Its October so it must be time for the PELTIC 2025 survey.  We had all come together at Falmouth harbour ready for the coming survey, however, Storm Amy had other ideas and we were forced to shelter near Torbay for a couple of days to let the worst of the weather pass.  So, with this forced delay, by the morning of the 5th everyone was raring to go.

The omens were good, on our steam from Falmouth to Torbay we had seen four Fin Whale and more Common Dolphin than you could shake a stick at and loads of Great and Manx Shearwater, it hopefully bodes well for the transects in Falmouth Bay, doesn’t it?

However, as we started Transect 42, just to the west of Portland, there was a 2-metre swell and a sea state of six making spotting conditions challenging. Then to add to our challenges, here comes the sun, shining right into the bridge.

Only a few birds were seen, mainly Gannet and Kittiwake, we’d notched up one Great Skua when it was decided to break off the transect to do a shake down trawl to check everything was working correctly. The trawl went well except only a single small squid was caught.  So not much life at all in this area.

We continued the transect south to the end just to the north of Alderney with similar results. Amongst the wildlife there appeared to be quite a high proportion of younger Gannet compared to the number of adults.

We headed off to the west to start Transect 41, just before starting it a large group of Gannet was spotted feeding with something in the water below. This turned out to be tuna feeding amongst the diving Gannet, so it was not a surprise to record our first tuna just after starting the transect. A short while later the first Balearic Shearwater of the survey was recorded, it’s always good to see a Balearic as they’re a target species of the survey.  We carried on till the light faded which brought the first day to an end and we were ready for a golden slumber.

So what did we learn today:

• 42 may be the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything but as far as transects go it may not be.
• “All things come to those that wait” doesn’t always apply

On the 6th the two of us where up early on the bridge ready for what the day had to offer. First order of the day was to complete transect 41 so were expecting similar to day one.  However, overnight had been a long and winding road to get to a number of the sampling stations so we were now inshore at the north end of the transect ready to run south to finish at the point we had got to on day one.

Gannet and Kittiwake were in similar numbers to the previous day, while we were close inshore there was a bit of variety with the sighting of a few Black-Headed Gulls. A couple more Great Skua and the first Fulmar of the survey added a little more diversity to the species list. However, as we progressed towards the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) the number of birds dwindled (as it often has in the past!).

There was a short break during the morning while we performed the first proper trawl. The catch wasn’t large but that isn’t the name of the game, all that is required is a good sample of the school of fish seen on the sonar, in this a good sample of mainly Anchovy and some Sardine. I had been wondering why it was difficult to get tinned pilchards in the shops, apparently these have been rebranded as Cornish Sardines.

We had our first Common Dolphin just before the trawling break and a few more were seen while lining up for the trawl. When we got back on transect we encountered our first large ‘tuna boil’, a 100 metre patch of sea was frothing with tuna feeding with a large number of Gannet and gulls diving in around them. There were a couple more encounters with Common Dolphin before lunch but as with the birds the sightings dwindled as we approached the TSS.

We finished the transect around 14:30 and headed off west to start our next transect, No. 39. There were a couple of encounters with tuna and the same bird mix of mainly Gannet and a few gulls – all very quiet so far.

What did we learn today:

• Traffic Separation Schemes are not good for cetaceans or birds, they definitely don’t dig it
• In this marketing era even pilchards need a bit of rebranding