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This extremely cute Whitecoat Seal Pup was rescued today from a local beach close to Newquay Harbour. He is only about three weeks old and suffered from possiblely infected bite wounds. After ensuring there was no mother nearby and that the seal pup was truely sick Chris and I acted with our medics hat on and retrieved the gorgeous pup to be transfered by other British Divers Marine Life Rescue Marine Mammal Medics. He is a good weight so his mum has fed him extremely well so hopefuly he will make a full recovery but his progress can be checked on:

http://www.sealsanctuary.co.uk/corn1.html

This is our fourth seal pup rescue of the season…its been a tough couple of weeks for the seals with the huge ground sea …for advise about what to do if you see a seal pup :

http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/index.php?page=stranded-animals

Who is this gorgeous seal that turned up in Newquay Harbour yesterday…?? Not enough of him out of the water to tell yet so we hope to get more images of him today to photo ID…isn't he big though? Watch this space for update….

Just had to share the boats in the gorgeous sunshine today. Seven Bottlenose Dolphins were in the Gazzel briefly …lucky passengers on Newquay Sea Safaris and Fishing Trip had a top side view from the top deck viewing seats. Happy happy day as the Bottlenose Dolphin pod is now reduced to only 29 in total , that we know of…lucky us. Kittiwakes were also very active feeding in the wake of the boats and sitting around in large rafts.

Cormorants and shags were out in their masses today and lucky passengers were able to see long and far due to yet another spectacular calm day at sea out on our Newquay Sea Safari. We were extremely lucky to spot a Great Northern Diver amongst a group of Cormorants perched on the rocks and also 1 male grey sea, 2 pretty female seals and 1 juvenile seal who popped their heads up to people spot us on the Bounty. A pod of approximately 15 Common Dolphins with a calf joined us riding in our  bow wave as we gradually returned to newquay Harbour spotting for dolphins and Basking Sharks.

All aboard for the dive trip of the century..as we left Padstow Harbour, “Atlantic Diver” cut through the glassy sea in the warmth of the newly found July Sunshine..awesome in itself you would think…Chris  let out full throttle and off we sped for a 30mile journey to the wreck site the REWA…2 Puffins flew past followed by numerous Gannets and hundreds upon hundreds of Manx Shearwaters…spectacular watching them take off from the waters surface, circle and reland again. Then over about half way through, a pod of about 80 Commom Dolphins  including calves were actively hunting, blowing bubbles from below and coralling in circles. Behind them was a pair trawler and having read recent research it would suggest that the dolphins have a familiarisation with the fishing vessel….or was it the other way around?

About 2 mile on and we spotted 1 loan Bottlenose Dolphin …unusual we thought, on its own …when…suddenly the tell tale bubbleblows surfaced and we realised there were more, at least 25 surface and porpoised out of the sea, some came to join us in our journey whist others reained actively hunting. Again calves were present and one adult had pocks marks all over its body. The water visibility was so clear that we could see ever y rake mark on their bodies’…..just breath taking. During this we passed 4 Potuguese Man-of-war jellyfish just below the surface, there may have been more but we passed rather rapidly.

Smiles all round and divers safely enjoying their dive, we waited still spotting for more Cetacean encounters. Two divers surface when….A MINKIE WHALE surfaced scooping up great mouth fulls of plankton….quick get the cameras….again it surface and again, circling Atlantic Diver and eventually came 100m to our port side…at this stage we realised that it was over twice the size of our 10m Blyth Catamaran and so with the surfacing pattern and the dorsal fin size and shape,we reidentified as a Fin Whale…..WOW absolutely AWESOME…best day ever. Divers continued to surface and some saw the whale…what a sightb that would be underwater during your decompression stops!!! Loving this job !! Thanks guys for booking our boat!!:0)

The weather in Newquay has been rather challenging this week but it didn't put off a group of stags who stayed the course and caught a dozen Pollack , a dozen Cod , plus plenty of Mackerel for a fishtastic  Bar-B-Que later .Hope this is a good omen for a long and happy marriage. Thanks to Matt ( Howler) for putting the trip together.

What an awesome day today…Summer was here!! Three cheers for sunny days I met up with St Agnes VMCA  volunteers and Cornwall Wildlife Trust staff, Matt Slater and Nicki , to help spread the word about how amazing our Cornish Marine Life is. We shared the fun of Rockpool Rambles, making Marine Art from beach litter, marine art craft, Cornwall Seal Group and Story telling and too much more to mention. Blue skies and warm Cornish sunshine blessed us as families and friends learned about the local fishermen who pot for Lobsters and Cornish Crab. Matt and John delivered a superb lecture about the sustainability of the Cornish potting fleet and how we should all support this wonderful industry thet provides fresh food for us with minimal impact to the marine environment. At present much of the Spider crab is sold abroad as there is a keen market for it there, BUT its a sweet tasting crustacean…kind of a cross between crab and lobster and Matt suggested we try it and champion it as our own home grown Cornish delicacy…..yummy, I know I love it!!…Try It. and support our local fleet.

The Rockpool Ramble found….Cushion Stars, Strawberry Sea Anenomes,Bull Huss Mermaid's Purses, Five Beard Rocklings of various ages,Brittle Stars, Purple Top Shells, and multiple crab varieties as well as spiney Star Fish, a Flat Fish, Sea Slaters , all varieties of seaweeds and loads more.

Families and friends created Marine Art made from marine litter, Marine crafts  from Jean's excellent selection of interesting things, listened to story telling and Cornwall seal group Sue sayer and Kate, taught us the perils of netting rubbish to grey seals and how they live painfully with net entanglement..good reason to pick up beach garbage as we go along…thanks to all today for helping to premote how amazing our marine environment is and how we can protect it but most of all to support the Marien Conservation Zones , so that future generations can enjoy days like today.

A special thanks to Chris …the new VMCA Ranger who fit us inbetween his night shift….now there's dedication!!

Spring has definitely sprung….A pod of 11 Bottlenose dolphins complete with three juveniles frollacked in the early morning Cornish Spring Sunshine in Newquay bay…”The Coast of Dreams ” early this morning. “Atlantic Diver” was out filming with the BBC for the upcoming Basking Shark season when a pod of our Celtic Bottlenose Dolphins surfaced, leaping out of the water, bubble blowing and tail slapping as they hunted in the bay.

They came over and surfed  the Catamaran’s twin hulls before returning to the rest of the pod who were seriously hunting fish. The three youngsters then played across our bow while we were stopped while the adults were busy at the job of foraging for food. The inshore pod played with us yestsrday morning as our son Ben fished for lobster and crab off his catamaran “Atlantic Voyager” and followed him all the way out to a popular reef. Delighted sea safari passengers saw them again off Newquay Headland when one of the larger males powered over to us mid hunt aand still had a fish in his mouth…”Er….that would be …finish your food before you leave the table then !”..it was fintastic!!!! I

This little dolphin was already rake marked

LOOOve dolphins  . All of our sightings are recored and sent to Cornwall Wildlife Trust .

A beautiful 3.6m Thresher Shark was bycaught in bass fishing nets 100m off Tintagel yesterday and landed in Newquay Harbour . Sadly occassionally cetacean like harbour porpoise, dolphins,and Seals and in this case Sharks become net entangled and often drown as a result. The target fish was Bass which we can only guess the shark was feeding on as they eat small fish, squid and other small sharks. The commercial fisherman kindly allowed us to record the size of the sharks dorsal fins and tail fin as this is a "BAP" ( Biodiversity Action Plan) species which the government has funded to monitor the health of the species. All sightings or landings of this species are useful to determine the population's health. The shark was landed whole and all of the carcus sold .

April went out as fishing frenzy aboard the “Atlantic Diver” and May came in as Fishie Galore aboard the “Bounty”, (skippered by  Anthony Hills). A spectacular array of species was caught during our 2 and 4 hourly deep sea fishing trips with Ling up to 12lb and Black Bream to 2 1/2 lb as well as mackerel, cat shark,gurnard, cod pollack,congor eel,launce and pouting…Happy Days!! This is what sustainable fishing is all about..rod caught and plenty of different species to cook and taste.

Try this simple to cook and delicious recipe for a really fresh supper idea:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/ling_cod_with_tomato_and_orange/