Cal Flyn is on the trail of Scotland's orca pods
Orkney and Shetland are paradise for whale spotters and there are few more dramatic sights than an orca hunt, finds Cal Flyn
This past winter has been a busy time for orca spotters, especially those in the northern isles. A sighting of one of these sleek, monochrome sea creatures is a true thrill, no matter how many times you’ve seen them in the past. It’s even better if, like the naturalist and author Hugh Harrop, you have come to recognise and know the history of each individual you come across.
‘We have two semi-resident pods that roam between the north coast, Orkney and Shetland,’ he says. ‘They’re very close to my heart: to me, they’re almost like extended family.’ Named after the matriarch whale’s identification number, these two pods are known as the 27s and the 64s, or collectively as the ‘North Isles Community’. There are seven animals in the 27s group, including two large males; whereas the nine whales of the 64s include ‘an absolute brute of a bull, Busta’, and a yearling calf.
Hugh’s first known encounter with the 27s pod was back in 2006; while wildlife spotting from a boat with his wife and newborn daughter, he was snapped with dorsal fins in
the background. Knowing what he does now, Hugh can look back at that photo and recognise the whales as the 27s group, whom he has now been following for at least 13 years.
Dorsal fins (and the pale ‘saddle patches’ behind them) are a key component of orca identification. Another pod, resident year-round in Scottish waters and known as the ‘West Coast Community’, includes the accurately-named Floppy Fin, whose dorsal folds down over the left side of his body, and the instantly recognisable John Coe – who made the news in early January when he was spotted far from his normal range in the Moray Firth – who has an obvious notch in the base of his fin following a shark attack in 2015.
The West Coast Community has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent years. Currently numbering eight orcas, the pod is thought to be in terminal decline. There have been no new members or newborn calves in more than 25 years. When a ninth whale, ‘Lulu’, was washed up dead on a Tiree beach in 2016 following entanglement with a fishing line, a possible explanation for their failure to breed was discovered: quantities of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Lulu’s body were found to be 20 times safe levels.
PCBs are highly toxic pollutants which have been banned worldwide since the 1970s but take a long time to break down. Because killer whales are at the top of the food chain, and live for many decades, harmful chemicals like PCBs can accumulate in their bodies in high quantities. If other members of the West Coast Community are suffering from the same levels of contamination, they may have been rendered infertile.
Further worries for their health arose in October of last year after unprecedented numbers of beaked whales, a deepwater species, washed up on the west coast of Ireland and the Outer Hebrides – at least 80, more than ten times the number that might usually be expected. Marine mammal scientists warned of a ‘unique mortality event’ likely linked to military sonar. Because orcas use sonar to communicate, they are also at risk — noise from ships and submarines can interfere with their ability to navigate and coordinate hunts.
But while the future of the ageing West Coast orca pod looks bleak, there is hope for those further north. ‘Many news outlets and TV programmes have reported – rightly – that the resident orca population is dying out,’ says Hugh. ‘But we’d counter that here in the north, sightings have increased. We
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Orcas were hunting right by the main road and people were abandoning their cars to watch
are seeing more animals year on year and frequently encountering the same pods, day in and day out.’
In December, for example, the 64s group were seen off Sumburgh Head in Shetland; ten days later, fins were spotted off Yell. Then, three days before the end of the year, four were spotted off Sanday in Orkney, and later again off South Ronaldsay. In January, five whales were reported off the Caithness coast; four days later, the 27s were seen in Orkney’s Scapa Flow and then off South Ronaldsay. All of which suggests that these animals are very much at home in Scottish waters.
As part of his efforts to track the movements and numbers of orcas in the North Isles Community, Hugh runs a popular Facebook group, ‘Shetland Orca Sightings’, which now numbers more than 14,000 members. ‘The page is for people who aren’t in the loop as guides or researchers — nobody owns the orcas, so everyone should get to enjoy them,’ he says. ‘There’s been huge interest from fishermen and the public more generally.’
Shetland has been gripped by orca fever ever since. ‘It’s like Wacky Races!’ he says. ‘I set it up at the start of the school holidays in 2016, and when a sighting was reported I jumped in the car and drove to Sumburgh Head. I found 200 people already there. I couldn’t believe it. Orcas were hunting right by the main road, and people were abandoning their cars to watch. I went into the local police station to apologise, but they said, “don’t worry about it, it’s great, that’s what being in Shetland is about!”’
A large part of the uptick in sightings must be due to mobile communication
and increased public awareness, so it’s difficult to say definitively that there’s been a rise in the population of orcas. ‘We can’t really prove that,’ Hugh warns. But at the very least, the spike in reports has provided a valuable injection of knowledge into the behaviour of the whales. A link-up with the Icelandic organisation Orca Guardians has also helped Scottish researchers identify whales that travel regularly between both country’s waters.
‘Last year we had a minimum of three encounters with Icelandic whales: the 12s pod, the 19s pod and two other individuals which joined our regular 27s pod for a few days. None of this would be known without the Facebook group, which has revealed significant numbers of sightings of new animals in Shetland waters,’ says Hugh. A similar group, Orkney Cetacean Sightings, also compiles sightings from 3,400 Orcadians and visiting whalewatchers, while those living elsewhere can report sightings to the Sea Watch Foundation.
Later this year, Sea Watch will be running their annual ‘Orca Watch’ recording event in collaboration with Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Over ten days between 17 and 26 May, hundreds of whalewatching enthusiasts – many of them volunteers – will be scanning the Pentland Firth in the hope of catching a glimpse of orcas as they make their annual migration south from the northernmost reaches of the North Sea, where they have spent the winter feeding on herring and mackerel. If you will be in Caithness, Orkney or Shetland and would like to take part, visit seawatchfoundation.org.uk. Europe’s Sea Mammals, by Robert Still, Hugh Harrop, Tim Stenton, and Luis Dias will be published in July. (Princeton University Press;
£12.99)