Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Seawatch SW Marine - Whale, Dolphin and Basking Shark Watch

15th August, Gwennap Head, Lands End

I confess. Stick me on a beach or a cliff in Cornwall and I spend all my time watching the sea for wildlife. There is nothing better or more exhilarating than seeing a flash of dark dorsal fin or a silky grey seal head pop above the water. The most impressive sights I have seen in my amateur marine watches were a pod of dolphins swimming across the bay at Portreath and a young seal playing in the surf alongside my daughter. Both events are lodged safely in my special memory bank.

Marine wildlife in Cornwall is a marvellous thing to behold, so imagine my delight when within days of moving into that glorious county I discovered the whale, dolphin and basking shark watch on the Cornwall Wildlife Trust website. The CWT is an inspiring organisation that promotes the conservation of Cornish wildlife. Their website states their aims:

Our vision... a Cornwall richer in wildlife, cared for and appreciated by one and all.
Our mission... to rebuild Cornwall's biodiversity and engage everyone with the natural environment.
Our aim... to be Cornwall's leading voluntary wildlife champion.

So back to the shark watch. I admit I was ridiculously excited by the prospect of seeing whales, dolphins and hopefully basking sharks. What a once in a lifetime opportunity! True it was a bit of a haul over to Lands End and an early start for my teenogres but they were almost as excited as I was!

It was a bit of a hike from the car park to the windswept meeting point but the warm greeting from Abby Crosby, Marine Education Officer, more than made up for it. With an enthusiastic and motivating introduction she explained the variety of Cornish marine life and what we could look out for today. The area is a hotspot for basking sharks and whales, and the Cornish dolphin pod are often seen here. There is also a seal haulout site at the base of the cliffs and as Cornwall is home to many of Britain's grey seals, we are privileged indeed. Abby paid particular interest to the children, my teenogres included, and handed out marine charts to record any sightings and identification sheets.

Armed with binoculars (courtesy of CWT) and some cupcakes (essential for energy) we perched ourselves on a rocky outcrop (not too close to the edge) and watched.

And watched.

The trouble with wildlife is that it doesn't appear on demand - that is what makes its appearances so special. So no basking sharks today (maybe they had been tipped off that we were coming) but some other watchers did see a minke whale. We saw many many seabirds - various gulls, cormorants and gannets - as well as a pair of beautiful seals who obligingly decided to spend much of the time we were there fishing within clear view!

So maybe next time.

The lack of heavyweight wildlife aside, we spent a wonderful few hours on a wild, windswept and remote piece of stunning coastline watching some beautiful wildlife go by. For someone whose romantic notion of Cornwall is wild and Poldarkesque, and who can hear the hooves of five and twenty ponies (Rudyard Kipling, A Smuggler's Song) in every smugglers' tunnel, this was a stunning place to be.

Of course the other thing we can't control is the weather and as the rain clouds loomed ominously, the lovely Abby called it a day. But not before giving us plenty of information on how we can help this excellent charity.

This was a wonderful event for individuals and families alike - we were made to feel very welcome by the team that was there - including Willow and Dy the dogs. If you get a chance to go along to one of their events please do!

Other ways you can help:

Look here for volunteer opportunities.

To report a live stranding call 01825 765546.
To report a dead stranding call 0845 2012626.
To report a live seal in difficulty call 01326 221361.

Jo

Basking Shark photo (c) Colin Speedie

Dolphin photo (c) Adrian Langon

Both photos taken from the CWT website, with kind permission of Cornwall Wildlife Trust

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