Sea
Trust runs a variety of activities throughout the year, aimed primarily
at surveying cetaceans in the seas around Pembrokeshire. We also strive
to involve the local community and encourage people to take care of
their marine wildlife. We rely on volunteers to help us carry out our
activities; If you would like to volunteer please email us from the
Contact page.
Strumble Head Porpoise Surveys
For many years Sea Trust Volunteers have recorded Porpoises from
Strumble Head both systematically and casually. The abundance of
porpoises at this site and its vunerability was largely responsible for
Sea Trust coming into being. Strumble Head attracts very large numbers
of Porpoises, including mothers with calves all year round. Although we
have great difficulty in estimating numbers of animals, slow scan counts
have produced accurate minimum counts of over 100 in peak season and
over 50 in the depths of winter. Sea Trust believes this area should be
protected from destructive fishing practices or industrial exploitation
although we recognise lobster/crab pot fishing in this area is a
traditional and mostly benign activity. Apart from Porpoises, several
other species have been recorded. Surprisingly, Risso’s are seen several
times a year particularly around the Christmas period. Other occasional
visitors include Basking Sharks and Sunfish whilst Fin, Humpback ,
Minke Whale and Orca have all been recorded. Despite being present in
good numbers to the North Bottlenose Dolphins are rare visitors to
Strumble.
Celtic Wildcat & Cartlett Lady Surveys
We conduct surveys from the “Celtic Wildcat” and the "Cartlett
Lady" in the seas south and west of Pembrokeshire going as far as 25
miles out into the Celtic Deep. These waters are rich in marine life and
attract large numbers of Common Dolphins. Our surveys have shown that
Pembrokeshire’s waters are used as a nursery area by the Dolphins with
many calves being born here. On rare occasions the separate pods in the
area form up into “superpods” and as many as 1500 to 2000 Common
Dolphins have been seen together! Minke Whales are also occasionally
seen as well as Fin Whales which are thought to frequent these waters on
a regular basis each August. In the past we have had the help of
limited funding from Environment Wales (A Welsh Assembly initiative) and
the Countryside Council for Wales. As funding diminishes, however,
these surveys are dependent of selling places on the surveys to the
general public. Click on “Boat Trips” for further details.
Stena Europe Surveys
With the fantastically generous support and help of Stena Line,
Fishguard, Sea Trust undertakes regular Cetacean surveys from the “Stena
Europe” ferry that daily plies the St Georges Channel. This is a good
sea area for Common Dolphins and the ferry probably offers the best
chance of seeing Risso’s Dolphins anywhere in the UK, with regular
sightings during the summer months. Minke Whales are occasionally seen
and in 2010 we added Fin Whales. The ferry surveys take place at least
once a month and as weather conditions must be calm to make them
worthwhile they are usually arranged at short notice. We try and give
volunteers a chance to join us on these, but our annual week long
Dolphin-othon autumn event is the best chance to take part. Click here
for further details. We are also working with the ARC partners the
Irish Whale and Dolphin Group who also conduct similar surveys on the
Irish Sea.
