\n The sightings were made 26 miles offshore by Sea Trust Wales during a survey trip aboard the Cartlet Lady out of Milford Haven.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ken Barnett, a volunteer and photographer with Sea Trust, described the scene as “a truly magnificent sight.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Leaping dolphins. (Image: Ken Barnett)\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Barnett said: “We left the Haven in a mix of mist and murky drizzle with hopes of better conditions offshore.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We hit the jackpot at 26 miles with the sighting of a big blow up ahead.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Fin whale, I thought, but as we got closer, more blows, then more, until we realised there were at least six and possibly eight or more feeding in an area of about a quarter-mile radius.”\n<\/p>\n
\n At least eight and possibly a dozen fin whales were spotted (Image: Richard Crossen-)\n<\/p>\n
\n Fin whales are the second-largest marine mammal on Earth after the blue whale.\n<\/p>\n
\n They can reach lengths of up to 27 metres and are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).\n<\/p>\n
\n Sightings in British waters are rare.\n<\/p>\n
\n The fin whales were about 60 foot long. (Image: Ken Barnett)\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Barnett said: “Now, don’t get me wrong, I was over the moon, but you don’t realise the size of these beasts until you see one up close.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: “They were busy feeding with some great lunges as they devoured tons of fish at a time.\n<\/p>\n
\n “A truly magnificent sight with dolphins bow riding them as they sped along.”\n<\/p>\n
\n (Image: Ken Barnett)\n<\/p>\n
\n The group also witnessed an abundance of marine life throughout the day.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Barnett said: “Sixteen miles out, the dolphins just kept coming and coming, seemingly out of nowhere, much to our relief and the delight of our paying guests.\n<\/p>\n
\n There she blows. Around a dozen massive fin whales were spotted. (Image: Ken Barnett)\n<\/p>\n
\n “Mile after mile, pod after pod, it was dolphin central, and boy were we enjoying it.”\n<\/p>\n
\n As the vessel turned for home, there was one final surprise.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Barnett said: “As we turned away from those magnificent whales, what seemed like a patch of boiling water appeared off to starboard.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Ken said he had never seen the likes of the tuna shoal before. (Image: Ken Barnett)\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: “Tuna! And hundreds of them in what we call a tuna thrash.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They were hitting a shoal of fish with no mercy shown.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I’ve never seen the likes before.”\n<\/p>\n
\n A seething shoal of feeding Yellow fin tuna was also spotted. (Image: Ken Barnett)\n<\/p>\n
\n While Sea Trust is more accustomed to seeing bluefin tuna, Mr Barnett noted these appeared smaller and more bronze in colour. He believes they may have been yellowfin tuna.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ken said that they were in ‘dolphin central’. (Image: Ken Barnett)\n<\/p>\n
\n Sea Trust Wales is a charity working to better understand and help protect local marine wildlife, and to raise awareness in the local community.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cliff Benson, founder of Sea Trust, added: “We need to thank Valero Pembroke Refinery for their support and generous fuel donation, without which we could not afford to continue with our work, supplying valuable conservation data to local and Welsh government via the West Wales Biodiversity Recording Centre.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The common dolphins came out to play. (Image: Ken Barnett)\n<\/p>\n
\n For more information about Sea Trust or to book a survey trip, the charity can be contacted on 01348 688588 or by emailing info@seatrust.org.uk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sightings were made 26 miles offshore by Sea Trust Wales during a survey trip aboard the Cartlet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-782588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}