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.

White Beaked Dolphins

On Tuesday we had just picked up from the Inner Farne and as we got around the corner to head home some other boats were going north. I realized that they must have had the Bottlenose Dolphins again but when I arrived I was gob smacked to see that they were 4 White Beaked Dolphins.

They are really really fast and they seemed to just glide past the boat with ease. Two went one direction and two another.

We stayed a bit away from them as we seemed to have a better view but when they did come close to the boat they showed really well.

They were not in the mood to hang around and before you know it they were on the way north towards Holy Island.

I did manage to get a few pictures but they were not very good sorry.

I have since found out that it is only the 12th record for them since 2004 and the 4th sighting since 2009.

No wonder I was buzzing afterwards.

This is becoming a record breaking year for marine mammals and long may it continue.

40+ White Beaked Dolphins

Continued from the Not 1 but 5 Minke Whale blog...

We headed a little further out after seeing the last Minke and  we passed 2 Sooty Shearwaters a few more Manx Shearwaters and then nothing. We only saw a few passing Gannets but that was it, until we had 2 White Beaked Dolphins arrive from nowhere. They played with the bow of the boat for 2 minutes but then disappeared.

We looked around a bit more and we were just about to give up and go home when in the distance we saw few Gannets starting to dive and then we saw a few Dolphins jump clean out of the water.

As we looked more and more turned up. There was a least 40+ heading straight for us.

They seemed to be really excited to see us, as they  ignore the fish the Gannets were diving for. At first we were not moving and they seemed to get bored straight away but the second I started to move the boat that's when they got excited and started to entertain us.

This is one hell of a sight and it gives you is real buzz inside.

To be so close to this was just amazing and for them to put a real show on for us made it even more spacial.

I was excited, the guests were excited and even Bud my trusty Collie was excited to as you can hear him.

Over all this was by far the best trip this year so enjoy the pictures and some video footage.