Thursday 10 March 2016

Common dolphin off the coast at Brighton


I received a sighting of a dolphin from Jess and her partner who spotted a dolphin swimming near Brighton's West Pier on Sunday 6th March.

I have since had a further report on 9th March and a photo from BDMLR  that shows it’s a common dolphin – this time breaching out of the water.

Common dolphins are seen occasionally near shore off Sussex but its not as common as its name suggests. BDMLR will be keeping an eye on the situation in case the dolphin needs assistance.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

A single Common Dolphin seen heading east from Telscombe Cliffs at 18:00, yesterday.

TonguesinTrees1819 said...

Those of you on Twitter may have caught the news that a dolphin was spotted off the West Pier in Brighton on Thursday 10th: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/03/10/dolphin-brighton-pier_n_9429046.html?1457631404&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067 As well as I went down there Saturday 12th March and was treated to a 1/2 hour of its antics. 2.45-3.15pm. The sea was flat calm so conditions ideal. Also there were lots of little boats out fishing so I think conditions ideal for the dolphin as there must have been a big shoal of fish around.
Initially the dolphin was just swimming (between the end of the pier and the marker buoy) so you just got a sight of it’s back and fin. But then it started breaching, jumping and rolling. We weren’t sure if one of the boats moving around spooked it but it continued this behaviour for quite some time. So we assume not.
It was steering well clear of any boats that tried to approach which a couple seemed to try and do. We found ourselves calling out it’s behind you to the helms people – though only to ourselves.
Alas we were too far away to get any pictures. Might try again today.
It was really wonderful to see and a Great Crested Grebe out there as well was a bonus.