Tallie’s memory lives on with our New Quay dolphins

In Cardigan Bay, bottle-nosed dolphin Tallie and her newborn Summer have been delighting wildlife spotters in recent days.

But few lucky enough to spot the cow and its calf will know they are both named after a 22-year old Sea Watch, external intern who died a little over four months ago.

Tallie Brazier was killed in a car crash on the A5117 in Elton, Cheshire, on 15 April.

Her mother Adele Nightingale said she would have been incredibly touched by the gesture.

“I just wish she was here to see it,” she said.

Tallie, who was from Oswestry, Shropshire, graduated from Bangor University last year with a degree in Marine Biology with Vertebrate Zoology.

She then spent the summer working as an intern at Sea Watch in New Quay, Ceredigion, where she actually spotted and logged the dolphin that would go on to share her name.

“We would very often get video calls when she was on the boat and there’d be a pod of dolphins behind her and you’d hear squeals of delight and joy at what they’d seen,” said Adele.

Sea Watch is a national marine environmental charity working to improve the conservation of whales, dolphins and porpoises in the seas around Britain and Ireland.

Its flagship project in New Quay monitors Cardigan Bay’s 200 dolphins, the only semi-resident population of bottlenose dolphins in Wales, and the largest in the UK.

Adele said Tallie’s love of sealife began after watching animated film Finding Nemo when she was two or three years old.

Then from junior school she decided she wanted to work with dolphins and began scuba diving at eight. She eventually became a Padi-qualified rescue diver, diving all over the world.

This month she was due to return to Bangor to begin her Master’s in Marine Predator Ecology.

“She had so much to do and so much to live for,” said Adele.

At Tallie’s funeral, instead of flowers, the family asked for donations and raised almost £3,000.

Then TNS FC in Oswestry, who Tallie had played for as a goalie when she was younger, set up The Tallie Brazier Cup, which raised more than £6,000.

They donated the money to Sea Watch who set up the Tallie Brazier Scholarship, which will fund an intern next year.

Sea Watch then suggested naming a dolphin after Tallie.

“If she was here she’d be absolutely amazed, she would be so touched by that,” said Adele.

Then last week Adele received another call from Sea Watch.

“They got in touch to say the Tallie dolphin has actually got a calf… and they asked us if we would like to name Tallie’s calf,” she said.

They settled on Summer – Tallie’s middle name.

Sea Watch estimates Summer was born between 16 and 19 August as Tallie was seen without a calf on the morning of the 16th and then with a calf on the 19th.

Our thoughts are going out to Tallie’s family.