Tuesday 13th August
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 tale splashes of bluefin tuna under them. Edging closer, the sea erupted in the biggest, most prolonged bust up we have seen so far this season – it was like a tsunami of tuna everywhere we looked! There were so many species of seabirds with them; herring gulls, lesser black backed gulls, greater black backed gulls, kittiwakes, common terns, great skua, Manx shearwaters, Cory’s shearwater, a large flock of Great shearwaters, Sooty shearwaters, fulmars and of course the gannets – the noise was absolutely cacophonous. I’m puzzled by this but I’m certain I heard a curlew out there too. A little further away, some common dolphins joined in, which caused even more excitement for those on board. And coming back into the bay we saw some grey seals and sandwich terns.
This afternoon, the sightings continued. As we left the harbour, we saw an ocean sunfish breach not once but six times in a row, which we managed to snap! A few more grey seals had hauled out on the island and further out we found some more harbour porpoises and common dolphins. And then far in the distance an enormous fin whale showed up! These “greyhounds of the sea” despite being the second longest animal on earth, can be surprisingly hard to track if they are any distance away, but at least we saw it!