An incredible encounter. During flat calm conditions, we found many minke whales and common dolphins feeding. Skipper Shane spotted a fluke from a distance whilst searching for sharks and took the boat closer. Then our passengers started seeing it too. It couldn't be anything else apart from a Humpback!
It was logging and bubble net feeding on sand eels and we were able to observe this from the drone. This is the second time we've had a large feeding event with Humpback's near Coll & Tiree. We had some very lucky people on board.
The whale has some very specific markings on it fluke and Shane setup the boat with the sun behind to capture some specific ID images. We work with researcher Lyndsay McNeill who that night matched it to an Irish match. The Irish Whale & Dolphin group confirmed that the whale was first spotted in Ireland in 2015 and re-sighted there 28 times since, however this was the first official record from Scottish waters. The code for the whale in Ireland is HBIRL047 and number 095 in the Scottish catalogue. A great celtic collaboration.
