Has Gilbert the whale waved a final farewell to Bournemouth shores?

9:05am Monday 21st September 2009

GILBERT the whale appears to have beaten the odds and escaped to deeper waters after putting on a farewell display of tail flapping off Bournemouth beach.

There were no confirmed sightings of the nine metre long northern bottlenose over the weekend and it was last seen around 6pm to 6.30pm on Friday.

Experts are hoping Gilbert is heading for the underwater canyons in the Bay of Biscay after providing a once in a lifetime treat for beachgoers.

Trevor Weekes, from British Divers Marine Life Rescue, said: “The most likely outcome is that it has moved on. There was a lot of boat activity on Saturday morning and that may have moved him into the channel.”

Gilbert baffled experts by spending a week happily patrolling the waters between Bournemouth Pier, Branksome Dene Chine and a yellow and black marker buoy.

The species dive up to 1,000 metres to feed on squid, but Gilbert’s displays off Bournemouth indicate he may have found an alternative food source.

Ben Wallbridge, a marine ranger with Durlston Country Park, said: “This is why we were so concerned – the whale was way off the nearest bit of deep water.

“But it didn’t look like it was in any distress at all. If you look at the shore there’s lots of cuttlefish and it may have been feeding on that instead.”

Mr Weekes said: “It’s thought they may also eat mackerel and cuttlefish but those sort of things have never been found in their stomachs. We’re going to dive and see if we can find what it was eating.

“It was an unusual situation. Usually we expect them to beach within two or three days, especially on the south coast. Gilbert certainly seems to have broken the rules.

“It’s got loads of people talking in the whale and dolphin community.”

Gilbert was named after the RNLI lifeguard who took the first picture. The animal’s sex cannot be established without a close inspection.

Northern Bottlenoses are making their way from the edge of the Arctic to South Africa and usually pass the west coast of Ireland.

There have been far more Dorset sightings this year of seals, dolphins, jellyfish and even Sunfish, the biggest bony fish in the world.

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