Marine Mammal Workshop with Cumbria Wildlife Trust

Yesterday I attended a marine mammal workshop run by two of Cumbria Wildlife Trust's graduate marine trainees - Helen and Amy. It was great fun and I learned a lot of helpful identification tips for spotting different species of seal, dolphin, whale and turtle. We concentrated on animals that are found in the UK that we should be able to see in our local waters.

Halichoerus grypus, Grey Seal - Peel Island

Halichoerus grypus, Grey Seal - Peel Island

I have been meaning to get my head around seals for ages but I have probably spent too much time on other species. However we only have two main species of seals in the UK Halichoerus grypus, the grey seal and a Phoca vitulina, the common seal. I have looked in books before to identify them myself, but I learned some very helpful tips yesterday. Looking at the photos above I am guessing that most of the seals are the grey seal. I have deduced this, (using my new skills learned yesterday!), from the head shape. Grey seals have a long 'roman' nose with separate nostrils. The long nose can be clearly seen on the seal in the upper part of the photo above. I took the photos of these seals on Peel Island from a sailing boat a couple of years ago.

Getting surrounded by bobbing heads - The Summer Isles

Phoca vitulina, Common Seal - The Summer Isles

Phoca vitulina, Common Seal - The Summer Isles

When I was sea kayaking in the Summer Isles a few years ago, I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by seals. They kept a safe distance but were very curious and heads kept popping up everywhere. It was a great sight and I didn't want to leave. The seals in the photos above are the common seal. It can be identified by its rounder face with a shorter nose than that of the grey seal. It also has very defined 'V' shaped nostrils.

Phoca vitulina, Common Seal - Berneray, Outer Hebrides

Well I have to admit it is still pretty hard to identify seals in pictures taken from afar. I am pretty sure that both of the pictures above and below are of common seals. This is easier to see in the picture below due to the definite 'hooked' nose rather than the long flat nose. I was fortunate enough to spot these seals just off Berneray Island in the Outer Hebrides. There were plenty of seals here hauled out on the rocks. I would highly recommend this place for wildlife watching. Bereneray Hostel is beautiful and if I ever wanted to escape - this is where you would find me! Bereneray is also a great place for spotting otters but I didn't see any when I was there.

Phoca vitulina, Common Seal - Berneray, Outer Hebrides

 Berneray Hostel, Outer Hebrides

Berneray Hostel, Outer Hebrides

The other place I have seen seals in the UK is off Holy Island on the north east coast. The picture below I am confident to say is of a grey seal.

Halichoerus grypus, Grey Seal - Holy Island

Before I get too carried away about seals I had better mention that a lot of the workshop was also based on whales and dolphins. I learned a lot of useful tips about the shape of the dorsal fin and markings. I have been lucky enough to see the Harbour Porpoise very close to home off St. Bees Head but I have no photos. I have also seen them around the Scottish Islands on a number of occasions. I am now quite familiar with their rounded movement through the water and the small triangular shaped dorsal fin. 

I have seen common dolphins off a dive boat near Knoydart, but again no photos. One thing I have found is that if a boat is moving and the dolphins are playing in the bow wave I prefer to just watch and enjoy it rather than rush around with my camera trying to get a shot! The handy tip of the workshop was when identifying common dolphins was to try and see the hourglass shape marking with the light yellowish colouration to the front and the black V shape that comes down under the dorsal fin. With the bottlenose, the main identifiying feature is the bottle shaped nose.

I have also seen a big pod of dolphins off North Stack on Anglessey. I am guessing they were bottlenose dolphins but they were too far away to identify. This made my visit to North Wales.

Cetorhinus maximus, Basking Shark - Canna

Cetorhinus maximus, Basking Shark - Canna

The one animal I have been very fortunate to spot was Cetorhinus maximus, the basking shark and this was near Canna in the Scottish Isles. I was there on a diving trip in August 2014 and we went to see if we could find any. We saw two of them but they were a bit shy and when I got in the water with a snorkel they swam away. I did however get a great view of all the plankton that the basking sharks were feeding on. I think they were ephyna, baby jellyfish. In the first photo the dorsal fin can be clearly seen and I think that it is also the caudal fin towards the back rather than the tail. This means the shark is actually quite long if you can imagine where the tip of its nose and its tail are. 

The other animals that we talked about were turtles. There has been some interesting sightings and beachings of the UK this summer. A leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea, was sighted near Drigg in Cumbria and three Kemp's Ridley turtles were found washed up on UK beaches. One of these was found on South Walney Island and was taken into care into Maryport Aquarium suffering from the cold. I am extremely fond of turtles. I have been fortunate enough to snorkel with a huge Green Turtle, Chelonia mydas, in the Galapagos Islands and seen a young one when snorkelling in Costa Rica.

Chelonia mydas, Green Turtle - Galapagos Islands

Chelonia mydas, Green Turtle - Galapagos Islands

So overall I had a great day at the workshop and it reminded me of all the marine mammals I had spotted. The one thing that I always take from days like this is that there is always something new to be learned. It is a great way to share knowledge with like-minded people and expand your own interests.