Orcasome Sightings this Week!

After the Whale Watch Explorer on Tuesday had excellent sightings of a Minke Whale, Common Dolphins, Basking Sharks, Harbour Porpoise and a Sunfish all within one square mile of ocean, it was going to be difficult to top that on Wednesday!

We left the Tobermory drizzle behind and headed out towards the sunny skies above Coll. It wasn't long before we spotted a Sunfish up at the surface and some large Basking Sharks nearby. After lunch we found a juvenile Minke Whale feeding and a large group of ~12 porpoises rounding up fish.

As we continued to search for another Minke Whale, a very large dorsal fin was spotted in the distance. There was no mistaking what it was - a large male Orca. With a lot of excitement from the Crew and Passengers on board Sula Beag we followed the male and his female companion out to the open ocean towards the Outer Hebrides. As we got closer we realised the male was well-known to us, believed to be one of the dominant males in the Hebridean pod. He was first identified in September 1992 and given the identification name 'John Coe'.

John Coe was spotted off the Pembrokeshire Coast on the 1st June, the furthest south he has ever been recorded. Who knows what he has been up to in the intervening 12 weeks! We all felt very privileged to be in the presence of the Orca and you couldn't ask for a better leaving present for our guide Laura on her last day. Magic!

Sarah, SLS Guide

Summer Highs

Summer is well and truly under way and the wildlife has continued to impress. Highlights from the last few weeks have included more close encounters with ‘knobble’, a whale we have seen numerous times this year.
A recent trip up north impressed with Muck Ducks, tasty carrot cake and an inquisitive young whale that surfaced right next to Sula Beag.
Basking sharks are still delighting both the Whale Watch Explorer and the Wildlife Adventure with some days seeing between 10 and 15 sharks!
Often over looked, our smallest cetacean, the Harbour Porpoise, continue to put in an appearance on most trips. Large feeding groups of between 10 and 15 porpoises have been sighted recently and although usually quite shy of boats ‘our’ porpoises have approached close on a number of occasions.
The last two weeks have also brought our second and third sightings of Sunfish, the third being a reasonably large and unusually mottled individual.
Not to be out done the bird life around our shores has continued to please with excellent views of both white-tailed and golden eagle, fantastic aerial pursuits between Skua’s and gulls, gannets plunging from great heights and guillemot chicks constantly calling to their fathers nearby!
Photo's to follow...

The Season So Far...

The early season can always prove difficult for both sightings and passenger numbers, but our first trip on the 22nd of March, a four-hour Wildlife Adventure, proved highly successful, the skipper sighting the first Porpoise of the season. Porpoise are our most regularly sighted cetacean and resident year round in the waters surrounding Mull. This early achievement was closely followed in April with the first Minke whale of the season.

May proved a highly successful month for sightings, visitors and weather, with an incredible 95% success rate for sightings of Minke Whales on our trips. On the 18th we encountered our first Basking shark of the season on our shorter Wildlife Adventure trip. Our passengers met this relatively small example of a basking shark with delight as it came alongside the boat filtering the plankton from the surrounding waters. The 30th of May proved to be another spectacular day for our Whale Watch explorer. After heading west from Tobermory towards the Isle of Coll, and following a brief association with a Minke whale, we were delighted to encounter a pod of Orca. The day proved particularly exciting for the passengers on one of our package holidays, after a week of ‘orca requests’ they were greeted to four of these magnificent individuals. We are lucky enough to see them around once or twice a year and this time they brought stunning views, circling in the same area, close to the boat, for around an hour and a half.

The glorious weather continued into June and the sightings followed suit, with late May and early June in particular proving a highly successful period for Common dolphins. These dolphins are most often sighted in groups of up to 50, but occasionally larger groups maybe sighted in our waters. They are a particularly playful variety of dolphin and on several occasions stayed with the boat for long times, simply enjoying the undivided attention.

July was perhaps the most momentous month of the season with the completion and grand opening of our new visitor centre. The centre not only provides a booking facility for our own excursions but also provides information on the marine life in the waters surrounding the island. July witnessed a further achievement: as we found the first Sunfish of the season. Sunfish are generally sighted from the midsummer onwards; a sign that the time was steadily progressing, sightings throughout the month continued to be impressive and were marked by a succession of associating Minke Whales on our longer trips. July was rounded off with a spectacular sighting of Bottlenose dolphins, we see these particular individuals at irregular intervals; while often difficult to spot, once found we are quite often greeted to very close encounters. August has so far proved equally impressive, with regular whale, shark and dolphin sightings; let’s hope the reminder of the season delivers similar sightings.

Tom
SLS Head Guide

Whales, Sharks & Sula

The last few weeks have produced some fantastic Minke Whale and Basking Shark sightings, with everyone on board getting some very close views, including Skipper’s pup Sula!

A companion on some of the Whale Watch Explorer trips, Sula is intrigued by Basking Sharks and will often go onto the bow and watch these giants as they slowly swim by. Minke Whales just don’t seem to hold the same appeal to her!

Rachel
SLS Guide