Animals at sea.

For our wild animals we tend to think of winter as a time of adversity and a season of scarcity, but in our waters there is food and plenty of it. Just off the coast of Ireland a gathering of fish heralds a great wildlife spectacle. Shoals of herring and sprat congregate in huge numbers to breed. In sheltered coastal waters this bounty of food draws in predators. Seabirds, dolphins and whales migrate to feed on the fish. Short winter days mean it is a race against time before the sunsets again. Birds spend most of the year looking for food hotspots, along with gulls, gannets and dolphins they are all  after  the breeding fish. There is an amazing array of wildlife in British waters, humpback whales are normally found in Alaska and Antarctica, but they are sometimes found off the coast of Ireland feeding on all of the fish, they will eat up to a tonne of fish. When the whale jumps out of the water it is said to be a form of communication, their have been up to twenty different humpback whales seen off the coast of Ireland which is testament to the rich waters that are off the coast of Ireland., but during February they will disappear from British waters to give birth because the Irish waters are to cold for them.