Trip reports

"Britain's Whales and Dolphins"

Tuesday, 6 January 2009

Those of us who braved the sub-zero temperatures to attend the meeting enjoyed a very interesting talk by Ian Rowland. He mentioned briefly some of the problems faced by whales and dolphins, for example fishing nets, boat propellers, pollution and, of course, the resumption of commercial whaling. However, most of his talk was a celebration of the numerous species, from the smallest (harbour porpoise) to the largest (pilot whale) found in our waters. We were all surprised by the number of different species seen off the British coast, even in the busy Channel where pilot whales are regularly seen from cross-channel ferries. (Report by Eileen Milner)

After the interval we left British waters to cross the Bay of Biscay, where fin and sperm whales can be seen from the ferry to Spain. We then saw grey whales off the coast of Mexico where they congregate in shallow lagoons to calve, and finally, in the tropical Sea of Cortez the blue whale, at 90 ft the largest of them all.