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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KRS1" data-source="post: 1940775" data-attributes="member: 76069">G'day all,Peter - after a meeting with the Brittany-ferries-powers-that-be yesterday it seems the foot passenger scenario should be significantly easier soon, though we're obviously getting into the rough season now (fun fun fun!). One of the problems is that the last few spaces on the ship (which is always fully booked I must add) are reserved for vehicular passengers, which might explain the difficulties recently. In other news, it is now official that Brittany are shifting the Cap Finistere to a different route next year.  The route will, as I understand it, be as follows...Portsmouth > RoscoffRoscoff > BilbaoBilbao > PortsmouthPortsmouth > SantanderSantander > PortsmouthSo, it will do the Santander route twice a week, and Bilbao once a week, or at least that's how I've understood it.  I have a copy of the provisional timetable somewhere in my rucksack, though it's not to hand I believe on the Bilbao route (via a quick stop in Roscoff) it will have significant amounts of time over the northern shelf and the southern Bay on both the outward and return legs.  I for one, am excited.  There have been instances over the summer where people have been told, in pretty much these words, "The Cap Finistere is crap, you won't see anything, it's rubbish".   Absolute rubbish.  In the last 2 weeks alone we've had a grand total of c.80 sightings of Sperm Whale, c.240 sightings of Fin Whale, c.30 sightings of Cuvier's Beaked Whale, 5 or 6 sightings of Northern Bottlenose Whale, alongside the usual hundreds upon hundreds of Striped, Common and Bottlenose Dolphins, Long-finned Pilot Whale and some Risso's Dolphins in the northern Bay one morning.   All in all it has been a very successful season, and with the Bilbao route being added it will just get better.  Cetacean highlights have been Orca (including one huge bull male separating a calf N. B. Whale from its mother as we passed by), good close Sowerby's on a couple of occasions, a Humpback breachingin the distance in early August, 2 probable Sei's in the past few weeks and the surprise of Cuvier's over the canyons of the northern shelf-edge. This is, after all, BirdForum and I think I've failed to highlight the bird-factor thus far (my bad).  Last trip, the totals were 100+ Bonxies, 10+ Wilson's Stormies, 20+ European Stormies, 5 or 6 Cory's, several Sabine's Gull.  There's been a distinct lack of birds in the Bay all summer, with the highest day-totals of Cory's being less than 70 birds, and Great's limited to a few scattered individuals.  Little Shear was in its highest numbers in late July, but only reached a maximum of 3 per trip for around 3 weeks.  Terrestrial species have been in abundance, with the expected Willow-chiffs, Wheatears, Reed Warblers being accompanied by a Catharus Thrush briefly calling and following the ship in late August and a probable Madeiran Petrel a few miles out of Santander in rough weather mid-august.As always, feel free to get in touch.  Apologies if this is disjointed, swamped with tasks and chores now I'm on land again.  Cheers,Lisle -  ORCA Wildlife Officer (Cap Finistere)</blockquote>

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