I'm trying to track down a report of 3 humpback whales off the coast recently, allegedly off Hartlepool Headland in one version. I've heard the report from a couple of sources including someone involved with the North East cetacean project but not been able to establish whether it was anything more than a rumour. Does anyone know the provenance of this report?
I suspect that they were Minke but even that is an excellent record as according to Chris Bielby's account of minke in the new mammal book, there haven't been any previous reports off minke off our coast in Nov/Dec.
Cheers
Ian
Copied from the sightings page, but the report was from 19th October, not November or December.
Observer was a reliable witness (Ian Forrest):
"The Headland yesterday morning - whale just north of Heugh Breakwater - water spout quite big with 10-12m of back in view and 'rolled' three times. Only about 300m out from the rocks. Couldn't ID it at the time but I see three hump-back whales were off Whitby yesterday so maybe it was one of them."
Ian has already been in touch with me.
There was a more recent report about a week ago of three seen locally. On 13th December three humpbacks were reported off Hartlepool on DBC website info from Seawatch Foundation via Durham County Recorder tho. I can see no mention of the report on the Seawatch sightings page.
Hump Baks are pretty easy to ID. Watch em dive , they seem to bend in to just after their Dorsal Fin. Never seen one at home, but plenty at sea.