Archives: Survey Reports
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Peltic survey update #8 20-24 October
Saturday 24 October An update from Fowey. Thanks to the impending arrival of Storm Austen, and strong winds on the days either side of it, we’re going to be holed up in Fowey until Sunday 25 October. Fowey is very pretty (photos) but being there for five days isn’t great. Still, changeover day on the…
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Peltic survey update #7 17-19 October
Saturday 17 October The sky was clear and there was a 15-20 knot wind blowing from the northeast, not ideal survey conditions, especially once the sun moved around and lined up with our transect! Unfortunately, we don’t get any choice in either the weather or the transect we’re doing so it’s just a case of…
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Peltic survey update #6 14-16 October
Wednesday 14 October The first transect for today started just to the east of Fowey, Cornwall and head due south for 90km. The species du jour this morning was Gannet, we recorded 255 on the transect, compared to 92 Guillemot, Razorbill and auk sp. and then 27 European Storm Petrel, everything else was in single…
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Peltic survey update #5 12-13 October
Monday 12 October It’s really not what you want to see when you get to the bridge – or rather don’t see – fog and a visibility of around 500m We were about 30km south of Plymouth ready to run the remaining section of the transect from the previous day but it looked like it…
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MARINElife VSAS survey report: Newhaven-Dieppe 11 October 2026
The return to earlier starts of the winter timetable for the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry meant we were able to settle into our cabin and grab a cup of tea before taking our position on the bridge to begin surveying. Despite some quite dire predictions of precipitation, we left in dry conditions with little wind and a…
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Peltic Survey report #4 10-11 October
Saturday 10 October The day began tucked up close to the Devon coast near Salcombe, although a vast improvement on yesterday there was still over 20 knots of wind and a sea state five. Visibility may have been excellent, but the colour of the sea made detecting birds quite difficult for the first hour or…
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MARINElife Wildlife Ambassador Report: ‘MS Oldenburg’ Ilfracombe-Lundy 10 October 2026
The tide was well in as we boarded the Oldenburg, and it was dry but overcast and windy. I talked with a lot of people on the jetty about MARINElife and gave them copies of our leaflet. There was interest in the seal population and how they were faring. The Oldenburg set off promptly at…
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MARINElife Survey Report: DFDS ‘Stena Vinga’ Portsmouth-Jersey 10 October 2026
We joined the Stena Vinga on a beautiful autumn morning and after settling in on board we waited to be called to the bridge to start our survey. After being informed that there would be a short wait, we decided to get some fresh air on deck and watched a large flock of gulls feeding…
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Peltic survey report #3 7-9 October
Wednesday 7 October We started the day tucked up close to the coast near Budleigh Salterton, Dorset under grey skies but surprisingly calm seas. The forecast was suggesting we’d have strong northerly winds today, but they obviously hadn’t arrived just yet. We surveyed for an hour and a half with Gannet, Razorbill and Guillemot being…
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MARINElife Survey Report: DFDS ‘Suecia Seaways’ Felixstowe-Vlaardingen 6 October 2026
Now that we are in autumn, the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, it was pleasant to drive down to Felixstowe in the evening to join the Suecia Seaways. With formalities completed by the staff at Dooley terminal, I was taken to the ship by Chris just before midnight and shown my cabin to get…