InfoOur Wildlife

The coast and waters of the Gower Peninsula are home to a myriad of sea life, the highlight of any Gower boat trip.

You'll have the chance to encounter a variety of different marine mammals and sea birds, depending on the time of year that you choose to visit. Some of our species are resident here and are seen often, while others are spring or summer visitors. Our experienced crew will help you spot seals, harbour porpoises, common dolphins, and a number of different nesting and fishing sea birds.

We also often see lots of jellyfish species, and occasionally even sunfish! The tidal island of Worms Head, at the western tip of the Gower peninsula, is where we tend to see most of our wildlife.

Atlantic grey seals

Seals are the most common marine mammal that we see on our trips and a firm favourite with our passengers. There is a resident colony at Worms Head so we see them throughout the season. At low tide they will haul out on to the rocks to rest and at high tide they are often seen snoozing in the water.

We recognize many of our individual seals as they all have unique fur patterns. We know some of them from as far back as 2004 and are still seeing them on our trips today.

Harbour porpoises

Porpoises are small, shy dolphins which inhabit the seas around Gower all year. The best time to see them is on very calm days and typically we will just see their small dorsal fin and the roll of their back as they take a few breaths at the surface.

As they are quiet and serene creatures that don't approach boats, when we spot one we often turn off the engine and drift nearby which affords us the best sightings of these beautiful mammals.

Common dolphins

Dolphins visit Gower in the warmer months of the year, usually June to August, but we have seen them as early as May and as late as October. They are very sociable and playful animals, often approaching our boat to swim alongside or bow ride, breaching high into the air, or slapping the water with their tails.

There's no best time of day to see dolphins, all sightings are by chance, but we always make every effort to spot them when we know they are in the area.

Gannets

With a wingspan of nearly 2 metres, gannets are the UK's largest sea bird. They are spectacular to watch, adapted for a high-speed dive into the water to catch their fish prey.

When we see gannets we also scan the water below them for porpoises or dolphins which the birds frequently follow in order to snap up the fish which have been chased towards the surface.

Razorbills

These sea birds are similar to guillemots in their appearance and their nesting habits. They are darker in colour than guillemots and also have a white stripe on their bill which gives them their name. They too nest at Worms Head between April and July, before they leave the ledges to swim out to sea once more.

Despite being small, they are excellent flyers and often swim to depths of up to 120 metres to catch fish.

Guillemots

Look up to the cliff ledges of Worms Head and you'll see these little penguin-like sea birds. They come here to lay their eggs between April and mid-July. They spend the rest of their lives at sea so we often see them on the water too.

Their strategy is safety in numbers so hundreds of them pack together on the cliffs, incubating their eggs, or gliding down to the sea to catch fish.

Kittiwakes

These pretty sea birds are the most numerous gull globally, however most people haven't heard of them as they spend most of their time at sea and rarely venture inland.

Here, they nest at Worms Head and also on Mumbles pier. We frequently see little kittiwake chicks in the nests in the summer months. Kittiwakes can be noisy birds and are named after their distinctive 'kitti-wayke' call.

Fulmars

Fulmars nest at various points along the south Gower coast and are seen gliding along the cliffs. Whilst they look similar to gulls, they are actually part of the petrel family of sea birds and are related to albatrosses.

The name 'fulmar' means 'foul gull' as they are famous for regurgitating their last meal over any predator which gets too close, so peregrines and other birds of prey know to avoid them.

We also see Manx shearwaters gliding across the sea surface, cormorants and shags perched on the rocks drying their feathers, terns migrating between their nesting and feeding grounds, turnstones looking for grubs amongst the rocks, and kestrels hovering over Worms Head searching for a meal.
Among our other occasional sightings are shelducks, skuas, little egrets, and scoters.