01/08/2026
Today's watch was something special. We got to meet so many of you, which was brilliant enough - 13 sea watchers all working together to make today happen! I'd be chuffed enough even if this was all I had to celebrate. But to add on top of that not just an always extremely-welcome Harbour porpoise sighting, but a wholly-unexpected Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) sighting, too? That's something that - all on its own - makes for a fantastic result.
Despite the name, this species is anything but common, where land-based watches are concerned. They much prefer far deeper water, right out at sea, and we've only ever seen them once before in our watches; over the last 14 years. So that's a hugely-special event for us. There are fair questions to ask about this individual being this far close to shore, in such relatively-shallow waters, on its own; concerning how worrying that might be. But I'm sure you'll each join me in crossing our fingers that we don't hear of any strandings, and trust that it'll make its way back out to where it should be. The good news, on that front, is that it appeared to be swimming in that direction when it was spotted.
However, we can't stop there. The Common dolphin wasn't today’s only rare sighting that we've only seen once before in our time here. Two of our watchers spotted a shark! Based on fin appearance (both in terms of the shape of the first dorsal fin itself, as well as the lack of a visible second dorsal fin - making it less likely to have been something like a Common smooth-hound), a rough sense of its relative size, and swimming pattern, our best (and fairly confident) guess is that it was a School shark - AKA Tope Shark, Soupfin shark, etc. (Galeorhinus galeus).
(Forgive the cheeky doodle in the screen shot, the Sea Watcher app didn’t have an entry for this species, but I’m putting it here, for us, because I know everyone in the group is excited by something like a shark sighting!)
We have another watch planned for tomorrow, in New Brighton, Wirral (at the part of the promenade's sea wall closest to the Travelodge), starting at 13:00. Everyone is welcome to join, regardless of however much or little experience you have (though it isn't well-suited to young children) and you'll only need a pair of binoculars each; we'd love to see you there if you'd like to join us!
