Tom Hilder regularly returns to the Peninsulas to visit family. He has a passion for wildlife and the natural world and in this blog, he shares his experience of sailing with John Coe, one of the two remaining Orcas (Killer Whales) that frequent the waters off our western coastline.
Having been born on the Isle of Mull 21 years ago and now with immediate family living in Strontian, I have incredibly strong ties to the West Highland Peninsulas and the wildlife that is there. I try to come up from my Fenland home at least twice a year to get my ‘Scotland fix’ but the coronavirus pandemic means that I've only managed one trip so far in 2020. However, I managed to pick the best week of the year with wall to wall sunshine and incredible wildlife experiences throughout! The highlight being what I am writing about in this blog.
Having brought my girlfriend up for the first time, I thought I would try and show her as much as possible in the little time we had, so I booked a 4-hour Whale Watch and Wildlife Cruise with one of the local boat tour operators for Monday 10th August 2020. Having previously volunteered with them in 2016, I knew exactly how the trip would run and what wildlife we could potentially encounter.
Our sightings started with White-tailed Sea Eagles near Ardmore Point on Mull and were then followed up by two Golden Eagles circling over Ardnamurchan! After a short journey to the Cairns of Coll, filled with Manx Shearwater, Puffins, Gannets, Common Guillemots, Great Skua, Storm Petrels and Porpoise, we were greeted by 5 large Basking Sharks blissfully feeding in the flat calm waters.
After half an hour or so with the Basking Sharks we heard excited calls over the boat’s radio of Orca, or Killer Whales, being sighted near the Treshnish Isles. Understandably, we left the sharks and made our way over that part of the sea where we experienced beautiful sightings of John Coe, the biggest known Orca in existence and one of the last two survivors of the once 8 strong West Coast Community Pod. This was our first time seeing this magnificent creature and one that we’ll never forget. It was an important sighting for the boat’s crew as well, despite them seeing him on a number of occasions before. This is because he is an old Orca (approximately 70 years old) and each time he is spotted, it could be the last.
We spent the rest of our trip excitedly watching him from a safe distance while he fed in the waters around our boat, but I now recall this experience with a degree of poignancy. This is because John Coe and another bull Orca called Aquarius are the only two surviving members of their pod. With no viable females to breed with, these two Lords of the Ocean are set to be the last ever British Orcas. It is thought that heightened levels of PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) pollution within the marine environment have aided in the inevitable decline of this only truly native pod of Orca in UK waters. This situation was highlighted in 2016 when Lulu, one of the females from the pod, was washed up on the shores of the Isle of Tiree and the subsequent autopsy revealed that she had 100 times the acceptable threshold of PCBs in her system.
PCBs were commonly used in electrical transformers, hydraulic fluids and lubricants and unfortunately, carelessness led to them leaching into rivers and the sea for many years. Here they were ingested by plankton and thus entered the food chain as the plankton were eaten by fish and so on. Each time the PCBs moved up a tier of the food chain, they become more and more concentrated until they ended up inside apex predators like Orca where they caused poor health and infertility. Thankfully, PCBs were banned in the manufacturing of new equipment in 1981 but this was too late for John Coe, Aquarius, and the other Orcas in their pod. We did not see Aquarius on our trip but luckily, he was reported in the area on the 11th!
As we returned to shore, we had more sightings of Porpoise, White Tailed Eagles & Seals. A once in a lifetime experience indeed! I have shared a some of the photos from the whole experience on this blog but none can truly highlight the excitement and sheer delight of us being part of a group that sailed in the company of John Coe.
One thing is for sure, the waters around the West Highland Peninsulas put on a fantastic show for us and I for one, really cannot wait to be back!
Many thanks to Tom Hilder for sharing this fantastic experience with us. Tom is a recent BSc (Hons) Wildlife Ecology & Conservation graduate with an unmatched passion for wildlife and the natural world. Tom is also a talented wildlife photographer and if you want to see some more of his work, be sure to follow him on Instagram at @thilderwildlife21.
If you’d like to share what you love about the area on our website, please feel free to get in touch by email at web@westhighlandpeninsulas.com.