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Sightings Blog

Dolphins

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…

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,…

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…

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…

Tuesday 3rd October

Instead of fog today we had wind – lots of wind! However in the bright blustery conditions, conditions were ok to run a two hour trip and we had an exciting sail (and rather a lot of splash). It was worth it though, because a long way out we spotted some feeding gannets which showed…

Monday 2nd October

Today wasn’t very successful. Murk and low cloud gave way to rain and much thicker fog than was forecast, which was a pity because for the first time in ages the sea was calm. Before we aborted our four hour trip was were visited by a couple of common dolphins who swam past us repeatedly…

Friday 29th September

After some very strong wind this week we were back out with two Ocean Discovery trips today. There was still a hefty swell running which looked spectacular against the coast. This morning we found small pods of common dolphins in several places as well as harbour porpoises and lots of seals. There were lots of…

Monday 25th September

We had two three hour trips today after the very strong wind of yesterday. The first of these was with a group of students from Newquay College, who were fortunately up for a bit of excitement in the big leftover swell. We found several groups of common dolphins who appeared to bowride the boat before…

Friday 22nd September

Just the one trip today in a strong northwesterly wind. Conditions were pretty challenging, but we found several groups of porpoises and dolphins. A couple of porpoises were towards the Mount under a single circling gannet, then we found various small groups of dolphins as we sailed southwards. Further west in some strong wind and…

Thursday 21st September

We were back on the water today after a very windy and wet few days. There was still a big chunky swell running, but conditions were ok to do two Ocean Discovery trips. The windy interlude did not affect wildlife sightings – there were plenty of common dolphins to be found, and we had great…