Saturday 6 August 2011

Harbour Porpoise

Its been a mixed week with the weather but it's been a great week for Harbour Porpoise. We have seen them everyday this week.

The Harbour Porpoise is one of the smallest of marine mammals and is quite hard to spot with it being so small. The dorsal fin, tail fin and back are dark grey and because they don't breach out of the water very much they are hard to see. If the sea is a bit choppy it becomes really difficult to see but thankfully this week its been calm all week and our sightings have varied from day to day.

Some days we have seen up to 6 on each trip but others we have just seen 1 for the whole day. We have also noticed that they have been in different areas all week to. We tend to see them roughly in the same place every time but a different times of the day. Yes, it all depends on where the feed is, but over the last week they have been at the Farnes, Stag Rock, below Bamburgh Castle and at the Harbour Entrance, hence the name Harbour Porpoise.

I read somewhere, that in Scotland, Bottlenose Dolphins have been attacking and killing Harbour Porpoise without eating them because they have come into their area and due to the decreasing food supply it's the only way Bottlenose Dolphins can survive.

Thank god we have an abundant of sand eels, herring and small fish to feed our birds and certations. They are also very shy so if your very patient you will be able to see them but they will not come very close to the boat.

I have also had some friends up for the week and they have been out nearly everyday and they have missed them everyday, until today. Bless, she was so excited to finally see them, that she was not even bothered about taking a picture.



1 comment:

daystar12uk said...

Thank you so much for an amazing week, it has been perfect even if the weather has been a bit hit and miss. Finally getting to see porpoise was the highlight of the week and the sunset cruise was awesome. The care, consideration and enthusiam you show to all your customers is second to none. Andrew, Keith and not forgetting Bud, you are simply the best.