The following day was also sunny but we didn't have a skipper for the boat so I went to South Bay for a snorkel with a couple of friends. There was loads of life to see, lots of kelp and algae with small fish amongst it.
The research project has been allowed to have one free seat on a Whale Watch boat each day, so Sunday I went to try and get on a trip. As we don't pay we can only get a seat at the last minute if the trip isn't full, or someone hasn't checked in. I managed to get on the boat Tohora at about 1pm and although the sea was pretty choppy we managed to see four whales. These trips are a good opportunity to collect additional data and photo-ID for the project so it was a good trip. We came back to South Bay via Barney's Rock where there were lots of fur seals, including some pups who appeared to still be learning to swim.
Seals at Barney's Rock
Couldn't get out on the boat yesterday as it had to go for a 200hr engine check but got out today and tracked a couple of whales quite far offshore, including one that had a large scar across the right side of his head possibly from a ship strike of some sort.
