Posted on 06/29/2022 4:01:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The tour guide who caught the catch on camera said he had never seen it happen before
A salmon became the unluckiest fish in the Irish Sea after it leapt out of the water and straight into the mouth of a passing dolphin. The incredible moment was caught on camera by a wildlife guide in Cardigan Bay, who said he had never seen it happen before.
Joshua Pedley, who works as a guide for SeaMôr Dolphin Watching Boat Trips in New Quay, was leading a trip along Cardigan Bay on Friday, June 24 when he spotted the bottlenose dolphin and took out his camera. In the sequence of images that followed, the fish can be seen leaping gracefully out of the sea before landing in the dolphin's open mouth.
Those on the tour were left amazed by the incident, with Joshua admitting that he was "very fortunate" to capture the moment on camera. Get the latest news from across Wales sent straight to your inbox for free by signing up to our newsletters.
He said: "It happened on one of our normal, hour-long trips. We went round the bay of New Quay and then down the coast to a seabird colony and back. There's a rocky reef that we go to that's a good habitat for fish and where there's fish, there's a good chance that there could be dolphins about.
"It was a mum and a calf that we saw, the crew on the boat spotted it. I got my camera out and tried to get some photos, you never know when something spectacular might happen. Every encounter is fantastic, but sometimes your photos might just be of a fin surfacing and other times they might be incredible."
Having noticed a change in activity among the dolphins, Joshua, took a few snaps as they rose to the surface. However, it wasn't until he looked back at his photos later on that he realised he had managed to capture the incredible moment on camera.
"It did start to pick up," he said. "The dolphins went from just surfacing relatively sedately to an increase in activity that we would associate with something else going on, quite possibly some active fishing. I was taking some photos as I saw the dolphin about to come up to the surface and could see there was a fish involved, but it was only when I looked back at them later on that I saw the salmon jump out of the water and into the mouth of the awaiting dolphin."
While he has seen dolphins catch fish many times before, Joshua - who has worked as a guide for four years and shares wildlife photos on his Twitter account @MyWildlifePosts - admits he has never seen a catch made so easily. He added that the encounter has reminded him that getting a great shot can be worth the wait.
"We see a lot of active fishing from the dolphins and we have seen them with playing with fish after they catch them too," he said. "Particularly if there is a mum and a calf about, the calf will start eating fish from a relatively young age, supplemented by the mother's milk for about the first three years, which will result in the adult female catching a fish but not eating it and instead tiring it out and leaving it for the calf to play with.
"But while we see all that, I have certainly never seen a fish jump straight into a dolphin's mouth before. It was a very fortunate moment. I guess it goes to show if you're spending all day with the dolphins, you'll get lucky eventually with a shot like that."
There are plenty of wild Atlantic Salmon in the waters around Europe.
Yes. Native Atlantic Salmon are a protected species, you can’t catch them.
The article is referring to Atlantic Salmon in the U.S. It's protected here and only farmed fish is sold. The salmon and dolphin were in Wales. Wild salmon are fished and sold there.
That day when a Wild Salmon discovered it’s ‘Porpoise’ in life.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Salmons last thought “ I didn’t know there was an eclipse today”.
That refers to the US market, not to fisheries off the European coast.
Pretty good but,
Still waiting for a meteor to plug a volcano.
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