Forget voyaging to Alaska or trekking to the fjords of Iceland — if you’re hoping to catch sight of a humpback whale in your lifetime, you could be in with a chance right here in the UK. In the past few months, there’s been an exciting rise in sightings of the huge creatures leaping and splashing across the English Channel.
There have been at least 30 reported glimpses of humpback whales off the coast of England this winter. One wildlife charity in Cornwall commented that sightings there have ‘gone through the roof’. In just 11 days between 29 December and January 8, there were 17 appearances around the Isles of Scilly.
The humpback whales being spotted in the eastern English Channel are even more surprising. At the beginning of the year, Sussex Dolphin Project reported that it had received news of sightings in Rye, Pett Level, Fairlight, Hastings, St Leonards, Bexhill, Pevensey and Eastbourne.
They’ve also appeared off the coast of Deal and Dungeness in Kent. However, it’s not clear whether the sightings are of the same individual whale or multiple.
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The whales are passing through as they migrate from their feeding grounds in Norway to more balmy waters around Cape Verde to rest and breed.
Sussex Dolphin Project said: ‘Although humpback sightings are rare in the eastern English channel, we usually receive a few sightings in the winter period as they migrate south, passing the UK.
‘Most take the westerly route past Ireland, but a few take the easterly route past the UK and ultimately pass through the channel to continue their journey.’
It’s not known exactly why more humpback whales are appearing. Experts say the increased sightings are positive indications that the global humpback whale population is recovering, nearly 40 years after commercial hunting was banned.
Some reckon that the whales taking the eastern route through the Strait of Dover could be a sign that they are re-establishing routes that were abandoned when huge numbers were slaughtered by whale-hunters in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
It could also be down to the whales going further afield in search of food as waters warm up due to climate change.
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If you can’t get enough of Mother Nature, take a look at our list of the best places to see rare and wonderful wildlife in the UK or gander through our roundup of images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024. And in other recent wildlife news, seals in the River Thames could become the ‘new normal’, more of the UK’s biggest birds of prey are being released in southern England and a lost ancient rainforest in Wales is being brought back to life,
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