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Ali's proud moment as he caught his first cod of the season during our Newquay Wreck Fishing Trip aboard "Atlantic Diver". He ate it for his tea with lemon, Garlic Mayo and crusty bread…now thats what you call fresh! and all sustainably rod rod and line caught. A male Grey Seal watched passengers aboard "Atlantic Diver " as she returned to Newquay Harbour. The sea is starting to look a little green…so plankton may be on the way. Basking Sharks have been spotted in Ireland and St Ives during the last few weeks…so keep your eyes peeled for dorsal fins breaking the water's surface.

To appreciate the size of the Bottlenose Dolphins , watch this video taken by Skipper Chris Lowe from onboard Atlantic Diver on Saturday http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/ beautiful dolphins with awesome powerful tail flukes!

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    

The "Atlantic Diver" was out in full swing today cutting a fine wash through the becalmed blue sea across Newquay Bay, "The Coast of Dreams". 

The Headland Hotel was looking Regal on the cliff top behind her. 

Today was our first day for 2015 Basking Shark Tagging with Professor Matt Witt and Professor Lucy Hawkes from University of Exeter at Tremough . A small team of us set out from Newquay Harbour aboard "Atlantic Diver" after recent reports of sightings of good sized basking sharks were shared to the Basking Shark Tagging hotline number 

07935 098 122

Wind and swell dropped and setting off at 6am conditions seemed perfect until…..the FOG arrived …and stayed. 

Despite the conditions , Matt spotted a small 4.5m basking shark, which by basker standards is relatively small. Unfortunately the shark swam just below the surface which made tagging impossible. The sighting was recorded and we continued to search. 

we are asking for the support of public to call in time and location of any sightings from sea or land as soon as possible , so we can pull the team together and deploy the tags .

More info about the project can be seen here

www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_445590_en.html

Gorgeous Newquay Seals were chillaxing in The May Bank Holiday Sunshine on one of their favourite rocks .

A member of the public kindly called British Diver Marine Life Rescue as they believed them to be tired and trying to climb on rocks to rest.

What a great call out to have as Marine Mammal Medics, Chris myself and Ben a newly qualified medic climbed down the cliff to see the seals snoozing  and doing their favourite normal thing of hauling out onto a favourite rock to dry out, digest their food and rest in the heat of the day. Was this the fastest call out after quaifying, apparently not Ben was pipped to the post by a medic who had a call out on actual day of training! We are proud to be part of this great charity which aims to come to the aid of Marine Wildlife in peril.Their hotline number is manned 24 hours a day

01825 765546

www.bdmlr.org.uk/

Two of our semi resident seals a female called Trunk and a Male Grey Seal .

As well as running daily Sea Safaris we will be running Workshop Activities in our new Newquay Marine Centre at Newquay Harbour where you can book to learn all about these enigmatic Marine Mammals and how to identify them . to book please call our booking office on 

07582 466 122

Bounty was out fishing off Newquay yesterday when eagled eyed skipper Ant spotted an awesome  7m “Basking Shark!”….Passengers were treated to “up close and personal” views from deckside …Ant called skipper Chris who was out on a Sea Safari aboard “Atlantic Diver”…who redesignated his passengers as shark spotters and went to look for it. The huge dorsal fin was spotted first followed by sighting of a second smaller shark. They fed mouths open wide in circular movements gentley and quietly together to the delight of the lucky passengers.

The sightings of Basking Sharks have been down generally around the Western UK coastline by an average of 35% this year due perhaps to the lack of zoo plankton at surface, on which the sharks feed. It may be that the sharks are feeding deeper down , so we are not spotting their fins breaking surface . Many are turning up in Scotland, so more likely they have moved on through following a richer food source. All of this means that yesterday’s skippers and passengers were the incredibly lucky to see such a rare sighting!!

We launched a shark expedition later that evening but the sharks had gone down…however we were treated to an extremely close view of a Sunfish . Spotted by Tricia .Sadly it had an injury to its right fin but it came right up close to our stern and stopped to watch us watching it…People watching….brilliant!!