The 4hr Wildlife Adventure

Although quite rare we had a WHALE and a few massive fish on our Wildlife Adventure on Tuesday!!

Usually the whales are a bit further out, but today we had a juvenile Minke whale that actually came to us and swam round the boat before heading north.  We are almost certain this is a whale we have seen before, watch this space as the team analyse the photos and confirm...

Shortly after we spotted a shark and after spending some time watching it feed amongst the plankton rich tideline a further 3 sharks where seen.  We managed to get some great identification shots of two of them, and after a sample was taken from the sea it was obvious why these guys where here in good numbers, plankton soup!

To cap this all off we then had a shout on the radio of Bottlenose dolphins in the area, we where running out of time by this point!  We knew they where just the other side of the sound from us, but where traveling just too quick!!  So, the Bottlenose dolphins remain elusive this time, but there was a report of them heading north again yesterday...here's hoping

During yesterdays Wildlife Adventure we had an incredible association with a Harbour porpoise!  These usually shy animals rarely approach boats....well we had an adult follow the wake of Sula Beag for 10-minutes, 'porpoising' out of the water, doing a great job of impersonating a dolphin!  Waggy did manage to get some great shots of this rare behaviour, i will post some shortly, quite incredible!  The trip was finished off with a 4-metre Basking shark feeding on the surface, as we stopped our engines to watch it feed beside us it turned towards the boat...with a number of kids onboard they all got quite excided with the large fin making its way towards the boat!  The fish then was within a few metres of the boat, by this time it was obvious it could see us, but was not bothered by our prescence, as it continued to feed, mouth wide open just beside us, as we drifted, it followed us for a few minutes, giving us all a very clear view of its entire body, and gaping mouth, and most importantly an opportunity to get some identification shots of both sides of its dorsal fin, awesome!!  

James

Skipper