporters Paradise

Sea Watch Foundation (SWF) has a busy few days ahead entertaining journalists from esteemed Medias.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will be joined by Simon a journalist from the Times newspaper out on a dedicated survey on board the Dunbar. He’ll be following us to report on our journey as we photograph the bottlenose dolphin population as part of our annual research here in Cardigan Bay.

On Saturday all of the volunteers and staff will be welcoming reporters from the Panorama programme on BBC 1 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/). They will be conducting some interviews and we will go out on Dunbar once again for a dedicated photographic survey. We are very pleased to welcome reporters from Panorama, as this is a great show, which has been running more than fifty years. They are currently gathering reports for a programme about biodiversity, which aims to show its importance/relevance to our lives.

The waters of Cardigan Bay are ones of the least polluted in the UK, and the area hosts two SAC’s (Special Area of Conservation), developed originally to protect the resident population of bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoise. The Bay constitutes an excellent example of the benefits of efficient protection, it’s rewarding that a quality programme and newspaper will be presenting the role of Sea Watch Foundation in this accomplishment.

Finger’s crossed that we’ll have some nice encounters to provide Simon and the BBC team with some fantastic shots of the dolphins, and us hard at work!

Sea Watch Foundation
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Leaping Calf

Danielle snapped some amazing photos while on land watch yesterday (29/06/2010) of a young calf leaping in the air. This aerial display is all the more exciting because the calf could only be a few weeks old.



When a calf is in the womb it is folded so that its tail is near its head. This creates lumps and folds in the animals blubber. Within the first week of a newborn's life, the folds and lumps smooth out. However, light coloured stripes will still remain visible on the flanks of the animal for a month. In the pictures of this calf those stripes are still very visible so it can not be a very old.

Boat Show

The Sea Watch crew met success at the 5th South Wales Boat show which ran from the 18th-20th of June in Swansea. The goal of attending was primarily to promote the sightings network to boat owners thereby encouraging sightings to be reported and added to Sea Watch's database. The weather was sunny and hot which brought lots of visitors to the show.



There was lots of interest shown by the public and all of Sea Watch's current campaigns were promoted including Adopt a Dolphin, Photo a fin and National Whale and Dolphin Watch Week. In addition to informing the visitors to the show, the Sea Watch volunteers also networked with other exhibitors who provided some interesting ideas of how to expand the sightings network. Overall it was a very worthwhile weekend.

Buckets and Spades to Celebrate

It was buckets and spades to the ready on Sunday 6th when Sea Watch Foundation celebrated World Oceans Day (June 8th). Children and big kids alike were kept busy constructing sand sculptures on New Quay beach. After a busy hour Cheryl the dolphin, Tom the Turtle, Diego the Jellyfish, Harry the harbour porpoise and Sandy starfish decorated the beach with many more people coming along to check out the creations and have a go at the blue whale challenge game.





Rain may have stopped play on the beach, however up on the harbour wall the hardy volunteer stuck through it, providing fun ebtertainment with dolphin watching, and marine themed activities for passers by till late into the afternoon. The event was a success despite the weather and we are planning on doing more activities through the summer months.



This Monday two new volunteer joined us in New Quay for our second period. Jenna has flown over from Vancouver, Canada and Tom arrived up from Pembrokeshire to join us. A warm welcome to you both, hope you love it here as much as the rest of us!



Sea Watch FOundation
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

p.s. view more of our sand sculpture photographs on our Facebook page

Land Ahoy!

Its hard to believe that it's the last week in period one this year already and it's been a busy few days too! The land surveys kicked off, with plenty of bottlenose dolphins venturing into the bay to feed - Saturday the dolphins came in close to the harbour wall with one steeling the spotlight of the windsurfer in the bay, delighting the tourist crowds!



The casual surveys have continued on both the Ermol and Islander boat trips with plenty of dolphins, seals and a lonely harbour porpoise still (bravely) in the bay with so many dolphins about!



Its wonderful news for the area, we can confirm that it was definitely an otter Helene saw last week (see What an Otter Nonsense), one of her photos held the proof, hopefully there are plenty more sightings to come.



In other news, lets's hope the winning streak carries on as the volunteers continue to win their beer money at the weekly bingo in the Queen's (the locals are threatening to ban us). While this Wednesday its 'Cream Tea' for dinner, a little farewell for those leaving the sandy shores of New Quay this weekend. Big thank you for your help, we'll miss you.


Meanwhile its celebration time on Sunday 6th June - we've arrange a few fun filled events to celebrate world oceans day, for more information check out our web page. Let's hope the sun continues to shine!

Sea Watch Foundation Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk