Up to 30 minke whales gather off Isle of Eigg in rare Hebrides spectacle

The extraordinary concentration of whales was observed during a ten-day cetacean research expedition through some of Scotland’s most remote waters. Scientists estimated that between 20 and 30 minke whales were feeding within an area of roughly four miles around Eigg.

Groups of seven or eight whales were seen at a time, while others could be observed feeding a bit further offshore. Several sightings from the same evening were subsequently submitted to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s Whale Track recording scheme.

Dr Conor Ryan, a marine scientist who took part in the expedition, said that although large gatherings of minke whales were not unprecedented in the Hebrides, the density was a rare sight.

“The feeding behaviour itself is typical, but the densities were exceptional,” he said.

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Dr Ryan compared the phenomenon to the “supermarket effect”, in which an abundance of food attracts large numbers of otherwise unrelated animals to the same area for as long as the supply lasts.

“We witnessed the rapid formation and breakdown of these feeding frenzies,” he said. “The minke whales [were] dramatically lunge-feeding on shoals of fish alongside shearwaters and auks.”

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Similar concentrations have been reported in recent years off Ardnamurchan and the Cairns of Coll, according to records submitted to the Whale Track scheme. Dr Ryan said, however, that the encounter off Eigg could be regarded as one of the largest gatherings recorded around the Hebrides.

The sighting came at the end of the specialist In Search of Giants expedition, operated by Hebrides Cruises, which ran from Oban between August 22 and September 1 aboard the vessel Elizabeth G.

After roughly 20 miles of searching, the expedition encountered a fin whale mother and calf. The adult was estimated to be about 20 metres long, with the calf measuring between 10 and 11 metres. The pair were seen in waters where fin whales and other great whales were once hunted.

Later, two humpback whales were spotted in the Minch among feeding minke whales. The final encounter off Eigg, when as many as 30 minke whales gathered to feed, provided the expedition with its most dramatic spectacle. Other sightings on the trip included a basking shark, bottlenose dolphins, grey seals and numerous seabirds.

Emma Fairbairns, director and shore manager of Hebrides Cruises, said: “To finish this year’s expedition surrounded by so many feeding minke whales off Eigg was an extraordinary sight and something everyone on board will remember.”

The Elizabeth G was formerly a rescue boat serving the Norwegian fleet, which operated in the waters around Shetland and the Outer Hebrides while fishing for herring and hunting whales. Today the boat carries small groups of visitors and researchers into the same waters, but with the aim of observing and recording the wildlife rather than pursuing it.