Cetacean ID?

bkrangle

Hi,

I was going through some pics I took from Skellig Michael last year and noticed what appears to be some sort of cetacean breaching in the bottom right corner of the image - I had no idea this was there when I was taking the pic.

I was wondering if anyone would have any idea of what it is? I'd guess harbour porpoise or Risso's dolphin myself but that's rather speculative on my part as I find it near impossible to gauge the relative size of things in pictures like this.
Anyway, any suggestions anyone has would be most welcome!
Thanks

Wailin

Going by the dorsal I would say harbour porpoise. Definitely not a Risso's dolphin.

bkrangle

Wailin wrote: »

Going by the dorsal I would say harbour porpoise. Definitely not a Risso's dolphin.

Thanks for that. I was only thinking Risso's dolphin as there were some in the area at the time but I've never seen one myself outside of pictures.

Wailin

bkrangle wrote: »

Thanks for that. I was only thinking Risso's dolphin as there were some in the area at the time but I've never seen one myself outside of pictures.

No problem. Nice picture by the way.

Yorkshire.man

bkrangle wrote: »

Hi,

I was going through some pics I took from Skellig Michael last year and noticed what appears to be some sort of cetacean breaching in the bottom right corner of the image - I had no idea this was there when I was taking the pic.

I was wondering if anyone would have any idea of what it is? I'd guess harbour porpoise or Risso's dolphin myself but that's rather speculative on my part as I find it near impossible to gauge the relative size of things in pictures like this.
Anyway, any suggestions anyone has would be most welcome!
Thanks

I was looking at your photo and wondered given the distance if it wasn’t a minke whale I looked on the Irish whale and Dolphin group website I can’t post a link as new member and if you look you will see the dorsal fin is very similar in shape to harbour porpoise

bkrangle

Yorkshire.man wrote: »

I was looking at your photo and wondered given the distance if it wasn’t a minke whale I looked on the Irish whale and Dolphin group website I can’t post a link as new member and if you look you will see the dorsal fin is very similar in shape to harbour porpoise

Thanks. I can't really gauge the size/distance at all myself! I saw some minke whales the following day near ventry so there were definitely some in the area.

WildIreland

Harbour porpoise... 100%.

Always great to see, also the most common -- and commonly overlooked -- cetacean around our coasts. It's always a pleasant surprise when a cetacean decides to photo-bomb your landscape shots ;-).