Couldn't resist blogging this utterly beautiful young female grey seal named "Cover Girl" spotted during Seal Survey and Ghost Gear Survey on North Cornwall Coast . She was quite curious and watched us watching her from aboard "Atlantic Diver", to the delight of all passengers onboard.
The Guillemots were also beginning to come back to their ledges ready for breeding season.
Atlantic Diving are again offering a chance to enjoy a 2 hour Sea Safari or 4 hour Fishing Trip from the superfast catamaran ” Atlantic Diver!”. All proceeds will be donated to the Tag- A-Turtle charity which is nearly half way through raising enough funds to Satelite Tag the next rescued and rehabilitated Loggerhead Turtle that is released from Blue Reef Aquarium. Details of the charity and to book your place please click the link below:
http://www.tag-a-turtle.co.uk/news.html
This fun day event will take place on Saturday 31st March 2012 so that it is open to families as well. The sea birds are now coming back inshore onto the cliffs to start breeding, so there is lots of wildlife to spot during the Sea Safaris.The Grey Seals that travel along the beautiful Cornish Coastline are begining to come back into Newquay Harbour and the surrounding area. Have fun learning about these little characters and learn to spot males from females. If we are lucky we may be treated to a glimpse of a pod of Dolphins. Bottlenose Dolphins reguarly feed along Newquay Bay. Enjoy learning about the Commercial Crabbing Boats that work out of the harbour but best of all come and experience our superfast boat trip whilst donating to this wildlife Charity!
Would -be Anglers learn the tricks of the trade from our friendly Cornish Skipper ,with your own rod and reel ,try to catch sustainably caught fish for “ee” suppers !!! Recent catches include :Cod, Pollack, Red Gurnard, Ling, Conger Eel and many more…..hot drinks available and proper toilet on board for your comfort.
Passengers are advised to arrive 15 minutes before the trip leaves to get parking space( available at Newquay harbour) and wear warm clothing as it is still early season.
Further details of all the great things happening in Newquay ,including this event can be seen by clicking on this link below:( with special thanks to Newquay.co.uk)
http://www.newquay.co.uk/whats-on-in-newquay/details/289-newquay-tag-a-turtle-fund-raisers
What a lovely suprise today..Chris spotted a small pod of Bottlenose Dolphins in Newquay Bay, just outside of Newquay Harbour. We identified 2 dark adults and 1 pale juvenile. They appeared to be hunting, herding the fish into shallower water by tail slapping the water’s surface. It was obviously a very serious moment as there was no play involved at all. We had a spectacular “Newquay Sea Safari”, right from the harbour wall. Today was a day I really enjoyed painting “Bounty” 
A little juvenile seal “Radley”was hunting for fish just outside of Newquay Harbour too. Isn’t she cute??
….and and of course we couldn’t forget our old favourite…”Trunk” ,a semi resident female grey seal who reguarly visits Newquay Harbour shes back…and looking gorgeous tucking into some fish frames….Welcome back!
These Bottlenose Dolphins hunting in style, porpoising high out of the sea!
Beautiful Bottlenose Dolphins were back feeding in Newquay Bay on Saturday. Lucky Brentwood Selo Sub Aqua Club were lucky enough to see them ride the "Atlantic Diver" bow wave as they approached Newquay Harbour. A pod of 5 including a juvenile / calf were foraging and herding what we think was sand eel. Occassionally they leap clean out of the water…simply AMAZING acrobatics!
After Sunday's storms, we hope they survived the unbelievable crashing waves that sank 3 boats in the harbour…devastating. The Life Boat Crew and other Harbour Users fought hard to salvage what they could. Deep respect for the sea when you see it change so quickly!
The Cutiest faces of the huge Bottlenose Dolphins as they hunted across newquay bay today and played in the bow waves of "Atlantic Diver"
Fin damage from other Bottlenose Dolphins
Dolphins porpoising out of the sea whilst we stopped and watched from "Atlantic Diver's" top deck viewing platform…it was fintastic!!
Botttlenose Dolphins have been seen around Newquay Bay for past few days…we have plankton at the sea surface at the moment so maybe the feeding is good here as the fish gorge . There was a pod of 7 and another of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWlkFDA1EZk
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!!!!”
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:
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!"
