Wildlife cruise passengers get close-up view of orca pod
It happened on Sunday during a Pentland Venture wildlife cruise when five orcas, including two calves, came into view – to gasps of delight from onlookers.
Fred Fermor of John O’Groats Ferries said: “As luck would have it we had more than 100 passengers on our wildlife cruise that day.
“I was taking a walk round the stacks and witnessed the spectacle from the shore.
“It was great to hear the excited chatter and shouts from the passengers when they saw the orcas approach the Pentland Venture which by that time was just bobbing around.”
He added: “It’s a case of letting people see these magnificent creatures while respecting their space and habitat.
“It’s great to think that Caithness can offer such experiences and that folk will go back to the far corners and tell their friends what a wonderful place we live in.”
The orcas were photographed from Duncansby Head by Colin Bird, former area group co-ordinator for Sea Watch Foundation, who started the annual Orca Watch at Duncansby.
He said: “The ferry has been a great help in providing sightings of cetaceans in the Pentland Firth over the past 15 years.”
These sightings have helped form a greater understanding of the movement of orcas between Iceland and the north of Scotland.
As reported in the Courier, local wildlife photographer Karen Munro saw seven killer whales on Friday close to the shore at St John’s Point, where they “harassed seals” for about an hour. They moved on towards Stroma and she alerted the ferry team.
Mr Fermor said: “The orcas stayed at Stroma for a while and although some distance from John O’Groats it caused a bit of a stir onshore and Karen generously let visitors view the whales through her powerful telescope.”
Meanwhile, Sea Watch Foundation says its latest National Whale and Dolphin Watch event looks like being the best in the past two decades in terms of the unprecedented variety of species of whales and dolphins seen around the British Isles.
The event involved thousands of volunteers from all around the British Isles and was conducted between July 28 and August 5.
This summer’s stable weather is one possible explanations for the high number of cetacean sightings in the country as a whole, with higher temperatures bringing warmer-water species and creating the conditions for plankton fronts to develop – attracting shoals of fish and, in turn, whales and dolphins.
Meanwhile, Sea Watch Foundation says its latest National Whale and Dolphin Watch event looks like being the best in the past two decades in terms of the unprecedented variety of species of whales and dolphins seen around the British Isles.
The event involved thousands of volunteers and was conducted between July 28 and August 5.
