responsible wildlife watching

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today in great sailing conditions particularly this morning. There were lots of seals hauled out on the island on both trips, including adult males and females and juveniles. Sailing further south we were watching a kittiwake when up popped a group of three harbour porpoises who gave us some…

On our Ocean Discovery sea safari today we stopped at the island to observe the seals as the tide rose. There were several of them still hauled out – it’s always entertaining watching them try and retreat from the rising water before bowing to the inevitable and getting back in. Seals like to do this…

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…

Once again we saw hundreds of common dolphins throughout the day. We found harbour porpoises on both the morning and afternoon tours and saw sleepy grey seals in the morning. The bird life was once again spectacular as well as the usual suspects we also saw Cory’s, great and sooty shearwaters on both the morning…

It was a day of squalls and rainbows. Luckily the squally bits never lasted long, though we had some fairly sharp showers! This morning on the four hour trip we found harbour porpoises, lots of bowriding common dolphins, grey seals, bluefin tuna, and saw the blow of a large whale. This was too big for…

Well what unbelievably awful weather. Luckily for us and our fantastic, hardy guests today, the wildlife sightings were unbelievably awesome. Because of the rain, the four hour was shortened to a three hour trip, though sea conditions weren’t too bad. Right from the outset there were common dolphins everywhere! In fact it’s the most we…

After the strong wind of yesterday we had a lumpy sea so we shortened the four hour to a three hour. We had great sightings nonetheless with lots of common dolphins groups spotted, both on the move and feeding. We also had great views of some sleeping Risso’s dolphins – we sat very still and…

It was another day of great sightings. We had two 3 hour Ocean Discovery trips – it’s starting to get really busy now the holidays are here. This morning we encountered loads of common dolphins, Risso’s dolphins further offshore and another minke whale (no photo this time as it only surfaced once). We also saw…

We had a four hour trip this morning followed by a two hour Bay Discovery. The four hour  Discovery Voyage was in the best sea conditions we have had for a four hour in a while and the guests had fantastic sightings! We saw Risso’s dolphins along with some tiny new calves, common dolphins also…