On Wednesday I met up with my old shipmates from the Gower Marine Mammal Group and we did a survey from Swansea combined with a little angling. We worked along the Gower to Worms Head and then as conditions improved headed offshore ending up 12 miles SW of Lundy. We encountered a number of small pods of common dolphin, one group with very young juvies. The behaviour of another group was something I have never witnessed in common dolphins, they were extremely active, violently splashing but hardly breaking the surface. I had a similar experience with a Sea Trust trip to Newquay years ago and that was caused by testosterone fuelled male bottlenosed dolphins. We had a distant whale sighting off Lundy. It surfaced twice in the 50 minutes we waited around for it but never came to play. A probable minke. The total was 166 common dolphin, only a couple of porps but to finish the day an adult and juvenile porp 30 metres off Swansea Breakwater. 2 bass 5 Pollack and a pouting completed the tally. A gruelling 12 hour session in perfect weather!!
