ecotourism

We had some amazing sightings today. On the morning trip we started off with a male seal hauled out on the rocks, followed a short while later by a young female who had caught a massive conger eel! The poor eel was skinned and eaten alive, and it shows that even small, cute looking seals…

It was all about the sailing and the shearwaters today. The sun broke through the persistent cloud we have had for the last few days, and just the right amount of northeasterly breeze gave us unexpectedly perfect sailing conditions. Today had been going to be a day off before the busy half term starts, but…

It was a bit of a misty one this morning though the swell had dropped (slightly!). There were still so many seabirds out there – it’s an amazing sight watched them gliding and dipping over swells and into troughs with scarcely a flap. They were searching for food along big streams of foamy plankton which…

We had an Ocean Discovery trip this afternoon in improving conditions! It started off misty and murky and the swell and chop was coming from at least three different directions after the strong wind of the last couple of days. It didn’t stop the wildlife though. The seabirds were amazing with hundreds of shearwaters spotted,…

What a fantastic day we had today. There was still a hefty swell running, but otherwise conditions were good. This morning we found fifteen seals on the island; they were mainly adult females but there was two males and a couple of juveniles as well. We then headed south, finding bluefin tuna and, rather unusually,…

We had a lovely four hour trip this morning, with lots of common dolphin sightings who looked beautiful swimming through the still water with the clouds reflecting on the surface. There were some bluefin tuna feeding with them, though nothing too concentrated. We also had some awesome views of harbour porpoises swimming very close to…

We had a long day today with an Ocean Discovery trip followed by two Bay Discovery trips. This morning we had fantastic views (and smells!) of a minke whale as it surfaced repeatedly close to the boat, sharing with us all its unforgettable perfume of dead fish and rotting cabbage. They were the best views…

The heatwave didn’t show up in Mount’s Bay today but the wildlife certainly did. This morning we started with a small group of porpoises, then a much larger group feeding inshore under gannets. Heading further out we could see an absolute mess of seabirds on the far horizon, and as we approached saw the tell…

We had a four hour trip this morning in the early calm, which was very welcome after the strong breeze of yesterday. There were plenty of common dolphins and harbour porpoises about and the clear calm water allowed us some lovely clear views. Lots of shearwaters included a sooty among all the Manxes. On the…

It grew increasingly windy today, as forecast, so the second trip was shortened from three hours to two. This morning’s Ocean Discovery started calm enough, and there were a couple of really big feeding events spotted involving common dolphins, gannets, shearwaters and a few little storm petrels too. There was some big swell leftover from…