Monday 25 June 2012

20TH JUNE, 2012

8-10 Bottlenose Dolphin off West Bay. 8.30am, 600m offshore by Dave Sales

13TH MAY, 2012

Minke Whale 22nm south east of Seaton. Sighting by John Wallington

Saturday 23 June 2012

MASS MIGRATION OF BALEARIC SHEARWATERS INTO THE CHANNEL

Laurent Thebault and French colleagues have noted a large arrival of globally endangered Balearic Shearwaters in recent days into NW European waters.

On 15th June 650 were counted in the Bay of St Brieuc off the north coast of Brittany.

On the 20th June, more than 3000 were counted off the Brittany coastline including 1000 off Finistere, north west Brittany and 2100 in the Bay of Mont St Michel, located at the base of the Cherbourg Peninsula.

The counts show that a high proportion of the world's population of this globally endangered seabird are now present in Channel waters - a pattern of northward spread to moult and feed which has been increasingly apparent in recent years. This trend has been linked to climate change and changes in the distribution of key prey sources such as Anchovy and other shoaling pelagic fish.

As yet few have been recorded in British waters (Russel Wynn pers. comm.), though a large arrival is possible over the next fortnight.

MARINElife has an ongoing project to monitor this seabird so that measures can be put in place to safeguard their future.

Thursday 21 June 2012

18TH JUNE, 2012

14 Balearic Shearwater off of Ile d’Ouessant.
By Peter Howlett and James McCarthy on the MARINElife Brittany Ferries ‘Cotentin’ Poole‐Santander monthly survey.

17TH JUNE, 2012

A sub-adult Black-browed Albatross was sighted 30 miles south west of Portland by Josh Simmonds of 'Fish On' out of Weymouth.


www.charterboats-uk.co.uk/fishon/

The species is a resident of the southern hemisphere and is a rare, but occasional visitor to UK waters. There have only been 22 accepted records in Britain and Ireland between 1950 - 2007.

This particular bird spent 1.5 hours around the fishing boat 'Fish On' and can be seen amongst the Fulmars in one of these images.

Please let us know if you see it again.


16TH JUNE, 2012

3 Balearic Shearwater off of Ile d’Ouessant.
By Peter Howlett and James McCarthy on the MARINElife Brittany Ferries ‘Cotentin’ Poole‐Santander monthly survey.

Tuesday 12 June 2012

9TH JUNE, 2012

8-10 Bottlenose Dolphin heading east 500-600m offshore at 11.15 being followed by a yacht. No evidence of disturbance by the boat.

8TH JUNE, 2012

around 5 Bottlenose Dolphin approximately 300m offshore heading slowly southwest at approximately 08.45
Reported by Philips Chambers, Dawlish Warren National Nature Reserve, South Devon