When we got to the bridge the conditions looked good, sea state of 2 and no swell. However, it was overcast so the light conditions were not ideal as we started Transect 52 and, as it turned out, they didn’t improve much all day.

During the first hour there was not a lot seen but amongst the few birds were a couple of Sooty Shearwater and a group of three Balearic Shearwater.

The fish scientists hadn’t done a trawl the previous evening, so we thought it won’t be long before we stop this morning, this proved to be the case, and we stopped after just over an hour. There was not a lot of fish showing on the monitors so the money was on a small catch.

There were only a few birds round when the trawl was recovered and these were all juvenile, the older ones knowing better. You can image the conversation between the juvenile and adult bird:
Juvenile: “Hey mum they’re fishing over there can we go get some”
Adult: “Little one, don’t bother, them humans don’t know what they’re doing”

The haul was pretty much as expected with only a small catch of Anchovy and Horse Mackerel.

We were back on transect just after 11:00. A couple of Common Dolphin appeared just before we started but they had disappeared by the time we were surveying. We were not seeing large numbers of birds, but it was good that we were spotting quite a few Balearic Shearwater – a total of nine sightings during the remainder of the transect. There was also a small raft of 15 Storm Petrels that took to the air as we approached.

We had not seen any surface activity before the trawl, and this initially continued when we resumed – until the last 40 minutes. Then we first encountered a few tuna in small numbers ahead of the ship, closely followed by a number of encounters with Common Dolphin again in small numbers.

We finished Transect 52 just after 13:30 but we only had a short 15-minute break before we were starting the next transect, 35. All I’ve got to do before the next transect starts is: make a drink, enter all the data, write the blog. I just made the drink.

For the first two hours of Transect 35 the only birds seen were Gannet, except for a single Kittiwake.

The sightings of tuna and Common Dolphin continued in a similar fashion to the previous transect again in small numbers. However just before the break for the trawl a couple of dark fins slowly moved passed the ship. On closer inspection these turned out to be Risso’s Dolphin, these were closely followed by another pair slowly passing the ship.

At 16:00 we came off effort while for another trawl, hopefully, not a second time for a small catch. As it turned out this was not the case – a large catch of Anchovy and Sardine was hauled on-board.

We resumed just after 17:30, the light had not really improved throughout the day so as we got towards the evening it started to get dark quite quickly. We managed to keep observing till just after 18:00 when bad light stopped play. Just as we finished three or four Goldfinch where seen on the back deck looking for a birth for the night.

So, what did we learn today:
• No targets on the fish monitor really does mean there is no fish
• Start the transect early so we can count the wildlife that always seems to be there before the transect