Stinky Minke!
Sunday’s trip brought along our first minke whales of the year. The first animal was around 20ft long and popped up directly in front of myself and Captain Keith to say hello. Once we invited all of our lovely clients up onto the bow of the boat, this rather friendly individual surfaced close enough that we could smell its fishy breath - trust me when I say it truly earned the name Stinky minke.
As we continued along through waves of never ending auks, I spotted something way out on the horizon. As I lifted my binoculars to check if my eyes had been deceiving me sure enough “FIN UP, FIN UP”. Sure enough a second minke was out at distance. When we got closer to this individual we realised it was quite a bit smaller (15ft) and had some sort of parasite or weed stuck to the tip of its fin which allowed us to keep track of which animal was which when yet another minke appeared as if from nowhere behind this second animal! The third whale was only a baby at under 10ft long and was a rather energetic individual, travelling great distances when it dived and only coming up for a single brief breath each time it surfaced.
Aside from all of this excitement we also had a wonderful encounter with one of our inquisitive grey seals. At the beginning of the trip, before we had barely left the marina we watched as a carrion crow was attempting to scare a buzzard away from its nest.
What a whale of a day!
All photos by Em Forster
