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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.

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.

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    

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!

Slightly 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.

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!!

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

We took the Atlantic Diver and the Bounty out into the Bay on a lovely warm spring day to have their photos took for the new website. 

The extremely cold winter conditions created an ice extravaganza along Cornish beaches the past few days….The rock pools at South Fistral were frozen and even the deeper pools had a layer of about 10cms thick ice…it is very strange to see the sea still. Icicles again hung down from the rocks in stalactight fashion..it was breath takingly beautiful. Despite this there were still surfers trying to catch a wave or two…now thats dedication!!