Plymouth-Roscoff

Michael Bamford and Maggie Gamble, MARINElife Research Surveyors

Harbour Porpoise Phocoena phocoena 2

Fulmar Fulmarus glacialis 294+
Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus 19
European Storm-petrel Hydrobates pelagicus 7
Gannet Morus bassanus 176
European Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis 1
Great Skua Stercorarius skua 1
Pomarine Skua Stercorarius pomarinus 1 (juvenile)
Parasitic (Arctic) Skua Stercorarius parasiticus 1 (juvenile)
Skua sp. 1 (juvenile)
Herring Gull Larus argentatus 51
Yellow-legged Gull Larus cachinnans 2
Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus 22
Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus 80
Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla 6
Tern Sp. 3
Large Gull Sp. 200+

Eurasian Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus 1

MARINElife Surveyors' blog: Brittany Ferries 'Armorique' Plymouth to Roscoff survey 9th August 2011

It is the height of the holiday season, with a ship full of families and their cars, and an extra rapid turnaround in Roscoff allowing a survey on both legs of the trip.

We set off on time at 08.00, and were on the bridge before departure. The visibility was excellent, on a bright but seemingly just too windy day - the water was slightly choppy with whitecaps and as we got out into the channel a swell left over from the previous day's higher winds made viewing less than ideal.

We started with good expectations of possible sightings at this time of year - cetaceans, basking sharks, sunfish and migrating seabirds, were well on the cards. We had glimpses of 2 Harbour Porpoise. The seabirds were more obliging with several Storm Petrel and Manx Shearwater, and some larger concentrations of Fulmars some in an interesting stage of moult. One of these groups was a flock of over 200, settled on the water in the wake of a trawler, but getting up in a tight flock as we approached. Juvenile skuas gave us an interesting challenge. A well seen Arctic skua had the narrow wings and characteristic buoyant twisting flight. Another brown skua with a deeper body and more direct flight, seemed much more likely to be a juvenile Pomarine Skua , and another on the water was indeterminate, but more probably again an Arctic Skua. A solitary Great Skua (Bonxie) also put in an appearance. Some larger gulls were on the move, with a large concentration of Great Black Backed Gulls outside Plymouth harbour.

Light was fading at 8.30 pm, as we approached Plymouth, and we therefore had to leave the bridge.

Once again we were very well looked after by the crew and staff of the Armorique, and though we tried some of our rudimentary spoken French, English remains very well spoken here!

Michael Bamford and Maggie Gamble, Research Surveyors for MARINElife