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A beautiful 3.6m Thresher Shark was bycaught in bass fishing nets 100m off Tintagel yesterday and landed in Newquay Harbour . Sadly occassionally cetacean like harbour porpoise, dolphins,and Seals and in this case Sharks become net entangled and often drown as a result. The target fish was Bass which we can only guess the shark was feeding on as they eat small fish, squid and other small sharks. The commercial fisherman kindly allowed us to record the size of the sharks dorsal fins and tail fin as this is a "BAP" ( Biodiversity Action Plan) species which the government has funded to monitor the health of the species. All sightings or landings of this species are useful to determine the population's health. The shark was landed whole and all of the carcus sold .

All aboard for the dive trip of the century..as we left Padstow Harbour, “Atlantic Diver” cut through the glassy sea in the warmth of the newly found July Sunshine..awesome in itself you would think…Chris  let out full throttle and off we sped for a 30mile journey to the wreck site the REWA…2 Puffins flew past followed by numerous Gannets and hundreds upon hundreds of Manx Shearwaters…spectacular watching them take off from the waters surface, circle and reland again. Then over about half way through, a pod of about 80 Commom Dolphins  including calves were actively hunting, blowing bubbles from below and coralling in circles. Behind them was a pair trawler and having read recent research it would suggest that the dolphins have a familiarisation with the fishing vessel….or was it the other way around?

About 2 mile on and we spotted 1 loan Bottlenose Dolphin …unusual we thought, on its own …when…suddenly the tell tale bubbleblows surfaced and we realised there were more, at least 25 surface and porpoised out of the sea, some came to join us in our journey whist others reained actively hunting. Again calves were present and one adult had pocks marks all over its body. The water visibility was so clear that we could see ever y rake mark on their bodies’…..just breath taking. During this we passed 4 Potuguese Man-of-war jellyfish just below the surface, there may have been more but we passed rather rapidly.

Smiles all round and divers safely enjoying their dive, we waited still spotting for more Cetacean encounters. Two divers surface when….A MINKIE WHALE surfaced scooping up great mouth fulls of plankton….quick get the cameras….again it surface and again, circling Atlantic Diver and eventually came 100m to our port side…at this stage we realised that it was over twice the size of our 10m Blyth Catamaran and so with the surfacing pattern and the dorsal fin size and shape,we reidentified as a Fin Whale…..WOW absolutely AWESOME…best day ever. Divers continued to surface and some saw the whale…what a sightb that would be underwater during your decompression stops!!! Loving this job !! Thanks guys for booking our boat!!:0)

The weather in Newquay has been rather challenging this week but it didn't put off a group of stags who stayed the course and caught a dozen Pollack , a dozen Cod , plus plenty of Mackerel for a fishtastic  Bar-B-Que later .Hope this is a good omen for a long and happy marriage. Thanks to Matt ( Howler) for putting the trip together.

26th April 2011 The Crisp Boys are back in town Fishing from Atlantic Diver with catches of cod up to 81bs ,Wrasse, Whiting, Gurnard and at least 50 shimmering blue/green mackerel…fit for the B-B_Q…hmmm yummy! Whilst the fishing Frenzy took place out at sea …our new toy arrived in the guise of an underwater camera with top deck TV monitor!! Now all can share in the magic of the world which lies beneath the boat. Can’t wait to try it! Medallion Man popped up to see all the fish activity back at the Newquay Harbour.

27th April Trunk  a  Grey Seal in Newquay Harbour investigating the underwater camera..she obviously wants to be a film star like medalion Man!

April went out as fishing frenzy aboard the “Atlantic Diver” and May came in as Fishie Galore aboard the “Bounty”, (skippered by  Anthony Hills). A spectacular array of species was caught during our 2 and 4 hourly deep sea fishing trips with Ling up to 12lb and Black Bream to 2 1/2 lb as well as mackerel, cat shark,gurnard, cod pollack,congor eel,launce and pouting…Happy Days!! This is what sustainable fishing is all about..rod caught and plenty of different species to cook and taste.

Try this simple to cook and delicious recipe for a really fresh supper idea:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/ling_cod_with_tomato_and_orange/

Cormorants and shags were out in their masses today and lucky passengers were able to see long and far due to yet another spectacular calm day at sea out on our Newquay Sea Safari. We were extremely lucky to spot a Great Northern Diver amongst a group of Cormorants perched on the rocks and also 1 male grey sea, 2 pretty female seals and 1 juvenile seal who popped their heads up to people spot us on the Bounty. A pod of approximately 15 Common Dolphins with a calf joined us riding in our  bow wave as we gradually returned to newquay Harbour spotting for dolphins and Basking Sharks.

Couldn’t resist posting this picture of Grey Seal called “Feathers/Shrek” eating a conger eel in Newquay Harbour today

Going!

Going!

Gone!!

Gone…totally content seal….got to just love these gorgeous seals…it was like watching somebody eating noodles.

 In the backround the Newquay Fish Festival setting up is well underway.All starts down here on Friday 11th-13th…trips running as usual from our shark’s head booking kiosk..come on down and enjoy the fun.

We shall be helping at the Newquay Marine Group stand on the Beach.

there is an awesome program of fish and famous chefs, fishing talks, old newquay, food stalls….BOAT TRIPS and lots of Cornish Fishing Fun.

……….See You There!!  

Unbelievably awesome Common Dolphin activity this week as we were recording cetacean for Whales and Dolphin Watching Week. We came across no fewer than six pods of Common Dolphins on one day alone , let alone Bottlenose Dolphins on two consecutive days complete with juveniles and Harbour porpoise. It was a great week until the british weather moved in but out there again today. 

The dolphins were feeding on sand eels which were in turn feeding on phytoplankton which was trapped at the sea surface. The Dolphins were coraling the shoals up tightly at the surface by porpoising closely together …gathering the shoal , whilst others under the shoal blew air bubbles upwards to keep the fish from swimming down. Then annnd here come sthe amazing part ….the dolphins now having trapped the sand eels ata the surface Hydro Planed , beaks open wide and scooped the eels up in lines of ridgid backed sinchronised rows of dolphins. The spalsh they created doing this was phenominal.

We sat and watched at a distance for ages as they fed in a huge area around us. 

Unbelievably adrenaline rushing viewing during a shark cage dive with the  best cage diving company in the UK. Eleven shark divers set off from Newquay Harbour yesterday onbaord "Atlantic Diver" to do one of the" top 10 things to do in Newquay" or even the UK. Doubters of the thrill of UK cage diving should feast their eyes on this footage as we experienced 4 Blue sharks, all female ranging from sizes…2.5m, 3m 3.5m and  2m.

Excited Shark Divers met at our "Newquay Marine Centre" overlooking the Harbour, to learn about the plight, biology and behaviour of the blue sharks which only feed in our British Sea when the water temperature is 12 degrees plus. 

We Sped 10 miles out to sea ,Aboard "Atlantic Diver" and set up the chum to attract the sharks to the cage.

After a two and a half hour wait…they appeared…thrashing around the chum …two female Blue Sharks . They gradually grew in confidence and made repeated drives passed the (by now adrenalined) Shark Divers!!!

Another Shark rolled up , then another ….shark Fest!!!

you tube video here

All in all we enjoyed watching their amazing hunting and reasoning skills as they swam around the cage, chum bags and boat. All on board were totally blown away by their beauty, grace and stealth. These iconic creatures are being taken in their millions for their fins and meat…a top predator rapidly declining. The Uk has catch limits for many of our sharks but this is not the case in Europe, as a Shark Trust Trustee I am in support of TACs for europe as is applies here in the uk, which our  fishermen adhere to. 

Tourists in Newquay would never be treated to such an amazing spetacular display of nature as the blue sharks forage far offshore away from bathers and they are only accessable by boat. Historically these sharks were in plentiful supply and indeed we did used to angle for them but  today we prefer to view them and encourage others to take care of our ocean and top predators by educating visiting wildlife tourists, as well as locals. 

To Book These Cage Dives…please call Skipper Chris or Annabelle Lowe on 

07860 927833

01637 850930