common dolphins by Rick Morris
“You’re kidding? Are there really dolphins and seals out here in our sea?” This surprised response often greets Rick Morris, MARINElife’s wildlife officer, as he makes his way around the passengers on MS Oldenburg, en route to Lundy. “Yes,” is the answer, but keep your eyes peeled. And if you follow Rick around the boat, as I did one Saturday in early May, your chances of spotting sea mammals are even higher. As the MS Oldenburg left Bideford and sailed slowly down the Taw and Torridge estuary, Rick introduced himself to everyone on the boat and handed out leaflets about MARINElife’s work. Rick or another volunteer is on the boat every Saturday and every month they do a full survey of the sea mammals and birds from the ferry.
Rachel and Rick wildlife spotting As Rachel, MARINElife’s science officer, explained, “it makes perfect sense to survey from the ferries. We need to gather data following the same route or transect, noting changes over time and ferries like the Oldenburg repeatedly track back and forth at a fixed speed.” Rachel’s passion is seabirds and she did her PhD on the foraging behaviour of gannets. For years, these large, striking birds have been bucking the trend, doing well while other seabirds like the auks (guillemots and razorbills) and kittiwakes have been seriously struggling. Gannets are the ultimate generalist, able to hunt a wide range of fish and they learned to follow fishing boats and harvest any discarded fish thrown back into the ocean.
I was interested to know what Rachel thought of the proposed discards ban. As a punter, when you learn that so much fresh fish is thrown back – because it’s too small and has little chance of surviving – banning discards seems a no brainer. But Boat Stories has been listening to the fishermen’s point of view. They have to buy quota. Any fish, they can’t return to the sea, becomes part of that precious quota. If fish are too small to sell commercially they’ll be turned into fishmeal and fishermen will earn less for their catch - pushing what is already a perilous business for small fishermen even closer to the tipping point. Rachel said thoughtfully, “any ban will need to be phased in slowly, to give the seabirds a chance to adapt.” Meanwhile we were keeping our eyes peeled out for Rachel’s gannets. Follow them as they fold their wings and plunge into the ocean and the chances are that dolphins may be after the same schools of fish.
The cloud hung, heavy and grey, but Rick and Rachel both laughed when I grumbled. “It makes it easier to spot fins,” said Rick, “you’re not constantly screwing up your eyes against the glare. And with no whitecaps these are perfect conditions.” Rick proceeded to tell me he’d seen minke whale on this crossing so I decided to put the pressure on. Luckily for Rick a passenger shouted, “We’ve seen a fin”. Rick rushed over and identified the triangular fin as a harbour porpoise. Needless to say I missed it!
I was interested to know what Rachel thought of the proposed discards ban. As a punter, when you learn that so much fresh fish is thrown back – because it’s too small and has little chance of surviving – banning discards seems a no brainer. But Boat Stories has been listening to the fishermen’s point of view. They have to buy quota. Any fish, they can’t return to the sea, becomes part of that precious quota. If fish are too small to sell commercially they’ll be turned into fishmeal and fishermen will earn less for their catch - pushing what is already a perilous business for small fishermen even closer to the tipping point. Rachel said thoughtfully, “any ban will need to be phased in slowly, to give the seabirds a chance to adapt.” Meanwhile we were keeping our eyes peeled out for Rachel’s gannets. Follow them as they fold their wings and plunge into the ocean and the chances are that dolphins may be after the same schools of fish.
The cloud hung, heavy and grey, but Rick and Rachel both laughed when I grumbled. “It makes it easier to spot fins,” said Rick, “you’re not constantly screwing up your eyes against the glare. And with no whitecaps these are perfect conditions.” Rick proceeded to tell me he’d seen minke whale on this crossing so I decided to put the pressure on. Luckily for Rick a passenger shouted, “We’ve seen a fin”. Rick rushed over and identified the triangular fin as a harbour porpoise. Needless to say I missed it!
Captain Jerry on the bridge Half way across seemed a good time to say hello to the captain, Jerry and first mate on the bridge. I found them all eyes trained on a bulk carrier which seemed to be on collision course. “We’re on the starboard passage, so they should give way to us,” Jerry told me. “The chances are no one’s on the bridge – they’ll be relying on electronic aids.” Eventually, slowly, the big ship gave way to our ferry and Jerry began to tell me about the 26 ships he’s captained. He’d just come from the helm of the Irish Naval ship, Le Samuel Beckett, built in Appledore, conducting sea trials. “I tweeted you!” I told him. The fisheries protection vessel is one of the ships on my Marine Traffic fleet and I’d spotted her from Ilfracombe harbour. A few years back on a trip to Lundy, I’d also spotted a pod of dolphins, bow riding the ferry; I began to point them out to passengers, surprised that the bridge was keeping quiet. “Do you tell passengers if you spot dolphins now?” I asked Jerry. “We try to,” he said. “But if over two hundred passengers cross to one side, she could begin to list.” I hadn’t thought of that! We were nearing Lundy. Time to get an identification lesson from Rick before the dolphins turned up!
manx shearwater by RIck Morris Back on deck, the wind had woken up and a few seabirds were using it to get around. Several Manx shearwaters skimmed close to the water, using the lift from the waves to race us to Lundy. We spotted seven black tailed godwit on migration and two dumpy guillemots, flapping hard. Where were the sea mammals? Rick explained that while both dolphins we might see have the typical curved dorsal fin, the common dolphin has a distinct hourglass-shaped white pattern on its side and is much smaller than the bottlenose which can reach 3-4 metres. Dave the dolphin who (I’ve blogged about before) and who frequented Ilfracombe and Combe Martin last year was a bottlenose. Once you get to know them, behaviour helps in identification. Around the North Devon coast the dolphins showing off – the ones that should be riding our bow wave are usually common dolphins. The fins we spot from the sea cliffs usually belong to harbour porpoises which prefer shallower water and like to hug the coast.
Rick knows his sea mammals so well that I assume he’s been watching them for years. “I’m a long distance lorry driver,” he told me. A few years ago he was on ferry from Portsmouth to Spain, when he asked a MARINElife wildlife officer, staring out to sea, what he was looking for. “Whales blowing,” came the answer. “Like that one there?” replied Rick. He’d spotted his first fin whale and “was hooked, line and sinker.” Now Rick surveys from ferries leaving ports all around the UK. "People think they have to go to New Zealand to see whales, but European seas are amongst the most diverse in the world." It's Rachel's job to make sense of the data collected by hundreds of volunteers. We don't spot fin whales off North Devon, very often, but just days after we filmed Ilfracombe fisherman Geoff Huelin, he “spotted two minke whales and had dolphins riding the bow wave all the way to Lundy and back!” Boat Stories didn’t see any dolphins last Saturday (Rick did!). But we did see plenty of seals, because we went on the Oldenburg around the island trip. (A bonus on certain tides!) And we travelled home with some Lundy sheep.
 Lundy sheep coming aboard The day I sailed on the Oldenburg, she was barely half full. Now is the time to go –while the wildlife is frantically busy, but the tourist season hasn’t quite got going. Information on booking on our boat trips page. | Rick is looking for more volunteers to act as wildlife officers on the Oldenburg. You receive full training and thanks to the Landmark Trust your passage is free. And you have the rest of the day to look around Lundy. If you need ideas about what to do on Lundy – blog coming soon. Meanwhile contact Rick for information on volunteering [email protected] .  grey seal by RIck Morris |
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