Having a whale of a time

Published on Wednesday 30 September 2009 10:05

THEIR fins glinting in the sun, the dolphins leap playfully out of the water. As the boat passes by, they surround it, riding alongside, cutting in front and turning back-flips in the waves.

Stunned by the sight, the passengers pause for a moment before reaching for their cameras. Maggie Sheddan, the tour guide with Seabird Seafaris, cuts the motor, and lets the boat drift along the shore by North Berwick.

"Does anyone have to get back urgently?" she asks. Unsurprisingly, no-one says yes.

People living in the coastal town have been enthralled by their unusual visitors in recent weeks. Groups of up to 75 dolphins have been spotted by fishing and tourist boats – as well as walkers on the shore.

And few people are more delighted than Erich Hoyt, a world-renowned whale and dolphin expert who lives in East Lothian. He spends much of the year travelling around the world, writing books and screenplays relating to his favourite subject, and has been consulted on blockbuster films including Free Willy.

But when he is at home, he loves to while away his time wandering the cliffs near North Berwick with a pair of binoculars searching for the elusive animals. When he first moved here from the United States 20 years ago, sightings were few and far between. But now it seems his work has followed him home.

A population of bottlenose dolphins, usually found in the Moray Firth, has migrated to the Lothians this year. Larger animals, including minke whales, killer whales and humpback whales, have also become regular visitors. Standing on the wooden deck outside the Scottish Seabird Centre, Erich scans the horizon for a glimpse of a fin or waterspout. He says: "The fact is, the whales and dolphins are coming back. If we keep the water clean, then it can only get better.

"Bottlenose dolphins have been coming down here more and more. We don't know exactly why, but they are predators and they are constantly on the prowl for food.

"We've seen a lot of minke whales, too. They tend to be out near the Isle of May, but they've also been right here in the bay, and near Craigleith Island."

He has helped researchers at the Seabird Centre link the North Berwick dolphins with the Moray Firth population, by identifying them by their dorsal fins. These vary in shape, and are easily marked by disease or accident, making them almost like a unique fingerprint.

While groups of male dolphins tend to roam the seas searching for food, the East Lothian group includes females with young calves. This suggests that families are settling in the waters.

Erich says: "There are approximately 130 dolphins in the north-east Scotland population. The centre of their range is the Moray Firth, but they range down along the coast. Over the last ten years they've been coming down more and more. The funny thing is there were no whales or dolphins when I first moved here. I heard about sightings once a year, and I'd run out and then not see them.

"The first time I saw them was in 2000, after living there for ten years. A month or so after the Seabird Centre opened we had a fantastic

run of sightings – we were seeing them every day."

The centre has been keeping records of the sightings, and has seen them increase over the years. This summer, people have reported dolphins on almost a daily basis. Last year's sightings included a fin whale, the second largest animal in the world. Sperm whales are also occasional visitors.

This year, the centre has also recorded a sighting of two massive humpback whales about 150 miles down the east coast, near Lindisfarne Island.

The centre's Seabird Seafari wildlife watching trips around the Bass Rock are one of the best ways to spot whales and dolphins. But Erich says that there are many good spots along the coast.

He says: "Right here on the deck of the Seabird Centre is a good starting point. You want to find a high point with a good lookout – at least 10 or 20 metres above the water – and take a pair of binoculars. You're looking for two things: a black dorsal fin, which you'll see coming up. For a larger whale, you'll definitely see the spout at quite a distance. For bottlenose dolphins, the blow is quite inconspicuous, so you're more likely to see a fin.

"Concentrate on an area of the sea for a few minutes. Their patterns are such that they might come up four or five times over a minute, then they might be down for five to ten minutes, depending on what they're feeding on."

Despite watching whales in places ranging from Iceland to Antarctica, the Lothians remains one of Erich's favourite places.

"There's such a sense of history here. You can imagine living here in the 1600s, when there were North Atlantic right whales and humpbacks coming to the bay in summer. These were all hunted at the time. But if we keep the water clean, they could come back."