A couple from Cornwall have filmed a “rare” and “exciting” sighting of potential orcas off of Cornwall’s coast. While unconfirmed, video footage shows a pod of animals sharing some distinct features swimming off the coast of Hayle.
Paul Ensell, from the area, said he and his wife spotted “around half a dozen” of what he believed to be orcas – sometimes referred to as killer whales – breaching during a dog walk.
The video footage, captured between Godrevy and St Ives, is quite grainy due to how zoomed in it is but shows a pod with seemingly black and white features – synonymous with the orca – breaching from the water. The last confirmed sighting of orcas in Cornwall was in 2021 which makes this a particularly exciting possibility for marine life.
Cornwall Wildlife Trust, which has examined the footage, told CornwallLive that while it is impossible to be sure due to the quality of the footage, that the clip is exciting nonetheless.
Incredibly rare, the UK’s resident orca community consists of just eight individuals, four males and four females, which means seeing them is almost unheard of.
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The wildlife trust’s website states: “Known as the ‘west coast community’ this resident group of orcas arrive in Northern Scotland in early summer to feast on fish. Unfortunately, no calf has been born to this group in over 20 years.”
It adds that they are “incredibly clever animals” and are known to roam huge distances and share their own special language. Their black and white markings are said to be unmistakable but in this case, the footage is not clear enough to be sure.
Bex, part of Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s marine team, told CornwallLive: “The observer kindly sent in his footage to us as well so the team has had a good look at this. Unfortunately, although there are some ‘orcarish’ aspects to the animals it is impossible to tell from the footage – although they have done really well considering they only had their phones.
The creatures has large fins and clear black features but experts can’t be sure it was indeed orcas
(Image: Paul Ensell)
“Whilst the fins are large and the animals look very black, there are no definitive features in the shots for example of the distinctive white eyepatch, or saddlepatch behind the dorsal, or any which look like male orca – these have huge and unmistakable dorsal fins.
“There is nothing to get a sense of scale – orca are much larger than common dolphins (3-5x larger) so they should appear very large in comparison – the observer said they were accompanied by dolphins – but again very hard to see this from the footage. We haven’t had any other sightings of orca sent in either. So, unfortunately, it is a ‘maybe’.”
She added: “It would be very exciting if these were orca as we only get occasional sightings and then usually of one or two animals so to have a whole pod (the observers reported about eight) would be extraordinary!
“It looks like it was a spectacular sighting though with fantastic and active behaviour – we are so lucky to be getting these animals in our waters.”