Whales and Sharks

There Have Been Sightings Of Humpback Whales Breaching Off The South Coast Recently. There Are Reports From Local Canoeists Of Tuna Leaping Clear Of The Waves Chasing Smaller Fish.

In the last two years, pods of Dolphins have been seen from the beach in Sidmouth as they move along the English Channel, and a seal sometimes spends time around Chit Rocks, but there is a long history of large creatures appearing in Lyme Bay.

Back in the nineteenth century, Peter Orlando Hutchinson’s sketchbooks have pictures of beached whales such as the 70ft one that was brought ashore at Beer in February 1876, and the Pilot Whale found dying at Hook Ebb in February 1883. Local fishermen also caught porpoises in their nets occasionally.

Jumping forward to the 1920s, there were regular sightings of what are described as porpoises. John Tindall reported 9 different incidents In his Beach Diaries, although he always seemed to miss them himself. In October 1923, an entry records that “Mr Don says the porpoises, yesterday, near Dunning’s Pier, were within 30 yds. of the shore. A shoal of them, and big ones.” In April 1926 he writes, “…with W. Tindall (John’s son) they saw porpoises close inshore about the Belmont.” Some of the diary entries mis-identify the creatures, there are mentions of Whale Threshers, but the pictures show clearly the very long tail fin of a Thresher Shark.

If a porpoise or large shark was caught in the herring nets, the unfortunate creature would be brought ashore and put on display to make extra money for the fisherman. Tindall’s diaries mention Blue Nosed Sharks, Thresher Sharks with their huge tails, and our largest native fish the Basking Shark. In June 1925 one was caught that was 12ft long and weighed 6cwt (300kg). An 11ft 4cwt specimen was brought in on 24th June 1926. Basking Sharks do grow much bigger, in December 1931 Mr Smith caught a huge one weighing 7 or 8cwt and it was “impossible to haul the monster aboard.”

Perhaps the most interesting entries are at the end of June 1926 when “5 or 6 large fish have been seen in the bay – ‘as big as a fishing boat’ – high dorsal fin – swam quite near to Scrummer Smith’s boat so that he could throw stones at them. Percy Woolley, I think it was, says they came yesterday evening within a mile or half mile of the shore and had blunt noses like whales – 3 or 4 of them.” In a later entry, “Bob says the big fish have been about for some days – sometimes 2 or 3 miles out- at other times within 4 or 5 hundred yds. of the shore – broad heads, very high fins (dorsal), shewing (sic) little of the rest of them (tail &c.). Might be a bottle nosed whale (?) spoke of seeing 4 of them. They did not move like porpoises but steadily along.”

Bottle-nosed Whales do not have blunt noses nor high dorsal fins. The ‘large fish’ might have been Pilot Whales, actually a large species of Dolphins and the subject of Hutchinson’s 1883 sketch, they do have blunt noses but not high dorsal fins. The species best known for their tall dorsal fins are Orcas, known as killer whales. These are seen around the SW coast occasionally, it is a shame that Tindall doesn’t have any pictures.

We have Hutchinson and Tindall showing that large fish and mammals used to appear in the sea off Sidmouth. There is a new group of citizen scientists who are keen to know how many of these wonderful creatures are in Lyme Bay today. As reported last year, a new Sea Watch Group, associated with Devon Wildlife Trust, will be watching out from Connaught Gardens occasionally this year. Any reports will appear on the Biodiversity Group website.