A group of marine biologists from the Sea Trust captured an entertaining video of a superpod consisting of hundreds of dolphins leaping in and out of the Irish Sea.
The scientists from the Wales based organization captured the video about ten miles from the Irish coast while on board the Fishguard ferry en route to Rosslare, County Wexford.
Sea Trust is a charitable organization that conducts monthly surveys from the Stena Europe ferry. Director Cliff Benson told RTE that the sea was “boiling” with dolphins. He added, “I was trying to film and people around me kept saying ‘Over there, over there.’ They were coming from every angle and were leaping out of the water.” The group made a conservative guess that there were at least 250 dolphins in the superpod, but Benson guesses there may have been as many as 500.
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Dolphin sightings are more common in the warmer weather, generally between April and November. The Sea Trust has recorded sightings all year round since 2009. “They were just coming and coming. It was the last thing on earth I was expecting in the winter.” Benson said, “We would expect to see them nowadays in the winter, but this was just mind-blowing.”
The organization has had a very productive start to the new year. On January 8, Sea Trust marine biologists spotted a superpod of a minimum 250 dolphins off the Welsh coast. WalesOnline remark about this pod, “This sighting appears to indicate that common dolphins are now year-round visitors, which we hope is a good sign.”
Watch the video here:
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