Sea Safari Trip Report 26 th 28 th June 2018 ORCA Guides: Lucy Babey, Mary Hill, Sue Lakeman, Kirsty MacLeod, Kate Weston, James Robbins and Mike Taylor Tuesday 26 th June There was real excitement amongst guests and guides alike in Portsmouth International Port ferry terminal, as everyone started to gather to board the wonderful Britany Ferries Pont-Aven for the first ORCA Sea Safari of 2018. Once on board and as the ship departed Portsmouth our group of whale enthusiasts gathered up on Deck 10 to familiarise themselves with what would be our home and whale watching platform for the next few days. ORCA Guides giving the introductory briefing out on Deck 10 Following the informative evening wildlife presentation delivered by ORCA Wildlife Officers Kate and Kirsty we all got an early night, excited for the first day of cetacean spotting that awaited us. Wednesday 27 th June The ORCA Guides were joined by several eager guests just before sunrise up on Deck 10 and we commenced our search for marine wildlife at 05:30 in the shallow waters off the coast of Brittany whilst enjoying a stunning sunrise at sea. Sunrise in the Bay of Biscay The deck soon became full with guests but very strangely the sea seemed eerily quiet. Despite calm seas and good visibility there was very little in the way of marine wildlife, even the birdlife was absent with just
the occasional gannet keeping us company. Despite this we kept scanning the water s surface for a fin, a splash or a blow. ORCA Guides and Sea Safari guests in search of whales and dolphins It was three hours into our watch until the first excited shout of dolphins on the starboard side! rang out across the deck. Everyone hurried over to get a view. On first inspection this looked like a pod of common dolphins, the yellow and grey hourglass shape on their flanks showing clearly in the morning sunshine and this pod of over 20 individuals were clearly feeding as they remained a few hundred meters from the ship, displaying erratic movements and creating a lot of splash with numerous circling and diving gannets. But there was something not quite right about a few of the bodies leaping out of the water this was in fact a mixed feeding pod of common dolphins, striped dolphins and tuna! Over the next couple of hours we had a slow and steady stream of dolphin sightings on both sides of the ship. These primarily consisted of small pods of common and striped dolphins, some of which came into the ship to bow ride and swim in the pressure wave created by the side of the ship, but many remained several hundred meters from the ship and were fast swimming with real purpose. This raised a few questions amongst guests and guides and during the regular briefings around the sightings map on Deck 10 we started to explore why we may be seeing this. Were there predators in the area? Each year we do see killer whales in the Bay of Biscay, the ORCA Wildlife Officers sighted a pod of 3 killer whales in April this year. Our first inclination that these apex predators are visiting the Bay is the fact that the Bay becomes quiet and the few dolphins we do see appear to be swimming at speed so could there be a pod of killer whales in the Bay at present?! Has the recent weather had an impact on the animals movements? Maybe the prey species for whales and dolphins has shifted? Striped dolphin photo by Sea Safari guest Karen Burns
As we continued to travel across the continental shelf into deeper waters the wildlife began to pick up, as we would expect due to the upwelling of nutrients in this area. There was a call to the starboard side and lots of white water was seen near to the horizon, dolphins splashing! The white water got closer and closer to the ship until a large mixed pod of common and striped dolphins were showing themselves very clearly, leaping out of the water, twisting and turning in the air. The calls of oooooooos and aaahhhhhhhhs from guests rang out across the deck and we were all beaming from ear to ear. Common dolphin leaping towards the ship photo by Sea Safari guest George Carr Acrobatic striped dolphin The bird life was increasing too, with Manx and Balearic shearwaters effortlessly skimming the waters surface, lesser black-backed gulls and yellow legged gulls being seen and a collared dove flying around the deck for a while. Just before midday we had flurry of striped dolphin activity with a pod of 6 individuals breaching and bow riding a yacht and another large group racing alongside the ship. Large pod of striped dolphins photo by Sea Safari guest Robert Dewey Despite the clear visibility and good sea state the sightings were few in the after lunch period, which is perhaps not unexpected in the deep, open sea area of the Bay. A few groups of common, striped and bottlenose dolphins gracing us with their presence, 2 large whale blows towards the horizon and a sun fish (the heaviest of all the bony fish) floated past the Pont-Aven. However, all the guests who had been enjoying a calmer period up on deck were alerted by a call of an animal spotted just ahead of the ship, quickly followed by an excited shout of 'Cuvier's!". The quick call out allowed everyone's attention to be
drawn to the starboard side, where a male Cuvier's beaked whale was clearly visible only 100m from the ship, slowly swimming at the surface. The distinctive pale face and scarred body were clearly visible, giving everyone the perfect opportunity to test their identification skills on a specialist deep diving species. Male Cuvier s beaked whale photos by Sea Safari guest George Carr It was a delight to share such a wonderful encounter with our guests, including Pat and Annie who were excellently positioned on Deck 9, having returned from their manicure (with fabulous nails) at the perfect moment. It's only a shame that Lucy and James were not there to see it, but they were so happy to see the enthusiasm of all to tell them what they had missed whilst on the bridge finalising ORCA s important ship strike research project with Brittany Ferries. After a stretch of the legs in Santander and the obligatory yummy ice cream, we all gathered on Deck 7 after dinner for a fun wildlife quiz by Kirsty and Kate and a round-up of the day s sightings by Lucy. It was lovely to be able to showcase some of the wonderful photos guests had taken of the wildlife that day. Thursday 28 th June Many of us were back on deck to watch a glorious sunrise at 05:30 and it wasn t long before a group of common dolphins came racing towards the ship. In fact over the next couple of hours we sighted numerous small pods of common dolphin and with beautiful blue skies and a relatively calm sea we were hopeful for lots of marine life action whilst sailing through the beautiful islands off the Brittany coast. However, this was not to be..literally minutes before we arrived at the islands a huge fog bank engulfed the ship! Unfortunately the fog remained with us until a couple of hours outside Plymouth, but we all found the humour in this situation and the ships fog horn became strangely comforting after a while!
Despite the conditions being less than ideal for wildlife spotting we were adding to our bird list with kittiwakes, storm petrels and fulmars being seen, but it was a gannet that kept us most amused. An adult gannet remained directly above us for over 2 hours, soaring with ease just above our heads and giving itself a good preen. Preening gannet As quickly as it appeared the fog suddenly cleared to reveal blue skies and seas, so we all eagerly took our positions each side of the ship in search for whales and dolphins. However, we did not find any although during the final round up on deck a large group of circling and diving gannets were spotted. They were obviously feeding on a bait ball and more often than not there are whales and dolphins feeding on the fish too. We all scoured the water s surface with our eyes and binoculars, but this was all happening quite far from the ship so no other animals were seen, or so we thought. On closer inspection of the photos that were taken there were in fact 4 bottlenose dolphins also feeding with the gannets! Although this voyage had a few periods of time when the water was very quiet this gave us the opportunity to reflect on what was happening out there in our oceans. Why were the animals not appearing in large numbers? Why were some areas quieter than others? Why were the animals behaving in the way that we witnessed? Whales and dolphins are apex predators and are therefore indicator species. They not only inform us of what is happening with them specifically, but they also provide information on the health of the oceans as a whole and these trips provide us with that opportunity to witness this and gain information first-hand as it happens so we, ORCA, can investigate it further. All the ORCA Guides would like to therefore say a huge thank you to each and every one of the guests who joined us on this trip and helped us scan the waters and the skies for marine wildlife. You all played a vital role in citizen science and conservation and you were also fantastic company throughout the voyage. With a few birthdays, anniversaries and lifelong dreams of seeing and photographing cetaceans in the wild achieved, I think we can all look back on this trip with very fond memories indeed. We hope to see you all out in the Bay of Biscay again in the near future. For a full list and a map of the species seen on this trip please see the next page, and a big thank you to David and David for keeping a list of all the bird species sighted throughout the voyage.
Birds List Birds seen at sea Gannet Manx Shearwater Balearic Shearwater Storm Petrel Lesser black-backed gull Great black-backed gull Collared dove Black headed gull Yellow legged gull Swift Mediterranean gull Fulmar Kittiwake Razorbill Common/arctic tern Ruff Birds seen in Santander Peregrine falcon Wood pigeon Black kite Buzzard House sparrow White wagtail Common swift Spotless starling Magpie