COMMUNITY
MULLMAN’S SEARCH FOR LEGENDARY ORCAS I woke up in my car at 4.50am and started to search the seas for the legendary orca John Coe and Aquarius from north west Mull. I scanned the waves for more than three hours and saw one unidentified whale, one minke and lots of very distant dolphins jumping around. By midday I was in my friend’s sail boat in Tobermory heading out to see what we could find in perfect glassy conditions. On the way, I received a call from the Sea Life Surveys skipper telling me that John Coe and Aquarius were off Ardnamurchan lighthouse NOW! We could not believe our luck, but, we were travelling at four knots and
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so were very aware we might not catch up with them. We excitedly chugged on. Approximately an hour later, we spotted the SLS vessel right out on the hazy horizon heading towards Coll. We assumed they were following the orca and changed course for that direction. Another hour passed before we finally got a glimpse of that six foot dorsal fin we had been searching for, yet we were still at least 3km away! We plugged on following at a distance - only my telescope could pick out the fins for another hour until we could see them with our binoculars. Fortunately, they were travelling slowly, just pottering along for a cetacean that
can shoot along at at least 25 knots if they want, so we were slowly catching up with them. Then I spotted a minke whale right beside the orca. I expected the minke to porpoise off with the killers in hot pursuit, but they appeared to either be completely unaware of each other, or, they completely ignored one another. The minke slipped off in one direction and JC and A in the other. An hour later we were still at least 1km behind them, when they passed another minke at close quarters, then a huge grey seal that was bottling very close to JC. These orca are sadly presumed to be the last two
| SUMMER 2022
Mull & Iona Life issue 46.indd 24
17/06/2022 14:52:16
