Episode 3 Iolo's Welsh Sea

'To the north, west and south, Wales is surrounded by sea.

'I'm on a sea journey of Wales.

'In this episode I'm exploring Cardigan Bay,'

'from Ceredigion to Pembrokeshire.

'I'll be meeting people who work on the sea...'

That's got to be one of the most potentially dangerous

bits of water all around the Welsh coast is it?

It can be quite interesting to say the least.

'..those who have a passion for the sea.'

-Imagine seeing that for the first time ever.

-Aye, Llangrannog.

It's diving and taking photographs to see what's down there.

'And I'll be discovering the amazing wildlife that lives in the sea.'

They're lovely animals. Really, really nice animals.

Cardigan Bay is a beautiful stretch of coastline,

and as a result it attracts thousands of visitors

over the summer months.

New Quay is one of the most popular resorts

and the biggest attraction is the bottlenose dolphins in the bay.

There are many boat trip operators that take people out to see them.

To protect the dolphins and other sea life,

a code of practice has been put in place.

Ben Sampson is the conservation officer

for Ceredigion County Council, and he tries to help police this code.

You've got this marine code set up,

what does that say about when you're in a boat

and you're near some dolphins, then?

Basically, I think it's quite common sense.

It's saying don't steer directly towards them.

If you're within a reasonable distance, about 300m,

slow right down to dead slow and within 100m, stop.

If you're going past them steer out around them,

aim to pass about 100m away.

And we've got 20 years of evidence now from a dolphin watch scheme,

run by volunteers, that shows when boats follow

the code of conduct the dolphins are much more likely to stick around,

you'll see them for a lot longer, they won't alter their behaviour.

When boats don't follow the code,

the dolphins move away, they'll change their behaviour -

if there's a lot of them scattered around,

they'll group together for defence and they'll head out of the area.

Cardigan Bay has the biggest

resident population of dolphins in Europe.

300 are known to use the bay,

but there's also a big population of birds nesting on the cliffs,

most of them only visible from the sea.

So what have we got here? Kittiwakes I can hear.

Yeah, really good colony of kittiwakes on the cliff facing us

and then on the other side of this cave, this other...

the south facing side of the cave, lots of guillemots,

you'll see, as we come around the corner.

-Oh, I see. I can see the row upon row of guillemots.

-That's right.

There's somewhere in the region of 200 pairs,

we've got, between here and Birds Rock.

It's the guillemots we've got most of,

somewhere in the region of 4,000 nesting along this stretch of coast.

Nice number. And again, this is one of the things you patrol, is it?

Making sure the boats...

they're out to see dolphins and porpoises,

but that they don't go too close to the nesting birds as well.

Absolutely. We ask them to keep 50m out. And all along this stretch

of coast all the way from New Quay down to Llangrannog,

we've got an eight-knot speed limit within 200m of the coast.

So if you want to go fast, head offshore, that's fine,

but close inshore or particularly around the headlands

is where you'll find the sea birds, the seals, the dolphins,

and you'll need to keep your speed down.

Much of our coastal wildlife needs protection.

The dolphins and sea birds of Cardigan Bay are obvious gems,

and can be easily viewed.

Less apparent is the wonderful wildlife

that lives underwater, below the cliffs.

Here, the landscape is even more impressive.

Underwater, the rocks are covered with plants,

anemones and shellfish.

The sea above them is full of fish.

It's one of the reasons why so many dolphins live here.

This is a shoal of bass, one of our favourite fish to eat.

Spider crabs are found on rocks covered with sea life.

We eat them too.

And there are huge colonies of honeycomb reefs

which are full of crevices for hiding lobsters.

With all this rich sea life, it's little wonder that fishing

is an important part of West Wales' life.

Mici Beechey fishes from a traditional

wooden boat out of Llangrannog.

He's partly built the boat himself,

and although he has a commercial licence to catch lobsters and crabs,

his method of fishing is traditional and simple.

-It's a lovely boat, isn't it?

-Oh!

-And for a small boat it's amazingly stable.

-It's the way it's shaped.

It's got like twin hulls at the back

-and then the mono hull at the front so...

-Ah, right.

And this is the way they would have done this many years ago, is it?

-Just single pots.

-Single pots, yeah.

And whatever you catch now, then, is that sold locally?

Yeah, everything I catch goes to the Pentre Arms in Llangrannog.

-Oh, right.

-And to the Caban and to the Patio.

Oh, fair play. Oh, chwarae teg.

So they buy most of the stuff and it's all fresh.

Comes in off the boat,

within 45 minutes you'll have a fresh lobster on your plate.

Mici fishes only a small stretch of coast

and it includes the impressive headland of Ynys Lochtyn,

just north of Llangrannog.

-Oh, hello, hello.

-We've got two nice ones in here.

Oh, nice ones. Look at this.

-Oh, nice. That's definitely big enough, isn't it?

-That's a keeper.

-Yeah, that's a keeper, aye.

-That's a good one that, isn't it?

-Look at the size on that.

-Do you want to band him for me?

-Aye, go on then.

-Over that knuckle there, that's it.

-Oh, not too far. Come back again. That's it.

-There?

-There. Just there.

-And slide him off, is it?

-That's it.

-Is that all right?

-That'll do.

-Not the best job, was it?

-It's all right.

No, it wasn't the best job. He's just had me now.

-Has he?

-IOLO LAUGHS

-Careful not to swear.

-There?

-That's it.

Oh, right on there. That's better, isn't it?

Let me move this one back.

-That's what you get if you're not careful.

-Oh, is it?

-Is that off him here, was it?

-Yeah, off his cutting arm, that is.

And stick him in with the others, keep him...

Is this one big enough?

I don't know, he looks small to me. I'll measure him now.

-He is within size.

-Yeah. How old is that going to be?

-He's within the size...

-Right, yeah.

-..so he'll be seven years old.

Cos I've... I remember being with a fisherman catching a massive one

and he reckoned that one would have been 60 or 70 years old.

Yeah, probably.

Within that size, to grow a millimetre more than that, I think,

-about a millimetre after, then, takes three years.

-Is it three years?

So when it's got to this big,

-it's an old, old lobster then.

-It's got to be, hasn't it?

-Yeah.

I have to say I find Mici's method of fishing quite appealing.

It's not that I'm against large, commercial boats -

we're in an age in which people living far away from the coast

would also like to buy fish -

but the idea of fishing on your own patch for local consumption

seems more in tune with the resident sea life.

Oh, there's dolphins out there now, jumping.

Yeah, jumping out now.

You don't need to be on or in the sea

to appreciate the marine life of Wales.

Dolphins often come close to land to feed on fish.

This is the popular beach of Mwnt in south Ceredigion.

Photographer Janet Baxter has been coming here for many years

to take shots of dolphins from a vantage point on the headland.

How many dolphins are there out there then, Janet?

Two at the moment.

I thought earlier on there were more than that.

-There were three.

-There were, were there?

-Two adults and a juvenile.

But I think we're down to an adult and a juvenile now.

The well-marked adult seems to have moved off.

One of them... Oh, there we are, that one there now,

-that one's up, that's got a really white front to its dosal fin.

-Yes.

And this is a real favourite spot, isn't it, Mwnt?

I've watched them here many a time,

-and I know you come here all the time.

-Yeah.

-Why here then?

Um, well for food, for fish.

We're at the mouth of the Teifi here,

so you get the salmon and the sewin running up the Teifi.

And garfish, herring, mullet - mullet and bass, estuary type fish.

But we've got a sandbank that runs from the headland here

up towards that first headland.

So the water out there's quite deep and then it suddenly gets shallow.

So the dolphin can push the fish up against....

into the shallow water but they can also see the salmon

or the sewin as they run across the sandbank.

-So it's like a corral, a natural corral for them.

-Yes, yeah.

They use underwater geographical features to help catch fish.

There we are, that's the one with the white front to the dorsal fin.

Is that a unique marking?

No. There are several dolphins in the bay with the white leading edge.

If you get closer, there'd probably be more nicks and scratches

and things which are unique.

So are you taking photographs for your own collection,

or are you taking photographs, you know,

to help you identify these, or what?

Well both.

I want pictures, you know, of wildlife,

I want pictures for postcards and my own business,

but while I'm here, waiting for them to do something

a bit more dramatic or a bit more interesting, I take the fins as well.

So that goes then into the catalogues in New Quay or Cardigan Bay.

Do we know how many bottlenose dolphins

there are all along the bay?

I think the catalogue is up to...

well over 250 animals

but they're not necessarily all in the bay at the same time.

They tend to come and go.

-Because they are very intelligent animals, aren't they?

-Yes.

And we only understand a small fraction

of what they're doing in the water.

Yes, we only see what they do when they come to the surface

so we've no idea of what's going on under the water.

The sea is exceptionally calm today which makes dolphin watching easy.

But very often - especially during winter - the sea can be stormy.

Turbulent swells play a big part in coastal erosion.

They bring rocks and sand that grind cliffs down.

It's estimated that erosion

is occurring along 23% of the Welsh Coast.

This erosion could well be made worse by a predicted

rise in sea level of up to 76cm by the end of the century.

During severe storms,

low-lying, unprotected land can be lost overnight,

especially when combined with very high tides.

This has happened many times along the Welsh coast during the past

few hundred years and some of the most dramatic evidence

for this is at Cwm yr Eglwys, on the north Pembrokeshire coast.

These are the remains of a church that has stood here

in one form or another since Norman Times.

Most of the church and the land in front of it were destroyed

by a combination of storms and sea erosion during the 19th century.

Local diver Richard Hughes has brought me

here to find other remains of the eroded land under the sea.

So as well as this church,

heading out this way now, looking towards the sea,

you would have had a graveyard.

-There would have been two fields further from here.

-Two fields?

And there were sea defences,

which were quite substantial at the time.

But in 1833, the sea defences split

and the water started coming in and encroached on those fields.

And it wasn't much of a worry to them at the time because

they thought the local geology would hold it back and what they

didn't realise is there's nothing behind it, it soon washed out.

So you're telling me that, before then...

it was land right out to those two pinnacles there.

There was land right out to those two pinnacles there.

So this whole bay was dry land, then?

-It was dry land and a...a graveyard.

-It's incredible, isn't it?

So what was once land is now sea.

The old sea defence wall was well out in the bay, and Richard

is going to take me and the rest of the dive support team to see it.

Unfortunately, the sea has been turbulent during the past few days

and the visibility is dreadful.

But the wall is fairly substantial and we eventually find it.

This is part of the old 1833 sea wall,

there's not very much left of it now.

And it's really difficult to believe that between here

and the shore were fields and a cemetery.

It's all just sandy bottom with the occasional piece of slate.

But it shows you the power of nature,

and even though we're in a sheltered bay today,

visibility is poor, we've been pushed back and forth

because there's a strong wind offshore but it's having an effect

in here. Can you imagine a force 10 gale, from the northeast

blowing straight down into Cwm yr Eglwys?

No wonder the church has gone.

The old sea wall has become a seascape,

a habitat for marine wildlife.

But while the sea's power can destroy,

its energy can also be harnessed.

The sea between Ramsey Island and mainland Pembrokeshire

has very strong currents

and has one of the biggest tidal flows in the UK -

it makes it a perfect site to exploit energy from the sea.

This is the research ship Prince Madog,

and scientists from SEACAMS -

a collaboration between Bangor, Swansea

and Aberystwyth Universities - are surveying the sea and sea bed

to determine the best site to position underwater turbines.

Chris Williams is overseeing the project for renewable energy

companies Tidal Energy Ltd and Eco2.

He's looking for a fairly flat sea bed with a rocky bottom

and enough tide to create constant energy.

Turbines will cover an area the size of a rugby pitch

on the sea floor and will simply just rest on the sea bed.

Chris has brought with him a scale model of the turbines.

So these feet just sit on the floor.

-So the water will be forcing the rotors around at about 10rpm.

-Yeah.

So it takes about six seconds for a rotor to go round.

When the tide then changes, we will then yaw

the device at 90 degrees to the tide while it changes.

Then, as the flow comes in the opposite direction,

we'll be able to yaw it back into the flow

and then the flow will be operating in the other direction.

So it's continuous 24 hours a day?

So it's available 24 hours a day.

Again, it's only operating,

-obviously, when the tide is moving...

-Yeah.

..but in a site like this, you know, we're finding today, even on a calm

day like today, there's three knots of flow here today.

The ship - to hold station - is having to drive at three knots

to stay in the same location.

So there's a tremendous amount of sustainable,

predictable power as well, you know?

By measuring the flow once,

we know what the flow's going to be for the next 25 years effectively.

In addition to the research taking place on the Prince Madog,

surveys are also in progress to determine the potential impact

on wildlife here, in particular, sea mammals.

This is a good area for seals, porpoises and dolphins.

If the lives of these animals

and the less obvious creatures

living under the waves are not affected,

then harnessing energy from the sea is surely a good thing.

This device was founded by

a guy called Richard Ayre, who's a marine engineer,

who lives in Little Haven, which is about...

-Just round the corner there.

-..about 20 nautical miles away.

This is his idea. Back in 2002, he put a small device

into the Cleddau Estuary, just by the bridge by Pembroke Dock

and since then we've been developing the technology.

And now we're in a situation where next year, next spring hopefully,

-this device will be manufactured in Pembroke Dock...

-Yeah.

..and then brought out here on a large crane barge

and put into Ramsey Sound,

connected to the grid and St Davids will be powered by tidal power.

I've now moved further south along the coast of Pembrokeshire,

and I'm heading past the Marloes Peninsula.

Like the sea further north between Ramsey Island and St Davids,

the currents between the mainland

and Skomer Island are also powerful and erratic.

Local Skipper Brian Dilly is taking me for a dive in St Bride's Bay.

Skomer, of course, I know Skomer well.

-Yeah.

-Jack Sound coming up,

that's got to be one of the most potentially dangerous bits

of water all around the Welsh Coast I'd have thought is it, Jack Sound?

It can be quite interesting to say the least.

You know, you go through on slack water and it's very nice.

Then you go through a little bit later

and the water's tumbling, you've got whirlpools.

Really interesting bit of water.

We actually lost one of our ribs down a hole there one year.

What, like a whirlpool?

It just disappeared down a hole, straight down a hole,

nobody got hurt so that's the main thing.

-Shows you the power of the sea, doesn't it?

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

While strong currents are dangerous to boats and people,

they bring a constant supply of tiny food particles in the sea

for marine wildlife.

The size of this thing.

It's a spiny starfish.

Much, much bigger than the starfish you sometimes find

washed up on shore. Much bigger.

This sponge here,

it's called a yellow boring sponge.

But something looks a little bit wrong with it,

it's not in the right place, and if I lift it carefully...

..you'll see why.

This crab, will break off a big bit of sponge

and just put it on its back

and carry it around with him for camouflage. Look at him.

It's a recent coloniser to these waters

but it's expanding quite rapidly now.

I'd better put him back with the sponge on his back.

'These white growths on the rock face are dead man's fingers.

'They're a soft coral formed by colonies of anemone-like animals.

'They're very common all along the Welsh coast.

'Established on a piece of string are plumose anemones.

'They too are sea animals.

'And on an underwater rock face,

'there's an extraordinary gathering of spiny spider crabs.'

It's the mating season at the moment, the end of the summer.

A lot of the crabs down here and that includes the spider crabs.

And you get what they call mating balls -

you get one female surrounded by a lot of males,

and they'll jump on her fighting to mate with a female.

And there are only what?

Half a dozen crabs here

but I've seen mating balls of 20 crabs and more.

And these are really impressive looking crabs.

This is something I never thought I'd see in Welsh waters.

It's a sea cucumber.

It's like a great, big, hollow eating machine, really,

and it'll eat virtually anything along here.

I've seen them before abroad in warm waters but never in Wales.

That's glorious, a lovely black colour with little white spots

here and there if you look carefully.

And the sea cucumber's got this incredible defence.

If you pick it up, out of its bottom end

it sends out a whole long thread of thick, sticky substance.

They're amazing creatures, they really are.

'The rich sea life here is fuelled by strong currents flowing around

'the Pembrokeshire coast, and one species is special to the location.'

Oh, wow, look at this. How beautiful is that?

This is a pink sea fan.

Something, again, I always associated with warmer waters,

but here they are in Wales at their northernmost limit,

here in Pembrokeshire.

And these things, they grow about a centimetre a year initially

and then it slows down, so this one is maybe 20-25cm across,

it could be 30 or 40 years old.

And it's a whole colony of creatures living together here,

in a gully, with the tidal flow back and forth, sends little nutrients

into the mouths of these little creatures.

What a beautiful thing.

'This fragile sea fan is growing in the only Marine Nature Reserve

'in Wales and one of only three in the whole of the UK.'

'It's a wonderful wild landscape which is

'arguably as rich as any tropical rainforest or any other

'important natural habitat on the planet.

'And there are no clues at all to this hidden wealth, above,

'on the surface.

'Marine conservation officer Jennifer Jones

'looks after the reserve.'

Every year, we go back to certain sites

monitoring certain species that are important.

We take photographs of them, so that we can compare year upon year how

their population is, how the growth rate is, are they still there?

Are they disappearing? And it's been going for over 20 years now.

And this entails diving constantly, does it?

Diving constantly, yes. We do do some inter-tidal work on the shore

as well and some grab sampling to look at the infauna,

but it's primarily diving and taking photographs

to see what's down there.

So you... Hang on, let me get this right,

you're being paid to dive, to look at wildlife and to take photographs.

-It's great, isn't it?

-It's a lovely job, isn't it?

That's really nice. And what does a Marine Nature Reserve mean?

You know, is there no fishing at all there?

No, they are allowed to fish and they are allowed to get lobsters

and crabs, the only thing that is prohibited is taking

of scallops by any way, shape or form.

There's a very hefty fine for anybody caught taking scallops

either by diving or dredging.

The most westerly point of Wales

is further out to sea, past Skomer Island.

Around 15 miles west of the Pembrokeshire coast,

an impressive lighthouse stands on a rocky outcrop.

The outcrop is known as the Smalls.

The lighthouse, with its own helipad on the top, is unmanned.

This is not a hospitable place for people,

but its remoteness is ideal for seals.

It's one of the best locations in Britain to dive with them.

Underwater, the rocks form deep gullies full of anemones,

soft coral and starfish.

The strong currents bring food particles to the rich sea life.

And it doesn't take long for a seal to investigate a new visitor.

The seals here on the Smalls are incredibly inquisitive

and quite tame.

And you've got to keep your wits about you because

they're so agile, you're looking for them

and they're coming around behind you.

But I suppose if you were living here on a piece of rock,

20 miles plus offshore, any visitor is a welcome visitor, even me.

'Atlantic grey seals,

'as their name suggests, are mammals of the North Atlantic.

'The nearby Pembrokeshire islands of Skomer

'and Ramsey are important breeding sites for them.'

You can see them, they're coming nearer,

wondering what exactly I am...

..and what I'm doing here

in their territory.

'They don't seem to be threatened at all by my presence but the sea

'is their world not mine and, of course,

'they're totally confident in it.'

This one has wedged itself in a little cleft,

and it's going to sleep.

'I didn't know that seals sleep underwater

'but it'll have to be a quick nap, as they can only hold their breath

'for up to 15 minutes before returning to the surface for air.'

'You don't need to approach them to get a good view,

'they'll approach you for a close encounter.'

I suspect that's their version of a welcome to the Smalls.

I've just had a cow, a female grey seal,

nibbling away at my fins quite lovingly.

They're lovely animals, really, really nice animals.

And they've all ganged up and given us a great welcome

'Over 100 seals come to the Smalls during the spring and summer.

'During early autumn, many will head for their breeding beaches

'on Ramsey and Skomer Islands.

'Although some will remain here over winter,

'the majority will migrate to other parts of the Welsh Coast.

'And new studies suggest that

'a few will travel as far as the Dee Estuary.

'We're only beginning to understand the secret life of the sea.'

'Next time, I'll be finding sharks in the Celtic Deep...'

And I've got to keep pinching myself!

I'm in the sea off the coast of West Wales.

'..I'll be discovering a sunken bomber in Pembroke Dock...'

This plane has been lying here in the silt

for 70-odd years now.

'...I'll be going fishing along the south Glamorgan coast..'

I find it relaxing.

I used to go to the gym a lot and now I fish.

'..and I'll be setting off from Cardiff Bay with the police.'