Manx Whale & Dolphin Watch - Online Diary - July Report

Another month of weird winds and wild weather - strange enough to make this shy heron take shelter in our front porch!

Despite limited opportunities to get onto the water and conduct the surveys, we did manage to see some spectacular animals around the shores of Mann.

Each time we travelled through the Sound, Grey seals could be seen lounging on the rocks, hauled out, resting or sleeping. There are a good number of young ones visible, like this one, sleeping in the sun.

One of the strangest sights was to see a helicopter land alongside the Chickens rock lighthouse and land 2 men and a woman who then ascended into the lighthouse.

Helicopter lands next to the Chicken Rock.

The ascent of Man and Woman.

During the month we had several days when press and film crews joined the team in order to capture the essence of the survey work and to sample our beautiful coast and sea. The Daily Express joined us for a couple of days, the first being dominated by strong winds and rising seas as we rounded the south of the Island and headed to overnight in Peel. The next day, the sun came out and we saw a lot of basking sharks, seals and the odd distant glimpse of marine mammals.

The enormous dorsal fin of a large Risso’s dolphin – easy to see how they sometimes get mistaken for that ultimate predator, the Killer whale – another Island visitor

However, things were to improve dramatically when the BBC arrived. Within an hour of boarding we were amongst a spectacular group of Risso’s dolphins, queuing up to have their picture taken and captured on film.

Mother and calf approach our boat.

Notice how the pale young calf rises high from the water to breathe – it has not yet developed the skill of breathing with the least effort and raises its head clear of the surface.

Another great shot of mother and calf close to the boat – her choice not ours.

The BBC filming continued through the afternoon when we went into Port St Mary and transferred the cameraman, Mike, to George Platt’s high speed cabined RIB, Platypus to get some action shots of us on Hot Totty. An hour later and we were back on survey, to the south-east of the Calf when we met a different group of Risso’s dolphins, this time, intent upon play and display.

Risso’s breaches clear of the water.

Then another spectacular leap – followed by the ‘wipe-out’ splash – this has got to be fun

The dolphins were about 100 metres away and continued to play and cavort, sometimes tail slapping the water’s surface, sometimes tail fluking – holding their tails clear of the sea.

Tail slapping the sea

Tail waved in the air

The dolphins slowly wandered off in a southerly direction and we left them to continue their socializing. Later that month saw us surveying ‘down’ North – as we say here on Mann. We spent a couple of days surveying Boxes 2 and 3 and were rewarded with no sightings of any sort. We then continued further north and completed Box 1 where we encountered a large number of Harbour porpoises off the Bahama and other sandbanks in that shallow stretch of sea. Harbour porpoise are really difficult to photograph, spending little time at the surface and generally avoiding or at best, ignoring boats and observers. Here are a couple of distant shots from off the Bahama bank area.

That’s about as good as you get with Harbour porpoises – distant shots of their fleeting presence at the surface. Just occasionally you will find a group feeding and then you will get some better photos, but so far, this is our best encounter. The month ended in surveying Box 8, top NW corner, north from Jurby to half way to Scotland. We saw porpoises and a minke whale - close enough to get a photo of its disappearing dorsal fin, and a breaching Risso’s.

Distant shot of Minke whale - now mostly submerged!

On the way home the boat struck something hard below the water 2 miles off shore and destroyed one of its stern drives.

Hot Totty removed for the water for repairs to one of her stern drives.

Luckily the weather remains desperately windy and we are not missing any survey days. We hope to be back in the water for the next fine spell – but this year is proving to be somewhat unusual and unpredictable. Despite the weather we have seen some amazing sights and we hope to share some more of these wonderful moments with you throughout the weeks ahead.