White-beaked Dolphins

We were just about to pick up our guests from the Inner Farne the other day when I noticed a few other boats going the wrong way. When I looked through my bins I noticed they had dolphins around their boats.
Itching to get across and see them I was praying our guests would come back in few minutes quicker. That was never going to happen but when everyone was on board we dashed off to see them.

When we arrived in the area, the dolphins were spread out all over the place and they were obviously feeding. I was not sure which way to go at first so I decided just to go slowly and see what happens.

All of a sudden we were surrounded by them and they were are far as the eye could see.

They were jumping out of the water and they weren't bottlenose dolphins either. They were white-beaked dolphins and what a sight too.

I will guess at about 30 and this has to be a Farnes record too. We did see two near the Farnes last year but not a many as this. The best part about it was that all our guests got a good show and when we returned to Seahouses we had enough time to unload and head back out with more guests and catch up with them.

These beautiful creatures and can grow up to 10ft long and weigh between 180 to 350kg's. They are also very acrobatic and social animals. They will frequently ride on the bow wave boats and jump clear of the sea's surface.

They have been studying these dolphins around the area for some time now and I think they are starting to get a good catalogue of ID's so we can learn a lot more about them.

I love any sort of wildlife but when a dolphin bow rides your boat and leaps clean out of the water you cannot help yourself but smile at these fantastic creatures and what a way to end a trip.