A glut of dolphins

I’ve seen superpods on David Attenborough programmes but never had more than about a dozen round the boat, which was exciting enough. The tricky bit was getting a photo including the nose with a single-shot camera. Even harder in early digital ones with a noticeable shutter lag.
 
capnsensible said:
I've twice been lucky enough to see a 'superpod' of dolphins south east of the Straits of Gibraltar. Awesome.
Click to expand...
We have seen this twice, first 80 miles off the Irish coast on passage from the Scillies and once in Wellington Harbour, NZ. Seen a large pod of Orca's in Wellington Harbour too, in Evans Bay, circling a mob of Kahwai in a feeding frenzy. That was scary!
 
Around 1977 I was heading S about 5 miles off across Torbay, and encountered a huge Pod heading North. I reckoned the could be as many as 60 or 80. Prrobably deosnt count as a superpod, but by UK standards it was exceptional,

I have also several times encountered the Cardigan Bay Dolphins off Aberporth/ Cardigan Island. On one trip there was a pod of around 6-8 of them following and playing round the boat for around 10 minutes. Then as suddenly as they had appeared they shot off.
 
That must have been a wonderful experience to see. Since starting sailing in 1965, I had never seen dolphins along side a boat. Whilst sailing round Britain I encountered my first pod, with a further 2 pods on the same day. I saw them leaping out of the water, ducking and diving by the bow and one doing repeated tail stands. Magical.

 
I’ve seen that sort of number of porpoises in the Irish Sea before, took probably an hour for them all to pass. We’ve seen pods of dolphins on every passage over the last few years and I’ve been wondering if it’s a result of more responsible fishing over the years, much like the return of whales and orca in ever greater numbers.
 
We had a tourist trip on a motor catamaran called nashira Uno, it was from Los gigantes to gomera through the wind acceleration zone, we sat in the bows because it was a following sea, we were surrounded with dolphins all the way plus we were supplied with beers from the friendly crew, it was a really amazing trip, the problems started on the evening re turn trip, we sat inside because of the head sea, the crew brought out a huge piella and top shelf drinks, out of 14 people 10 thew up on the way back, the piella was good and we were half pissed, brilliant trip:D
 
My largest pod was a trip rounding south of chicken Rock light house . Mahoosive pod of around a couple of hundred, all heading south towards Anglesey. Twas like bubbling seas of mackerel but bigger. Obviously no video footage so it never happened
 
Sailed through a massive pod of melon head dolphins yesterday. Must have been 5/600. Amazing sight. This was in the Maldives. You never tire of seeing dolphins swimming alongside the boat especially as they just seem to be doing it for fun.
 
IMG_1054.jpeg
This dolphin was either an escapee from SeaWorld or was auditioning for same. It tailwalked constantly in front of us for over half an hour. Luckily we had the motor turned off and gently drifting.
Sadly we didn’t have the sprats it was desperately asking us to feed it.
St Brides bay facing Skomer
 
Concerto said:
That must have been a wonderful experience to see. Since starting sailing in 1965, I had never seen dolphins along side a boat. Whilst sailing round Britain I encountered my first pod, with a further 2 pods on the same day. I saw them leaping out of the water, ducking and diving by the bow and one doing repeated tail stands. Magical.

Click to expand...
I used to sail with someone on the Forth who enjoyed tweeking for speed. We would do this on the Saturday before race day aboard his westerly 33 footer. Forget the model. We would stop to the east of the rail bridge and discuss his intentions over a coffee and then head out to the east where my job was to sail a steady course while he tweeked. The whole process was recorded electronically and a polar diagram derived.
We were surprised how often and for most of the afternoon we would be accompanied by one or more dophins. We suspect they recognised the sound of the whistling kettle so headed our way. They certainly derived as much enjoyment as us for an hour or two..
 
Was followed by a pod of 6-8 off Saltburn yesterday afternoon. Big bottle nose type.
We used to only used to see them in summer. Now it’s year round
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top