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By Wildlife Guide David Woodhouse
Mull is a reasonably remote
Oceanic Island. If a boat heads west from Mull,
the next landmass it reaches
will probably be America. In other words, there is a lot of water around here!!
And where there is water there are Cetaceans. The most common
whale seen in
these waters, is The Minke Whale or Piked Whale. It
is also sometimes called The Lesser Rorqual..
It is a reasonably 'inshore' whale, in that it is less often seen
in really deep water, unlike the Blue Whale. You have a very good chance of seeing a Minke
Whale if you join one of the Whale Watch Excursions which sail out from Mull
between April and October.
 Probably
the most important requirement when going on a whale watch is to choose a calm
day, when it is pretty easy to see the whales break surface, to blow and
breathe. You can also hear the blow, and on a quiet, calm day, you may hear this
quite well out to sea. There are also good land based points, where you might
see a Minke Whale; however, it is even more important that you choose a calm day
if you are going to look for whales from land. Good sea watching points are Callaich Point, Carsaig [looking toward The Isle of Jura] and
the Ardnamurchan
Peninsula, which is a short ferry crossing from Tobermory. In fact
the Ardnamurchan Peninsula is the most westerly point on the British Mainland. The Lighthouse Visitor
Centre is very interesting, and it has an expansive view of the sea. You
need binoculars and have to be very patient when looking for Whales, because
they are, of course, below the surface, more often than they are
above. The watcher needs at least half an hour
in any given area, to give the whales a chance to show. If
you follow the above, you will maximise your chances of seeing a whale, but
everyone here will tell you stories of seeing whales in more unusual places.
I
recently saw a mother and calf in Loch Scridain, along
with hundreds of seals and the closest young whale was about thirty feet offshore!!
There are a number of different Dolphin species to be seen
here, and we are still not certain whether a school of Bottle Nosed Dolphins are
resident around the island.
This is mainly because Mull has a coastline covering three
hundred miles, and
there are
also another two hundred other islands and
islets,
along with numerous inlets and sea lochs, dotted around the coast.
A school of
Bottle Nosed Dolphins entertained thousands of tourists going to Iona during the Millennium Year. They also came into Tobermory Bay and were last seen
on Christmas Day in Loch Buie.
They are a very large and acrobatic
Dolphin, and are often misidentified as Pilot Whales. However, the most
important tip, is that if you see a Dolphin quite close inshore, it will be a
Bottle Nosed.
 Once we move offshore, we get into the realm of Common
Dolphin, Rissos Dolphin and Killer Whale, which is not a common Cetacean here,
but it is seen every summer, and sightings are increasing.
There are also
occasional sightings of Humpback Whale and Fin Whale,
and if you go on a 'serious' sea trip off The West Coast of Scotland, the list multiplies
dramatically.
Porpoise are our most common Cetacean, and they behave rather
like a very small Whale, in that as they rise to breathe, you only see the back
and fin, whereas you often see the whole creature, when observing Dolphins. Top
places to see Porpoise are from the Oban to Mull Ferry, and the Kilchoan [Ardnamurchan]
Ferry to Tobermory, off
Callaich Point, Grasspoint, Gribun Cliffs (Loch na
Keal), and from the old chapel at Pennygown.
Basking Sharks are also seen off Callaich Point from mid to
late Summer, and if you see large fin cruising on the surface for a period of
time, this is almost certainly a Basking Shark.
If you get any sighting of a Cetacean in Mulls waters, please
contact The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust in Tobermory.
www.hwdt.org
Please
click here for information on
Whale and Dolphin viewing trips.
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