Wildlife Spectacle
On a Sea Trust “Cartlett Lady - Small Boat
Survey” in the waters around the Pembrokeshire Islands Sea Trust
volunteers were confronted by a wildlife spectacle that was truly
mind-blowing.
Sea Trust founder Cliff Benson, described the spectacle;
“We were heading in a big loop around the Islands, trying to
do our survey before the weather deteriorated as was the forecast.
As we were approaching the Smalls Lighthouse the sea was quite
choppy, the sky grey and overcast. Suddenly in the distance we saw
what appeared to be a blizzard. As we approached, we realised that
the “blizzard” was thousands of Gannets spreads out over a mile or
more. Beneath them was a living wall of Dolphins a mile long and
several deep. They just kept on coming pod after pod passing by the
Boat some came and looked at us but most just kept on going. The
gannets were like an artillery bombardment continually diving in
with an explosion of spray, just ahead of the line of dolphins.
This must have been a combination of many smaller pods joined
together to exploit a huge bait ball of fish We have all seen David
Attenborough’s ” Blue Planet ” footage of a superpod off the coast
of South Africa. I have studied it often but what struck me was
,that I could see only adults. This was different, it was possible
to see all ages of Dolphins from big adults to tiny
babies.
This is not the first time Pembrokeshire Sea Trust has witnessed
such a marine phenomena;
“Back in August 2005 we had another superpod which I filmed
and which was then shown around the world. I did not expect to see
such an awesome sight again in my life time, this was in wildlife
terms like winning the lottery a second time! This time the sea was
much rougher and I was being thrown all over the place as I tried
to film them, The bumps and bangs will take a bit of editing out
but I hope it will give people an impression of what wonders we
have in our Pembrokeshire waters.” Our photographers Rich Crossen
and Paul Leafe took some extraordinary photographs.
This is what Sea Trust is all about, local people keeping an
eye on and taking responsibility our own marine wildlife. This may
be a regular event like the one in South Africa. Unfortunately our
boat time is restricted as we have very little in the way of
funding and these surveys are largely paid for by donations from
people coming out with us. To really understand what is happening
out there we need support to continue long term monitoring. With a
new Marine bill on its way, how can anyone make the right decisions
without this kind of information?”
Sea Trust is a community volunteer organisation and a section of
the Wildlife Trust South and West Wales based in Pembrokeshire.