Marine Connection

Moray Firth latest

Well it looks like summer has passed us by the daylight hours are once again shortening, it's getting darker as I write this report. The weather in August was not much of an improvement on the previous months - so much so that if I happend to wake up to a sunny morning, I got excited and immediately looked out of the window to see the sea state. This year, when I have managed to get out on the water the sightings have been good but due to the amount of rain and high winds, it's really been a year for watching from land.

But in the past month sightings have not been too bad - bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpose were sighted regularly, in fact one one occasion a porpoise was seen feeding close to where the dolphins were which was very risky indeed! Minke whales were spotted on a few occasions and further out Rissos and also common dolphins were recorded. One evening I sat for two hours at the Covesea lookout with nothing in sight but a rare fantastic sunset, just as I was setting off for home a group of 20+ dolphins came into view heading east. That is the frustrating part when undertaking surveys/watches, you can wait for hours for nothing but in a way it makes it's so rewarding when the animals do appear.

In the area from Spey Bay to Banff the dolphins feeding patterns have been different this year, which has resulted in that stretch of the coastline having fewer sightings. Luckily, there have been new calves born into the dolphin population however one calf in particular has given us cause for concern as it has a large deformity on its back. However, on a positive note, this young animal is still seen travelling vast distances with its family and feeding well. Interestingly, this is the fourth calf I have seen over the years with a similar condition, and it will be interesting to see if we can come to a firm conclusion over the cause in the future.

Further down on the east coast at Dundee some of the dolphins usually resident in the Firth area, have remained there all summer with many travelling into the River Forth. At one point I had a call from the Coastguard at Fife Ness advising me that 50+ dolphins had been sighted early one morning. Even although I have been researching and observing these amazine marine mammals for many years, they never fail to impress me by the vast distances they are able to cover in such a short time and this is just one of the reasons I feel that holding them in captivity is wrong. Their natural environment is vast and varied, something that can never be reproduced in a poor or sea pen, and I often think how frustrating it must be for these animals penned off in an area of the sea that should be their home, just to swim with people. I beleive people should see these magnificent marine mammals in their natural enviroment, there really is nothing to beat taking a boat out onto the water and seeing them bow-ride alongside, a fantastic sight and something I always give thanks for every time I am lucky enough to encounter dolphins or whales.

Talking of promoting education and awareness on marine mammals and their habitat, now that the schools have returned from their summer break I will be heading along the coast from Fraserburgh to Peterhead with our educational roadshow, delighting many school children with our fun and games and making them aware how very lucky they are to have dolphins on their doorstep. In late September the Marine Connection will also be participating in the whisky festival in Dufftown as part of the great outdoors show although I won't be touching a drop myself!

In closing I would like to say thank you to all the Marine Connection adopters who visited throughout August, it was pleasure to meet you all and I hope to see some of you again in the future.