New encounter could be clue to Vatersay orca pod 'enigma'

23 July 2019

Researchers hope to finally identify a pod of nine orca seen off the Western Isles a year ago.

Experts say their struggle to match the animals' markings against databases shows there is still much to discover about orcas that appear off Scotland.

Individual orca can be identified from their saddle patches, a grey area on their backs just behind the dorsal fin. The patch is different on every orca.

Researchers hope to encounter the pod again during surveys this summer.

The Mull-based Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) scientists will try to take better quality images than those taken last June to better match them against records.

Scotland's west coast is home to a group of eight older orca known as the West Coast Community.

There is also a northern community known as the 27s, seven orca that move between Shetland, Orkney and Scotland's north mainland coast.

The 27s take their name from the identification number of the group's "matriarch".

Among other orcas seen around Scotland's north coasts are animals that move down from Iceland to feed.

'An enigma'

The pod seen near Vatersay in the Western Isles last year included two large males and two juveniles.

Dr Lauren Hartny-Mills, the trust's science and policy manager, said attempts already made to match the pod to animals in records had been unsuccessful.

She said: "Despite our collaboration with other organisations and experts to identify the animals, the pod remains an enigma.

"It shows there is still a lot to discover about the cetaceans visiting Scottish waters.

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Minke whale washed up on Barra beach

A minke whale has died after washing up on a beach in the Western Isles.

The animal had been found earlier by locals with a rope wrapped around its jaw and body. They managed to cut the rope away, but the whale later died and was found on a Barra beach.

The people who helped the animal believe the rope had broken its jaw.

Chris Denehy, owner of Barra Surf Adventures, filmed the whale while his colleague Ben Morton-Clark cut the rope away from its jaw.

Mr Morton-Clark had paddled out to investigate but he felt too exposed to help the animal - which was between six and seven metres long - without help.

He returned with Mr Denehy and by then the whale was "obviously distressed".

Mr Denehy told the BBC Scotland news website: "It all happened quite quickly - Ben managed to swim over to it and cut the rope, which went right across the whale's mouth and under its body on both sides, on one side and it came out on the other side.

"But the damage had already been done. It looked as though the whale's jaw had been broken.

"We followed it for a bit, it wallowed on the surface and swam along for a bit then we left it - realistically, it don't look too hopeful."

Later on Sunday night, the men heard a whale had washed up on the beach.

Mr Denehy added: "It's a very sad story."

Source

Video of Scottish kayaker saving dolphin entangled in seaweed

Chris Denehy, the owner of Clear Water Paddling, was alerted to a dolphin’s distress just off the Isle of Barra in the Scottish Western Isles, reports The Scotsman. The local postman had spotted it on his round in the secluded Northbay.

Denehy, with help from two companions, is seen via his helmet-mounted camera using his hands and paddle to free the panicked dolphin. When it finally makes it into open water the young dolphin is seen breaching, as if in leaping around in delight.

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'Oldest sheep' in the world dies on Lewis in Western Isles

A ewe thought to have been a contender for the title of world's oldest sheep has died after falling off a cliff.

An ear tag on the blackface ewe, nicknamed Methuselina, showed that it was 25 years and 11 months old.

In 2009, her owner John Maciver, of North Tolsta, Lewis, put her longevity down to her still having most of her teeth, allowing her to graze easily.

That same year the recognised holder of the world's oldest sheep title died at the age of 23.

Called Lucky, she died in a heatwave in Australia.

Mr Maciver said Methuselina had also met an unfortunate end.

He said: "The sad news is Methuselina is no more.

"She passed away and I wouldn't say peacefully. I found her at the bottom of a rock.

"She had gone over a cliff and met her demise that way at the grand old age of 25 years and 11 months."

Lucky raised by Delrae Westgarth set the Guinness record in 2007 and was a celebrity in her home town of Lake Bolac, near Melbourne.

The Polwarth-Dorchester cross was hand-reared from birth after being abandoned by her mother. She went on to have 35 offspring of her own.

Read on:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-17182541