A lot has happened in the last few months. I took a land based surveyors course with the Manx Whale and Dolphin group, http://www.mwdw.net/ to learn how to identify and report on the whales and dolphins we have around the island.

Not only that, I also took a network surveyors course with Orca, http://www.orcaweb.org.uk/ this allows me to travel on ferries and cruises as a marine mammal surveyor. I’ve already done a couple of trips with the Isle of Man Steam Packet, surveying from the bridge. It’s called being a citizen scientist.

Anyway, I received an email from Jen at MWDW saying they were going to Niarbyl to survey at 10:15, as it was already 9:45, a rush decision was made to join up with them, so rather than a trip to the bank, it was a trip out to Niarbyl.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”92″ gal_title=”Niarbyl”]

The weather was superb, the sea was a state 0 – 1, flat calm to a couple of ripples. Ideal survey weather.

Straight away I was greeted with, “we have Risso’s, just of the shoreline, can you see them? They are moving out a bit further now.”

“OK, I have them, 3, about 200 metres passed the tip of the rocks”, “No, they’re birds!”  Not a good start, but then I saw them, what a sight!

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”93″ gal_title=”Risso Dolphins”]

The white dolphin is the male. They all start grey/black, but with age and fighting, scares build up and give the appearance of being white.

There is something very special about watching these animals, it is something that has to be experienced. They were breaching, jumping right out of the water, logging – resting on the surface, tail/head slapping, and spy hopping, the head rising vertically up so they can have a look around.

Although by this time they were about 3/4 of a mile out, we could still keep track of them with binoculars.

As it is the Peel boat festival next weekend, there were quite a few yachts heading into Peel, we are not sure if they all saw the dolphins, but certainly the crew of Criss Cross appeared to have a shock when they were actively pursued by at least 2 of the dolphins.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”94″ gal_title=”Rissos chase yacht”]

In total we estimated between 8 – 10 adults, and they stayed in the area for about 2 hours.

For more information relating to local whales and dolphins, or even to report sightings, please go to the MWDW website, http://www.mwdw.net