Hello everyone,
We’ve had an exciting week here in New Quay, with several newborn dolphins spending time in the harbour! Eight bottlenose dolphins, including Smoothy, Floppy and Berry were seen feeding in the bay with three newborn calves. Daphna, our Monitoring Officer here in Cardigan Bay, was lucky enough to photograph them which you can see below. Two of the mothers have been identified as Berry and Smoothy but unfortunately the third mother was too far out for Daphna to be able to name. Whilst Smoothy, Floppy, the other five adults and two of the calves were leaping out by the Cardinal buoy, Berry and her newborn calf were seen right on the pier entrance giving all the spectators a wonderful glimpse of early life as a dolphin.
As you can see in some of the pictures, the dolphins have their tails straight up in the air as they prepare to dive down to the sea floor. They have come into shallower waters where it is safe to leave their calves whilst diving to feed.
Berry, seen in the close up shots with her newborn calf, was actually called Barry until recently as she was thought to be male! It was only when she had a calf that we realised she was in fact a female and has now been renamed to Berry!
Keep watching this page for more updates about the dolphins here in Cardigan Bay!
