They're in...

On Tuesday I did some more liaising with people in the Department of Environment, Food, and Agriculture, and also with the Department of Infrastructure responsible for Harbours to sort out permissions for where the C-PODs will be placed... getting there. Shortly after lunch a viking longboat made its way past the breakwater to moor up in Peel harbour. This is Dragon Harald Fairhair, the largest replica ever built, and named for the King who unified Norway, on a journey from Norway to Liverpool.

Rowing past the breakwater

Heading in to harbour

With poor weather on Wednesday the day was spent in the office, with an evening trip to the pub to watch some live music for the start of Yn Chruinnaght, which means the gathering, and is an inter-celtic festival. The weather was a little better on Thursday, so Jen and I spent two hours watching at Marine Drive, Douglas, before heading to the ferry terminal to pick up Rosie returning from her graduation ceremony. We finished the evening with a BBQ at Fenella beach and some open mic music in the pub. Friday was spent finalising details for imminent C-POD deployment as well as reading up on the software used for processing and analysing the data I will collect.

Saturday saw the return of Douglas carnival, after many years absence. However, the weather didn't seem too happy to see it back and we spent the day sheltering from the rain in our gazebo. This was the first outing for our new banner, which seemed to attract people's attention and encourage them over to talk to us. Despite the poor weather we still spoke to a lot of people about our work and helped to spread the word about cetaceans around the Isle of Man.

The new banner

Douglas carnival stall

Sunday was dry again, so Rosie and I opened out our soggy gazebo to dry in the sun. We then headed down to the House of Manannan to listen to more music and watch some traditional dancing as part of the Yn Chruinnaght festival.

Rosie and I headed south on Monday to conduct some land watches, whilst Jen watched at Niarbyl. We saw a few harbour porpoises during an hour at Port St Mary, then nothing in one and a half hours at Calf West. We then moved to survey Calf East for three hours and saw lots of porpoises, a minke whale, and leaping Risso's dolphins! It was a very pleasurable day spent soaking up the sun and enjoying the cetaceans. The evening was spent on final sorting and check of C-PODs and ropes ready for deployment on Tuesday, finally!

Harbour porpoise

Tuesday morning I headed to the office to start the C-PODs then loaded everything on to the boat, a little tricky as it was moored down a set of steps which meant getting the weights down took a little effort. We headed out from about 11 and made for the first deployment site to the west of the Calf of Man, before deploying the second pod near to Port St Mary. All went pretty well, so it is a case of wait and see now, until I retrieve the C-PODs in a few weeks to check everything is working OK. After successfully deploying the pods we made the most of being back on the boat with a good sea state and conducted a survey. Even though thick patches of fog made the visibility very poor in places we still managed to see a lot of harbour porpoises and a group of probably around 20 Risso's dolphins, including some juveniles, dispersed over quite a large area and apparently feeding. It was great to be back on the water, and felt good to finally get the C-PODs deployed - here's hoping they actually detect some cetaceans!

Low light levels made for tricky photography

Two Risso's surface together

From Wednesday to Sunday I headed home for some family events. On Sunday evening I flew back to the Isle of Man and on the way back to Peel from the airport managed to spot my third hen harrier so far. This one was receiving a little bit of a mobbing from some corvids, and flew very close to the car, a beautiful bird to see.

Plenty to do...

It has been a little longer since my last post but there has still been plenty going on to keep me busy.

On Thursday I got the second C-POD back which had been returned from repairs, good as new, which is great and means I can get on with sorting out the ropes etc. for this. Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch have boards at the Sound Cafe and Niarbyl Cafe, where they post information about the species which can be seen, and any recent public sightings which have been made. So Thursday afternoon we went out to update these with the latest information of the great number of recent sightings.

Last Saturday Rosie and I had a day off and went to Cornaa plunge pool in Ballaglass glen, where we enjoyed a refreshing leap into the cold waters, before drying off in the lovely sunshine.

Rosie

Me

Recently we have been trying to update or create new display materials for public stalls and, in doing so, have had problems trying to print the MWDW logo out at large sizes. So, on Monday, as the weather wasn't quite good enough for surveying, I downloaded a piece of software called Inkscape, which I have never used before, and re-created the logo in a different format so it is suitable for printing on banners.

On Tuesday the weather was looking more promising so Jen and I went to Niarbyl to do a survey, but after about two hours, the cloud and rain descended, reducing our visibility and forcing us to stop early having seen nothing.

Thursday morning we took Rosie down to Castletown to witness some of the Southern 100 races, as she will not be here for the Manx Grand Prix, and wanted to see a little of what the Isle of Man is most famous for - the motorbikes! Afterwards, we did a short watch at the Sound, where we saw one porpoise, before moving to survey for two hours at Niarbyl, again seeing one porpoise.

On Friday morning Rosie and I had an early start to catch the 7am Steam Packet ferry Manannan to Belfast and back to conduct a survey for cetaceans. The conditions were great, with good visibility and a very flat sea. We even had the added bonus that one of the engines was not operating at full power, so instead of speeding along at around 40kts, we enjoyed a more leisurely 23kts, allowing us a little more time to make sightings. The outbound trip was fantastic. The boat was full of people in good spirits, returning home after enjoying the Southern 100, and many passengers came out on deck to ask us about our work, the animals they could see, and admire our new display boards. Some were even lucky enough to be around when we made a sighting so we could point the animals out to them, which is always a pleasure. Rosie spotted a Risso's dolphin just a few minutes after pulling out of Douglas harbour, followed not long after by a common dolphin which many passengers managed to see as it made a few leaps along the side of the boat. I saw neither of these unfortunately as I was surveying on the opposite side of the vessel. I did, however, see two minke whales, an adult and a juvenile, feeding not far from the Calf of Man, followed by a total of 14 sightings of harbour porpoises as we moved out of Manx waters and closer to Belfast. The return journey to Douglas was not as action packed cetacean wise, and we had only three porpoise sightings despite the weather being just as good. We still had a lot of interest from the passengers on board though, and were able to talk to them about the fantastic trip over. With the slower travel speed the journey times were longer, and we were pretty tired by the time we finally reached Douglas again, but it was a great trip.

Rosie surveys on the way to Belfast

On Saturday afternoon our research boat, Girl Pat, was finally returned to the water after many weeks out for repairs, so hopefully we will be out on her soon. Jen, Rosie, and I headed up north to Ramsey on Sunday to host a stall at the Ramsey Rotary Club Sunday Funday, our first in the north of the island. We unveiled one of our new banners, and the swanky new gazebo to keep the wind off! It was a lovely sunny day, at a beautiful location in Mooragh Park, and we enjoyed talking to some interested members of the public about our work.

New banner, designed by me

The new gazebo

In between all of this I have been liaising with various people in different departments of the Manx government to confirm where I will be deploying the C-PODs so that everyone is kept happy and 'in-the-loop'. I am close to having everything sorted now, and am really keen to deploy the C-PODs as soon as possible. So, hopefully the next post will be about my project really getting going - fingers crossed!

From scallops to cetaceans

So, another week has flown by on the island, with quite a lot going on.

Friday was a fairly quiet day doing some work in the office and getting prepared for the weekend. Saturday was Queenie festival day in Port St Mary. The Queenie festival is held in celebration of all things marine, and named for the Queen scallop, which is an important fishery for the Isle of Man. We set up a stall and spent the day talking to people about the work of Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch and the cetacean species that can be seen around the island, as well as offering ID guides, and the chance for kids to win a cuddly dolphin toy! On Saturday evening Jen, Rosie, and I were on board Steam Packet's Ben My Chree (pronounced ben mu kree) for the annual round the island cruise. We were conducting a survey for cetaceans, but also on hand to talk to people about our work, and point out anything we might see. It was a lovely evening, and great to see all the way around the island. We saw a minke whale, and another possible minke was glimpsed, and Jen saw a bottlenose dolphin leaping. We also repeatedly saw the blow of a whale, but were unable to identify it as it was lost in the glare of the evening sun and the choppy water around the south of the island. It is unusual to see the blow from a minke whale, so it was likely to have been something bigger. With so many people enjoying the view out on deck we were able to help some of them spot the animals, too.

Drinking dragon

Enjoying the scenery

Red sky at night...

Evening light

Sunday we were back at the Queenie festival again enjoying great weather. Shortly after opening, as the crowds were starting to build, I spotted a minke whale from our stall on the breakwater and was able to point it out to lots of people. It was great to be able to actually show people that cetaceans can be seen very close to shore, instead of just telling them about it, and brought lots of attention to our stall.

Queenie stall

On Monday morning there was a report of a basking shark seen from Peel hill, so Rosie and I went up to look but didn't manage to see it, unfortunately. The visibility was amazing though and we were treated to incredible clear views across the Irish Sea to the Mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland, and I could even make out the lighthouse on the tip of the Mull of Galloway, some 46km away in Scotland. After being a little disappointed to miss one of the few basking sharks reported this year, we had a much better afternoon of watching in the south. Tom and I at the Sound, and Jen and Rosie at Port St Mary. The conditions were fantastic, with really flat water and great visibility. There was loads of activity with birds feeding offshore, lots of harbour porpoises, and a lot of minke whales. As the visibility was so good we were able to see them a long way off, but keeping track of how many there were was pretty tricky, somewhere between 7 and 10! Whilst we were trying to keep track of which whale was which we had call from Jen and Rosie saying they had seen Risso's dolphins at Port St Mary and they were heading south. So we kept a good look out and not long later I spotted some distant activity as a group of at least nine Risso's came in to view. My first of 2014! So, a pretty great survey for Tom and I at the Sound, but Rosie and Jen also saw common dolphins, taking their species total to four in one land survey, which is a first for Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch!

Calm water at the Sound

Tuesday morning was boringly necessary chores like laundry, then Jen and I spent an hour and a half watching from Marine Drive in Douglas and spotted one porpoise. We then moved down south to Port St Mary where the conditions were a little better, for a three hour watch. Though it somehow didn't feel as active as the previous day, we had 25 sightings of minke whales and harbour porpoises!

Port St Mary

Unfortunately the wind has picked up now and the conditions probably won't be good enough for surveying for a few days. I'm working on sorting out exact location for deploying the C-PODs soon, and getting the repaired C-POD back and ready to go as well. There's also a lot of data to enter from our busy land watches, so plenty to keep busy with.