Featured Image Credit: Henry Kirkwood via Sea Watch Foundation
By Sarah Sharkey
Earlier this month Henry Kirkwood made a rare discovery. The nature loving man was scanning the sea for any type of sea life that happened to be visible that day off the coast of Morwenstow in Cornwall. He saw a glint of white in the distance and originally thought it was a pale Risso’s dolphin, but upon closer inspection, it was actually a completely white porpoise. He reported it to the Sea Watch Foundation because after an internet search he released how rare this sighting was.
The Sea Watch Foundation is an organization in the United Kingdom that aims to monitor the number and location of cetaceans around the UK coastline. The organization also involved in raising awareness about marine mammals and the many threats they face.
Their education of the public and advising of environmental and government bodies is making a difference in making the oceans a safer place for the animals within it. They rely heavily on the public for scientific monitoring and clearly their reporting system is working. The sighting reported by Kirkwood is thought to be the fifth sighting in UK history of an all-white harbor porpoise. The sightings officer, Kathy James, agreed that the photograph Kirkwood took is a harbor porpoise.