Encounter with a bottlenose dolphin, 1985

Description

Steve Hartley is the founder of Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre, New Quay. He now runs Dolphin Survey Boat Trips, however previously fished the waters of Cardigan Bay.

A member of our Living Seas Team sat down with Steve, to discuss his memories of life in the Bay. Here, he discusses a close encounter with a bottlenose dolphin whilst fishing in 1985.

Recollection as follows:

"I remember a couple of instances that stick in my mind, that I’ll never ever forget.

One was I used to fish in the Cobble – it’s out there now, that white one: 'Linda Lloyd'. I used to own that, and I was fishing a few pots...and I was out one morning round by the fish factory, and there were a couple of young animals foraging, where they do, round there by the factory. I was coming along at about 6 or 7 knots to collect my pots by the bird colonies. And a couple of young animals came along to bow ride with me for a while – I didn’t approach them, or change my passage as I was going to get pots – and it was a pleasure to have them join me.

So that was really cool, I thought: 'isn’t it cool to have these animals with me' – it was great going along with them. Then they peeled off and went back to what they were doing, and I carried on…And then just by target rock, I had noticed there was a solitary animal foraging there – I was aware of it, but hadn’t thought about it while I had the young ones chasing around me…Then they left, and I thought 'that was nice'…And the next thing the biggest dolphin you’ve ever seen – I was doing 6 or 7 knots in the Cobble - and it came up absolutely vertically and directly on my bow! It crashed down on the right-hand side - I can see it now! – and I throttled off straight away, and I went to the middle of the boat because I was genuinely frightened.

The animal was huge, the full 14-feet, and I remember thinking the girth of it was the size of a small cow! It was a massive animal! And it proceeded to do this same action: vigorous head slapping in a great semi-circle until it ended up in front of me, and then it dived down and sort of quietened down a bit.

If that wasn’t telling me: 'get out of my breakfast!' ...it was such a communication, and really frightening! You know, I was in a 17’ open boat genuinely felt threatened. I genuinely got the message from that animal, from what it was trying to tell me – it was huge!"

To learn more about Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre, please visit:

• https://www.welshwildlife.org/visitor-centres/cardigan-bay-marine-wildlife-centre/ (link opens in new window)