Wildlife watchers were delighted when they saw two rarely seen local celebrities – the killer whales John Coe and Aquarius – in the Sound of Rum, Scotland.
Hebrides Cruises was alerted to the presence of the orcas by a local fishermen who had seen them and passed on the message to the wildlife watching company. The whale watchers were lucky enough to spend nearly an hour with the two male killer whales.
“It was like being in the company of two old friends,” says James Fairbairns, captain and director of Hebrides Cruises, who shared his magical footage of the encounter.
Although it’s rare to catch a sighting of John Coe and Aquarius, Fairbairns has watched them since he was a boy and would see them with his father. He was moved to see that “the same two animals over 30 years later are still here, still prowling these waters,” he says.
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But this encounter was different from his previous sightings. The two killer whales were stuck to each other like glue as they moved along. “Here they are slowly swimming together almost embracing each other, something I have never seen before,” Fairbairns says.
The wonderful moment is tinged with sadness. John Coe and Aquarius are the last surviving members of Scotland’s only known resident pod of orcas. “I remember as a boy watching the whole pod that has sadly not been seen for nearly a decade,” he says. “I feel incredibly privileged to have witnessed their presence.”
His late father, conservationist Richard Fairbairns who set up the UK’s first marine research centre and helped to form the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, would have been delighted by the sighting: “Although my father often thought of the local orca as a bunch of show-offs (he preferred the more elusive Risso's dolphins!), he still dedicated a team of volunteers to help study them,” he says. “The sighting of orca back then was as equally the holy grail of sightings as it is today.”
For Indy Greene, wildlife guide at Hebrides Cruises, seeing the pair was a dream come true. “I've been volunteering and working in Hebridean waters since I was 10 years old, and it has always been a lifelong dream to see John Coe and Aquarius,” he says. “I've missed them by minutes, many times over the years. To see them today was truly remarkable.”
Sadly, there might not be many more sightings like this as these two male orcas are approaching the end of their lives. John Coe is believed to be over 60 years old and Aquarius only slightly younger. Although female orcas usually live much longer, males live to 30 years old on average but can live to around 60.
“It’s sightings like this that remind you why protecting these waters is so important,” says Fairbairns. “John Coe and Aquarius are the last of their community, and it’s bittersweet in a way — but to witness them in the wild I know is a huge privilege.”
Top image: footage of John Coe and Aquarius orcas in Scotland. Credit James Fairbairns | Skipper Hebrides Cruises
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