Pat and I met up in Dover, drove to the port, obtained our day passes and queued to board the ‘Cote des Flandres’ 11:00 a.m. sailing. On boarding, we were escorted to the bridge and welcomed by the bridge officers. The partially cloudy, dry weather and slight sea were good conditions for surveying as these surveys can often be affected by glare.

On leaving the port, we began recording Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Gannet and Kittiwake and a pair of Common Scoter. There were also many auks in the Dover Strait, the cloudy skies and distance making it difficult to discern if the similar sized birds were Guillemot or Razorbill.

Each transect takes around 80 minutes to complete. Despite the absence of marine mammals on our survey transect to Calais this time, we are usually able to see a number of Harbour Seal hauled out on a small beach in the south of the port. Sure enough, despite the high tide, a dozen or more animals were resting on the beach.

Just over an hour later we were heading back to Dover. The birds we recorded were the same species as seen on the outbound transect. About half an hour into the return transect, Pat alerted me to a possible sighting of a sub-surface marine mammal. Frustratingly, as the sighting was brief and it did not break the surface of the water, we were unable to verify that a mammal was there.

We kept concentrating on the water ahead and were eventually rewarded by the sighting of a single Harbour Porpoise, swimming slowly within 200 meters of the ship. By this time a bank of low cloud had descended onto the sea and five minutes later we had to close our survey, as fog had engulfed the vessel and remained until we moored in Dover. We left the bridge having thanked the commandant and officers and prepared to disembark the ship.

We would like to thank Commandant Guilbaud, his officers and crew for making us so welcome during our survey. We would also like to thank the shore staff for their help in enabling us to collect data on this very busy route.

Pat Hatch and Carol Farmer-Wright, Research Surveyors for MARINElife (Registered Charity No. 1110884; Registered Company No. 5057367)

Weather

Outbound: wind SE-ENE force 1-3, sea state 2, partially cloudy, visibility good with glare at times

Return: wind variable force 3 dec. 1, initially bright, visibility good becoming poor in fog