Monday, September 04, 2023

Whale, whale, whale! 'Almost unheard of' visitor swims into west Wales waters

Ruth Davies
Sat, 2 September 2023 

The Sowerby's Beaked Whale is a magnificent sight pictured from a drone. (Image: Brett Stones)

The amazing and rare sight of a Sowerby’s Beaked Whale has been spotted in west Wales waters.

The stunning visitor was captured on camera and drone from SeaMôr Dolphin Watching Boat Trips in New Quay on Saturday September 2.

The creature - also known as the North Atlantic or North Sea beaked whale - is ‘almost entirely heard of round here’, said Josh Pedley, aka The Wildlife Man, who was on board the company's Cerismar 2 and photographed it from sea level.


Meanwhile, SeaMôr's owner, Brett Stones, flew his drone from the end of the pier after being alerted to the whale's presence and captured some stunning images from the sky.

Only last month, Josh made another rare sighting in the same waters - a massive shark which was seen breaching three times.

Josh believes that the beaked whale may have lost its way, and he and passengers on the boat watched in awe as it headed into shallow waters before heading back to the deeps on its own accord.


Western Telegraph: The Sowerby's Beaked Whale pictured in New Quay by Josh Pedley

The Sowerby's Beaked Whale pictured in New Quay by Josh Pedley (Image: Josh Pedley)

He said: "We initially heard word over the radio from Epic Fishing, a tourist fishing boat, that a Minke Whale was heading our way so we stopped to look out and sure enough a whale was heading in our direction.

"But it wasn’t a Minke Whale at all as it had a beak.. we weren’t initially sure what it was, but upon retrospective viewing of photos and videos, we have established it to be a Sowerby’s Beaked Whale which for round here is almost entirely unheard of!

"The views remained distant for the most part as we kept away as to not cause any undue stress to the animal, but it was incredibly exciting to see even at a distance."

No comments:

Post a Comment