Tugmistress!

[Ann]

HI there, hope you can help; I consider your good self as our local expert for Thurso bay.

What is the large mammal with the big fin that is resident just now? I have seen it on several occasions but it was only today that I remembered to take my bins with me.

I'm not acquaint with orkas etc., so would grateful for your opinion. I know I could search on the internet but with only seeing part of it's head and the fin, I don't want to guess.

Cheers,
Ann

[Ricco]

Hi, Ann. What makes you think it was a mammal? Could it have been a porbeagle shark, or did it 'blow' a plume of spray?

[Ann]

No it didn't blow. Just moved around the bay and then moved further out to sea. Don't know much about these things and didn't even consider a shark to be honest. Will go and look up porbeagles now to extend my education!

Thanks for your reply Ricco.
Ann

[Ricco]

No it didn't blow. Just moved around the bay and then moved further out to sea. Don't know much about these things and didn't even consider a shark to be honest. Will go and look up porbeagles now to extend my education!

Thanks for your reply Ricco.
Ann

I have also sent you a pm, Ann.

[Tugmistress]

If it was a big black 'traffic cone' shape of fin and placed roughly half way along the back then that would probably be an Orca (killer whale). It would look huge.
if it is a black fin upright and small (about 2ft) then it would probably be one of the visiting type of dolphin, Seabird or Kas or better on ID for those than i am.
if it is a dark grey fin, hooked in shape and about 2/3 of the way between the head and tail, that would be a minke whale.
I am not too great on live pilot whales as the only one i have seen was washed up on Thurso beach and rather pink putrid and smelly lol, but using a bit of imagination and research i would say a grey fin upright in shape and half way along the body would possibly be this.

sharks.
you are more liable to see a basking shark here at this time of year rather than a porbeagle.
a basking shark you would normally expect to see the dorsal fin and the tail, if you are lucky and see three points of water breaking then it is actually feeding and the tip of its nose will be the third point. these can be quite large and they will not rise and fall like a whale, they will just be gracefully cruising feeding on all the plankton in the water.

hopefully one of the above descriptions will help you decipher what you have seen :)

As I say though, seabird and kas are better on dolphin / porpoise ID so it would be good to get their feedback too.

where are the piccies!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

[Ann]

Sorry, no piccies, haven't got a decent camera!
As far as I could see with just the small bins I had with me, the fin was pretty large and could have been hooked. As to the colour, it just looked very dark from that distance. The head seemed much smaller and bobbed in and out of the water with the fin disappearing sometimes too. The distance between the fin and head was quite long; it was a big animal but no tail visible.
Thanks for that Tugs; am hoping someone with more knowledge than me saw it also and put me out of my misery!
Cheers,
Ann

[pedromcgrory]

the mackeral is in earlier this year so could be feeding on them

[Tugmistress]

a couple of weeks back i was watching a minke every day from the harbour morning noon and night, it was just awesome to see it just off the end of the piers :)
the last couple of nights the sea around the new pier has been boiling over with mackeral, i also see it out in the bay, there must be hundreds of thousands of these fish about, and that means the predators wont be far behind, keep watching the waters :D

[Ann]

the mackeral is in earlier this year so could be feeding on them

It certainly looked as if it might be feeding Pedro; it was in no hurry to move away. There were also a lot of birds on the water as well though mind you, in Thurso Bay there often is.

Cheers,
Ann

[Ann]

Yes /tugs; I always feel quite privileged when I see something out of the ordinary. When I was in Canada last year I saw lots of animals but the one that impressed me most was the wolf; beautiful creature.
Cheers, Ann

[pedromcgrory]

yeah ul recongise mackeral they dance on the surface like a water dropping heavy rain effect

[kas]

a couple of weeks back i was watching a minke every day from the harbour morning noon and night, it was just awesome to see it just off the end of the piers :)
the last couple of nights the sea around the new pier has been boiling over with mackeral, i also see it out in the bay, there must be hundreds of thousands of these fish about, and that means the predators wont be far behind, keep watching the waters :D

That Minkie was something else, I wish it had stayed.

Minkie is probably the most likely large cetacean in Thurso Bay. There certainly is plenty of Mackeral about this last few days.

There is a good ID shot of a Minkie here
http://www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk/species-minke.htm

The fin appears at the back of the body, and they are easily seen with the naked eye due to their size. This is by far the most common large cetacean I have seen in the bay.

Porpoise are the other common cetacean in the bay, although there doesnt appear to be nearly as many this last 2 years.
They are small compared to the Minkie and you only see a the fin and not much body.

http://www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk/species-harbour.htm

Rissos Dolphin is another possibility, they have a really bulky curved fin and very bulbous head. They often appear to be a light grey colour and can be heavily scarred.
http://www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk/species-risso.htm

All other species I have seen are normally further out towards the firth, but thats not saying it couldnt be one of them. I have only ever seen Orca in the firth, but they have been seen in the bay on the odd occasion but sadly not by me. I live in hope. I think you tend to get Orca in groups though rather than on their own.

Hopefully seabird will come along, he is the pro when it comes to this. I am only a begginer.

I hope you see it again.

[motopitcrew]

tonight whilst fishing at scrabster i saw a large shark just off the pier iwatched it for quite a while. at first i thought that it was a basking shark but it was stalking birds and every now and then you could see it thrashing about

[kas]

Wow
Do you know what type it was?

[motopitcrew]

no sorry but it was big and dark coloured

[Tugmistress]

wow,
did you see just a dorsal fin or tail aswell?
if a basker the tail would be visible, if a porbeagle just the dorsal and from what i understand the shark woud try to ambush the birds from the underneath and 'thrash' as it turned at the surface rather than launch out of the water.

asked SandTiger to look into this thread he knows more than i about sharks!

[SandTiger]

Quite late in the year for a Porgie but it could be possible unless of course one of our Baskers has gone rogue and fancied a change from it's vegetarian diet :lol:

Was it after we passed you at around 22:00 on the Karen as a school of dolpins were spotted by a passenger about 10 minutes prior which were working fish?

Can you give any more detail on the fin (shape, size, colouring) and did you also see the caudal (tail) fin - Also can you say how long "quite a while" was and how it appeared to be moving?

This link maybe helpful also - http://www.newenglandsharks.com/identify.htm

[Seabird]

This may be of some help, i received a text this evening from the Seawatch co-ordinator for the NE.
Sightings made from the ferry going to Stromness were 1 Minke Whale,4 Harbour Porpoise, 5 Risso's Dolphins,1 Basking Shark,and some Bottlenose Dolphins.
Any one of these could have called in for a snack.
Seeing that your sighting was a single creature the Basking shark sounds to be favourate also someone else said a shark was in the bay.
I think Paula and Kas covered most possibilities.
At the end of the day we will never really know what you saw, your discription is very basic.
On most occasions i need to see a creature several times before i can ID the species unless it leaps from the water and poses or is seen under favourable circumstances.

Regards
Colin

[canuck]

To Ann and Tugmistress and everyone who posted, thank you. I was mesmerized as I read this thread. It reminded me of all that I came to love about Caithness and have appreciated about the org.

[motopitcrew]

i could see the tail aswell as dorsal finn and thought it was a basking shark but it appeared to be stalking birds and the whole body war out the water when it was thrashing but it was to far away to see it clearly by this time

[SandTiger]

Even though baskers are considered to be slow they can actually breach the water (ie jump fully out like some whales do) - If you saw both the dorsal and the caudal fin then I'd put money on it most likely being a basker which is the second biggest fish on the planet :)

Nice one!

[Les McBeath]

I was out for a walk this afternoon on Holborn Head and was just in time to see a fairly big basking shark cruise past heading towards Dunnet bay.
It was almost directly below me, swimming just below the surface and did not appear to be feeding at the time.

Does anyone know if there are more than normal of these sharks about at the moment?
I was out wandering about at Sandside Head last week and saw a basking shark feeding just off the point and even though it was further out than the beast I spotted today, I would guess that the Sandside shark would be at least 50% bigger than todays fish.