An interesting question
I had two reports of
Orca off Northumberland to deal with last year.
The first report was accompanied by a convincing written description, and an excellent image...of a
Minke Whale.
My first response on reading the second description was "
White-beaked Dolphins". Not surprisingly, 24 hrs later a pod of
WBD (same number as the reported pod of
Orcas) was engaging in the same behaviour as the reported pod of
Orcas at exactly the same location...
WBD is a very credible misidentification for
Orca; I've seen at least one
WBD off Northumberland with a vertical dorsal fin. They're big animals with a big dorsal, so probably do account for some reports of
Orca.
While we were compiling the North East Cetacean Project database, I sat down with 2 boat skippers who each have 30 year + of offshore experience up here. It's now 20 years since either of them saw an Orca. So, I asked the question - what do we think all of these reports are, if they're not
Orcas? Same answer from both skippers -
Minke Whale or
White-beaked Dolphin. The
Minke Whale mis-id possibility is an interesting one - lunge-feeding Minkes are big, black and white animals and the pectoral band can be mistakenly identified as the 'eye patch' of an
Orca.
Orca do wander outside of their regular range but, for example, there are only 4 or 5 records in the last 15 years off northeast England that I think have any credibility. The rest are unattributed records from several internet forums/"bloke I met walking his dog on the beach"/"my mum's friend's daughters friend" etc.
cheers
martin