This week has seen a fantastic survey for our team of ORCA Marine Mammal Surveyors on board the Isles of Scilly Travel’s, Scillonian, sailing from Penzance-St Mary’s.
The team were lucky to record 35 individual animals from six species!
Team Leader, Karen, shares her experience:
As I approached Penzance, the horizon was clear and the sea was flat. Excitement was building for a great survey! I briefed the team and we headed up to the bridge. It was a slow start to our sightings, although there were 100’s and 100’s of Manx shearwater flying around the ship. About half way to St Mary's we had our first sightings of Risso's dolphins and a minke whale.
We then reached St Mary's for our 3 hour stop-over before embarking again onto the Scillonian for our return sailing to Penzance. The weather and sea state had improved which meant we had an incredible sighting of a basking shark passing right by the ship. This was followed by multiple sightings of Risso's and common dolphins, harbour porpoise and an ocean sunfish. The bridge crew were incredibly welcoming as always, and many of them had never seen a basking shark before - what a day!
