End of the week, what a week!

Following a manic week last week with Kent Coat Week I was half expecting a quiet week. Well things were going well until about 11.15 on Wednesday morning. My phone rang and it was Sue from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDML). They had reports of a porpoise beach at West Brook, near Margate and asked if we could attend. Of course we said yes. Headed to our harbour office, grab the Marine Mammal Medic kit, dry suit and anything else we thought might come in handy.

Arrived on scene at about 11.45, Coatguards were on scene as were the RSPCA, Police and another medic Daniel.

After assessing the porpoise and having a vet checking him out, it was decided to move him to Pegwell Bay and try to re float him. We could not have done it at Westbook as the wind was to strong and the surf to high, the porpoise would not have swam through the surf. Whilst the main reason for a dolphin, porpoise or whale to beach is illness the vet felt that this porpoise was in pretty good shape.With the aid of all those on site and also the Wild Animal Rescue Unit from Kent Fire and Rescue Service we move him to Pegwell where the surf was a lot less. The team spent over an hour or so in the water trying to encourage the porpoise to swim off. The light started to fade and he was also rolling to his left side, muscle tremor and kept turning to shore. All of these were indications that the porpoise was not as well as first thought. The vet decided that the best course of action would be to, Sadly, put him to sleep.

It is was a very sad moment for all those involved but clearly the very best thing for the porpoise. Also I hope all can take solice knowing that we had all done all we could to try and save him.

I have included a couple of pictures taken by Simon Mores, thank you to him for his permission to use them, there is also a link to a video shot at Pegwell by Abmetechmedia, again thanks to them.

http://www.abmetechmedia.com/project_pops/dolphin.html

See you soon

Jon

Kent Coast Week is here!!!!

Well here in, not so, sunny Kent it is half term for thounsands of children.

Kent County Council are, once again, running a series of events to promote the fantastic array of activities that are here on the Kent coast. As a partner with KCC we are offering discounted I hour seal encounter and bays and beaches tours. These are normally £18 for adults and £10 for children. During Kent Coast Week they are only £5 each!!!!! Yes thats right only £5.

The trips started yesterday and all trips were fully booked. We even had a celeb on the boat, Vicky Croft an ex page 3 model!! Also Tony from Thanet Coast Project and Chris Drake from KCC joined us, sadly they are not as famous as Vicky! Talking of Famous the great James Heeming of Invicta FM fame joined us the other week to indulge his other passion of photography.

Bes sure to come join us.

We also had so sad news over the last few weeks. Nelson (The God In Orange) managed to do himself a serious injury whilst doing DIY at home. Always my main excuse for not doing DIY (Damage It Yourself)This is likely to put him out of action for a good few months. He will be missed by us all but Stuart, Matt and Stacey will be covering for him. Get well soon mate!

First day on the blog

Well hello one and all and welcome to the blog from Horizon Sea Safaris.

This week has been a busy one for us.

On Monday Nelson (The God in Orange) and I spent the day on the water with a film crew. They guys are making a water safety video in conjunction with Thanet DC. This is aimed at all the local schools and will be used to promote better safety and aweness of our local coastline.

Thursday Nelly and I were out with the Enviroment Agency, this is a regular job for us helping them with their local clean water survey's.

Happy sailing

Jon

Photo from our good friends at Level Eleven Photography