This was the last week of the bursary the 13 weeks
seem to have flown by. The weather in the beginning of the week didn’t look
great and this was reflected when we finally made it out on Tuesday the 3rd,
rough seas and an overcast day made spotting very difficult. The evening trip
was cut short and unfortunately we didn’t see any cetaceans.
Rissos Dolphin (c) Paddy O'Dwyer - IWDG
Things were looking up on Thursday the 5th with
the weather much improved. Our first sighting was a group of 12 rissos dolphins, while commonly
seen around the islands in the past this was our second sighting of this species
during the study. The first time we encountered them was on the first day of
the bursary, on that occasion they were only surfacing briefly and didn’t hang
around too long. However on this occasion they were surfacing multiple times
and appeared to be foraging. This gave all of us fantastic views, there group
appeared to be a mix of mostly adults with a few juveniles. After spending some
time with them we moved on. Later in the day we had two sightings of individual
harbour porpoises which only made a few surfaces before moving on. We also encountered
the rissos on the evening tour and again they seemed unfazed by the boat. On
our return to Ventry we came across a minke whale that surfaced multiply times
in close proximity to the boat. This is the first time in a while that we have
seen a minke and its good to see that cetacean activity in the area appears to
be on the increase.
Rissos Dolphin (c) Paddy O'Dwyer - IWDG
Rissos Dolphin (c) Paddy O'Dwyer - IWDG
Friday the 6th was another fine day, despite our
best efforts we couldn’t find the rissos again. However we did come across a
group of 30 common dolphins. At first there seemed to be only a few dolphins
but as we continued it was clear that it was a much larger group with more and
more dolphins appearing around the boat. They were bow riding and playing in the
wake of the boat. The group contained a few juveniles and a very small calf. This
group also contained a member with a floppy dorsal fin, we have seen this
individual before a couple of times. It can be seen in the
video below.
Common Dolphin (c) Paddy O'Dwyer - IWDG
I’m currently looking over the results of the study and will
post some final figures in terms of days,sightings and numbers over the next few
days. I’d like to thank the IWDG for providing this fantastic opportunity and
Mick Sheeren ‘’Marine Eco Tours’’ for providing the platform for this work. And
also to Billy, Britta and Nick for all the help they provided during this
project.
For more on Irish Whales and Dolphins: http://www.iwdg.ie/index.php
For more on Marine Eco Tours : http://www.marinetours.ie/
Rissos Dolphin (c) Paddy O'Dwyer - IWDG
No comments:
Post a Comment