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Sightings Blog

The seals of St Clement’s Island

If you have been on our trips and follow this page, you’ll know that we spend a lot of time collecting records and photos of the seals we find hauled out. Photos are then prepared and submitted to the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust, and volunteers spend a long time finding matches with seals seen…

Important Marine Mammal Areas

  Recently, I posted about Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMA), but I took it down temporarily because a significant press release needed to precede it to avoid dilution of the information through social media posts. I’m creating this second post to provide more information. IMMAs are officially defined as discrete portions of habitat crucial for…

Sightings summary for 2023

I have been looking back over 2023 and made some images to represent our sightings of different species. We recorded cetaceans on 81% of our trips last year, which is an amazing sightings rate. 10252 dolphins, porpoises and whales! We also saw grey seals on most trips, bluefin tuna and ocean sunfish. Each image has…

Saturday 25th November

A chilly grey day today, and conditions weren’t nearly as still and glassy as we were promised! However we had a lovely end of season trip with some fun friendly people on board – thanks for coming guys! Even though it was high tide we saw some seals hauled out on rocks on the island…

Wednesday 22nd November

An unexpected trip at the end of the season, a whole four weeks after our last one during half term! A weather and swell window over the next few days allowed us to  head out with seven passengers to see what we have been missing over the last month. As ever  when you have been…

Wednesday 25th October

After today half term is going to get  pretty windy, so we were pleased to have two trips today. This morning’s Ocean Discovery passengers saw large groups of harbour porpoises feeding with gannets – they were even leaping and breaching like dolphins as they charged around after fish. We also had lovely views of seals…

Tuesday 24th October

It was very choppy today after the windy weather yesterday and overnight, so trips were just two hours long. This morning spotting conditions were very tricky – we saw bluefin tuna, seals in the water and some brief porpoises. We also had great views of a Portuguese Man of War. Seabird sightings included razorbills, guillemots,…

Sunday 22nd October

We had two great trips today, a Bay Discovery in the morning and a last minute Ocean Discovery in the afternoon. During the morning the inner part of the bay was alive with hunting porpoises and gannets tracking them, firing into the water like arrows. There were also bluefin tuna down there in the action,…

Friday 20th October

There was a lull in the weather today and we headed out for a three hour trip with ten passengers on board. When advertising places I said species we’d be looking for included common dolphins, porpoises, bluefin tuna and grey seals – glad to say we saw all of the above! In fact the common…

Saturday 14th October

We had a three hour followed  by a two hour trip today in windy, quite tricky conditions. The sun was out though and we had some exciting sailing. This morning we saw several seals hauled out on the rocks as well as one in the water. Sailing offshore there were feeding gannets everywhere – the…

Thursday 12th October

We had a four hour trip today in similar conditions to yesterday though less wind so the sea was a bit smoother. It was a typically productive October trip with lots to see. We motored along the coast until Porthcurno then sailed out to the Epson Shoal as the wind direction was just right. We…

Wednesday 11th October

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today in gloomy choppy conditions. The wildlife was great though, with the amazing seabird sightings continuing. There are so many great and Cory’s shearwaters out there, with even a few Manxies remaining. This afternoon we saw two Cory’s squabbling over a fish in a very gull like fashion. There…