With us coming toward the end of the season I was possibly expecting there to be less to see during my last week on board with Ivo, but no, the Bay of Biscay was as active as ever. I have seen many wonderful sightings on each of my weeks aboard and this was no exception.

On Saturday as we traveled to Bilbao our day started off with seeing small groups of Fin Whales as well as Common Dolphins. But the highlight of the day was seeing two Cuvier’s Beaked Whales breaching fully out the water and sighting a very distant Sperm Whale blow.

On Tuesday as we sailed out of Bilbao we spotted more Cuvier’s Beaked Whales, a small group of pilot whales and I was treated to my best ever sighting of a Fin Whale. This 20m plus behemoth of a whale surfaced only around 50m from the ship which combined with the good light quality allowed me to get a really good look at the entire animal.

Fin Whale taken by Elfyn Pugh

When Thursday came around and my last day of whale watching in the Bay of Biscay I found myself a little melancholy. This lasted about five minutes until the first Fin Whales were spotted other treats of the day included a large pod of around 70 striped dolphins and a small pod of Pilot Whales.

Well before I sign off for the last time I’ll just take the time to say a couple of things. Firstly that I’m very jealous of Mike and Ivo’s fantastic sighting of a Leatherback Turtle earlier this week and wish I could have been there to see it. Secondly a very big thank you to all of the crew of the Cap Finistere for making us all very welcome and also to the thousands of passengers who have attended our on board lectures and got up on deck to spot some whales and dolphins, you make our work at ORCA possible. 

Nathan

I know that Nathan’s currently writing the blog for last week but I’d quickly like to let you guys know what we saw today. So things might be a bit out of order.

Anyway, it’s the last week that ORCA Whale & Dolphin Officers are onboard the Cap Finistere. I’ve just come back in from an interesting deck watch as we approached Bilbao. Ivo and myself have seen several fin whales, pods of dolphins, flying fish, tuna and sharks. However, the most exciting sighting of the day was a huge leatherback turtle that I saw swimming gracefully alongside the ship.

Leatherback turtles are one of the seven species of sea turtles found globally none is more unique and recognisable. Unlike all other turtles the leatherback has a distinctive torso with an atypical shell. Instead of the typical solid shell leatherback turtles have black scale-less leathery skin forming a single piece shell with pronounced longitudinal ridges which taper into a blunt spike.

They are often believed to be small upturned boats when observed from vessels and the coastline however their head often protrudes above the surface aiding the identification of the animal.

Of all the world’s turtles the leatherback is the largest and may grow up to 2.90m. in length and weigh up to 920kg. The largest ever recorded leatherback turtle washed up dead in west Wales in 1988 and is on now display at the National Museum Cardiff.

The animals have regularly been recorded from the sub-arctic to the tropics. Leatherback turtles are the most frequently recorded species in Britain and Ireland where they are believed to be near the edge of their range. Most British and Irish sightings occur in the warmer summer months when the creatures feed off jellyfish blooms. This prey can be hunted from depths as low as one kilometre. This species is found farther north than any other reptile, marine or terrestrial.

There are believed to be at least two leatherback turtle sub-populations; one in the Atlantic Ocean and another in the Pacific. A has been suggested that a third sub-population may exist in the Indian Ocean. Each sub-population breeds on different nesting beaches. Nesting beaches for the Atlantic sub-population are found on central Africa, Caribbean islands and northern South America whereas Pacific Ocean leatherback turtles nest on western South America, Mexico and Costa Rica. It is believed that Indian Ocean leatherback turtles nest in Malaysia. Nesting occurs from February to August, depending on the location, and the eggs usually hatch after 20 to 25 days. Each nest contains about 110 eggs. Leatherback turtles are known to travel vast distances from nesting areas onshore to foraging areas which are often in the open ocean.

According to International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) the leatherback turtle is critically endangered. Many dead leatherback turtles have plastic bags blocking their gut leading the animal to starve. It is believed that these plastic bags are mistaken for jellyfish. The creatures are also vulnerable to getting caught in fishing gear preventing the animals from surfacing to breath.

Four other species of turtles have been spotted around the UK and Ireland. These are the green, hawksbill, loggerhead and Kemp’s Ridley turtles. Keep your eyes open!

Keep checking this website for our final blogs of the season!

Mike

ORCA Whale & Dolphin Officer

Cap Finistere

It’s been a relatively quiet week for sightings in the Bay of Biscay this week as weather conditions have started to improve.

On Saturday Nathan and I went up on deck to search for marine life throughout the afternoon on the way to Bilbao. Nathan took the starboard side while I chose to observe from the port. This proved to be a bad choice for me. By mid-afternoon the closest I had got to wildlife was two friendly dogs which were being walked be their owner. After this I saw my first cetacean, sort of; a dolphin shaped balloon. Ironic for two reasons: firstly it wasn’t real and secondly that litter such as balloons, plastic bags, bottles etc are potential threats to cetaceans and other marine life that may confuse these items for food. In fact a point that we emphasise during our presentations on board are the impacts of litter. For example, despite their massive size, over 30m in length and 300 tonnes in weight, blue whales actually have tiny throats about the width of a grapefruit. It doesn’t take much intelligence to figure out that they huge giants are vulnerable to eating litter and it clogging up their throats preventing them from feeding. This is known to be a problem for whales, dolphins, turtles and various seabirds – worth thinking about.

Anyway I digress, I did eventually see a cetaceans. A few common dolphins appeared and a Cuvier’s beaked whale. As the sun was disappearing over the other side of the ship I went and joined Nathan and soaked up the remaining solar heat. Annoyingly, for me, Nathan’s day had been far more eventful with sightings of several beaked whales, large pods of dolphins and sunfish.

On Monday and Tuesday we had our staple diet of common dolphins and fin whales. By Wednesday the seas were relatively calm as we left Portsmouth with naval helicopters using the ship to practice locking on targets. That evening we saw no cetaceans but were joined by several gannets gliding along the ship.

Despite being up at sunrise on Thursday we saw no cetaceans at all. This made the journey one of the very few blanks I had experienced. After an eventful time in Santander we re-embarked and headed towards Portsmouth. The evening was much better and we spotted 2 pods of fin whales some of which were travelling very close to the ship on their way to equatorial waters
At the end of the month all ORCA Whale & Dolphin Officers will leave the Cap Finistere until next year. Nathan remains on-board with Ivo next week and they’ll keep you in the know about what’s going on in the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay.

Mike & Nathan
ORCA Whale & Dolphin Wildlife Officers
Cap Finistere

 Since last Friday life onboard the Cap Finistere has been dominated by the state of the seas. As many of you may be aware high winds have created rather rough seas particularly in the second half of the week. Despite force 9 gales Nathan and I were luckily enough to get some fantastic sightings of whales, dolphins, sharks and fish.

 Nathan joined me onboard on Friday and we travelled down to Bilbao. Saturday morning was calm with the sun shining though the thin fog with a mystical atmosphere. The tranquillity first was broken by waves of common dolphins and then by fin whale blows were shooting into the sky.

On Monday morning we stopped in Roscoff again on our way to Bilbao. As we left we saw harbour porpoises around the coast of Brittany and plenty of common dolphins as we travelled through the North of the Bay of Biscay. After watching a peaceful sunset we reached the Basque capital the following morning and then headed back to Portsmouth in some of the roughest seas I we have experience. As we left Bilbao we saw a sperm whale fin-slapping the surface creating huge splashes. After seeing this mighty beast we spent the afternoon spotting fin whale blows; until the sea erupted with thick white foam and the ship swayed crashing into the ocean surface. Despite these gale force conditions common dolphins still seemed intrigued by the ship and appeared alongside us exploding out of the huge rolling waves.

By Thursday the seas were once again relatively calm. In the morning we headed into Santander and as the sun rose from the horizon we saw fin blows in the distance. As the morning continued we were luckily enough to see more common dolphins, three Cuvier’s beaked whales and a pod of pilot whales. We also caught glimpses of several sharks and a flying fish near the ship’s hull. Despite leaving Santander a little later than usual due to a medical emergency we still managed to see a couple of pods of common dolphins, one of which was over a hundred individuals, and a beaked whale before the thick clouds surrounded the Cap Finistere and we slipped into the darkness of night.

Please check out ORCA’s website and note that in November we will be having ORCA’s Big Whale day as part of the Whalefest festival event in Brighton on the 6th of November. Check the website for details!

Mike and Nathan

Whale & Dolphin Officers

Cap Finistere

It’s been a good week out in the Bay of Biscay on the Cap Finistère. The Fin Whales are still being spotted migrating south to warm equatorial waters and the dolphins continue to play in the ocean. As well as these cetaceans Ivo and myself have seen sharks, sunfish and had a couple more encounters with seabirds.

I returned to the ship last Friday to join Ivo. The weather in Portsmouth was overcast and the seas didn’t seem too inviting. However, on Sunday we awoke to fantastically clear skies and superb whale watching conditions. Throughout the journey south, Common Dolphins appeared alongside the ship, intrigued by its glistening hull, a small insight into the week ahead.

The best day of the week was definitely Monday. We left the French port of Roscoff, after the weekly change of crew, heading for Bilbao the next morning.  Just after midday Common Dolphins started dancing around the ship joined by the odd larger Bottlenose Dolphin. Wave after water of dolphins cascaded towards us for the next few hours with a few Harbour Porpoises near the French coast as well. Although frequently confused with small dolphins, such as Common and Striped Dolphins, porpoises are relatively easy to tell apart. The main indicators are the behaviour of these animals and the shape of their dorsal fins on their backs. Porpoises appear to be quite gentle cetaceans and calmly swim though the seas rarely splashing whereas the smaller dolphins are much more active, frequently jumping clear of the water and kicking up lots of spray.

The presence of dolphins slowly declined throughout the rest of the day. About an hour before sunset the first Fin Whales started to blow in the distance in pods of up to about eight animals. By sunset Ivo and myself had seen over thirty Fin Whales with the majestic pink sky behind – a magnificent sight.

The following day we continued to spot various dolphins and Fin Whales in the flat seas as well as a few large fishes including various sharks and ocean sunfish, the world’s largest bony fish. Thursday was slightly quieter but we still saw plenty of marine life around Santander including Fin Whales, Common Dolphins and also the first sighting of Striped Dolphins that week.

Striped Dolphin taken by Elfyn Pugh

Ivo has now returned to the UK so it’s me and Nathan onboard for the next two weeks. We’ll keep you all informed of what we get up to!

Mike Williams

Whale & Dolphin Officer

Hello from Cap Finistere!

  I am back on board for my second full Wildlife Officer shift. I had an amazing start with a great sighting of a Fin Whale on Thursday morning shortly after sunrise and the day was looking really good with some perfect conditions for Whale watching. Thursday was full of sightings. I saw a few sharks for the first time and also some very fast moving large ‘blackfish’ possibly False Killer Whales judging mainly by their size and behaviour:  they were large black delphinids about 5-6m long,  swimming quite aggressively and even a bit chaotically which made it very difficult to predict where they were going to surface.  During the whole day we were periodically followed by pods of Common and Striped Dolphins. The day ended with a thrilling encounter with some peculiar looking dolphins. Those had darker upper body and brighter bellies divided by a thick black stripe starting from their beaks entirely covering the eyes and extending all the way to their keel.

On Friday I met Elfyn who has been helping me here on Cap Finistere while Mike is having a well-deserved week off.  The next day was looking excellent and we had many encounters with Fin Whales, Striped Dolphins and Common Dolphins. Elfyn took some breath-taking shots which were uploaded on our Facebook page for you to enjoy them (http://www.facebook.com/pages/ORCA/190122761022671) . I have included a shot of a Common Dolphin here.

Common Dolphin - taken by Elfyn Pugh

Elfyn`s account

On Sunday morning I went out on deck at sunrise as I had seen dolphins through the porthole of our cabin. There was already a passenger on deck to greet me. At this time we were on the return voyage to Portsmouth and we were basically off the Channel Islands. Our early morning efforts proved worthwhile as we had lots of Common Dolphins approach the ship and later we became even more excited as a large pod of about 30-40 Bottlenose Dolphins made their way towards the bow of the ship but couldn’t get there quick enough so they satisfied themselves by putting on a show in the wake astern of the ship. There was lots of breaching going on and we saw at least one Bottlenose Dolphin with a well grown calf. There were some good seabirds in this area too with scores of European storm petrels and the bird highlight of the day for me was seeing a sooty shearwater in the channel approaches.

Monday was an interesting day with constantly changing weather but that didn’t stop the countless Common Dolphins to keep us entertained for the whole day.

On Tuesday we were still having calm sea and superb visibility and we encountered about 15 to 20 baleen whales and also a large pod of Long Fin Pilot Whales.

Following our wildlife presentation today we were about to go out on our deck-watch when there was a knock on our cabin door. It seems that the bridge crew had received information that a large seabird had been found injured on deck 10 by a passenger. We were asked to see if we could help it in any way so we made our way down to the car deck to where the bird had been taken when we saw the bird it turned out to be a Cory’s Shearwater – a rather elegant bird closely related to the Albatross. We carefully checked it out and we thought it may have sustained an injury to the carpel joint on its right wing so we decided to place it in a cardboard box and keep it somewhere quiet on the car deck until we reached Portsmouth the next morning.

In Portsmouth, we took the bird to a local veterinary practice to check it out. The vet looked over the bird and could see no injury in the wings or legs and said it had probably just suffered a bit of a shock, but looked OK now. We have taken it back with us today and will release in out at sea. We will keep our readers informed of how the release goes.

It’s been a while since our last blog so I thought I’d get everyone up to date with the sightings and news from the Bay of Biscay onboard the Cap Finistere.

Last time I wrote this blog Ivo and myself had a great few days watching Fin Whales including individuals that got very close to the ship. After this trip we both headed down to Santander. On the following morning, Thursday the 28^thof July, we had another fantastic day. We had many sighting of pods of dolphins feeding in the distances with tuna leaping clear of the smooth surface waters. The journey out of Santander was also packed full of sightings. Tuna were still jumping around wildly as we left the Spanish coast although the dolphins seemed to have moved away. A couple of hours from Santander we started to see the blows of Fin Whales erupting high out of the water. As we continued north we saw more and more of these blows as well as the wonderful animals beneath. Some appeared on their own and others in small but condensed pods. Trying to keep up to date with the sightings became difficult as Fin Whales seemed to surround the ship throughout the afternoon. We were still sighting the animals, accompanied by by the odd dolphin, as the sun went down. In total we saw at least twenty five of these magnificent giants.

Fin Whale. Photo taken by Richard Bull

I left the ship in Portsmouth the following day, leaving Ivo to continue throughout the weekend. He had a great couple of days seeing more Fin Whales and pods of Common Dolphin.

I returned to the ship earlier this week and I’ve had some excellent sightings. Despite fairly choppy conditions, Common and Striped Dolphins have been spotted diving under the ship and playing in its wake. Today has been wonderful. I left Bilbao early this morning and was greeted by a beaked whale gently swimming behind the ship. Unfortunately this animal was in the distance so identifying the species was not possible. Later in the day I caught a quick glimpse of a grey-brown speckled shark near the calm surface. Sadly I’m not a shark expert but I believe this was either a starry smoothhound or Atlantic sharpnose shark. Many different species of sharks are found in European waters but these two seem to share the markings of the individual that I saw as well as being a similar size. After this several Fin Whales were spotted in the distance. Many interested passengers have informed me that they have seen many of these whales today from various locations of the ship. Now as the sun goes down Common Dolphins keep flirting with the ship playfully jumping along her side. A great sight with the sun setting behind them.

Hope you’re all enjoying the blogs. I’ll make sure to write another soon. Until then please check out ORCA’s website and see how you can spot and help protect whales and dolphins at www.orcaweb.org.uk.

Have fun and keep whale watching.

Mike

Whale and Dolphin Officer

Cap Finistere

It has been an interesting fortnight on the Cap Finistere with some wild weather and great whale and dolphin sightings. I started with a trip to Bilbao which was relatively quiet but I did get a great sighting of a mother Cuvier’s beaked whale and her calf near the Spanish coast. The white head of the mother clearly breached several times before the animals drifted away. Then came the rough seas. I experienced my roughest night at sea which actually wasn’t too bad. The main problems were the lack of sleep due to boxes and shoes flying across the floor and finding that my bathroom cabinet had flung open throwing my stuff into the toilet (luckily my toothbrush survived!).

Map of all pods sighted from Friday the 15^th of July to Wednesday the 27^th of July. CB – Cuvier’s beaked whale, CD – common dolphin, FW – fin whale, LS – pilot whale SD – striped dolphin, UD – unidentified dolphin and W? – whale blow (probably fin whale).

 Ivo joined me when I arrived back at Portsmouth last Sunday. The seas continued to be less than ideal limiting whale and dolphins sightings and the ship was often surrounded by a thick covering of smoke-grey fog. In fact we saw nothing until Thursday morning when our luck changed we saw a baleen whale; a first for Ivo.

Ivo – “This amazing giant creature came within meters of the ship and we were almost looking straight down on the fin whale. This was an absolutely breath taking scene and in fact the largest living animal that I have ever seen and also the only animal we saw for the whole day.  On the following days we saw the blows of more distant fin whales and we were greeted by dozens of common and striped dolphins swimming along the ship’s white hull.  The weather hasn’t been making our job easy with the fog that was narrowing down visibility to only few meters. During that  week in the few occasions when we got few several hours free from the fog we have been rewarded with large mixed pods of common and striped dolphins dancing off the sides of the ship and the odd pilot whale.”

We are currently heading into the Bay of Biscay bound for Santander and will keep you all posted of any sightings. When we return Ivo will have a return trip to Spain and Nathan will take over for a week before I rejoin him.

Remember to check the twitter and facebook pages for more information and sightings from our teams in the Bay of Biscay and the North Sea.

Mike & Ivo

Whale and Dolphin Officers

Cap Finistere

I have returned to the shores of England and Mike assures me it has been sunny and bright, of course it has now changed to a more traditional British welcome overcast, rainy and a bit grim. I have, however, memories of some great sightings from the second week of my shift on the Cap Finistere.

During the first two trips of the week to Bilbao sightings were mainly limited to pods of Common and Striped Dolphins. Although, whilst giving a presentation on the whales and dolphins of the Bay of Biscay to the passengers we had a small pod of Pilot Whales appear out of the back window accompanied by 3-4 striped dolphins. Very appropriately timed!

My last trip of this shift, to Santander, proved to be even more eventful. The conditions which had been good through most of the week calmed even further and as we were passing through the English Channel we managed to spot 3 Harbour Porpoises.  The next morning the passengers of Cap Finistere and I had 2 fleeting glimpses of small pods of common dolphins as well as a solitary Beaked Whale, however we did see 8 sharks around 1-2 hours out of port. These 1½ – 2 metre long fish were cruising along just along side the ship. On our journey out of Spain we saw 3-4 Bottlenose Dolphins and a pod of around 40 Striped Dolphins. The real highlight of the day came right at the end with a full moon bursting over distant storm clouds it was just light enough to spot a group of about 80 small dolphins alongside the ship. A poetic final treat for the most dedicated passengers and I.

Once again I now hand over to Mike who will soon be joined by Ivo. I wish them luck with their sightings

Nathan

Once again I find myself out at sea searching for whale and dolphin species and sharing the experience of seeing them with the passengers and crew of the Cap Finistere. This week we have yet again had a variety of conditions ranging from some of the flattest seas I have crossed to some of the choppiest. Despite this we have managed to get some great sightings of cetaceans.

The first voyage of the week proved to be surprisingly quiet and despite good conditions very little was spotted except a few more sun fish, which Mike had been spotting the previous week. So as I departed Portsmouth for the second time this week I was hoping for a distinctly more eventful trip and what a trip it turned out to be! On Monday evening as we travelled south we were treated to a great sighting of a group of Pilot Whales relaxing at the surface and on the return journey we saw another group of Pilot Whales as well as no fewer than 300 dolphins most of which were Common Dolphins although there were occasional Striped Dolphins too!

After such good conditions at the start of the week it was no real surprise when things got a little bit choppy on Wednesday evening. With most of the passengers unsurprisingly absent and myself barely able to keep my footing as I went up on a deck watch I didn’t expect to see a lot and sure enough many hours went passed before just as the light was failing a small pod of 12 Common Dolphins turned up to make it all worth while. Thursday turned out to be slightly calmer but not by much. So whilst the few brave passengers and I stared out at what seemed to be a relentless mass of white cresting waves I was absolutely surprised when one particular bit of white water erupted into a very distinctive shape, the powerful angled blow of a Sperm Whale. Sure enough as we tracked its position as we passed it blew 3 more times before passing out of sight!

So the important lesson I learned this week, even when conditions aren’t great with a little dedication, patience and a lot of luck you can still see some amazing animals!

So back on deck I go, hopeful, as always.

Nathan