by Recent whale sightings off the coast of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly could be a good sign for marine life to recover, an expert said.
It comes after a flurry of footage of whales and dolphins along the Cornish coast emerged.
Katie Bellman of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust said the whales recently spotted off Cornwall could be just a fraction of what was in the ocean.
He said regular yearly sightings could be a sign of population increases.
‘just a taste’
He said: “At least three different whales were spotted off Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly on Tuesday alone, which is surprising, and really just a glimpse of what might actually be out there.”
Ms Bellman said the whale visits could be a good sign for marine life to recover.
He added: ‘What’s really encouraging is that we’re getting regular annual sightings, which have been quite rare in recent years, it suggests that we may have some sort of population increase, which is brilliant for marine life recovery.’
Drone footage captured by Richard Brindley shows a humpback whale off the coast of St Ives.
He said: “I had seen the footage from the day before and was quite surprised to see it in the bay.”
After seeing a social media post saying the whale had been sighted again, he “went out to see if I could drone it.”
Mr Brindley said using his drone the whale was visible in the bay for about an hour.
“I’ve seen dolphins many times, but this is my first time seeing a whale. It was quite amazing.
“It was very slow. It felt like it was doing some kind of bay length.”
In addition to recent whale sightings, there have also been several reports of a large pod of dolphins off the Falmouth coast.
Mike Postons, of 3Deep Media, captured a large pod of dolphins from his drone above Pendennis Point in Falmouth.
Speaking to BBC Radio Cornwall, he said: ‘I knew they had been around for the last few days, and I’ve just decided to leave in the morning and go to Pendennis Point in Falmouth to have a look.
“I waited there for a while, had a coffee, couldn’t really see anything, there were a few people looking at them and taking care of them, so I did a first flight with the drone and then I had a take a good look around and I couldn’t really see anything.”
Mr Postons said he was considering going home but decided to fly the drone to look for dolphins one more time when he spotted them.
He added: “They basically showed up between Pendennis Castle and St Mawes Castle, it was a really big pod, I don’t know how many, I’m guessing about 100 – and they looked like they were circling there.
“It was truly an amazing sight to see.”
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