It’s been a productive season in Cardigan Bay, with our team busier than ever gathering data on the marine life in the area. Throughout the summer of 2024, a total of 31 line transect surveys were conducted, with 22 of these led by our New Quay team aboard Dolphin Spotting Boat Trips’ vessel Dreamcatcher, focusing primarily on the Cardigan Bay SAC. Additional surveys in the Pen Llŷn a’r Sarnau SAC were carried out by Research Officer Ben Murcott, Bodorgan Project Lead Jenny Bond, and Sea Watch Director Prof. Peter Evans.
To date, Dreamcatcher surveys have recorded a minimum of 82 bottlenose dolphin encounters, capturing high-quality images for photo-identification analysis. Identification work is ongoing, but many dolphins have already been catalogued, with several new individuals added to our records. Notably, there’s been an unusually large number of unknown, marked bottlenose dolphins documented in both 2023 and 2024, and these dolphins are currently being processed into the catalogue. Among them, we have the young female mother, Tallie, and her calf Summer—named in memory of our late intern, Tallie Brazier, whose love for the ocean and dedication to Sea Watch left a lasting impact.
Beyond bottlenose dolphins, we observed common dolphins regularly within Cardigan Bay SAC, particularly offshore from Cardigan. Two sightings of minke whales and one of Risso’s dolphins were also recorded on line transect surveys within the SAC, with an additional Risso’s sighting reported from a wildlife tour boat.
Our New Quay team was joined this summer by 24 dedicated interns from eight countries, along with Research Assistants Tristan Dickinson and Claire Diffin. We also welcomed two Education Assistants, Harriet Goodchild (a returning intern from 2023) and Bhavya Malpani, who helped lead education initiatives throughout the season. We extend our heartfelt thanks to our fantastic interns for their hard work and dedication—none of this would be possible without them!
Applications for the 2025 internship programme will open soon, and we hope to introduce the Tallie Brazier scholarship to provide a bursary for the Research Assistant and Intern Coordinator, supporting passionate applicants in their conservation journey.
As we look forward to the new season, we’ll be diving into data analysis to review our findings from the summer.
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