Marine Mammal Surveyor, Jules, shares her experience of her first ORCA survey sailing from Plymouth to Roscoff on the 6th September:
For a first time experience, this particular crossing is ideal! From start to finish it was easy to understand why ORCA prefer new surveyors to take the short routes and get a few under their belt before taking part in the longer surveys. The sailing time of 22:30 at night on the Plymouth-Roscoff route is ideal to get to the appointed cabin and chat with the other team members on board.
We asked the Brittany Ferries staff to allocate our rooms to us so nobody had to pick or choose. Not that it would have been any kind of issue. We all got on very well. There was a gentle awakening at some very early hour and this did become more persistent although I was fully awake quite early. We were soon all up and had managed to locate coffee machines ready for disembarkation.
We walked into the town of Roscoff and descended on the only café open for the petit dejeuner…a lot of lovely French bread! The weather was great for walking and exploring and the time went very quickly. A swift snack in the terminal and back on board for the 14:30 sailing and by 14:45 we were on the bridge ready for action.
I was set the task of Recording first and had the Team Leader was on hand for assistance as she was on Rest first. The other two surveyors, Lou and Sophie, were the Port and Starboard Observers respectively and the first half hour went really quickly! The sea conditions were perfect for surveying and the sighting frequency increased as we headed towards England.
We were so very lucky to also get a wide variety of opportunities to sight different behaviours which are associated with cetacean activity – such as birds feeding on the surface- a huge frenzy and amongst the dolphins, a precise sighting of a larger back and fin – a minke whale. I also experienced the speed with which common dolphins arrive and disappear! They are rapid and our conditions made it easy to count them, but I can see how hard it would have been if the conditions had not been so perfect.
In total we saw over 80 common dolphins, one minke whale and a probable fin whale. The dolphin behaviour was everything from feeding, swimming, breaching and bow riding and we saw several distant blows from the large baleen whale which appeared to be surface feeding. The bridge was an ideal platform for surveying, and the crew were welcoming and also excited to see the blow of a whale!
Thank you ORCA for the opportunity to grow my experience and confidence and be ready for the next one!