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!!
For general information about Whales and Dolphins, go to
the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust
website.
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,
click here to go to their website.
