Hi, my name is Tony, I am a Countryside Ranger (currently looking for another job), my main interest...
Hi, my name is Tony, I am a Countryside Ranger (currently looking for another job), my main interests are wildlife, and spend a lot of my time traveling around the country after rare birds.
Member since:07.09.2005
Reviews:15
I have travelled on the P&O Portsmouth-Bilbao ferry twice now, as a cheap way of seeing a wide variety of Whales and Dolphins.
You can get a cabin for two people for about £80 each, this does not include any meals or any type of cabin service. You sail out on the Pride of Bilbao, a large car carrying ship.
There are three main restaurants, a breakfast and lunch type diner, as well as several bars. There is also a cinema, swimming pool, child minding play area, health & beauty care (for the Ladies), arcade games for the kids and night time disco and cabaret.
The best time to go on the crossing is between late July to mid September, the peak of activity for the Whales and Dolphins is August, thats when I go.
The days the boat leaves portsmouth are Friday coming back Monday, and Monday coming back Wednesday, and Wednesday coming back Friday.
Why is the Portsmouth-Bilbao ferry the best way to see the Whales and Dolphins?, it is the route the ferry takes, it travels through the rich deep waters of the Bay of Biscay, it is here the
continental shelf starts, with water as deep as two miles down.
These deep waters hold an incredible abundance of marine life, ranging from Anchovies, Yellow-finned Tuna Fish, Squid, Cuttlefish, Octopus and Turtles.
The waters around the Uk are relatively shallow in comparison, and does not have the wide variety of marine life offered here. We do however have good populations of Whales and Dolphins around our coast, but they can be harder to see.
Day one, leaving Portsmouth is usually done late or early evening, and in August it usually means it is more or less dark, the only thing to do is get yourself down to the bar and restaurant.
Day two, finds you off the coast of France, so after grabbing something to eat, its up to the top deck to begin watching.
It can be relatively quiet on this stretch with sightings of Harbour Porpoise the most frequent, these are about 5ft in length, and dont rise out of the water much, the usual view is a small rounded dorsal fin before it disappears into the water.
The occassional Minke Whale is also seen now and have been seen to breach clear of the water (Leap), this is a common Whale around our coastline, they are about 25-30ft long and usually everyone on board gets to see it, as it arches its back for a few moments at the surface before sinking beneath the waves without seeing its tail flukes.
Being on the top deck gives a great view, as your almost 100ft above the sea, so you can look down into the troughs for seabirds and dorsal fins. There is a whale watch tour company that gets priveleged rights on top of the bridge just slightly higher than the top deck, and for a considerable fee will find the whales and dolphins and seabirds for you.
Seabirds start off with Gannets, Fulmars, Manx shearwaters, Geat Skuas and Kittiwakes at this stage with the tiny bat like Storm Petrels skimming the waves.
It can often be very quiet with no birds or cetaceans ( the collective name for Whales and Dolphins) for up to an hour or more, so patience is a virtue.
But then it will all start happening again, with sightings of Sunfish, a strange deep feeding fish which is quite narrow and circular, they can grow to be 6ft in diameter. They come to the surface side on raising its fin to attract passing seabirds, practically waving at them to come on over, this is because they carry parasites and the seabirds will pick them off the fish to feed thus doing the fish a favour.
Towards mid afternoon and earl evening you start to arrive over the Continetal shelf, it is here the first cries ring out "blow on the starboard side", this is the first sign of a large whale as it surfaces it pushes air out of its blowhole situated behind the head, sending with it a big bushy plume of water high into the air.
Its not long after this view that you see the rest of the animal as it breaks the surface, its long black body gleaming in the sunlight and a curved dorsal fin, indicating it as a Fin Whale, the second largest animal on the planet, reaching 65-75ft long (only the Blue Whale is bigger) an immpressive sight.
The numbers of Fin Whales that are regularly seen here average 30+ although more have been recorded.
Day 3, sees you arriving at the port of Santerzi (Bilbao) a very large and busy port which when I was there in August 2005, they were expanding the outer harbour.
You have to depart the ship and pass through the customs and immigration (so passports are needed) for about 4 hours while the holiday makers depart and the ship is restocked for the return journey.
This gives you time to take the tour bus (tickets purchased on board the ferry) to the Bilbao city centre.
I spent my time taking a taxi up to a hill to find some European birds which are only occassional visitors to Britain. Here you can see Red-backed Shrikes (a once common breeder in Britain now extinct) in large numbers, also Sardinian and Melodious Warblers, Black Redstarts, Tawny Pipits, Booted and Short-toed Eagles, Griffon Vulture and Honey Buzzards.
On the walk back through the streets you can catch a glimpse of a Wall Lizard running up the side of a house, which are painted in different colours like Terracotta, Yellow, White and Pink.
By this time its getting on for 12 noon and time to get back on board the boat, the heat really turns up a few notches as well, and you find yourself dripping and dying for a drink, but there are plenty of coffee bars to quench your first for a few € Euros.
As you leave the port and set back into the bay of Biscay, it is here the best days watching starts, Tuna fish in large schools just outside the harbour, Cory's Shearwaters flying overhead and plunging into the sea to take some of the Sardines the Tuna are after.
More Fin Whales are seen with Couvier's Beaked Whales another deep sea diver, Occassional Sperm Whales, Sowerby's Beaked Whale and large Pods of Common and Striped Dolphins, Large-finned Pilot Whales, Bottle-nosed Dolphin and the rarer Bottle-nosed Whales in varying numbers.
In all over 20 species of Cetaceans can be seen in these waters with the star prize of a Blue Whale on everybodys wish list, there have been the odd one seen several times on different trips.
Nearer the French and English coasts Basking Sharks are seen, these can be as big as and even bigger than Great Whites, the man eaters, reaching 25-30ft long, but these are no threat to humans.
Tthese gentle giants only feed on plankton at the surface when its calm showing you there huge size as they swim with there mouths wide open filtering the microscopic life up like soup.
So if you have ever wanted to see Whales and Dolphins on the cheap and have to pay through the nose for special tours, this is your best way of seeing them, the P&O have their own Wildlife officer on board who shouts out on the tannoy where the whales will be seen as they surface, even people who have no interest in wildlife suddenly find themselves running to the side of the boat to see the Dolphins.
So what are you waiting for?, get booking your mini cruise now, its still a good time to see them in September.
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