DOLPHINS WOW NEEDLES ANGLERS

By Clare Wall - Thursday, April 12, 2007

Two of the dolphins swimming alongside the Southern Star.

A GROUP of sea anglers came back with a fishy tale to tell — but with the pictures to prove it.
Members of the Red Deer Sea Angling Club, from Totton, Hampshire, had just finished a day’s fishing south of The Needles on the boat Southern Star, when a pod of around 60 dolphins, including newborn babies, surrounded them.
One angler, Pete Stotesbury, 50, who was born on the Island but now lives in Fareham, took these photographs of the dolphins and said: “We were making our way back to Lymington, when we noticed a lot of seagulls diving into the water, which normally means fish. So we went to have a look and we saw one dolphin but then we started seeing all these others.
“They were feeding on the fish and swimming alongside and underneath our boat. It was great.
“We quite often see the odd one but never this many.
“I have just come back from two weeks in Grenada in the Caribbean and I saw more off the coast of the Island than I did on my holiday.”
Dave Evans, of the IW branch of British Divers Marine Life Rescue, said: “There are pods around at this time of year but it is not usual to see so many in one place. Those anglers were really lucky.”

DOLPHINS WOW NEEDLES ANGLERS

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