THE first recorded photograph of a bottlenose dolphin in Somerset waters has been captured by a wildlife volunteer off Hurlstone Point.
Louise Christiaans, a volunteer for Somerset Sea Watch, the Sea Watch Foundation, and Somerset Wildlife Trust, couldn’t believe her eyes when she was carrying out surveys for the Hurlstone Porpoise Monitoring Project (HPMP).
She caught a glimpse of a shape, “almost fish-like in the water”, which soon disappeared before resurfacing again on Monday, June 17. She said: “I took my camera out to zoom in and see if I could identify the species.
“At this point, the ‘fish’ then came out of the water and I managed to take a couple of shots believing that, in fact, this was a Harbour Porpoise.
“I excitedly took down the bearing of the animal and time of first sighting and waited patiently, camera in hand, to watch it re-surface. Unfortunately, I lost sight of it and carried on with the survey pleased that I, however, had at least one sighting. Once back at home and checking over my images, I noticed that in fact it wasn’t a porpoise at all. This was larger, had a beak, and a much taller dorsal fin.
“Combined with a lighter colouring, I was getting very excited that what I had witnessed was instead a Bottlenose Dolphin sighting. I sent my photographs on to Vanessa Lloyd, the Sea Watch Foundation regional volunteer co-ordinator, and Kirsten Hintner, also of the Sea Watch Foundation, to confirm the species. I received confirmation on Tuesday from Kirsten that it was the first recorded photographic sighting of a Bottlenose Dolphin within Somerset waters, an exciting sighting indeed.”
The Somerset Sea Watch HPMP is a collaboration between the Sea Watch Foundation and the Somerset Wildlife Trust, and the brainchild of both Vanessa Lloyd and Mark Ward (project manager of Somerset’s Wilder Coast Project) while being sponsored by Geckoella Ltd (Environmental Consultants).
The project has been active now for nearly eleven years and is “key” to assessing the Harbour Porpoise population along the Somerset coast. A small group of volunteers (Nigel Hester, Sophie Cooper, Ella Hughes and Louise) carry out surveys over a set number of hours each week at Hurlstone Point.
She added: “As well as this project, there are monthly surveys all along the coastline from Porlock up to Portishead, with trained volunteers diligently noting everything they see, including sightings of other marine species such as sunfish, jellyfish, grey seals and other cetacean species.
“Sightings such as of the Bottlenose are unfortunately rare, and therefore, by sharing them with the public we can hopefully raise awareness of our coastline and encourage more people to act as citizen scientists and report any sightings of marine mammals to the Sea Watch Foundation via either their Sea Watcher app or online on their website. Maybe the can even become trained volunteers themselves.