On Wednesday 7th November I attended the Exmoor National Park’s Get Involved volunteer conference at Lynton town hall. There was a fantastic range of speakers from different organisations highlighting the diverse range of volunteering activities Exmoor has to offer and why volunteering is important to them.
Celebrating ways to get involved and what to record in Exmoor National Park. Photo credit: Tim Braund.
I have been surveying and collating cetacean sightings data along the Somerset and Exmoor coast for 6 years now. The harbour porpoise is the most common species to be sighted throughout the year, with most sightings recorded from the headland at Hurlstone Point. A notable sighting from June 2018 is of a large pod of common dolphins 4 miles from Hurlstone Point recorded from a recreational fishing boat.
Harbour porpoise with calf at Hurlstone Point. Photo credit: Brian Gibbs.
At the Get involved volunteer conference I delivered a talk myself to raise awareness of the cetacean species sighted along the Exmoor coast and hopefully inspired some more people to get involved in recording the distribution of species within this area. I look forward to seeing some new volunteers out on the Exmoor coast in the new year!
Written by Vanessa Lloyd – Somerset & Exmoor coordinator
