A video shot by two Fife teenagers captured the moment one of the largest whales in the world visited the Firth of Forth.
The relatively rare sighting of a Sei Whale prompted huge excitement among whale watchers in the UK, with visits to semi-enclosed waters like the Forth thought to be uncommon.
But whilst they knew they were lucky to spot the huge animal in the Firth of Forth, the two girls who filmed it didn’t realise how important it was.
Agathe, 12, managed to capture video footage alongside her sister Sidonie, 15, of the whale’s blow. This turned out to be key in identifying which species it was.
Each whale creates a unique blow, with shapes specific to each species, which allows experts to identify them.
Sharing the footage on social media, Agathe and Sidonie’s dad left whale watchers excited after they realised what species had been caught on camera.
Andy shared the pictures and videos taken by his two daughters on the Scottish/UK Humpback ID Facebook group.
The volunteer-run group helps to track whales that visit Scotland and the UK, and has even identified regular visitors by recording unique identification marks.
Barney
The Sei Whale is actually the third-largest of the species, behind the Blue Whale and the Fin Whale, and can grow to as large as 19.5m.
It’s thought to be relatively rare for the species to visit enclosed waters, and they usually prefer the deeper offshore waters closer to Ireland.
It comes as one regular visitor to the Forth is due to appear on BBC Landward.
Nicknamed Barney, the huge humpback whale has been a regular visitor to the Firth of Forth in recent years and is popular among local wildlife watchers.
Airing on Thursday at 8.30pm, the show will feature people from Fife reconnecting with nature during lockdown and Barney will make his debut appearance.
