Field Notes

17 August 2010: Research boat, Aberdeen, UK

09:11 GMT

"We were lucky to find dolphins today...we had been out for a couple of hours and were almost back at harbour when we found them almost back where we had started from! Almost simultaneously the rain suddenly stops falling and I breathe a sigh of relief that we will be able to use our cameras to do some photo-identification work. The pod of white-beaked dolphins is spread out and we estimate around 10 animals. They are travelling slowly northwards and don't seem to be in a hurry...quite different from our usual encounters with this species which tend to be with highly active feeding animals that are quite difficult to stay close to. The sea state is calming down with every minute and soon becomes glassy...we can see lots of small, perfect jellyfish suspended in the clear water below the boat. It isn't long before a few dolphins approach the vessel to bow-ride, and with the perfect sea conditions we can see every scar and mark on their bodies as they swim alongside the boat. One large heavily-scarred animal that we presume to be a male seems to be particularly interested in the boat. When we stop and put the engine in neutral, he swims in circles around us and then makes several passes right underneath the boat from side to side, rolling to stare up as he does so. At one point he pauses, motionless, beside us and slowly eyeballs the boat...we are so shocked to see the usually-hyperactive white-beaked dolphins behaving this way that we fail to take a single picture of the moment!

There are two mother-juvenile pairs in the group, and one of the juveniles is also particularly taken with the boat, leaving his mother and coming racing in to bow-ride. Despite the clear water we find it difficult to track the dolphins - they seem to dive quite deep beneath the boat and then reappear suddenly just before they surface when their white patches shine clearly through the dark sea. After a very memorable encounter we head back to harbour and leave the dolphins to search for other entertainment".

3 August 2010: Research ship, Gabon, West Africa

12:51 GMT

"While the others are bringing the hydrophone back onboard the vessel, I return to the bridge wing to do some opportunistic surveying. During the southern hemisphere winter, humpback whales use the warm tropical waters along the coast of West Africa as a breeding and calving ground. The highest densities of whales are found over the continental shelf and in coastal waters, and we have been surrounded by humpbacks almost constantly during our week's survey off the coast of Gabon. Now is no different, and as I scan the horizon ahead of the ship I see the blows from various pairs and small groups of whales. Suddenly there is a commotion in the water a few hundred metres from the starboard bow, and the flipper of a whale appears amidst the growing radius of disturbed white water.

The whales are often surface-active on their breeding grounds, with vigorous displays of flipper-slapping, tail-lobbing and breaching. I pick up my camera in the hope of some action, and fortunately the whale starts a series of half-breaches just at that moment!".

1 August 2010: Research ship, Gabon, West Africa

16:39 GMT

"Large vessels are not ideal platforms from which to carry out photo-identification work, but since official survey work is completed for the day then we decide to try and use the time to collect some humpback whale fluke shots. We sail for a while, travelling past single whales and those that are quietly travelling while we search for a group that will be easier to approach and work with in this large ship. A series of blows a mile or so ahead of us reveals a pod of four humpbacks, and we decide to approach slowly for a photo-identification attempt. As is so often the case the whales have other ideas...and as the ship drifts slowly towards where we last saw them, they surprise everyone by suddenly appearing close to the stern with a series of loud, explosive blows! Diving steeply at the stern, the whales re-appear on the opposite side of the ship to us and there is a stampede as the entire crew manoeuvres their way to the other bridge wing clutching a variety of cameras and video recorders!

The whales dive underneath the vessel once more and then swim slowly away from us, lifting their flukes as they sound and allowing us to get identification images of the unique pattern of black and white pigmentation on the underside of their tails".

9 July 2010: Research boat, Aberdeen, UK

10:26 GMT

"After a two-hour transit north we find the bottlenose dolphins at their usual haunt...leaping around after fish in Aberdeen harbour mouth. There are at least ten animals here, spread around the breakwaters and frontal zone in small sub-groups and its clear that we have arrived in the middle of an active fishing session! As always, the large size and power of the bottlenoses is striking after watching white-beaked dolphins for the last few weeks...their surges through the water in pursuit of fish produce huge swathes of white water and enormous splashes. The dolphins must be contentedly well fed, for they readily approach our research boat for a bit of bow-riding, and several times they also break away from their feeding to bow-ride supply boats and the pilot boat as they travel in and out of the harbour.

The dorsal fins of most of the dolphins are recognisable from our photo-identification catalogue, and I spot a couple of my personal favourites in Carter, with his distinctive fin with three large notches, and Fitri, a juvenile with a deformed spine. Even when the rain starts falling over the grey North Sea its impossible to feel downbeat with such lively company!"

29 June 2010: Flatey ferry, Breiđafjörđur, western Iceland

09:48 GMT

"We are about 45 minutes into the ferry crossing between Stykkishólmur and Flatey island, when the tall dorsal fins of white-beaked dolphins appear during my binocular scan. The dolphins are feeding between the islands of Stagley and Bjarneyjar at the halfway point of the ferry trip, and as I scan around I can see there are at least three sub-groups spread out across this area. Prey seems to be plentiful as the dolphins are very surface active with much splashing and leaping as they chase fish. As the ferry draws level with them the dolphins begin to leap from the water in a particularly energetic manner, falling back onto their sides and backs. One animal performs a series of multiple consecutive forward leaps, slapping its tail heavily on the water surface with every exit from the water.

I have not seen white-beaked dolphins doing this before, and can only guess that the loud sounds produced by the tail slaps may have some communication purpose. For a while it looks as though this dolphin will approach the ferry to bow-ride, but it stops leaping while still several hundred metres away and turns back to rejoin the other animals and resume feeding. We observe several other dolphin groups before we reach Flatey island, and also see dolphins again on the return ferry trip – there must be plenty of fish in the area today."

26 June 2010: Eyjafjörđur, northern Iceland

20:17 GMT

"From the cliffs this afternoon we have been watching a large group of around 40 white-beaked dolphins feeding in the fjord, and now we are heading out on a whale-watch boat to try and take a closer look. The weather is not perfect with a fresh northerly wind blowing down the fjord, and it is a slow (and wet!) journey out to the north of Hrísey island where we last saw the dolphins. We are some way to the north of the island and the wind is dying down for the evening when the blows and dorsal fins from surfacing dolphins suddenly appear. It is a small group of around seven animals, presumably a splinter group from the larger dolphin pod we were observing earlier. With typical white-beaked dolphin enthusiasm they quickly approach the bow of our vessel and spend several minutes bow-riding, switching from side to side under the boat and moving several metres away each time they surface. As is so often the case with this species in Scotland, they quickly tire of playing around the bow and move away to resume foraging behaviour.

We follow the dolphin school for just under an hour, attempting to take photo-identification images on the multiple brief occasions that they pass close to the boat again. With the backdrop of snowy mountains and the weakening midnight sunlight, the white-beaked dolphins in Eyjafjördur really leave the impression of being truly northern dolphins."

Our trip was with Bátaferðir whale-watching based in Dalvik (http://www.bataferdir.is/Whale_watching.html).

20 June 2010: Hvalnes, south-east Iceland

16:28 GMT

"We simply cannot drive past Hvalnes, which can be translated as ‘Whale Point’, without taking at least a brief look at the sea! The water is very calm, and several minutes after arriving I have a first sighting…a harbour porpoise swimming slowly north. I am so engrossed in watching the porpoise through binoculars, that I entirely miss the second sighting and it is my companion who alerts me to a closer dorsal fin. Only a couple of hundred metres from the cliff edge the long back of a minke whale surfaces, its pointed head and neatly falcate dorsal fin clearly visible with the naked eye.

We watch the whale swimming off the headland for over 30 minutes…it seems to be using the tidal rips around the point for foraging, and perhaps these features are helpful to the whale by aggregating prey. After losing track of the minke, I watch another porpoise swimming past the point – this animal is also travelling along the tidal rip, accompanied by several gulls. Hvalnes certainly lives up to its name, with almost constant cetacean activity in the hour that we spent there."

17 April 2010: Research boat, Aberdeen, UK

13:53 GMT

"There has been a lot of dolphin activity off Aberdeenshire this week, and after a large group of dolphins were seen this morning we decided to head out on the boat even though the sea state was not ideal. We are fortunate to find dolphins after less than 30 min of searching…the give away splashes and spray stand out even against the choppy sea state as the dolphins surge forwards powerfully through the sea heading south. We turn the boat out to meet them, and scanning along the area with binoculars I can see there are a lot of animals in the region…but they are very spread out and going to be difficult to work with given the sea conditions. Initially we try to photo-identify individuals in a group of around 20 animals as they head south and into Stonehaven Bay for a bit of foraging. The school seems to find little prey at Stonehaven, and soon turns northwards again and we follow them up the coast towards the villages of Newtonhill and Portlethen. As we progress up the coast, new animals keep appearing and we quickly lose track of individual group sizes and associations…the dolphins are spread all along the coast in various sub-groups and are clearly merging and splitting groups continuously as some stop to feed while others move on. There are dolphins heading south, others heading north, and some simply hanging out in an area feeding in the spots where fish are plentiful. And there certainly seem to be plenty of those today! I have rarely seen so much feeding activity along the coast here…not only are there large groups of seabirds circling in all directions (including the first gannets I have seen here this year!), but the dolphins are visibly surfacing with large fish in their jaws.

One animal catches a fish so large that it spends several minutes at the surface manoeuvring the fish in its jaws and trying to swallow it, with an escort of hungry herring gulls following its every move! We see a couple of juveniles throwing smaller fish out of the water, and frequent bursts of high-activity fish chasing and capture by entire schools. All of this food means the dolphins are well-fed and in fine spirits for some play behaviour too…wherever we take the boat and regardless of our speed, dolphins come swimming into the bow-wave to play. At times entire sub-groups porpoise fast towards us from behind, and speed past the boat as if showing off! The choppy sea means that the water is not clear today and we cannot see the animals at all when they are subsurface – we are frequently caught out by the sudden appearance of three or four dolphins right beside us, their loud explosive exhalations startling us! In total, we spend about 3 hours with dolphins constantly all around us, before we have to head back to harbour. Even then, we run into more and more dolphins along the coast on our way home. A great day at sea!"

10 April 2010: Research boat, Aberdeen, UK

08:34 GMT

"The sea state is perfect today, and the group of around 15 bottlenose dolphins that we are following are in a sedate mood, travelling slowly northwards up the Aberdeenshire coastline and staying very close to the cliffs. There are two mother-calf pairs in the group, but they are staying furthest away from our boat with the adults keeping themselves between their calves and the boat. I don’t recognise many of the individuals in this group…they are not particularly well-marked and only two animals have obvious nicks along the trailing edge of their dorsal fins. One of these we know as ‘Salami’ (ABZ46 in the dolphin catalogue) and we haven’t photographed it here since May 2007. Most of the other individuals bear an assortment of scars and scratches but few visible notches and I am unsure of their identity. The dolphins are travelling so slowly that we struggle to maintain the boat at a low enough speed to keep level with them. Instead we adopt a pattern of moving slowly ahead and then stopping to drift as they catch up with us, sometimes sneaking up right behind the stern before surfacing with a loud exhalation of air. Several of the larger dolphins approach the boat intermittently to bow-ride, and the glassy sea state allows us to watch their movements as they swim alongside and under our boat, and twist and turn in the bow-wave. For such large animals they can be incredibly graceful.

However, one of the young calves has an obvious spinal deformity and is moving very awkwardly through the water. Several times it seems to stop moving forward entirely, and merely lies on the surface flapping its tail without producing any propulsion. We wonder if this calf is the reason that the group is progressing so slowly along the coast, or perhaps they are just in a relaxed mood. On only one occasion does the mother bring the calf close to the boat, when they swim for a few short seconds close alongside the boat allowing us to get a good view. We see a lot of calves with spinal deformities in this region, but I have not personally seen one as bad as this…the young dolphin has a very concave back almost in an S-shape and it appears to have difficulty properly using its tailstock. When the dolphins begin to show signs of tiring of our presence, we stop and watch them swim past us one last time, the calf once again enveloped protectively in the middle of the group."

23 February 2010: Girdleness lighthouse, Aberdeen, UK

14:18 GMT

"About an hour ago I received a call from Ian Sim of Stonehaven Dolphin Research, telling me that a large group of dolphins were heading north up the coast towards Aberdeen. It's a beautiful day with calm blue seas and sunny skies, and when I reach Girdleness lighthouse I stop to take a quick scan across the sea. I'm not expecting to see the dolphins here yet as its about 14 (land) miles from here to Stonehaven, and I am in the process of deciding whether to stay here and wait for them to arrive or whether to head further south to Cove where they will probably pass close to the cliff and give me a better chance of getting some useful photo-Identification images. However, when I scan south across Nigg Bay I am excited to see the unmistakeable splashes of porpoising dolphins. They are here already! And the leading dolphins are moving fast...they are further out to sea than usual and are porpoising strongly through the sea producing 'rooster tails' of spray. We don't often see bottlenose dolphins behaving in this manner, and I am curious to see whether they will stop at Aberdeen harbour to feed or whether they will continue northwards. The first wave of dolphins to go past is too far offshore for photo-identification, and I watch them through binoculars instead. More and more dolphins appear at Nigg Bay...they seem to be spread over a large area and groups of up to 10 animals come past at a time with several minutes in between some of them. Some of the dolphin schools are much closer to shore, and a group of roosting eider ducks get a shock when one large bottlenose surfaces amongst them!

All of the dolphins are travelling very purposefully...I get the impression that they are on the way to somewhere and aren't in the mood for wasting time. Almost every group of dolphins seems to speed up notably once they pass the lighthouse, with aerial activity and much splashing. A businessman stops his car and enquires about the identity of these animals...I explain that they are part of the Moray Firth bottlenose dolphin population and he tells me that he took his family to Chanonry Point in the Moray Firth for a week last year and didn't see a single dolphin! Together we estimate that at least 60 and probably 70 or so dolphins have come past the lighthouse in the 45 min period from start to finish. When I drive around to the harbour mouth there are a couple of dolphins just leaving the breakwater, but most of them are several kilometres north and I can see them through binoculars spread all across Aberdeen Bay from the beach to quite far offshore. I'd love to know where they are heading in such a hurry!"

Later analysis of the photographs allowed the identification of one animal - Black 'n' Decker (No 29 in the Aberdeen Cetacean Catalogue) - unfortunately the other dolphins were simply too far from the coast to obtain images of sufficient quality to permit identification.

9 February 2010: Ecotourism boat, Kenya, East Africa

07:11 GMT

"When most of your work with bottlenose dolphins is carried out with the large common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in the turbid grey North Sea, it comes as something of a shock to see their smaller relatives the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) swimming in clear blue tropical waters! The school is small and contains just four animals including a young calf. The dolphins politely stop at the bow of our ecotourism boat and pose for tourist photographs, as if this is all part of their daily routine. Indeed it probably is, since in this area of Kenya several boats go out to sea daily to show tourists dolphins and other wildlife, and I suspect the local bottlenose dolphin community is well used to such visits. Two further boats full of tourists motor towards us, and the dolphins duly pay a visit to the bow of each of them. The clear blue water is a real treat, allowing us to observe the dolphins easily as they swim below the surface and interact with one another.

After briefly amusing themselves with the boats, the dolphins return to foraging with lots of tail-up dives, changes of direction and the occasional leap. The young calf is not able to hold its breath for as long as the adults, and frequently surfaces alone and with considerable energy, splashing the water with its tail. The calf is too small to be weaned, and with a regular supply of milk available from its mother then it probably has less interest in hunting prey than the other dolphins! With the excellent visibility, we can see the youngster reunite with its mother when she returns to the surface from deeper dives. I am struck by the relative ease of working with cetaceans in such idyllic conditions…being able to track the animals as they swim below the surface offers many advantages in terms of behavioural focal follows, evaluating social structure and carrying out photo-identification work. And the calm seas and excellent light make photographic work much easier here compared to my usual study area in the North Sea."