And may the odds be ever in our favour!

After a long day and a short night on Tuesday, the pressure was starting to build on the C-CATS team. A promising good weather window was on the radar but our days in New Quay were numbered and with little time to spare, every one of our waking hours was planned to the second.

Clear skies and calm seas

The cliff team was up at the first light of dawn on Wednesday and barely had a dolphin free moment to catch their breathe in since sunrise. Both Islander and the hydrophone array, however, were still grounded on dry land and the latter was still in the tender loving care of Jens and Felix who were working tirelessly to ensure there would be no repeat of the previous night's accident. Spurred on by the cliff team's promise of dolphins, however, the array was back on Islander sooner than anticipated and the remaining team headed, hopeful and excited, towards Bird Rock. The cliff team who had kept a watchful eye on the dolphins in the meanwhile, however, had detected a worrying trend. The group of dolphins they were tracking was slowly but surely heading offshore and by the time Islander was in position and ready to record, they were nowhere to be seen. While this was a little bit dispiriting at first, the weather was still on our side and gave us the opportunity to continue working on both omnidirectional and directional playback directed at both the hydrophone array and another 'triPOD', Jemima 2.0.  Marta - with the help of  Magnus, the directional hydrophone- soon became an accomplished porpoise imitator and with not only low winds but also a bit of illusive Welsh sunshine on our side, the day was nevertheless a success!

Heading out to Islander

Wednesday was to mark the beginning of our change of fortune! Whether it was the increased determination or the C-CATS team or simply that the weather was now on our side, or a combination of the two, the following days brought many more successes.

Deploying the array

Thursday we set out with renewed determination, we had good playback data from both the array and Jemima, which in itself was something to be proud of but we were determined to record real live cetaceans. And we did. With only one or two days to spare, everything finally came together. Islander was fixed and both cliff and boat teams headed out first thing in the morning. The cliff team was in position first and did not disappoint, spotting dolphins close to the coast soon after. This time there was no delay with the array and when Islander came around the corner, the dolphins were still there. As one of the dolphins passed the boat with the deployed array for the first time, both teams erupted in the celebration, yells of triumph echoing from the New Quay cliff. After nearly three weeks of field work, everything came together in just over half an hour and even when the dolphins left eventually, the exhilaration of that one moment stayed with the team the rest of the day! Although there was a strong case for a late night celebrating, everyone voluntarily opted for an early night in order to make the most of the last day of calm weather on Friday morning!

Islander viewed from the cliff observation site

With little time to spare, and having missed out on early morning recordings during the previous days, the C-CATS team was determined to be up before the dolphins the next day in order to get as much recording time as possible. Unfortunately the dolphins either did not get that message or did not care as they did not turn up at all until later that morning. When they did arrive, however, they were cooperative and we were prepared! Two dolphins remained foraging in the bay for the most part of the morning and early afternoon, on several occasions making close passes at the boat, surfacing metres away from the array and providing us with textbook quality recordings of echolocation scans! Within a couple of hours and only a day away from the completion of the project, we recorded all the data -and more- that we could have hoped for!
Now it was only a matter of dismantling everything, getting the PODs back in, packing the van in preparation for the drive to Germany and downloading all the data, a daunting amount of work squeezed into just under one and half days - but after the success of the project hanging by a fragile - and weather dependent- thread and this exhilarating turn of events, everyone was more than ready to give it their all! At least after a well deserved lie in and sneak peak at the data on Saturday....

First glimpse of the data!

After a well deserved rest and a first glance at some textbook examples of dolphin clicks and a brief introduction by Jens as to how these can be used to localise animals in the water, the C-CATS team was invigorated and gripped anew with determination to get all the remaining jobs done in the very limited time that was given to us. We had just under a day before Jens and Felix were headed back to Germany but after all the adversities we had faced during the past few weeks, all of us were confident we could pull it off- and once again we did. Although it took us a while to get it all done, finally all the PODs were cleaned, packed, data were downloaded, saved, backed up (again and again and again) and baggage was packed before midnight on Saturday-and we still found time for a very important celebratory barbecue!

Relaxing after a successful end to the project

As exhausting and frustrating as the project had been at times, we were all sorry to pack up and leave New Quay, but as Jens pointed out, this is only the start and nine tenths of the work is still to come! So stay tuned and keep checking back, the real results are still to come!

The day Islander stood still

The blog has been somewhat neglected in the excitement of last week's flurry of typically Welsh variable weather, ups and downs -and finally great success- but if you've been waiting to hear more from the C-CATS team, just read on!


With the weather showing us it's most uncooperative side, the C-CATS team was getting increasingly restless over the weekend. Everyone was eager ready to go, not least thanks to the great support team at MALTA, that helped Jens and Felix sort out a minor glitch with the recording program over the weekend. Of course there was always things to be done, but what we really wanted- and needed- to do was get back onto the water and that was just not happening. Tuesday finally showed some promise, the wind was due to drop off in the afternoon and everyone was on red alert, ready to drop everything else and grab their waterproofs at a moment's notice. Finally we received the call we were all waiting for from Hanna- just to be stopped in our tracks half way out of the door. We might have been ready to go but the boat was not. A loose cable was playing havoc and jeopardising one of the few chances we had had to get out onto the water. We were facing a dilemma, give up and give up one of the only chances to collect valuable data or somehow get out on the water and 'make it happen'.

We decided to make it happen.

Making it happen

With the help of Brett, who co-owns Islander with Hanna, we towed Islander into the bay using his RIB. The calm waters allowed us to anchor Islander just off Bird's rock and let Jens and Felix deploy the hydrophone array, while -in the absence of porpoises and dolphins- Hanna, Winnie, Marta and Katrin prepared Magnus, the directional hydrophone, on the RIB for playback experiments. The calm waters were somewhat deceiving as we soon discovered, the strong tidal pull made it difficult to position Magnus accurately but after initial difficulties, we soon got the hang of it and ran a number of successful trials with the array. With night closing in around us, we were ready to keep going as long as it took to get the data the needed but it was not meant to happen. Loud yelling from the Islander alerted the team on the RIB that the Islander team was not 'ready' to record and with a fair bit of trepidation as to what other obstacle could have possibly been thrown our way now, we approached to see what was the matter. To our dismay, a part of the array had worked itself loose and the Islander team was working hard to get it back onto the boat. Having recovered the pole- and ourselves a little bit from the shock- we finally decided to head back to shore after a very long day, somewhat disappointed at the turn of events, but still with a good amount of data and safe in the knowledge we had done everything we possibly could have done under the conditions we had encountered.

Magnus ready for playbacks

Luckily, Tuesday was not to be a sign of things to come, however, and with the weather turning in our favour the following days, the disappointment was soon forgotten as we were launched into an exhilarating whirlwind of activity and excitement at the first 'real' recordings...

Check back later to find out more!

Just Push Play

The ring of alarm of alarm bells marked the begin of Thursday morning at the C-CATS base in New Quay. Roused at 4:30 AM, there was just enough time for a direly needed cup of coffee before the team split up to take advantage of calm seas. While Gemma, Winnie and Katrin scaled the coastal path up to the cliff with only head torches illuminating their path, Hanna, Luke, Katie and Marta made their way down to the harbour to prepare the boat for a morning of playback experiments.

An early start for the C-CATS team: New Quay before dawn

On the cliff, the practice sessions with the theodolite paid off and the equipment on the cliff was set up just as the sun rose and the Islander arrived at the grid of PODs. It was not long before the cliff observation team could put their experience to the test; a group of six bottlenose dolphins, including two calves, appeared at 7 AM and delighted the cliff team (or C-team) with their high energy displays; breaching, tail slapping and lunging for fish at the surface. They stayed in the area for over 2 hours and were successfully tracked with the theodolite throughout that time. Not having anticipated such a long encounter, however, meant that there was now a shortage of forms and Gemma had to call for reinforcement from the home base. Jens gallantly volunteered to trek up the cliff with the forms himself but unfortunately missed the last dolphins of the day, a pair of adults travelling swiftly through the grid, by about five minutes.

Panoramic view of the cliff observation site

Directional transducer for playback

Excitement was also at an all time high on the Islander. After days and days of preparations, the calm seas finally allowed for systematic playback experiments. During these experiments, the team aimed to play artificial and real porpoise sounds to a specific set of PODs to determine factors that may affect the likelihood of PODs detecting the animal. For this purpose, in addition to the existing deployed PODs a special 'triPOD' was designed; a set of three C-PODs set in a triangular wooden frame, lovingly named 'Jemima'. The team deployed Jemima within the existing grid of C-PODs and then proceeded to play back artificial porpoise sounds at varying distances and volumes. They used two different type of playbacks, omnidirectional, broadcasting sound 360 degrees from the source, and then directional, using a specific setup to direct the sound towards the C-POD in a way that more closely resembles the narrow echolocation beam of a porpoise. Although the weather was an improvement on previous days, the winds did pick up significantly throughout the day and by early afternoon, the crew had to battle choppy waters while trying to stay put during playbacks. Nevertheless, they were not deterred, determined to make the most of brief window of opportunity and successfully conducted both directional and omnidirectional playbacks at 3 separate stations - all without any seasickness casualties!

Playback from the 'Culticave'

In the early afternoon however, the boat team was forced to return to New Quay harbour to pick up a spare battery to power the laptop from which the playbacks were conducted. Having exchanged the battery and a couple of crew members, everyone was ready to get back to work. Apart from the Islander. As Luke tried to start the engines it became apparent something was very wrong. One of them was not starting at all. After a preliminary look to see if any superficial problems could be spotted, Hanna called New Quay's lifeboat mechanic who came down to have a look. While the problem itself turned out not to be serious, the next supplier stocking the required part was located a 4 hour roundtrip from New Quay. Frustrated after being stopped short in our tracks after such a successful day, we decided to call it a day. There was only one problem. Jemima was still out there and with the winds picking up, leaving her to her fate could have meant losing her -and all the data- permanently. While everyone else headed home to get some dinner, Luke and Hanna stayed with the Islander, discussing our options. Finally, the decision was made that we would attempt to retrieve Jemima. On empty stomachs and over 12 hours at sea, Luke and Hanna manoeuvred the Islander through stormy New Quay waters on just one engine and Marta's support. Despite the fading daylight and crashing waves, Jemima was successfully retrieved and her safe return- and of course Hanna's, Luke's and Marta's as well- came as a great relief to everyone.