Whale Track Stories: Zoe’s unusual tip off
Zoe Stevenson, a member of the Whale Track community who reports sightings whilst working with Hebrides Cruises, shares some highlight minke sightings, including one thanks to a rather unusual tip off.
Despite the fact that minke whales are one of the most common cetaceans recorded off the west coast, they’re often elusive animals, surfacing for just a few breaths before disappearing off into the watery depths.
One of the best times to get a look at these incredible animals is when they are feeding. Then, they are usually hanging around one patch of water for a while and coming to the surface regularly. Minke whales feed in a number of different ways, but without a doubt, one of the most impressive is lunge feeding.
Lunge feeding is when the whale puts on a sudden burst of speed, opens its mouth, expands the pleats on its lower jaws and takes in a massive gulp of water, hopefully with plenty of prey too. What we see at the surface is usually the whale coming out of the water head first, in a dramatic spray of waves and salt, with fish that have managed to escape pushed out with the force of the forward momentum. It’s a dramatic sight for sure.
Last summer in particular was excellent for sighting lunge feeding minkes. I spent a lot of time on the water working as a guide for Hebrides Cruises and I certainly saw more lunge feeding minke whales than I ever have before. At one point, several miles west of Tiree, there were so many around that I gave up trying to point out individuals to guests and simply told them to pick a patch of water and keep looking at it, a whale would pop up there eventually. (An experience which was great to witness, but somewhat difficult to log on Whale Track!)
However, by far the most memorable encounter I had was further north, on our way towards the northern Minch. We were making our way up the east side of the Isle of Skye when we got a call from the local coastguard. They were doing some training with their helicopter and wondered if we would like to help them out with an exercise. Naturally, we said yes!
A few hours later, we spotted the helicopter coming towards us. It seemed to go from a small dot in the distance to a very large, very noisy machine right above us! Guests all gathered at the front of the boat to get a good look at the action whilst staying out of the way, and with incredible skill and precision, a member of the coastguard was lowered down onto our top deck. After he had been deposited, the helicopter did a quick circle, returned and picked him up again!
As we were waving goodbye, the man, still swinging on the tether he was being hoisted back into the helicopter on, gave us a wave and pointed very obviously and very directly in a certain direction. We didn’t know what at, but it seemed silly not to take his advice, so we changed course and headed in the direction he was pointing.
Not a few miles later I spotted diving seabirds and then the distinctive and unmistakable splash of a lunge feeding mike whale! A wonderful reward for our help.
The bait ball was large enough to attract several species of birds; gannets and gulls and even a skua trying its luck at snatching fish from other birds. We watched the spectacle for half an hour before moving off to minimise disturbance. After all, there’s plenty more whales in the sea!