Survey Route: Dover – Dunkirk

Then I glimpsed a dark shape in the water abut 250 metres off the port bow, which soon surfaced briefly once more, this time observed through my binoculars. It was a Harbour Porpoise, its characteristic small triangular dorsal fin visible fleetingly among the waves

One notable exception was a solitary Great Skua patrolling the Channel

I decided to have a rest break and joked to Pat that the Harbour Porpoises would now appear, sure enough, Pat recorded three porpoises in the next 15 minutes!

Approaching Dunkirk, a Harbour Porpoise was sighted a few hundred metres off the port bow

An hour into our transect we recorded feeding activity as a number of Gannet started diving into the water ahead of us …… despite keeping a close watch on the area, sadly, no cetaceans were spotted

a brief glimpse of the very tops of some small grey fins among the large grey waves, but then seen again, several more glimpses as they passed us by – two Harbour Porpoise swimming together

In spite of the sea state, we managed to spot two seals as we neared the English coast, the second identified as a Grey Seal

The reduced sea state enabled us to record a further six Harbour Porpoise, swimming slowly in ones or twos during a half hour period

As with other recent surveys on the Dover Strait, the number of immature Gannet was noticeable, including first, second and fourth year birds

Among the gulls, Kittiwake was the most frequently observed species away from the coasts