For quite some time now there has been sporadic sightings of an Indo-Pacific Finless Porpoise. Q stumbled upon it whilst snorkelling between the first reef and the Jetty back in May and I have seen it from the jetty several times and once from my desk in the office.
The views I have had have been of it arching through the water and at one time whilst scanning with my bins looking for Turtles it actually just came up in to my field of view providing positive identification views. Louis a guest from Portugal joined us once when we was looking for it and was lucky enough to see a few times one evening but today was "the" day. I was on a routine Turtle Patrol kayak survey with a guest and as we kayaked around from North beach to Long beach the wind picked up and the swell was quite big.
We continued on our way and then I just saw this large pale brown-grey object just beneath the surface, I knew this was the Porpoise but was reluctant to call it straight away as my views had not been great. I alerted the guest and we made our way closer, again a similar view just ahead of us and then we made our way closer with the Kayaks and there just ahead of us inbetween the line of both Kayaks the creature decided to give up the ghost and arched up breaking the surface of the water and also gave a blow from the blowhole. We were so close we actually heard it blow and could see the blow hole clearly. The guest was made up and so was I as this is the first time I have actually seen this species from the Kayak. After this we continued on our way with 2 Green Turtles also present but only brief views today. Also today the first returning Common sandpiper to the island seen flying from the rocks as I kayaked passed. "All Good"
We continued on our way and then I just saw this large pale brown-grey object just beneath the surface, I knew this was the Porpoise but was reluctant to call it straight away as my views had not been great. I alerted the guest and we made our way closer, again a similar view just ahead of us and then we made our way closer with the Kayaks and there just ahead of us inbetween the line of both Kayaks the creature decided to give up the ghost and arched up breaking the surface of the water and also gave a blow from the blowhole. We were so close we actually heard it blow and could see the blow hole clearly. The guest was made up and so was I as this is the first time I have actually seen this species from the Kayak. After this we continued on our way with 2 Green Turtles also present but only brief views today. Also today the first returning Common sandpiper to the island seen flying from the rocks as I kayaked passed. "All Good"
The field guide used for this is the Princeton Field Guides-Whales, Dolphins and other marine Mammals of the World by H.Shirihai & B.Jarrett. Photo above taken from the guide pages 248-249.
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