MARINElife Surveyors' Blog: Brittany Ferries
'Armorique'
Plymouth to Roscoff survey 8th to 9th April
2011
When we boarded the Armorique on Friday the 8th at around 21:30hrs the skies were clear and the crescent moon visible. As always, on any Brittany Ferries ships, the crew onboard was welcoming and helpful. They even tolerated my attempt at broken French!
The following morning we set up our work station on the bridge ready for the 08:30hrs departure from Roscoff. The sun was trying to penetrate a thin veneer of clouds but not quite making it. This meant the visibility was down to a range of between 1km and 5km. Visibility gradually got better throughout the journey peaking to a range of around 16km to 20 km.
We were hoping to report a highlight of the survey, but nature doesn't work that way. No sightings of any cetaceans this time and not a great number of seabirds either. Rick got a possible sighting of a Cuckoo of all things. It happened so fast it was impossible to confirm but I know Rick knows a Cuckoo when he sees one. Other terrestrial birds seen were a House Martin, a warbler species and a Swallow on its way to the UK. A number of migrating birds do hitch a ride on ships.
Whales and dolphins that can be seen on this route are Bottlenose Dolphin, Short-beaked Common Dolphin, Harbour Porpoise, Minke Whale, and Common Dolphin to name but a few.
Even though we didn't catch a glimpse of any cetaceans this does not mean it has been unfruitful. Not seeing these glorious mammals tells us a lot more than you might think and it is important that we get a good picture of what is and what isn't being seen from season to season and year to year in order to build up patterns of distribution and abundance.
Thanks again to Brittany Ferries and the crew of the Armorique for their hospitality and allowing us onto the bridge to conduct these important surveys.
Steve Hughes and Rick Morris, Research Surveyors for MARINElife (Registered Charity No. 1110884)
For a full summary of the species seen during this survey please visit our Plymouth-Roscoff sightings page.