8th - 12th of July: Visit to Mayo

After one more successful encounter of bottlenose in the mouth of Killary fjord on the 26th of June (we decided that this was our best encounter so far due to the flat calm weather, clear water and dolphins foraging and displaying acrobatic jumps!) the weather seemed to continue sunny and more importantly calm so we decided to pack our stuff and head up to Belmullet, Mayo, for a couple of days and do surveys in the area.

Bottlenose dolphins near the mouth of Killary fjord on the 26th of June. Photo by Milaja Nykanen

After having (too many) whiskies with our gracious hosts, Ross, Barry and Kirstie on the previous night, we got up early and launched the boat just to notice that one of the engines was not working properly. Despite the engine problems and the hangover, we finally spotted some dolphins off a beach near Letterbeg on the west side of Belmullet peninsula after six hours of sailing. The dolphins were right in shore, less than 2m deep water and we (myself, Andy and Barry, who works for the CMRC Broadhaven team) observed them riding the waves and playing in the shallow water. The water was so clear and blue-green in colour that it seemed that we were somewhere in the tropics! We also observed the dolphins swimming upside down as if trying to catch something (flat fish?) from the sandy bottom, and at times they were blowing bubble rings when they were in deeper water which I have never seen before. I have to change my mind and say that this was our best encounter so far!

Bottlenose dolphins in the shallow water in Belmullet. Photo by Barry McGovern

On the following day we went out on the water again (this time with Ross who also works for the CMRC Broadhaven team) and saw another group of dolphins between Achill island and Duvillaun More just when we had given up hope to see them again and were heading back. The dolphins were again foraging, this time in the tidal rip between the islands. We had such good encounters and in general great time in Mayo - thanks again Ross, Kirstie and Barry for your hospitality!

Bottlenose dolphins jumping in Belmullet, Mayo. Photo by Barry McGovern

I haven't had the chance to properly go through the pictures that we got in Belmullet, but I recognized at least five individuals from the first day in Mayo that we have regularly seen down in Connemara. It certainly seems like the dolphins on the west coast of Ireland are very mobile and have wide home ranges.

Milaja

27th of May – 16th of June

On the 31st of May, Andy joined the team as the new boat driver, and we had the chance to go out and do a survey with both Andy and Ruadhan and show Andy the ropes. Unfortunately, on the first survey day we did not see any dolphins despite spending hours on the water and covering a vast area all the way from Cleggan Bay to Mannin Bay to Inishbofin and finally to Ballynakill Bay. What we did see, however, was plenty of seabirds including kittiwakes, cormorants, black guillemots and guillemots, gannets and lesser black back gulls. It was still an enjoyable and sunny day to be on the water despite the lack of dolphins, so nobody felt too disheartened about it.

A cormorant on the flight

On the 2nd of June we launched our RIB from Killary harbour and started heading north towards Clew Bay. Less than half an hour of driving, I saw two fins in the water heading towards our boat. It turned out to be a group of 12-15 bottlenose dolphins including two calves. One of the calves still had foetal folds around its body so it could not have been more than six months old. So cute!

Photo by Andy Foote

Some of the dolphins were heading into Killary fjord and we followed them there taking photo-ID pictures during the encounter. Once in the fjord, the dolphins seemed to be engaged in foraging and we observed them doing rapid surfacings (chasing fish?). After spending for about 1.5 hours with the dolphins, we decided to leave them as they started to head out from the fjord. In total, we took more than 750 photos of the dolphins that needed to be processed and matched with our existing photos and the UCC catalogue! All in all, what a great day we had, I was especially happy for Ruadhan that he got to see the dolphins once more before finishing his contract!

Andy and I had one more successful survey on the 4th of June, when we launched again from the Killary Cruises' slipway, and we did not have to wait for long until we saw a group of five dolphins possibly foraging in the mouth of the fjord. Sadly the sea outside the fjord was a bit too “white-cappy” which makes sighting the dolphins more difficult, so in the end we lost them already after 25 minutes. I managed to take some pictures though, and later noticed that one of the dolphins was the same one we had seen with Ruadhan on the 25th of May. This dolphin has very distinctive markings on its dorsal fin (see picture below) which makes the identification very easy.

Dolphin on the right photographed on the 25th of May and again on the 2nd of June. Photo by Milaja Nykanen. 

It looked like the weather was going to stay gorgeous during the whole week, and on the 5th of June we received lots of bottlenose dolphin sighting reports in Clifden Bay from the local people. Unfortunately the tide was too low for us to launch the boat from Cleggan or Clifden so we decided to drive to Sky Road by car and see if we could take pictures from land. We saw a group of up to 20 animals swimming outward from Clifden Bay and took some distant pictures that later turned out to be too far away to make any definitive identifications.

On the 6th of June, we launched again from Killary and headed out from the fjord with the intension of heading south towards Mannin Bay to see if the dolphins were still in the area. Near the mouth of Little Killary Andy saw a splash in the distance, and it turned out to be a group of about ten bottlenose dolphins. We stayed with the group taking pictures as they were moving towards the fjord. We saw another group of about ten dolphins near Inishdegil, and it seemed as the two groups were coming together. We stayed with the animals for almost 1.5 hours and saw three juveniles bow riding and four little calves swimming with their mothers as well as witnessed some jumps and leaps. After the encounter we left the dolphins and headed south hoping to see more dolphins. About a half nautical mile off the mouth of Ballynakill Bay we saw something in the water that turned out to be a single Minke whale!

We did not see any more dolphins in Clifden/Mannin Bay but we were very happy to have seen dolphins and of course the Minke!

Minke whale off Ballynakill Bay. Photo by Milaja Nykanen.

The past week has been quiet with windier weather and sadly without any dolphin encounters; instead our time has been spent tracking down some parts for the trailer and going through photos from previous encounters. We are hoping for better weather and some dolphins soon!

Milaja

11th - 26th of May

11^th – 26^th of May

I arrived in Claddaghduff, Connemara, on the evening of the 11^th of May. My husband Chris joined me for the first week while waiting for my research boat, a 6.5m rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RIB) to arrive so we could get on the water and start the work. During the first week in Connemara the weather was not on our side; it was way too windy to get out on the water. Besides it being too dangerous for the RIB to be in rough weather conditions with breaking waves and swell, it also makes research a lot harder to do because it is harder to spot the dolphins amongst the whitecaps and. It is also harder to take good photo-ID pictures when the boat is rocking and the light conditions are poor.

View to Kylemore Abbey, Connemara

The sceneries around the area are breath-taking and dominated by moors, mountains, rivers and lochs and we spent our time familiarizing ourselves with areas around Claddaghduff, Cleggan and Clifden as well as meeting people, having walks, swimming in the sea, climbing a mountain and establishing new contacts that might become useful for bottlenose dolphin sightings.

On Monday the 20^th Chris went back home to Cork, and I finally got my research RIB and also a field assistant, Ruadhan, who is going to be the boat driver for the first two weeks of field work. Also the winds finally started to ease up a little, so we decided to do a survey on Tuesday hoping to see some dolphins. On Monday evening I had heard promising news from the Clare Island ferry (Pirate Queen) drivers Brian and Allen; apparently they had seen dolphins almost every day during the week so our timing seemed very good. We launched the boat from Killary harbour shortly after 9AM on Tuesday and headed out. After driving for only about an hour towards the islands and skerries couple of miles outside Killary mouth, we spotted something in the water that turned out to be dolphin dorsal fins! We estimated around 10-15 animals including at least one juvenile and managed to take some photo-ID pictures until we lost the animals when they were heading towards some dangerous looking rocks where we were unable to follow them. We managed to stay with the animals for about half an hour and get some photo-ID pictures so all in all it was very successful first day on the water!

I compared the pictures I took to the University College Cork catalogue and found two matches. One of the dolphins had been photographed near the mouth of Killary fjord twice before in 2009 and once in Broadhaven Bay, Mayo, in 2010. The other matched dolphin was sighted in Broadhaven Bay in 2010. This supports previous findings that these animals seem to be mobile and move up and down the coast unlike the more resident Shannon bottlenose dolphins.

Photo by Anneli Englund

The same bottlenose dolphin photographed in 2009 and 2013. The animal can be identified based on permanent markings (nicks and notches) on the dorsal fin. Photo by Milaja Nykanen

On Friday 24^th, we decided to do a little survey launching from Cleggan Bay. We sailed around High Island and along the coasts of Inishark and Inishbofin but we didn’t see any dolphins, only seabirds including guillemots, black guillemots, kittiwakes and black-backed gulls.

On Saturday 25^th, I received a text message from Vinny from Killary Cruises saying that they had seen dolphins in the mouth of Killary fjord, so we decided to head over despite the rainy weather. We launched the boat in the afternoon, and only after about 15min of driving we spotted four bottlenose dolphins in the fjord. One of them was a juvenile and he/she was interested in our boat and came to bowride. The others seemed to stay away possibly foraging in the incoming tide. After about 15 minutes, the dolphins regrouped and started heading towards the open sea and we lost them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any good photo-ID pictures of this group due to short time spent with the dolphins, them staying away from our boat and bad light conditions. We had another brief encounter with two dolphins further out at sea but then it was too rough to keep up with them.

Hopefully these sightings will continue, I can say that our first week on water has exceeded all my expectations!

Project starting mid-May!

Hello everyone!

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Milaja, I'm originally from Finland and now living in the cool city of Cork in Ireland. I'm a new PhD student at University College Cork studying bottlenose dolphins (those guys in the picture below) on the west coast of Ireland. The focus of my research will be on the animals sighted on the coastal areas of Connemara, Mayo and Donegal.

©Anneli Englund

I'm starting field work mid-May, and I'll be based in Claddaghduff, Co Galway for three months with the idea of doing boat-based surveys mainly in the coastal waters of Connemara, Mayo and Donegal. Once we (hopefully) encounter the animals, I'll try to photograph as many bottlenose dolphins as possible using a digital SLR camera. The field work is funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Some dolphins can be individually identified from markings (nicks, scars and notches) on their dorsal fin and this makes it possible to keep a record of the sighting history of those animals by comparing any new pictures to the existing photo-ID catalogue of already known individuals. This gives us an estimate of the movements and distribution of the animals and we can also derive estimates of their numbers in the area (abundance).

Anyways, I'll be updating this blog every week once I'm up and running in Claddaghduff and uploading more pictures for you to see. Hopefully we'll have good weather (I've heard it's sometimes possible in Ireland!) and plenty of opportunities to see and study bottlenose dolphins in the coming summer!

Cheers,
Milaja Nykanen