Page 7 - BBC Wildlife - August 2017 UK

60 Claimed top speed in kilometres per hour CHRIS
S
of common dolphins, after orcas probably
the fastest cetaceans in British and Irish
KHAM’S
PACK
waters. They typically cruise at 8–10kph.
T-SEE
MUST
Q CONSERVATION
DON’T MISS MAKING
Wild UK A SPLASH

FORMOREBRITISH W dWonders of Europe/Lundgren/naturep .com
WILDLIFEACTION almer seas mean August is prime
CATCHUP ON iPLAYER
time for cetacean watching
Caround the British Isles – you
don’t need to head as far as the
Mediterranean, Canaries or Azores to
marvel at dolphins riding bow waves
and leaping out of the water. Common
dolphins are more abundant and
widespread here than their bottlenose
cousins, with good numbers off western
coasts in summer, attracted by shoals
of sprat, sardines, anchovies and
mackerel. Climate change has also
resulted in warmer-water fish species
such as sardine and anchovy spreading
into the North Sea, and common
dolphins appear to be following.
You may strike gold and spot a pod
of dolphins from a headland in Cornwall
or Pembrokeshire, but they mainly stay
offshore in water at least 100m deep. So
your best chance of a sighting is to book
a boat trip, or take a ferry to the Isles of
Scilly, across the Irish Sea or between
Hebridean islands. “Usually you’ll see
sub-groups of 8–20 individuals, though
occasionally you get bigger groups of
hundreds,” says Peter Evans of the Sea
Watch Foundation. “But there’s so much
we still don’t know about common
dolphin movements. It could be that
there is a continental shelf population
and an off-shelf population, for example.
We need more dedicated surveys.”
GET INVOLVED The Sea Watch Foundation
National Whale & Dolphin Watch runs until 6
August: www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

SPLASHES
` OFFSHORE OR
DIVING GANNETS
ARE CLUES THAT
DOLPHINS ARE
IN THE AREA.”

BBC Wildlife 7