Summer sailing

"The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself. "
- John Rousmaniere

It is September, and as I sit here writing this, the skies are grey, and the wind is picking up – autumn is definitely on its way. However, back at the end of July I was fortunate enough to have chosen a warm and sunny week to be on holiday in Cornwall.

While I trained as a marine biologist and spent a number of years in my early career onboard a research yacht I spend less time on the water these days. As such it was a delight to be onboard the Mollie May out of Porthleven in search of marine species galore!

As we departed the harbour, I chatted with the skipper about sightings earlier that day and this year as a whole. They had encountered a large group of common dolphins that morning and he was hopeful that they would still be around. While he casually mentioned sightings of minke whales too, knowing that sightings of humpback whales were up in 2023 I asked whether he had seen any this year – “Not as yet” he said, although he had heard that there was currently a mother and calf off the western coast of Cornwall. When I first moved to Plymouth over 25 years ago sightings of humpback whales were unheard of, and yet now they are considered a regular sight.

Before long a cry went up that a group of fins had been seen breaking the water inshore and so we headed over to take a closer look. A group of common dolphins, feeding. There was no bow riding, they were focused on the job in hand and so we maintained a respectful distance, idled the engine and drifted along with them as they dove in search of the fish which were apparent on the echosounder. Days don’t get much better than this in my book!

Mollie May is a commercial fishing boat by winter and a wildlife sightings and rod and line charter boat by summer. The kids had wanted to catch a fish and so after the dolphins we headed along the coast in the hope of catching some mackerel. Sadly, not a single fish was caught – had the dolphins eaten their fill or was there simply less mackerel about? The skipper confirmed the latter.

A summary report provided by Libby West, Natural England in the South-west Marine Ecosystems Annual Report for 2023 indicates that some fisheries, including mackerel, considered traditional in the southwest are sadly declining. It is thought that environmental changes affecting the distribution and seasonality of fish stocks is to blame.

While we haven’t seen the extreme temperatures of last summer, the Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed 2023 as the warmest year on record, with global temperatures reaching an alarming 1.48 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. While recording continues for 2024, this appears to be a continuing trend.

Increased air and sea surface temperatures, along with extreme weather events, from devastating droughts and wildfires to heatwaves are a signal that urgent action by all is needed on a global scale.

So, while we motored back to harbour, encountering a compass jellyfish and numerous herring and black-backed gulls it gave me time to contemplate what our seas will look like in the future and how we might help them adapt to change.

1. Hiscock, K. & Earll, R. (eds) 2024. South-west Marine Ecosystems Report for 2023. Marine Biological Association of the UK, Plymouth. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17031/gsng-8y47