PALS on a fishing trip were stunned when they spotted what appeared to be a pod of killer whales in the Channel.
David Hilton, 64, and Paul Bradshaw, 61, were angling off the South Coast when they saw several large creatures breaching the surface.
David Hilton was angling off the South Coast when he spotted the creatures breaching the surface[/caption]
Sightings of orcas in the Channel are extremely rare[/caption]
They appeared to be hunting dolphins in busy international shipping lanes, just five miles south of Plymouth, Devon.
Also known as orcas, killer whales — like those in the hit film Free Willy — are seen in the North Sea and off the west coast of Scotland.
But sightings in the Channel are extremely rare.
David, a retired hospital worker, said: “I couldn’t believe it.
“I’ve never seen orcas before in the Channel.”
Paul, a retired medical scientist and marine life enthusiast, added: “We weren’t sure what they were at first.
“The larger ones were over five metres long.”
Paul sent pictures to the Orca Research Trust, which said: “While we can’t say definitively that these were orcas, they certainly could have been.”
But Dr Peter Evans, professor of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University, said he thought they may have been white beaked dolphins.
He said: “Changes in the status and distribution of various whale and dolphin species have been occurring in recent years.”
