www.seatrust.org.uk

Summer 2005 - Newsletter No 6

As the year progresses I could do with a bit of  mellow fruitfulness, indeed an Indian summer would be very welcome to finish off the small boat survey season. Frenetic seems the most apt adjective to describe the last few weeks and it’s a bit hard to remember all the things we have done!

Sarah put the finishing touches to our report and it is a lot bigger than the first. We will have to look at splitting it into sections so that it will be downloadable for those of us still denied the wonders of broadband.

Following on last years successful  “ Llanstadwell” awareness raising trip we managed to rebook her for the weekend of the 20/21^st of August to allow some of our supporters to get out and see where we do our work. Unfortunately only a few weeks before, I found out that the “Llanstadwell” had failed a Marine Coastguard Agency check and had its license withdrawn. Ever tried to find a decent boat for hire in the peak of the season? I did and still can’t believe it!

“Loentrophy” is a 60ft Ketch and has only just arrived in the area. I found her on a coincidental visit to Bury Port whilst on other business  Luckily she was available for the weekend and we managed to hire her. Unfortunately the weather was not quite so kind and we went out in conditions that were a bit rougher than we would normally work in.

“Loentrophy” coped admirably and the quietness of sail was a change from the drone of engines. We managed only a few sightings of Dolphin and Porpoises largely due to the chopped up seas. Of course a bit of wind suits  a sailing boat, the beautiful vessel coped serenely. Many thanks  to  skipper Geoff, and Valerie who crewed and also provided yummy food.

We hope to offer more exciting opportunities for Sea Trust supporters to come out on “Loentrophy” next year. With six double en suite cabins she offers some interesting possibilities of extended voyages. 

I suppose the big news was the media blitz that I inadvertently stirred up by releasing some film of a “Super-pod” of getting on for a couple of thousand Common Dolphins. We found them a few miles off the “Smalls Lighthouse”  whilst surveying aboard Nick O Sullivan’s “Celtic Wildcat” in mid August.

It was difficult to convey the immensity and intensity of such an experience and the film was not exactly professional quality but when Liz Shankland* passed my film on to the BBC and HTV they seemed to like it. The next thing we were appearing on TV Radio and Newspapers all over the world. Many thanks to Janet Baxter who donated her much more professional photo’s to the press which appeared in the Times and Guardian as well as dozens of local papers  including our own Western Telegraph and County Echo. I guess you could say we are doing pretty well in the awareness raising stakes.

I suppose one might expect we would do well financially out of such an event, but not a sausage apart from HTV who kindly donated £100 worth of DV tapes. Despite supplying photo’s and stories to the Press Association and them suggesting that anyone using them make a small contribution to our charity, not a bean. Maybe that’s what’s meant by a free press!

Our Stena Europe surveys are ongoing and continue to provide interesting and occasionally baffling results. Porpoises which we banked on seeing from the Tuskar into Rosslaire seem to be almost non existent this year.

Some members of the Dutch naturalists youth group the NJJ found a headless corpse on Rosslaire beach whilst coming over on one of our Stena surveys with us. (thanks again to Stena’s  Carl Milne for arranging very affordable fares) there seems to be a lot of small scale fishing activity in this area, coincidental?

The NJJ group aged between 12 and 25 were a marvel, sorting out their own transport from Holland and the necessary funding. They arrived late at night to their campsite at Newgale in torrential rain. The rain continued but they went off on their bicycles all over the area, surveying beaches, collecting samples and writing it all up. Committee member and SAC officer Sue Burton and husband Mark popped round to have a look at their work at the end of the stay and were  impressed by the high level of  scientific expertise the group had used to achieve their survey work goals.

They are going to send us a report which we will add to the site when it arrives.

As part of our Dolphin Coast Concept project we asked Cool Dave Edwards daughter Frayer to design a poster for us. This is it –WOW!

More to follow, allthingsgood,cliff