You can see marine wildlife in almost any open sea, but you chances increase in remote places away from too much human influence. Sailing ships offer the best way to study wildlife at sea. Using the power of the wind, you are travelling with nature, not powering through it noisily and at high speed.
Sailing allows you to be quiet and nonthreatening to the wildlife around you. You are closer to the sea and closer to nature. Rather than having to actively look, you’ll find quite a few creatures will come to you! Dolphins particularly love to play in the bow-wave of sailing ships; a sight which, while quite common, never gets old!
Searching the Sea
Around the Clock
This technique will help you spot more wildlife and other interesting things in the sea. It is regarded as best practice for seafarers (who call it ‘Lookout Duty’!)
Standing on deck and glancing over the sea you will miss most things, as the shapes and colours of the water are changing constantly. You have to focus more intently on sections of the sea at a time.
Imagine the bow of the ship is 12 o’clock and the stern 6 o’clock. Look first at the patch of water immediately in front of the ship, then slowly raise your search focus away from you until you meet the horizon at 12 o’clock.
Still on the horizon move your focus to 1 o’clock and then slowly draw you vision towards you until your gaze reaches the ship again. Move to the 2 o’clock position and continue this pattern.
This method does take concentration and your eye muscles will certainly be working! You probably don’t want to do it for more than about twenty minutes.
If you have a team of you working together you can cover different sectors of the sea and sweep more quickly.
Using this technique also makes it much easier to share your sighting with the rest of the crew quickly, so they can see it too. ‘Dolphin 12 o’clock half way to the horizon’ is much easier to respond to in time than ‘Look! Over there!’. One abeam of the boat is called ‘dolphin at 3 o’clock nearby’ (… and now you know what abeam of the ship means!)
Looking for Clues in the Seascape
If you know what’s normal, it is easier to see the bits that are odd. Moby Dick has taught us all to look for the spout of whales as they breathe out through their blowholes, but there are other clues. The shape of the sea is affected by the wind and tide, but also by anything close to the surface, or rising up from below. Look for unusual lumps and bumps, rogue splashes and the glint of fast moving creatures in the sides of waves.
Searching the Sky
Searching the sky for birds can be difficult, as your eyes find it hard to focus with nothing to pinpoint the depth of field. One technique is to scan the sky quite slowly (you can use a similar technique to the one described above to do this systematically), but try not to focus too hard. Let your peripheral vision do the work. The edges of your eyes are much more attuned to picking up movement than the centres.
Birds and Cetaceans Acting Together
It is not unusual to sea a flock of birds diving into the sea chasing a shoal of fish. Very often you will find whales, dolphins or porpoise in there too, hunting the shoal from below.
Keep Your Ears Open…
When it’s dark or you have no vision you can often hear cetaceans as they blow air out of their blow holes. Believe me it can make you jump when a hump back whale blows right beside you as you are sailing along peacefully under sail at night!
Your ears are useful tools in broad daylight too, of course. The sound of gannets hitting the water at high speed can travel surprisingly far, and I’ve heard the sound of dolphins cutting through the water described as ‘like slicing an apple’.
On hearing something you might then be able to see it, as you’ll have some idea of where to look.
…And Your Nose…
If you can’t see and you can’t hear you may smell it! Cetaceans east fish and their breath is very smelly. If you happen to be downwind of a school of dolphins in the dark it is possible you will smell them. I have smelt a shoal of oily fish whilst sailing off the coast of Cornwall. We quickly got the mackerel fishing lines over the side and had a bucket full of mackerel in time for breakfast.
…And Use Your Hands & Feet!
If you’re on a tall ship or another traditional boat with ratlines up the rigging, get up there! Climbing aloft gives you a fantastic perspective from which to spot wildlife. Not only can you see further, but you can also see deeper into the water, as the surface is not so distorted by reflections and glare. While you might see the fluke of a whale’s tail from deck, from the ‘gallants you’ll likely see the whole shape of its body.
Remember to check with the professional crew before climbing aloft. Ensure you have completed your climbing induction, and if you are taking a camera or phone up with you, ensure it is securely attached to you with a lanyard.
Identifying What You See: Our Favourite Guidebooks
‘Seabirds an Identification Guide’ by Peter Harrison is Classic Sailing’s favourite.
‘Sealife: A Guide to the Marine Environment’ edited by Geoffrey Waller is Classic Sailing’s other favourite.
Recording & Reporting What You See
In order to make a useful report, you need to keep a note of the following:
- Time and time zone.
- Sea state – rough –calm etc.
- Wind direction and strength
- Visibility – good – moderate – poor
- Where the sighting was in relation to the ship
- Ship’s position according to the ships log or your own GPS
- What direction the species was travelling
- Species
- Confidence in identification
- Quantity of adults and young
- Behaviour
You recordings may be useful for marine conservation and/or research groups, so it is always worth keeping detailed notes. There is a list of potentially interested organisations at the bottom of this article.
Explore Voyages Ideal for Wildlife Spotting…
Wildlife Reporting Schemes
Providing information on sightings to particular institutions or projects helps conservation, management, education and awareness raising. It also promotes identification skills.
Cetaceans Seawatch on 01865 717276
Sail and Whale http://sailandwhale.com
European Basking Shark Photo-Identification Project at www.baskingsharks.co.uk
Egg cases (skate and ray) The Great Egg-case Hunt, Shark Trust on 01752 672020 or at www.sharktrust.org/eggcase
Jellyfish Marine Conservation Society at www.mcsuk.org
Molluscs Conchological Society Marine Recording Scheme on 01483 417782 or at www.conchsoc.org/
Seashore wildlife Porcupine Marine Natural History Society at www.pmnhs.co.uk
Marlin at www.marlin.ac.uk
Birds BTO reporting system for ringed birds, at https://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/ringing/about
