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Sightings Blog

boat trips

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…

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…

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 23rd September

We had an Ocean Discovery followed by a Bay Discovery trip today in an increasingly blustery southerly wind. This morning it started off fairly calm, and we had great views of a pair of porpoises as they swam past the boat. Later on we found various small groups of common dolphins scattered through the bay,…

Friday 15th September

We had a couple of extraordinary Ocean Discovery trips today in warm, sunny conditions. This morning we found so many common dolphins which were feeding, socialising and bowriding. They were even catching fish as they swam alongside the boat. In amongst them were some very large bluefin tuna, who were sending the gulls into a…

Thursday 14th September

It definitely feels autumnal out there now despite the still-balmy temperatures. We had a four hour followed by a two hour trip today in breezy grey conditions. This morning we found a large group of common dolphins not too far away, which were swimming and socialising amongst themselves. A few of them did come over…

Monday 11th September

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today on a quiet, grey day. On the morning trip we found common dolphins, had great views of harbour porpoises and saw some hunting bluefin tuna. There were also lots of grey seals hauled out on the island. This afternoon everything was rather sleepy – we saw a couple…

Saturday 9th September

It wasn’t possible for it to be any calmer today! There was not a breath of wind and the water was like silk. A perfect summer’s day, only in September. We had a four hour followed by a three hour trip, and spotted lots of common dolphins and harbour porpoises on both. This morning we…

Friday 8th September

There was a really thick mist first thing morning which thankfully lifted enough for us to start trips at 9am as planned. There was no wind but a long rolling swell which, with the lingering mist, made things feel like Monterey Bay! This impression was made even stronger by the large pod of common dolphins…