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Awesome Happy New Year at sea today as we spotted 8 Bottlenose Dolphins off St Ives in glorious Cornish Winter "Sunshine". Atlantic Diver was loaded with delighted Wildlife Surveyers who were treated to a  wildlife extravaganza of Bottlenose Dolphins, Harbour Porpoise, Grey Seals, Guillemots, Razorbills, Gannets Diving, Kittiwake, Raven, Mediterranean Gulls, Rock Pippet and Little Egret…and unbelievably a Barrel Jellyfish.

The Dolphins were hunting and Playing today and followed our boat along the survey for some 30 minutes and were bow riding the front of "Atlantic Diver" from time to time using their tail flukes to bat the hulls from side to side.

We took images of their fins to carry out Photo Identification. Each Dolphin has a unique fin shape, markings or nicks missing as seen in images here and this helps us to identify each individual .

Our winter 2 hour  Sea Safaris are continuing throughout the season weather permitting and as is proven today are as exciting as the summer months. A basking shark was spotted off Penzance just before christmas…a rare sighting but with wildlife anything can happen…off again tomorrow…still hoping for Orca Sighting which we have seen in the past at this time of year between Newquay and Padstow. Anyone interested in joining these special approx 6 hour surveys should contact us for details and dates.

Dave Jarvis our British Diver Marine life Rescue Co- ordinater sent out an urgent message to us today. Hundreds of Guillemots our beautiful local diving sea birds are washing into the South coast of cornwall covered in a sticky waxy secretion making it impossible for them to fly. Help is desperately needed to help rescue. Advise if you find an affected bird is to put on gloves place in a ventilated cardboard box and call dave Jarvis on 07774711949 to await instructions for removal to West Hatch RSPCA rescue centre.

More info on:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-21275648

and on the BDMLR website:  http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/index.php?mact=News%2Ccntnt01%2Cdetail%2C0&cntnt01articleid=918&cntnt01origid=54&cntnt01returnid=54

For those of you who remember Leyla …our gorgeous and brainy Marine Student Wildlife Guide well she has been busy this winter compiling her "Atlantic Diving" and " Newquay Sea Safaris and Fishing" work experince to display at The Newquay Marine College  Atlantic Centre. We had a great day up there learning what the students had done over the summer, but of course we think Leyla's was best. Well done Leyla…top student!!

Farmer

Stags out on 2 Hour Mackerel Newquay Fishing Trip with Atlantic Diver ..Boat looks great in the Harbour with plenty of room for stags…Two of the semi resident grey seals Dr Who and Trunk visit the boat

Dr Who is so Gorgeous…then stags out to see again

Came across this amazing pod of Common Dolphins whilst on route to a dive this week….how lucky are we!! They were hunting around us for about 2 hours and played with "Atlantic Diver " on and off whilst we waited for the slack water…what beautiful creatures, we are so lucky to live in Newquay and experience the marine wildlife here…the dolphins were looking up at the divers as they looked down over the bow of the boat and turning on their sides eyeballing right back again…awesome ….just awesome…!!!!

https://vimeo.com/69387992   Jay one of our divers videoed as they swam or should I say flew across our Bow Wave. He edited all of our collective footage and produced this amazing footage for us to share with you guys..thanks Jay..we love it

We are Master WiSe ( Wildlife Safe) boat operator which means we watch wildlife without causing disturbance, so it was great to watch them hunt from a distance and then they interacted with us when they wanted to….and they were curious…this is the best way to watch wildlife so you don't interfer with their feeding..its so rewarding to watch their hunting techniques.

 Amy then saw the Dolphin turn on its side and look right back up at her….this is always a tearful moment when you get direct eye contact with a Dolphin

 Chris giving his safety talk….trying to look cool for the pic

 Beautiful Gannets also passed by and a few blue jellyfish further off shore.

 and as always lovely Trunk back home in newquay Harbour….Trunk came over to investigate the camera

Fish Identifying Course took place in Newquay today and WOW!! what an amazing find…4 Giant Gobies. These fish were carefully ID ed and returned unharmed to their rockpool at an undisclosed site in Newquay. Course members helped pull a fish gathering Seine Net at the mouth of Newquay harbour and found species such as Brill, Plaice, Weaver Fish, Smelt, Shrimps and sand eel.

Lucky Anglers aboard "Atlantic Diver" on a Deep Sea Fishing Trip accidently caught a huge sunfish as it became entangled underwater around its dorsal fin by the anglers line . It was quickly disentangled and then released unharmed and swam away well. Our Skipper Chris Lowe said " it was huge! They are so weird looking!"

it measured about one and a half metres in length and weighed approximately 50lbs. It was so heavy they struggled to bring it onboard . 

Sunfish are not resident in the UK as they require temperatures of 10 degrees so usually live in tropical or temperate seas above 10 degrees. They come  across from the Mediterranean and feed on the jellyfish that we have been seeing here for the past few weeks as the plankton develops.Feeding  on squid, crustacean and small fish they can be swimming anywhere in the water column , so our divers and snorkeling passengers usually see them on reefs or wrecks but our Sea Safari passengers usually see them when they come up to the surface of the sea as they lie on their side , dorsal fin flapping and bask in the sun. Seabirds often peck at the parasites on them which sunfish tolerate as a mutual symbiotic behavior.

We have been seeing them everyday for the past week as well as Dolphins most days. This was a really rare and fantastic moment to share with our passengers….Don't you just love living and working in Cornwall.

Records of this have been sent to Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Dough Herdson a fish specialist here in Cornwall.

Trips for Fishing and Sea Safaris to spot for sunfish are going daily from Newquay Harbour 

to book please call dave on

07582 466 122

20th April 2011 Set to sea again in glorious April sunshine..positively Tropical!! Gary caught most unusual species of the day with ling and a male Cuckoo Wrasse but plenty more came in to throw on the B_B_Q. We passed commercial fisherman Gary on route working on his boat Shannon…a Newquay potting boat. We could see glimpses of crabs and lobsters …good catch Gary!

Another local Family fishing outing aboard the “Atlantic Diver” about 8 miles west of Newquay Harbour provided a good catch sustainably rod and line caught  ..plenty for tea and loads of fun too. Find more recipe ideas on http://www.fishfight.net/recipes/ and sign up to the Fish Fight on…   http://www.fishfight.net/

Two rare Leatherback Turtles have been spotted close to Newquay by local crabbing boats….sadly one had already died as it became accidently caught in pot ropes but the second spotted only a day later was fortunately disentangled by the skipper who said it was a large and very strong Turtle which swam immediately away after its release. Leatherbacks are not exactly native to our waters here but their superb thermoregulators and heat derived from muscle activity can raise their body core temperature to up to 18 degree celcius above the surrounding water temperature so the turtles can survive in our cooler sea temps which rarely get higher than 16 degrees unlike the Loggerhead Turtles which occassionally drift into our North Cornwall Coast along on the Gulf Stream and sadly get hypothermia, become unable to hunt, become dehydrated and if lucky are found and taken to the Blue Reef Aquarium for rehabilitation and eventual release into warmer seas.The Leatherback turtles are listed on the IUNC list of Endangered Species as Critically endangered and research shows that the main cause for this is the ingestion of plastic bags and other marine debri as well as human consumption in hotter climates and rarely bycatch. leatherbacks are the largest and fastest swimming turtle, travelling up to 35km/hour, diving up to 1 280m for 30-70 minutes. Their shell easily distinguishes them from other turtles as it has distinct ridges down its Carapace ( shell) which is made up of leathery skin unlike other turtles who have boney carapace. At this time of year the turtles will be foraging for jellyfish which are abundant , but their particular favourite is the Rhizostome or Barrel jellyfish, this helps to keep the jellyfish population down. For more info about Leatherback Turtles please see below link which was written by Prof. Matt Whitt…one of our local experts: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jan/05/leatherback-turtles-atlantic-journeys

Thanks also for pics and information given from the crabbing skippers