Yesterday had been challenging but the conditions that greeted us today looked perfect. The wind had dropped to a couple of knots, and the sea was calm with no swell. We took up position where we had finished the night before, ready for what the day had to offer.

The birds started slowly with Gannet and Great Black-backed Gull. A Pied Wagtail briefly landed on the ship, presumably forgotten to get its ticket to ride and left quite quickly. Just before 08:00 we started to see a few tuna, this was a help in identifying where the fish were on the surface and, as it happens, quite a lot of fish lower down on the sonar, so it was decided to break off the transect and trawl.

The trawl went well with a good sample of Sardine and Sprat, often as the trawl comes in there are loads of birds milling around but today just a couple of Gannet were drawn in, which seemed to confirm the lack of seabirds in the area. During the trawl I spotted what I thought were tuna but was then informed they were Common Dolphin, that’s when I realised I was wearing my reading glasses!

By 10:15 we were back on transect, conditions now were even better as the light had improved. We did not have to wait long before more tuna were spotted, these sightings kept coming over the next couple of hours intermingled with some Common Dolphin.

Initially the birds had continued as on previous days but then we started to see a few Storm Petrel, in ones and two at first but then a larger group was seen feeding with some Gannet. A while later a few rafts of Storm Petrel were encountered with 50 to 100 birds in each raft, it’s amazing how densely they pack themselves together on the surface. Seabirds, in general, were much more regular than on the previous days, whether this was down to the conditions or there were more birds is difficult to say.

An hour before the end of the transect there was a break for another trawl. This time the fish were a little deeper, so the trawl took a little longer and, unlike this morning, the seabirds gathered. As the net came onboard there were in the region of 100 Gannet diving in around the net, a much more normal circumstance than in the first trawl – perhaps it was due to the large catch of Sardine.

We finished the last 40 minutes of the transect with one more tuna sighting and a few more birds, mainly Gannet. There was a bit of excitement with the sighting of a new species for the trip, a Shag, which was the last bird seen at the end of the transect. With that it was a brief rest while me made the transit to Transect 37.

We managed almost a couple of hours on Transect 37 before we were brought to an early finish to do the third trawl of the day. There were good numbers of auks, predominately Guillemot, sitting around on the water on the transect, let’s hope they’re still around when we pick up this transect in a couple of days. The fishing was obviously good here as there were a couple of fishing boats with many Gannet and gulls feeding around them as they hauled their nets.

Even late in the day, as the light was going, the conditions were still so good it was possible to see tuna leaping 1500 metres in front of the ship.

So, what have we learnt today:
• Don’t use reading glasses when looking for wildlife on survey
• They may be called Storm Petrels, but they are best seen with no storm