‘Lost’ sea creature surfaces near sightseers in Wales. Photos show the rare visitor
A boat of sightseers scanned the blue-green waters off the coast of Wales. The morning sun glinted off the surface as they searched for dolphins.
To their surprise, a much rarer sea animal surfaced nearby.
SeaMôr Dolphin Watching Boat Trips set out from New Quay mid-morning on Sept. 2, according to a Facebook post. Onboard to guide the sightseers was Joshua Pedley, a local wildlife expert.
Low in the water, a sleek gray animal surfaced, Pedley’s photos show. It had a smooth body and a rounded fin low on its back.
It was a Sowerby’s beaked whale, Pedley told McClatchy News.
Sowerby’s beaked whales are small- to medium-sized whales that can reach 14 to 21 feet in length, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The species usually lives in “deep, cold, temperate and subarctic waters” of the North Atlantic. Due to the animal’s “cryptic, skittish behavior,” it is “challenging to observe.”
”The sighting of the Sowerby’s beaked whale in Cardigan Bay is an exceptionally rare event with only 13 other live sightings made around the U.K. since 2007,” Claudia Afeltra from the Sea Watch Foundation told McClatchy News.
“These whales are rarely seen in shallow waters,” the Sea Watch Foundation posted on Facebook Sept. 3. “This may be the first time that one has been spotted off the Welsh coast.”
“It must be lost,” Pedley wrote in a Facebook post. “It came quite shallow.”
“Initially we worried that perhaps this unusual visitor to New Quay would end up beaching,” Pedley told McClatchy News, “however it turned round and headed back to the deeps on its own accord. We haven’t heard of it being sighted again, so no news is good news.”
Pedley described the sighting as “absolutely insane” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Drone footage shared by the SeaMôr Dolphin Watching Boat Trips on Facebook shows the rare whale. The whale has its fins pressed against its sides with its back arched out of the water. The sleek animal appears to make a very small splash.
“Very fortunate to be aboard this boat trip,” Maria Potter wrote in comments. ”Awesome to see this amazing sight.”
Pauline Jones expressed a similar sentiment, commenting that “we were lucky enough to see this yesterday.”
New Quay is about 214 miles northwest of London and along the coast of Cardigan Bay.
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