Sentinels of the Sea

Historically, marine mammal data collection in Cardigan Bay has taken place throughout the spring, summer and autumn months. The winter whereabouts and habits of iconic species such as the bottlenose dolphin is still a mystery. We know that some of the Cardigan Bay bottlenose dolphins spend time around the Isle of Man but due to lack of survey effort, information on their winter whereabouts is limited.

Thanks to the Nature Networks Fund, Sentinels of the Sea has for the first time ever been able to conduct boat surveys in Cardigan Bay during the winter and our data collection will continue throughout the year. Our surveys so far have enabled us to photograph and identify a number of individual bottlenose dolphins using their unique dorsal fin markings. We have also been setting up and testing our hydrophones (underwater microphones) for our acoustic data collection and have successfully recorded several bottlenose dolphin signature whistles, whistles that are unique to individual animals.

Skomer Seabird Counts

Counting tens of thousands of breeding seabirds on Skomer’s sea cliffs is no easy feat. Add in the requirement to count all species, not once but twice in a short three week window, and the fact that most of the counting is done from a moving boat and you begin to see the enormity of the challenge.

Our Wildlife Trust Skomer team began their main seabird counts in mid-May, starting with ground nesting gulls and moving onto ledge nesting auks, fulmars and kittiwakes. Skomer is one of only four key sites in the UK that form the backbone of the Seabird Monitoring Programme and annual population monitoring is an essential, not only to detect threats and trends on Skomer but also to see how Skomer compares to the national picture.

Connecting the Future in Carmarthenshire

Our Carmarthenshire team have been busy completing ash die back work at our Castle Woods Nature Reserve, this involved remedial work on a number of trees that were affected and deemed hazardous. Where possible we have retained trees as monoliths as the trunks are home to an array of lichens and bryophytes.

The team have also started a hydrological monitoring programme that will last 12 months at Cors Goch, including establishing a number of dip wells. This will help us to better understand and ultimately manage the bog.

A pond has been excavated at Rhos Cefn Bryn, this will have numerous wildlife benefits, but also help augment our current system for watering cattle. Having cattle on the site is imperative for maintaining the correct conditions needed by the increasingly rare marsh fritillary butterfly.

The Nature Networks £500,000 grant fund will support two WTSWW projects, they are ‘Sentinels of the Sea’ marine project and the ‘Connecting the Future’ terrestrial based project until March 2023. The Nature Networks Fund is funded by the Welsh Government and administered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in Wales.