Dwarf sperm whale off Cornwall
October 2011. Dr Peter Evans, Director of the marine research charity Sea Watch, has confirmed that a small whale spotted in Mounts Bay next to the Cornish town of Penzance was a dwarf sperm whale - a tropical/subtropical species that has never before been recorded off the UK coast.
The animal, little more than the size of a porpoise, swam into Mounts Bay on Sunday October 9. As it came close to shore, a local person spotted it on the beach and reported it to the local coastguard and to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust strandings officer, Jan Loveridge. A member of the public then managed to re-float the animal which subsequently swam away.
Local members of British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) and a local tourist boat operator, Marine Discovery, then observed the whale for some time before it disappeared from view. Initially they thought from its size
that it was a harbour porpoise.
On Tuesday October 11, Dr Peter Evans received a phone call from manager of Shetland Wildlife Tours, Hugh Harrop having just received photos from a friend, Glenn Overington, who on his return from a birding holiday in Cornwall was wondering what the species was that he had seen in Mounts Bay.
Read on...
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