Marine Connection August Report from the Moray Firth

With the sun slowly moving back along the hills at sunset, this is the time of year to be out and about, watching. There is a saying up here in the north of Scotland "as soon as peter fair is oot then the nights draw in" and how true this is, it is dark now at 9pm - where is the summer going ?

Looking back, August has been a fantastic month for cetacean watching; meeting up with some great new acquaintances having a right old time in the process. I have only missed seeing the dolphins on 3 days out of the entire month! They have been around at various times throughout the days off Longhead from the Rainbow Hostel. Out on Delphis they were bow riding or travelling alongside, and when out on the bigger vessel the dolphins sometimes looked as if they were literally glued to the bow - looking up at us on deck, appearing to urge us to go faster. Recorded sizes of groups of animals have varied from around 10+ to 40+; we encountered some fantastic displays of breaching, flying through the air - sometimes landing on their back or side creating huge splashes, water cascading everywhere. They were swimming close to the boat, zig-zagging underneath from port to starboard - amazing encounters.

Sightings of harbour porpoise have reduced a bit, I feel this is mainly due to the very active dolphins along our coast at the moment, resulting in the porpoise staying well off shore. The two species really do not seem to mix well, and there have been recorded deaths of a few harbour porpoise caused by dolphins. However, that said, they have appeared a few times and how nice it is to see them, I hope to carry out more work in the future with these fantastic animals. Most porpoise sightings have been to the east of Port Soy when the Minke whales are around, perhaps they feel a bit of shelter in the presence of their bigger cousins!

Minke whales have been seen in fantastic numbers, some days 20+ animals have been recorded along the east side of the Moray Firth. On one occasion 4 were seen only 100 metres away from Port Soy harbour; lunging and feeding on mackerel. However sadly for observers in the area west of Cullen Bay, only a few minkes were seen although other areas including Lossiemouth and inner firth had good sightings of these fantastic whales.

Other sightings this month have included; 8 Risso's dolphins and 10 Atlantic white -sided dolphins seen in Cullen Bay heading east. Around the Firth sightings of Atlantic white-sided dolphins were recorded at Nairn near Inverness and at least 20+ sightings of Orca were reported. I have tried to get along to Lybster a few times in the boat to see them, but time and tide were alas against me.

Over the past month a host of adopters have passed through Findochty, some staying at the Rainbow Hostel and lucky enough to have fair weather for getting out on the water. Swanee seems to be the top dolphin just now with a few Black and Decker fans in there as well. It has been fantastic meeting you all, and to the young Star Wars fan, a big thank you for your drawings of dolphins, very nice!

August saw us taking part in various events and galas; Speyfest went well (lots of good music from Flook) and great chat with all the dolphin people there. During the National Whale Watch week, we held a few land based watches at Findochty and Spey Bay, sadly seeing nothing but we all had a great time on the beach. Out at sea we were more successful with sightings of dolphins and porpoise, and a couple of Marine Connection adopter families joined in the watch during their stay up here. The schools are now back and we have received enquiries about our popular educational talks - indeed I am off to Invergordon soon and am also booked to visit some retirement homes to bring the old folks some cheer with sunrises and sunsets and a few tales of dolphins in this area, so already I am expecting a busy Autumn and Winter.

The dolphins will no doubt still be around the inner firth until October, then we will switch areas and watch from Aberdeen. I know a few Marine Connection adopters are coming up to visit in October - a word of warning BRING A BIG JUMPER - it is getting colder and even although I will make sure that I always have a lovely hot pot of soup on the stove - you can still feel the chill !

See you out on the calm waters ……

Pete MacDonald