The day after Storm Claudia had drenched the Midlands and parts of Wales, we were very glad to be boarding DFDS Stena Vinga on a calm and dry morning. The early mist had not yet dissipated by time we were escorted up to the bridge just after 11:00, so visibility for the first half hour of our survey was restricted to 300-400m ahead. Things soon improved however, and for the rest of the day conditions were great for surveying, with bright but cloudy skies and almost flat seas.

Wildlife of any sort was scarce for the early part of the survey. However, as Alderney came into view, we saw an adult Gannet accompanies by an all-dark juvenile flying strongly west, perhaps heading further south for the winter. Around the same time, we also had our only cetacean encounter of the day. A very energetic pod of 8 Common Dolphin approached the ship to bow ride, we had lovely views of them leaping and splashing on both sides of the ship, before they disappeared as quickly as they had arrived.

As the setting sun gave us some intense orange and red streaks across the western sky, we recorded a last flurry of Guillemot and Kittiwake, before concluding the survey some 8 miles north of the Jersey coast.

We are most grateful to DFDS for hosting us on Stena Vinga – as this was only the third running of our monthly surveys on this ship, we were pleased to introduce MARINElife to Captain Johan Karlsson and thanked him and his crew for their hospitality on board.

Jenny Ball and Helen Mears, Research Surveyors for MARINElife Registered Charity No. 1110884; Registered Company No. 5057367

Weather

Initially misty, then bright but overcast conditions, wind ENE F4-5