Dolphins on R Crouch.

[DanTribe]

Granddaughter's boyfriend has caught some great pics of dolphins leaping on the Crouch today. Definitely dolphins, not porpoises, he says, and he has a masters degree in biology.
I will try and post pictures if I can.

 

[Supine Being]

Nice. I thought I'd seen some in the outer crouch a few years back - I was pretty sure they weren't porpoises. Anyway, these people might be interested if he can be bothered: Recording/Submitting Sightings & Forms

 

[Dave 71]

Interesting. A couple of fellow berth holders at Fambridge mentioned that they had seen dolphins in the Blackwater last year, and I recall a local news item perhaps a couple of years ago about a large pod seen out near the Gunfleet turbines - quite a rare species too, White Beaked dolphin. As far as I know, the southern North Sea is the only part of the British Isles that wouldn't normally have dolphin, so seems like their presence is a new thing. I'd like to think its a sign of a healthy eco system, at least locally and maybe helped by the Thames being cleaner? Although the cynic in me thinks its more likely that they've run out of food elsewhere. Would be nice, though, if they became 'regulars'

 

[Daydream believer]

I saw dolpins off Sales point at Bradwell in 1958 when a pair surfaced inches from my Silhouette. They rolled in the water & I saw the 2 humps just under me. At 11 years of age I thought it was a monster from the deep. I wrote about it in an essay I entered for the Musto Magic of Cruising competition. I won 3rd prize. They spent a short while in the Blackwater that year & never returned for a good 20 years as far as I can recall. When they did ,it was reported in the Maldon local rag.
Sailing to Ostend as often as I do, it is not unusual to see them just past the Longsand Head & I have seen them on the leg between the end of the Gunfleet sand & the end of the Black Deep. But rarely so.

 

[RivalRedwing]

We encountered a small group off the Maplin Sands in the late 1990s

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Interesting. A couple of fellow berth holders at Fambridge mentioned that they had seen dolphins in the Blackwater last year, and I recall a local news item perhaps a couple of years ago about a large pod seen out near the Gunfleet turbines - quite a rare species too, White Beaked dolphin. As far as I know, the southern North Sea is the only part of the British Isles that wouldn't normally have dolphin, so seems like their presence is a new thing. I'd like to think its a sign of a healthy eco system, at least locally and maybe helped by the Thames being cleaner? Although the cynic in me thinks its more likely that they've run out of food elsewhere. Would be nice, though, if they became 'regulars'

Might it actually be because the wind farms make "no go" areas for fishing, so there's more for dolphins etc. to catch there?

 

[DanTribe]

About 1990 my kids were doing Stone Cadet Week and a dolphin turned up to play on the start line most days. The kids all claimed that they could call it by slapping a paddle on the water, well maybe, but it often appeared.
Never seen them on the Crouch before.

 

[dolabriform]

I saw one in the Medusa Channel on Saturday

 

[Dave 71]

Might it actually be because the wind farms make "no go" areas for fishing, so there's more for dolphins etc. to catch there?

I'd always assumed that their distribution around the UK had more to do with the gulf stream, although whales and dolphins are more common in the northern part of the North Sea than I'd thought, so maybe not. Certainly the turbines must create mini reefs and in turn support bigger fish and their predators.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I'd always assumed that their distribution around the UK had more to do with the gulf stream, although whales and dolphins are more common in the northern part of the North Sea than I'd thought, so maybe not. Certainly the turbines must create mini reefs and in turn support bigger fish and their predators.

I think their distribution has more to do with the availability of food species. Of course, the Gulf Stream is a factor in the distribution of prey species, so they will follow it - but they're following prey, not the Gulf Stream as such. The correlation is with prey, but prey are correlated with factors like ocean temperature, so you get a correlation with things like the Gulf Stream as a sort of second hand thing. They're also pretty intelligent and well able to learn from experience, and even pass lessons from parents to offspring, so they will have learnt that the vibrations from wind farms indicate a location with higher densities of prey.

 

[paris]

there was a video of them on the facebook page for Fambridge yacht harbour, well worth a look.

 

[RivalRedwing]

Now on the Beeb too:
Dolphins filmed in 'especially rare' river sighting

 

[prestomg27]

We had two follow beside us as we left Ramsgate for calais last week. I'd not heard of them that far east in the channel before but I guess to be seen in the Crouch they've come round from the channel.