Humpback Whales on the Cornish coast 2025

 

Wow! What a day at sea we had today!

It was our regular seal and marine life survey with the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust and it was common knowledge that there had been a few Humpback whales in the area so we ventured out with fingers crossed.

Well we picked up a Humpback about 2 miles offshore from Watergate bay north of Newquay and held off for a while as we captured some photos. 

All of my pictures were taken with a Nikon 500mm lens often from a great distance and at no time were the whales disturbed. Our boat & it's skipper Chris Lowe are WISE accredited and all aboard are very aware of the effects of disturbance.

Later in the day we came across a second whale off Polly Joke / Holywell Bay. This was a smaller individual and it showed its flukes rarely as it was in shallower water than the first one we'd seen.

Later in the day we picked up what is probably the first individual about a mile off of Watergate once again and this time it put on an amazing display of fluking, pectoral fin slapping and then breaching up to a dozen times.

By now the light was dropping fast and the quality of my images started to  worsen but the excitement generated aboard was electric and on arriving back in harbour there were still happy smiles on everyone's faces.

Many thanks to Chris and Annabelle Lowe of Newquay Sea Safari's and Fishing. 

Here are a selection of my photos from today just concentrating on the Humpbacks!

Firstly the Watergate Whale........

A couple of the "Polly Joke" individual.....