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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.

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!"

We had an immensly enjoyable Sea Safari for the St Agnes Marine Conservation Group this week. The sun was shining all the way to St Agnes and all manner of Breeding Sea Birds were out including this Bridled Guillemot. Its the first time I've seen one this far West. It was sitting on the ocean in a small raft of Guilies just waiting to be spotted. Our sighting has been sent off to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust as we are a Master Wise acredited boat operator.

Beautiful Juvenile Gannet was resting after feeding.

All proceeds being donated back to the Conservation Group by us so that they can continue their good works of Marine Education to the general public.

The sun began to set as we cruised back into Newquay Harbour and enabled us to catch this beautiful image of Ben our son and Jessica our daughter rod and line fishing for mackerel, in the bay…..Epic!! day with freshly caught silver darlings for late supper

Well what a week…there has been a massive Jellyfish Hype with Barrel jellies being the main star of the show..the BBC, Sunday Times, Childrens' BBC and Skye T.V…all filming off "Atlantic Diver"  in Newquay Bay this week…phew ..no pressure to find them then!!

The huge Bell is approximately 1m in diameter and its 8 arms have cauliflower appearance with oral offices at the ends. its reputed to NOT sting but I can tell you that it definitely gives an agitation to the skin a little less than a nettle sting….easily soothed with scraping area in one direction then applying vinegar.

John Maguire BBC Presenter , Peter Richardson from the Marine Conservation Society and Ross James..camerman all donned wetsuits and invetsigated the Jellyfish up-close-and -personal. It aired on prime time BBC Morning Breakfast Time several times during the morning

This Amazing SHARK …was caught whilst on a fishing trip off Newquay on board "Atlantic Explorer"  today. Skipper Derek Applewhite said it was about 5 feet long and weighed approximately 35lbs. The anglers were only a short distance offshore when the chance catch happened as they were trying to catch any bottom fish species such as pollack and cod. They were using mackerel as bait.

A total of 8 Tope ranging in sizes between 12 to 35lbs came in in a very short period.

All were handled carefully ,released from the hook and returned to the sea as quickly as possible.

All details were sent to the Shark Trust .

Especially interesting as Annabelle has just been made a Shark Trust Trustee.

Atlantic Diver also had a great day with a chance sighting ,for divers on board ,of these Celtic Bottlenose Dolphins in Newquay Bay whilst on commute to the wreck.

link to dolphin video

http://youtu.be/HYbtUHfL7uE

Wow Sunshine and no fewer than 5 seperate pods of Common Dolphins today off Newquay aboard "Atlantic Diver"…we were totally spoiled with The Cornwall Wildlife Trust evening Newquay Sea Safari Boat Trip still enjoying a pod of about 15 right now..got to love Dolphins today. We also saw Two seperate Sunfish.

 Chris spotted this group of balloons from the harvester restaraunt …Turtles and other marine Wildlife mistake them for jellyfish and swallow them , fill their stomaches so they feel full and don't eat and eventually starve. Guess what.. we pulled them in and popped them…ballons aren't fun when this happens!! Also retrieved a black plastic bag of rubbish from a French Trawler…Newquay harbour Fishermen are carrying out "Fishing For Litter"..collecting litter from the sea and bringing it back on shore to discard safely away from marine life..more for the skip!

Gorgeous Pregnant Female Grey Seal hauled out on rocks during sea safari today during which we released another 3000 Lobster Larvae from the Padstow Lobster Hatchery.

This seal was keeping rear flippers out of the sea to keep warm.

The Lobsters are packed into seperate cells to prevent them damaging each other.

Then scooped up and sent down a Lobster Log Flume to the rocky sea bed. These were about 8-12 weeks old. All of the hard work of the fishermen donating berried lobbies and the staff at the Lobster Hatchery combined with these releases help with the sustainability of the Potting industry here in Cornwall. Its a great addition as a special Newquay Sea Safari…Passengers then wen t on to enjoy the Grey Seals hauled out…we also saw Barrel Jellyfish and Sunfish all in the same day.

 On what should have been a seal spotting day where the seals are the stars of the show..we saw a fintastic 21 Sunfish  from on board "Atlantic Diver"….they were totally amazing , we looked down at them .looking back up at us. The becalmed sea allowed for excellent photo opportunities. At first we spotted the thin tall dorsal fin flap backwards and forwards, then the huge head with tiny tail. Feeding on Jellyfish in the planktonic soup , we spotted them mostly in singles but also  in pairs. a couple even demonstrated a few magnifiscant  breaches!! Known as Mola Mola … the boniest fish in the sea come intoday our waters when the water temp raises during the summer months and the zoo plankton is plentiful. A pod of Common Dolphins with young calves joined us for our last safari .Just hoping for a few baskers now.

Had a great time Sat 30th April aboard the Bounty, started with Mackerel, Dogfish , Red Gurnard & then the Cod arrived along with a 7lb pollack and this stunning 4lb 2oz Black Bream.
Thanks to all for a lovely time.

Miranda Krestovnikoff Diver, Zoologist and Wildlife Film making Presenter leapt off "Atlantic Diver" this week with the film crew from "The One Show!!" They were a great crew and as lovely in person as on the T.V. There special this week was "JELLYFISH"…

With

With the most amazing underwater cameras and help from Heather Wiliams of Plymouth National Marine Aquarium and a biologist from the Marine Conservation Society…they filmed the swarms of Jellyfish in the Gazzel, a beautiful secluded Cove just off Newquay.