This week between 25th July and the 2nd of August is Sea Watches ‘National Whale and Dolphin Week’ and all across the country whale and all the way across the UK whale and dolphin watches have been taking place. The aim of this week is to gather data on the number and location of these incredible creatures and to raise awareness for their conservation.
Yesterday at Wembury we ran our own Whale and Dolphin watch event, setting up camp on the south west coast path overlooking the sea. Lugging telescopes, chairs and binoculars up the hill early in the morning to begin our search! Between 8am and 2pm we scanned the seas, scouring them for signs of these creatures, looking for the glint of a fin, the splash of a tail or the mist from their breath.
6 hours we searched and yet we found no signs of these creatures. Conditions were calm and so we thought we might have a chance of seeing a harbour porpoise or a passing bottlenose dolphin. We don’t hear of many whale, dolphin or porpoise sightings at Wembury but were hopeful. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
However we did see other wildlife: two stoats and a buzzard. What was really promising and positive was the amount of people who were interested in what we were doing, who stopped, had a chat with us and a look through our lenses. 26 people signed the Wildlife Trust’s ‘Ocean Giants’ petition which aims to create Marine Protected Ares to protect our marine megafauna (the big oceans creatures) including basking sharks, humpback whales, rissos dolphins and many more. I think this really shows that the public care about these creatures and want them adequately protected.
Would you like to get involved in a National Whale and Dolphin Watch? Look here: .
Learn more about the ocean giants campaign and sign the petition.
