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Friday the 13th saw the arrival of another 7m Basking Shark. Colin Linne was skippering "Bootlegger" on a 2 hour Mackerel Fishing Trip on a reef just off Newquay Harbour when he and lucky pasengers spotted the Dorsal Fin breaking the water's surface as the huge shark fed open mouthed, filtering the Zoo Plankton through its gill rakers. Unusually the shark had a nik taken out of its Dorsal Fin which will make it easier to re identify on the Basking Shark photo ID Data Base. Many thanks to Colin and Crewman Graham for recording and forwarding these pics. Watch this space to see if the shark is already known to the Shark Trust or Cornwall Wildlife Trust.

The huge dark shape of the beautiful Bottlenose Dolphins caught our eye as we left Newquay harbour….lucky us!! This was to be the start of a very good few days seeing Bottlenose Dolphins ,Seals , Sunfish, Harbour Porpoise, Common Dolphins and Basking Sharks!

First sighting of the day began right outside Newquay Harbour, just off the Headland . Lucky Sharks Divers spotted a pod of 8 Bottlenose Dolphins actively feeding. They love "Atlantic Diver's twin hulls so much , 5 of them broke away and swam infont of the boat for a short period, surfing in the bow waves much to the delight of passengers before returning to their more important job of foraging as Atlantic Diver steamed 20 miles out to sea on our Blue Shark Cage Diving expedition.20

20 miles offshore…and far away from any possible swimmers or surfers , Would-be Shark Divers assisted preparing the "Rubbie Dubbie" ….good job this isn't smellivision!!

The warm fronts coming in from the Gulf Stream have seen the arrival of the Sunfish…we have had several sightings during the cage diving days. On most of the Blue Shark Cage Diving Trips we have had the wonderful experience of watching pod after pod of Common Dolphins, sometimes playing in Atlantic Diver's bow waves and also demonstrating their incredible hunting skills, tail lobbing and porpoising high out of the water…SPECTACULAR …with all having small calves and juveniles with them

and the adorable semi resident Grey  Seals Medallion Man , Trunk and Dr Who are mostly always there to greet us on return from our "Deep Ocean Adventure" Don't you just love this job!!!!were

Chris Chris and I completed our first Basking Shark Watch at Hella Point for the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Basking Shark Project…sadly no sharks in a force 5-6 which was quite spectacular to watch . The Scillonian braved the wild waves alongside at least 720 gannets that we counted gliding by at cliff top level..stunning. Many of the Gannets were juveniles. All in all not a day at sea but with the stunning scenary …and watching the sunrise…a very enjoyable day:0) The Plankton is still around so just waiting for some long hot days in the hope we see some Basking Sharks near Newquay. Keep watching on this site and www.atlanticdiver.co.uk to see when the sharks finally arrive.

We  had an unbelievably fantastic day yesterday aboard "Atlantic Diver"..Chris, myself , Cornwall Wildlife Trust friends, and Newquay College Students made up a great crew of would-be Basking Shark Snorkellers and left Newquay harbour full of excitement in anticipation of the amazing journey we were about to embark to swim with the World's second largest Shark..the "Basking Shark"!!!

With no guarantee of a sighting but lots of reports from Newquay harbour's commercial potting fishermen and angling boats who had spotted 8-10 and a further 2 sharks earlier in the day. ( thanks Guys)  Basking Sharks feed on Zoo Plankton…which if you are lucky lifts to the top surface layer of the sea so that the sharks feed at surface and are visible to us as Dorsal, Caudal fins and Snout break ing water surface. The sea was deadly calm and we could see for vast distances in all directions. beautiful Gannets with their brilliant yellow heads sat on the sea surface and dived down to catch fish but after an agonizing one and a half hours searching the crew began to loose hope of seeing a shark…when….a black object surfaced and a mackerel jumped out of the sea….everyone ran in quiet excitement to kit up for the swim ..when…it was a SEAL!!!…now don't get me wrong ..I love seals BUT not just at that particular moment…the search continued but Chris was determined and after a few more agonizing minutes declared to Abby that her birthday wish had come true …there was a fantastic 3-4m Basking Shark feeding in the sea infront of us…Engines cut and team 2 watched for a while while team 1 threw together their kit in the fastest time ever. All snorkellers were advised of the basking shark code of conduct and the legal protection that these superb creatures thankfully have.

The tail lift was quietly lowered and excited yet apprehensive snorkellers began to enter the sea without splash ahead of this gentle giant..then sit and WAIT..searching through the merk of the plankton…when suddenly a huge dark shadow approaches from the left and there…… an unbelievably beautiful Basker sliding slowly past us concentrating on feeding, its great Caudal Fin lashing from side to side propelling this huge filtering machine through the soup of Plankton..WOW!! Its markings were very distinct and slight damage to its upper side behind its dorsal fin hopefully will help the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Shark trust photo Id it so that we can monitor its journey around the world. All sighting can be sent to http://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/NR/exeres/3A054313-937D-4C20-BD9B-EF7176B7676B

or the Shark Trust http://www.sharktrust.org/sd/sd_newsighting1.asp?isedit=1&sid=2099

 The second team had an even more amazing encounter..check out the you tube footage

http://www.facebook.com/atlantic.diving it really doesn't get much better than this. We are so privileged to see these sharks which were hunted to commercial extinction only less than 13 years ago. now with the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 they are protected in uk waters but sadly elsewhere in the world they are still hunted and finned sometimes alive for the shark fin to make "Shark Fin Soup"….We should all think about our impact on these awesome creatures when ordering at restaurants or buying beauty /health products …Protect these majestic giants and refuse to trade in any way in shark products and consider using marine friendly laundry/cleaning products as we do……"Save our beautiful Sharks!"

Special Event in conjunction with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust

 Event details:
 Newquay … Evening Boat Trip Sea-Safari
Tuesday …… 8th May 2012
 Meeting at Newquay Harbour Car park         6.45pm for7pm                                                                                                   Boat  ……   Atlantic Diver
Booking essential, please call Chris Lowe 01637 850930
Adults     £20, children up to 12 years £15.

What better way to see Marine Wildlife than to get out on the water with them, and once a month that is exactly what you can do with Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Restormel Group and their Newquay Boat Sea-Safari event.

The first Safari of the yeart akes place on Tuesday 8th May. The boat, the Atlantic Diver, will leave from Newquay Harbour at 7pm. You need to be there at 6.45pm and booking is essential, so please phone Chris Lowe on01637 850930 or 07860 927833. The cost is £20 for adults and £15 for children up to 12 years.  There are a maximum of 12 places.

The boat  cruises slowly along the coastline where seabirds are nesting, around the headlands and out to sea.to spot for Pelagic ceatacean.The trip lasts for 2 hours and there is a chance to look for Kittiwakes,Fulmars, Gannets, Cormorants, Terns, as well as Seals and Basking Sharks. Lasty year the boat was joined by a pod of around 15 Bottlenose Dolphins, leaping out of the water!

Basking Sharks have been spotted down West..so who knows what we might see??

The superfast power Catamaran  has both outsideand inside areas and plenty of space  but you are advised to take waterproofs and a warm drink– and don’t forget your binoculars and cameras.

Newquay Sea Safaris and Fishing are featured by “this is Cornwall ,with videos of the recent basking shark and dolphin sightings…check it out for some lovely footage….enjoy…with thanks to Jo for publishing it.

VIDEO:

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/VIDEO-Common-dolphins-regular-visitors-Newquay/story-13158160-detail/story.html

People often ask us WHAT we do during the long winter months…..well with two boats to keep looking beautiful and Maritime Coastguard Agency strict and thorough Boat surveys the main answer is fairly obvious…A lot of elbow grease for antifouling two boat bottoms!!!and this isn’t just reserved for the boys…there is no escape. Atlantic Diver has been undergoing maintainance and painting in Padstow and is now in Padstow Harbour awaiting some decent weather to get back out on the ocean wide. We have several seal surveys to look forward to and are available for any charter be it Sea Fishing in Newquay or Padstow or a scenic Sea Safari to spot for the many seals especially present at this time of year.We have been spotting dolphins from the land too and recently a dolphin passed through as close in as Fistral Bay. The sea birds are beginning to return to their breeding spots and meet up with last years parnters and I was treated last Friday to a huge gathering of Gannets bomb diving the water near to the Chick Rock….it was spectacular to hear them call.Chris has been Master of a boat surveying the sea bed bottom in Dorset and SouthHampton in between boat maintainance here and is missing the huge array of marine wildlife we are so lucky to have off Newquay. We are lucky to live and work in such an amazing place..”I LOVE NEWQUAY!!!!”

The extremely cold winter conditions created an ice extravaganza along Cornish beaches the past few days….The rock pools at South Fistral were frozen and even the deeper pools had a layer of about 10cms thick ice…it is very strange to see the sea still. Icicles again hung down from the rocks in stalactight fashion..it was breath takingly beautiful. Despite this there were still surfers trying to catch a wave or two…now thats dedication!!            

We took the Atlantic Diver and the Bounty out into the Bay on a lovely warm spring day to have their photos took for the new website. 

A Basking Shark…the second largest shark in the world has been spotted near Newquay by a local commercial Fisherman..aboard “Tis-ardly-on” …thanks Martin for the sighting!These magnificent creatures filter the equivalent of an olympic swimming pool every hour as they filter vast volumes of sea, into their enormous open mouths ,gathering up tiny zoo plankton through their gills which stick to the gill rakers and finally are swallowed down their tiny throats. At this time of year the plankton is at the sea surface so we can spot for them as their large Dorsal fin and tail fin break water surface. Atlantic Diver will be running Snorkel trips with the sharks when we have more sightings…keep a watch on the blog for more info. We were also treated to a spectacular display from a pod of about 10 common dolphins who had a calf riding the bow wave with them…Happy birthday to our special passenger who enjoyed her special Newquay Sea Safari. We are seeing a lot of pods of Common Dolphins with young at the moment ….lucky us…its a sailors life for me!!

All trips watching/ snorkelling with basking sharks are run under the strict guide lines of the basking shark code of conduct . These beautiful sharks are a protected species under the wildlife and countryside act. We would request that all pictures taken by any one be sent to the Shark Trust with location details and date for photo ID …thanks 

for more information about the plight of basking sharks and the basking shark code of conduct please follow the following link: http://www.sharktrust.org/content.asp?did=35501