Dolphin 'superpod' seen by wildlife spotters off Skye

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/10488165.stm

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Dolphin 'superpod' seen by wildlife spotters off Skye
Page last updated at 12:54 GMT, Friday, 2 July 2010 13:54 UK

A pod of about 1,000 dolphins was spotted off the north east coast of Skye.

A group of wildlife spotters have encountered a massive pod of dolphins on a boat trip off the north coast of Skye. The boat's owner Nick Davies, who operates out of Gairloch on the mainland, estimated there were about 1,000 short-beaked common dolphin.

He said he had only seen such a sight once before in 15 years of operating.

Last June, a "superpod" of more than 400 short-beaked common dolphin was recorded in the Moray Firth.

Mr Davies said the Skye pod included adults, juveniles and calves. He said: "They were everywhere you looked for as far as you could see. "There was five square miles where they just filled the sea." It is thought the massive pod was created when smaller ones grouped together to chase a huge shoal of fish. The pod spotted last June was thought to be a "massive migration" into the North Sea.