Boat was beside breaching whale
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Wednesday February 03 2010
SKIPPER MARTIN Colfer was just 20 metres away from 'Bingo' the humpback when he treated amazed spectators to the breathtaking sight of his spectacular breaching.
The Duncannon-based skipper brought a group of whale watching enthusiasts, together with Wildlife Filmmaker Ross Bartley from Crossing the Line Films, on board the 'Rebecca C' last Saturday, when Bingo the magnificent humpback whale thrilled the group when he breached clear of the water off Hook Head 11 times over a 45 minute period.
'I have never seen anything like that before,' said Martin, who has been kept busy over the past week bringing groups of whale watchers out around the Hook Head area in his 11-meter catamaran.
'On Saturday we went two-and-threequarter miles south west of Hook Head and we saw the first couple of whales. We went further off and we saw seven or eight fin whales. When we were coming in in the evening we spotted the humpback again,' explained Martin.
'The main thing was to get a good photograph of the tail fluking to identify the whale. We got a good picture and when he was identified we were told that he has never been pictured before in Irish coastal waters.'
However, the excitement for the group was not to end there as the humpback exploded out of the water and pirouetted 360 degrees.
'We caught it all on camera. When he started breaching he breached 11 times in 45 minutes. The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group said they never saw a display to that extent before – it was a first for the Hook Peninsula.'
The film footage captured will be used in the upcoming Wild Journeys series on RTÉ, which tells the story of humpback whale migration between Ireland and Cape Verde.
'I am willing to bring people out to see the whales. The boat that I bring out has good visibility from the front and was designed and purposely built for angling and whale watching.' said Martin.
