In 2006 and 2007, in an effort to understand the seasonal habits of some of our most spectacular marine wildlife, MCS joined forces with the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter in a series of aerial surveys off the most south-westerly tip of Cornwall.
MCS helped coordinate the aerial surveys, the first of their kind in Cornwall, which were funded through the University of Exeter Cornwall Campus by the European Social Fund and Project Aware. The Cornwall Wildlife Trust is also a partner in this project.
Through the surveys we investigated the way animals such as basking sharks, cetaceans, seals, turtles and jellyfish use our coastal waters throughout the year. In time this information will not only provide us with a more detailed understanding of these creatures, but will also inform efforts to make Cornwall's booming boat-based marine wildlife-watching tourism industry more sensitive to the animals on which it depends.
The surveys flew from Land's End airport using Skybus Britten-Norman Islander aircraft and were carried out at least one morning per month, with each flight lasting a couple of hours. The route was a series of 32 zig-zagging legs along the coast from the Manacles to Portreath, surveying coastal waters out to about 3km using a method developed by the University of Wales Swansea in the Irish Sea.
Two observers at the front of the plane looked out for the larger marine wildlife, while two observers at the back window had the unenviable job of spotting jellyfish. From 150m in the air we could identify some jellyfish species (e.g. barrel, blue, lion's mane and compass jellyfish), as we could with cetaceans, basking sharks and leatherback turtles. Large fish such as sunfish are identified to genus where possible and seals are counted generically. A scribe sat between the two sets of observers recording the environmental conditions and sightings data.
The data from the surveys is currently being analysed and published by the Centre for Ecology and Conservation, but here is a summary of what we saw:
2006
January - test flight, we saw a seal
February - Common dolphins
March - A seal
April - nothing sighted
May - Surveys cancelled due to weather
June - Common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, blue, barrel and compass jellyfish
July - Common dolphins, harbour porpoise, basking sharks, sunfish, seals, barrel and compass jellyfish.
August - Basking sharks, sunfish, seals and barrel jellyfish.
September - Common dolphins, harbour porpoise, basking sharks, seals and compass jellyfish
October - Surveys cancelled due to weather
November - Common dolphins and harbour porpoise
December - Surveys cancelled due to weather
2007
March - Seals (probably grey seals)
April - Seals (probably grey seals), basking sharks and Rhizostoma jellyfish
May - Basking sharks (poor conditions)
June - Basking sharks and grey seals
July - Weather permitted only one survey, nothing seen.
August - Basking sharks, common dolphins, sunfish and blue jellyfish.
September - Basking sharks, common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, porpoise and grey seals.
October - Risso dolphins, porpoises, unidentified dolphin, seals, sunfish
