Calm Waters Seal Release

Seal Pups arrive and spot the sea

This Season's rescued seals  have been released during a tiny window of calm waters. The excited pups telescoped thier necks high in the Cornish Seal Sanctuary tailer to spot the beautiful becalmed sea in a scenic Cornish Cove. Having regained their health and accumulated a whopping 40 kg in weight..thanks to Sanctuary Animal Care Team….MOST of the seals hauled themselves down into the sea, however one individual …"Crator" seemed a little apprehensive and climbed back into the trailer. Some seal pups take longer than others to re aclimatise .

Seal Pups Rush to the Sea

40kg Seal Pup

Miranda, Mars, Moon, Orion, Indus and Crator were the seals (named after space theme) who were all successfully released today , with more to follow tomorrow. Of these Chris and I were fortunate enough as British Divers Marine Life Rescue Marine Mammal Medics , to have rescued Indus and Orion ,with the help of a huge team of volunteers who have cared for these seals and the amazing and seemingly inexhaustive efforts of the vets and Cornish Seal sanctuary Animal Care Team….Good Luck little seals…if you spot a tagged seal please report location, date, time and pic if possble to sue sayer at cornwall seal group.

Crator runs scared back into trailerChris and Others Help Encourage Seal Pup to the Sea

Seal Pup Enjoying Swimming In Open Ocean Again Gorgeous Seal Pup Swims Away

 

Cornwall Tourism Awards

Iconic Celtic Bottlenose Dolphins being enjoyed from on board "Atlantic Diver" in Newquay Bay

Tonights the big night. Newquay Sea Safaris and Fishing are Finalists for the Cornwall Tourism Awards sooo..tonight we discover WHO have won the Bronze, Silver or Gold award for the Wildlife and marine Attraction of the Year 2014-2015. 

The Headland Hotel are hosting a Black Tie Dinner and Dance Award Ceremony, Chris Lowe ( gorgeous hubbie and skipper) Mike Taylor ( Marine Wildlife Guide) and myself are attending andddd ….we are sooooo excited. Will post on Twitter as soon as we know ourselves.

A huge thanks go to all of our Crew and Wildlife Team/Buddies with whom we have worked for the last 29 years and have helped us to shape Newquay Sea Safaris and Fishing so that we can share our knowledge of the amazing Marine Wildlife here off Newquay and North Cornwall Coast with members of the public as our guests on board our boats , on our tours and on our road shows, so that they can appreciate the diversity of the ocean and help enjoy it whilst working towards its protection for future generations….Phew…glad I said that before the fizzy champagne…I'll leave you all with an image of the Iconic Bottlenose Dolphins in Newquay Bay This year.

Cornwall Tourism Award Invite

Cover Girl Seal

"Cover Girl" Grey Seal spotted during Padstow Sea Safari

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. 

Guillemots returning to ledges ready for breeding

The Guillemots were also beginning to come back to their ledges ready for breeding season.

Bottlenose Dolphins are back!

Bottlenose Dolphins Porpoising out of the sea spotted from" Atlantic Diver"

Bottlenose Dolphins Play in "Atlantic Diver "bow wave just outside Newquay Harbour

Bottlenose Dolphins..Mother and last years Calf feeding off Newquay

 

These Bottlenose Dolphins hunting in style, porpoising high out of the sea!

Bottlenose Dolphin Mother and calf follow "Atlantic Diver"

Pod of 5 Bottlenose Dolphins feeding outside Newquay Harbour

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!cool

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!

Bottlenose Dolphins play in Newquay Bay

Beautiful bottlenose Dolphin plays with "Atlantic Diver" in Newquay

The Cutiest faces of the huge Bottlenose Dolphins as they hunted across newquay bay today and played in the bow waves of "Atlantic Diver"Bottlenose Dolphin spotted from "Atlantic Diver" in Newquay Cornwall

Fin damage from other Bottlenose DolphinsDolphins with " Atlantic Diver" in Newquay porpoising out of the sea

 Dolphins porpoising out of the sea whilst we stopped and watched from "Atlantic Diver's" top deck viewing platform…it was fintastic!!Dolphin Tail Lopping and porpoising whilst hunting in Newquay Bay

 

Bottlenose Dolphins

Bottlenose Dolphin in Newquay BayBottlenose Dolphin herding fish 

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”  Smile

A little juvenile seal “Radley”was hunting for fish just outside of Newquay Harbour too. Isn’t she cute??"Radley" the new juvenile seal….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!

Trunk is back

Blue Shark Cage Dive

Kate views from shark Cage

Shark Cage .. room for two

Bex in Shark Cage

Bex and Kate view dolphins up close and personal

Common Dolphin porpoising

Skipper Chris Lowe enjoying DolphinsSlightly choppier conditions took the chum far and wide and attracted 1 small Blue Shark to Atlantic Diver today. Dolphins were still porpoising around the boat but at a greater distance and in less numbers than before. 15 Storm petrels danced across the tops of the waves and Fulmars lined up to steal the chum. Our journey home again was enhanced by the playful Common Dolphins..three swam into our bow wave and crossed from the fast cat’s bulbs and shot forwards leaping out of the water in turns. Returning to the harbour the Seals were following the boat in and the Gig boats were launching for practise. The Commercial potting boats were landing their crab and lobster and the lifeboat launched to rescue visitors cut off by the tide. Never a dull moment.

Basking Sharks are HERE

basking shark by Rick Aryton

Juvenile Common Dolphin

common dolphins with Kylie

A Basking Shark…the second largest shark in the world has been spotted near Newquay by a local commercial Fisherman..aboard “Tis-ardly-on” …thanks Martin for the sighting!These magnificent creatures filter the equivalent of an olympic swimming pool every hour as they filter vast volumes of sea, into their enormous open mouths ,gathering up tiny zoo plankton through their gills which stick to the gill rakers and finally are swallowed down their tiny throats. At this time of year the plankton is at the sea surface so we can spot for them as their large Dorsal fin and tail fin break water surface. Atlantic Diver will be running Snorkel trips with the sharks when we have more sightings…keep a watch on the blog for more info. We were also treated to a spectacular display from a pod of about 10 common dolphins who had a calf riding the bow wave with them…Happy birthday to our special passenger who enjoyed her special Newquay Sea Safari. We are seeing a lot of pods of Common Dolphins with young at the moment ….lucky us…its a sailors life for me!!Wink

All trips watching/ snorkelling with basking sharks are run under the strict guide lines of the basking shark code of conduct . These beautiful sharks are a protected species under the wildlife and countryside act. We would request that all pictures taken by any one be sent to the Shark Trust with location details and date for photo ID …thanks 

for more information about the plight of basking sharks and the basking shark code of conduct please follow the following link: http://www.sharktrust.org/content.asp?did=35501