Killer Whale sighted off Norfolk coast
Image: Gerard Lacz - Earth Scenes
Reports that a killer whale (Orcinus orca) has been sighted off the Norfolk coast by an experienced birdwatcher have been deemed 'reliable' by a mammals expert. County Mammal Recorder Dr David Leech (who also is also based at the British Trust for Ornithology in Thetford) raised the possibility that the sighting at Sheringham could be the first ever recorded sighting in Norfolk.
"[Killer whales] do have quite a distinctive dorsal fin,” said Dr Leech “Some of the dolphins can be much harder to tell apart and some of the whales too. With that and the experience of the observer and knowing that they had good optical kit, because they were using telescopes to watch the birds, I think in combination that sounds like a really quite a reliable source."
Details of the sighting will be passed on to the Norfolk Biological Information Service (NBIS) for confirmation. Killer whales are more commonly found much further north in the vicinity of the Shetland Islands, but Dr Leech suggested that the whale could have come so far south following "good food sources" such as Norfolk's seal population and other mammals. He also suggested that it could simply be extremely lost. As there have been no other sightings, it is believed that the sighted whale is a lone specimen and that there is no greater pod of whales off the north Norfolk coast.
Mr Giles Dunmore, 68, made the sighting last Thursday morning while scanning for sea birds with a friend. A birdwatcher of 56 years experience who has seen killer whales off the coasts of both Tenerife and Alaska, Mr Dunmore said he was "quite thrilled" to make the sighting. "At the time I didn't know it was a new cetacean. You see it at the time, but the excitement doesn't come until a little later." he said.
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