It used to be the case that a ferry trip was relaxing because there was not much to do except eat, drink, sleep and read a book. These days, we know that there is wildlife out there to be seen and missed which changes the game completely.
The first person I came across as I boarded the ferry in Portsmouth was Andy Gilbert of Orca who said he’d be starting to look for cetaceans at 6am the next morning. There went my lie in!
I joined Andy at around 06:35 and stayed watching until around 09:00. I wouldn’t normally count Osprey as a seabird but there was one far out at sea, heading north, somewhere in the Bay of Biscay, and that was the best bird of the watch.
Through the day a band of us kept our watch and saw a few Common Dolphins (which aren’t a common sight in Northants so I was very pleased to see them) and a smattering of Gannets, Bonxies, Fulmar and Manx Shearwaters. The dolphins we saw delighted all who saw them from kids to grandads and from those who had spent hours looking to those who happened to be passing by as we pointed them out. You can’t beat a good dolphin – and anyway, you shouldn’t as they are protected.
It wasn’t a mind-numbingly good crossing for cetaceans but whale watching is like many other forms of nature watching – you put in the hours and eventually reap the rewards. Anyway, it was fun. I’m looking forward to the return crossing next week.
And our data will go into the Orca database and form a useful part of the picture. This report, The State of European Cetaceans, shows what can be achieved by proper collection and collation of ferry-based observations.
So when I re-cross the Bay of Biscay next week I’ll be hoping for Basking Sharks, Fin Whales, Cuvier’s Beaked Whales and more. We’ll see.
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Coming up to my 6th trip/year with them.
So here we are before 7 and some body has disliked this, why. What is not to like about whale watching from a ferry better for you than the bar or are you just one of those numbwits with animal effluent for a brain that doesn’t agree with the position of this blog on various aspects of game shooting. Whatever you are pathetic.
If Mark wrote a column on mother love and apple pie you can be sure that someone from the huntin’ and fishin’ community would dislike it before the day was out.
I’ve just left a (somewhat rambling no doubt) comment on RPUK in which I mentioned that a member of the huntin, fishin, shootin set had typed a list on a fb page of species that need to be ‘controlled’ to help salmon. Along with the usual scapegoats mergansers, goosanders, cormorants, mink, seals and otters there was…dolphin! I’m only surprised that after so many years of film showing the world’s most northerly population of bottle nose dolphins in the Moray Firth catching salmon that this was the first time I’ve heard/seen a public utterance about ‘controlling’ them. Salmon must still exist in the tens of thousand in the UK, female fish can squeeze out thousands of eggs at one spawning, but ever single animal that might eat one is a dangerous threat to them. Conversely reduced water quality from muirburn and loss of cover and feeding sites by anglers among others cutting down bankside vegetation, pulling out deadwood snags and ripping out weedbeds is absolutely nothing to do with lower salmon numbers, of course not! Might be the voice of lone idiocy, but I wouldn’t bet on it, we know what they are like.
Yes, it is very clear that the biggest threat by far to salmon and other migratory fish (well, all fish really and, come to that, all wildlife whether aquatic or terrestrial…) is Homo sapiens.
the greatest competitor and predator of young salmon are wait for it—– Brown Trout. Yet I have never ever heard one of these anti predator tossers mention it strange that.
Apparently at one time brown trout were actually netted out to help the salmon! Then there’s been killing of dippers and kingfishers in the same belief. I remember reading an article praising a ghillie, pretty sure it’s the Feb 1984 issue of Trout and Salmon magazine, where an example of his dedication was the fact he had ‘cut down every single tree on both banks of a six mile stretch of river’. Truly ecologically savvy and genuine conservationist anglers are as rare as hen’s teeth. John Wilson, at one time the country’s favourite fisherman certainly isn’t one – he is now referring to the otter as a ‘rat’. Yeah back to the dark ages.
We take the ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuiden and back once or twice a year and always spend the daylight parts of the trip out on deck with binoculars looking for wildlife. I don’t recall seeing anything quite so unexpected as an osprey during the crossing but there is invariably something of interest to see even if only the usual suspect sea-birds. There is also a fine Lesser black-backed gull colony at the entrance to the river at Ijmuiden and the ferry provides a great platform to view it from. Orca also survey on that route and passengers are encouraged to join them on the observation deck for a chance to see white-beaked dolphins, harbour porpoises and minke whales and to learn something about them. It can get damned cold but definitely recommended!
Interesting blog Mark. I rarely travel by ferry, but on the occasions I do, it hadn’t occurred to me that whale watching was a viable exercise, you do learn something every day.
I’m slightly dismayed by some of the divisive comments about angling though, and the sweeping generalisations about the ‘huntin and fishin community’. An idiot posts some nonsensical guff on their FB page and the knives suddenly come out for angling. I’ve never heard anyone credible from the ‘fishin community’ (whatever that is) blame predation for the decline in salmon stocks, yes I’m sure the odd halfwit blames predation but they will be very much in the minority. These people are no more representative of game angling as Song Bird Survival is of nature conservation.
I get the feeling it suits many of you to tar all anglers with the same brush and lump us in with shooting industry, but for those of you that are a little more fair minded please have a look at the websites of organisations such as the ‘Atlantic Salmon Trust’, ‘Salmon and Trout Conservation UK’ and the ‘Wye and Usk Foundation’ to learn more about some of the excellent habitat management work and research that is being done.
Joe W look at the Predation Action Group facebook page. If you are worried about anglers getting a bad name blame them and if they are a minority viewpoint where are the majority speaking out against them? John Wilson (the country’s most prominent angler by a considerable margin) has on several occasions now described otters as ‘rats’ and is a (the) leading light of the PAG. Hugh Miles, BBC wildlife cameraman is also a member and in one of his videos tried to hype up the supposed invasive nature of the freshwater cormorant by referring to it as Carbo sinensis (Chinese cormorant). It’s actually Carbo phalacrocorax sinensis, if that. If I have negative things to say about too many in the angling community it’s because I’m an ex angler and re the organisations you mention I contacted most of them as soon as I could about the potential implications of Leeds University’s EMBER report re muirburn’s effect on water quality – the quality and quantity of responses was very poor. An awkward issue being swept under the carpet – let’s just blame predators shall we? Oh and there wasn’t anybody on the relevant facebook page commenting on the idiocy of ‘controlling’ dolphins, no angler disagreed or shot it down. Sorry Joe I’m not getting the hankie out for ‘poor’ anglers, the good ones need to get their finger out post haste!
I’m well aware of the Predation Action Group and have been since it’s inception in 2010. I’m also well aware of, and delighted by, the fact that the PAG has rather floundered and has very few members. Most of its prominent supporters jumped ship several years ago, and I’m surprised you cite John Wilson as a ‘leading light’ as he resigned from the PAG over three years ago just before he emigrated to Thailand. He keeps a low profile these days, largely due to health issues so I’m told.
I’m fairly sure the scientific advisory committees of the organisations I mentioned will have been well aware of the EMBER report, I’m not sure it’s fair to assume that a lack of reply to your missive means they are sweeping an important issue under the carpet, it’s an important issue, but probably comes a way down the pecking order in terms of the immediate threats being posed to wild game fish stocks. They do have a lot on their plate. I’d be grateful if you can signpost me to any literature produced by the Salmon and Trout Association, Atlantic Salmon Trust or Wye and Usk Foundation which blames predation for the decline in salmon or trout stocks? And do you really think there is any point in anyone engaging with someone so dimwitted that they believe dolphins are responsible for the decline in Salmon?
Although its not about salmon or trout stocks, the following piece produced by the Angling Trust be of interest to you:
https://fightingforfishing.anglingtrust.net/2017/03/26/barbel-and-otters-some-inconvenient-truths/
Thank you for the link to the excellent article by Martin Salter I actually read it some time ago via the the rivers and canals angling trust and was about to copy link here! A very rare sane article on predation at long last. I’m glad you think the PAG is foundering, I would hope that it is, but also the process should be helped along as they spout nothing but embarrassingly bad unecological nonsense. If lunacy like this is not countered publicly people will start thinking it’s true. I just looked at the PAG fb page and it has 10,235 likes, not sure that’s a sign of a dying organisation – a carp fishery owner on Countryfile did echo their views re the otter implying it was having negative effects on wildlife. Re the Angling Trust, glad they presented Martin’s article, but very disappointed in their ludicrous anti beaver stance and if you look at this gem from the PAG http://www.thepredationactiongroup.co.uk/The_Big_Picture.pdf you’ll see there’s an entry from the Angling Trust where they suggest seals in rivers are where they don’t belong and killing them should be considered for their own welfare (in case the poor things are starving because they can’t get back to the sea!) Re John Wilson, well aware he’s not in the country, but his comments are present throughout the PAG’s literature so still presenting horrendous anti predator views, Robin Page with a fishing rod, except that’s unfair to Robin Page because he has actually blamed anglers for fish losses, not otters, because they have ripped out the cover fish need. Pretty bad when Robin Page is more sensible than you are. Yes the Wild Trout Trust, I love it and its work, and its videos, isn’t anti predator, in fact they’ve championed dead wood in rivers as providing cover as well as feeding opportunities, but they are hardly openly condemning anti predator hysteria either. Look at some of the lurid articles in the angling press about cormorants and otters and you’ll see where the mainstream of ‘thinking’ is at. And are you really so naive to believe that it’s only one person who thinks dolphins are a danger to salmon? No just the first to speak up. I knew as soon as I saw documentary footage of the Moray Firth dolphins taking twenty minutes to swallow down twenty pound salmon there’d be those watching with rising blood pressure saying ‘this is where my salmon are going!’ The hen harrier is practically extinct in England due to this mentality re grouse, and ospreys are increasingly being cited as a cause of fish decline – blaming dolphins par for the course I’m afraid. Re EMBER if something that seriously effects water quality is not of serious concern to angling bodies what the hell is? I think not offending their buddies on the grouse moors is higher in their concerns if we are honest.
PS nearly forgot I am well aware of the excellent habitat creation work that the Wild Trout Trust among others is doing – was watching their videos a couple of weeks ago, but it’s the exception not the rule – as on my local salmon river.