Moray Firth Latest

As I settle down to write this report, looking out over the bay it is a delight to see the sky is still bright at 4.30pm. Before I continue with the update on what is happening here, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year - hope you had a good festive season. At this time of year most people (including myself), expect Scotland to be freezing but thanks to south-westerly winds we escaped all the floods and fog - in fact the weather was more like it is in March or April.

Sightings for December here in the Moray Firth were limited, however there were a few small groups of bottlenose dolphins spotted at Cromarty and Hopeman plus sightings of another small group of four or five dolphins off Buckie and Banff. Harbour porpoise were encountered off Fort George and during a survey on 27 December we encountered a lone dolphin off Portknockie. Over the past month I have had to deal with a few Grey seal pups which had hauled out in various strange sites along the coast, one of the worst being the slip way at Buckie harbour. Even although the pup was small, it could have easily taken my finger off had I not taken extreme care when handling the animal! I have also been busy attending various cetacean strandings, one of which turned out to be a male White-beaked dolphin and the other a sperm whale at Burghead.

A group of nine sperm whales were photographed five miles north of Lossiemouth - initially everyone feared it was the same group and had all stranded but there was just one on the beach. The animal was 42 feet in length, and on the second day I was horrified to discover that someone had removed the lower jaw bone, presumably with the aid of a chainsaw. The jaw was later recovered but what a horrific thing to happen to such a majestic animal even if it was dead. The whales age was estimated to be around 20 years old - this particular species can live to at least 50.

Over at Aberdeen, the bottlenose dolphins seemed to be having a superb time feeding on the salmon. Groups of up to 15 were seen regularly from the Torry Battery, at one point during a survey I had one Black & Decker (of the Marine Connection's adopted dolphins), accompanying me at the side of the boat - he is such a lovely animal and always a pleasure to have around. I also recognised another dolphin that has a slight hump on its' back and had given us cause for concern last year but so far it seems to be doing well - it never fails to fascinate me the distances these dolphins travel and the different locations I see them in.

Once again throughout 2007 the Marine Connection will be doing our very best here in the Moray Firth to make sure the dolphins, whales and porpoises receive the protection they rightly deserve, in the meantime all the best and I look forward to seeing some of you in the area in the coming year.

Warm wishes

Peter Macdonald