Europe has bottlenose dolphins in several seas. None of them are watched as easily, or in such numbers, as in Cardigan Bay. The bay's resident population - somewhere around 250 animals, varying slightly from year to year, born and breeding here rather than passing through - is the largest of its kind on the continent. On a summer afternoon from the cliffs at New Quay, or from the harbour wall at Aberporth, or from a small boat off Aberaeron, you can watch a dorsal fin cut the surface, then another, then a tail slap, then a calf. Few coastlines in the world deliver wild bottlenose dolphins this reliably to anyone who shows up and looks.
The Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation was designated under European Union law to protect species and habitats of particular importance. It runs along the coast from Ceibwr Bay in Pembrokeshire in the south to Aberarth in Ceredigion in the north, extending almost twenty kilometres offshore - about a thousand square kilometres of protected sea in total. Inside the area, seven features carry specific conservation status: bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic grey seals, river lampreys, sea lampreys, reefs, sandbanks that remain submerged at all times, and partially or fully submerged sea caves. The management is coordinated through a Relevant Authorities Group, and the goal is biodiversity in at least as good a condition as when the site was first designated, with the long-term ambition of reaching Favourable Conservation Status.
Locally, the bay's flagship trio is known as the Big Three. Bottlenose dolphins are the headline. Atlantic grey seals haul out on rocks and beaches the length of the coast; Cardigan Bay is one of the strongholds of the species in the British Isles. Harbour porpoises - smaller, shyer, blunter-nosed - make up the third. The dolphins have a reputation for bullying the porpoises, and researchers have documented dolphin attacks that kill porpoises without consuming them, possibly competition for prey, possibly social aggression that no one has yet fully explained. The Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre in New Quay runs photo-identification studies that have tracked individual dolphins for years by the unique notches and scars on their dorsal fins.
The protected list extends well beyond the Big Three. Minke whales pass through in summer, Risso's dolphins offshore, common dolphins in playful groups of dozens. Sea birds work the cliffs and the water: puffins, kittiwakes, razorbills, the local choughs. Various sharks, including thresher sharks and basking sharks, occasionally appear in the warmer months. Rarer visitors recorded in the bay include humpback whales, fin whales, sperm whales, pygmy sperm whales, northern bottlenose whales, the difficult-to-spot Sowerby's beaked whales, killer whales, and long-finned pilot whales. Even the leatherback turtle - a critically endangered species, the largest of all sea turtles - has been recorded here, drawn north on warm Atlantic currents in pursuit of jellyfish. None of these are common. All of them, given the right conditions, are possible.
Cardigan Bay's combination of features is not coincidence. The wide, relatively shallow body of water - a gentle curve running from the south coast of the Lleyn Peninsula round to the cliffs of Pembrokeshire - traps warm Gulf Stream water and concentrates the small fish that dolphins, porpoises and seabirds depend on. The submerged reefs and sandbanks create habitat structure that supports the lower end of the food web; the lampreys come up the bay's rivers to spawn; the caves shelter seals through their pupping season. The bay is, in marine ecology terms, a productive system. The conservation designation does not create that productivity. It tries to protect it from the pressures - fishing gear conflicts, vessel disturbance, pollution from rivers and runoff - that have stripped many similar systems elsewhere along the European coast. From a cliff edge or a low-flying small aircraft, the dolphins still rise and fall in the swell, a reminder that what European law was trying to safeguard is, here at least, still showing up.
Located at 52.25N, 4.53W, centred on the curve of Cardigan Bay between Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. The protected area extends roughly 20 km offshore from the coast. Dolphins are most readily seen in calm summer conditions; from low altitude in a light aircraft, fins can be picked out against still water. Nearest aerodromes are Haverfordwest (EGFE), Swansea (EGFH) and Pembrey (EGFP) along the South Wales coast.