Rare whale sighting creates a splash for marine life spotting event

Last year over 3,000 people participated from Shetland to the Isles of Scilly and Channel Islands.

Coincidentally marine life watchers have reported a sighting of an extremely rare and critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.

The animal was spotted on Wednesday, July 22nd at 9:30 am, from a ship bound for Spain from Scotland.

Its all-black colour, lack of a dorsal fin, and V-shaped twin blow enabled crew member, Alix McDermott, and the ship’s captain to confirm identification, and they then reported the sighting to the national UK marine research charity, Sea Watch Foundation.

The North Atlantic Right Whale is critically endangered, with less than 500 animals remaining, forming a small population off the eastern seaboard of the United States.

In July 2018, however, a Right Whale nicknamed Mogul (a male born in 2008), wandered from its usual feeding grounds to Iceland where it delighted whale watchers off the coast north-west of the capital, Reykjavik.

In March 2019, the same whale was seen back in its usual haunts in Cape Cod Bay, and then three months later on 21 June, the whale appeared off the French coast at Penmarch in the northern Bay of Biscay, some 3,200 miles away.

In the last 100 years, there have been very few sightings of Right Whales in European waters, and yet in earlier centuries the species inhabited the waters around Spain, France and the British Isles.

This latest sighting has occurred just days before the Annual National Whale & Dolphin Watch Event, when everyone is invited to look out for whales, dolphins and porpoises.

For more details about the North Atlantic Right Whale and participation in the upcoming National Whale & Dolphin Watch Event, please contact Dr Peter Evans, Director of Sea Watch Foundation at [email protected] or 01407 832892.

Sea Watch Foundation are seeking volunteers to take part in the National Whale and Dolphin Watch 2020, which takes place 25th July – 2nd August.

The team at Sea Watch will offer online training and advice on how to take part: https://www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk/nwdw-2020-online-training/

Visit https://www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk/nwdw/ for details, or contact [email protected].