Harbour Porpoise at Pickerings Pasture

I'm not sure if this helps in any way, but my wife and I were on the 3pm ferry from Pier Head on 6th September and, along with other passengers, spotted what appeared to be 2 dolphins/porpoises swimming just after we left the ferry terminal at Seacombe. As we are visitors from London this came as a real surprise. Sadly we didn't get any photographic evidence of this occasion. Regards Paul & Jill Hooton. 

A harbour porpoise has been seen at Pickerings Pasture several times. The two photographs below are from Scott Clayton on 9th May 2017.

On Wednesday 26th October 2016, a harbour porpoise was stranded on a mud bank in Ditton Brook near the White Bridge. Members of the The Friends of Pickerings Pasture were informed and action to rescue the animal were instigated. Several organisations were involved including UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme » CSIP Organisation, the RSPCA and Cheshire Fire Services. The rescue was successful and eventually the porpoise was released and it swam away up-river on the tide.
The first two photos were taken by Gary Broad and the rest are from Mike Roberts.
Our thanks to all who were involved and especially to the cyclist who waded in and held its head out of the water for some time..

From what we have heard since: when a dolphin or porpoise is stranded it becomes disorientated. If, after the porpoise was refloated, it had been released immediately it would probably have drowned. The rescuers spent a while moving it from side to side in the water until they were certain it had re-orientated itself before its release. We also learned that it had not been hit by a boat, as some suggested, but its skin was damaged on the pebbles on the far side of the white bridge, which was were it was stranded originally. It re-stranded in the mud as a result of the disorientation. The wounds were only superficial.
​Thanks for the updates.

Photographs of the stranding on 26th October 2016