10th December 2022. There have been  several rare sightings of humpback whales along the Cornish coast earlier this month including a sighting in Mounts Bay near Penzance

Station Manager Dave Stevens from the National Coastwatch Institution station at Penzance was in the lookout station when his team spotted the unusual sighting of the massive mammal breaching the surface off the coast and turned to their web camera to get a better view. He said that initially they weren't sure what species of whale it was but after sharing the video on their Facebook page, they received many comments suggesting it was a humpback whale.

"You don't see humpback whales very often and I've never actually seen one in Cornwall before, so we weren't sure what it was at first," Dave said. "If it was an Orca, we would have been able to tell what it was straight away because it's very distinguishable but to us, we don't see humpbacks very often, so it just looked like another whale. We have a chart at the station but it's still difficult to tell the difference. But after we posted the video on Facebook, we got lots of comments saying it was a humpback, so that's what I assume it was. It was in the bay for around five minutes and it was quite the sight to see.."