The Paddler ezine Issue 57 Winter 2020/21 | Page 117

back of a juvenile Minke Whale surfaced . A view of about a second , and then it was gone , and I didn ’ t see it again . But what the heck , it was my first whale !
A month later , I had the most sensational prolonged viewing of another Minke , this time , a full-sized adult , close to the Eddystone reef . It was such a thrill to be sitting far , far offshore , in glass calm conditions , no other human within sight , shearwaters zipping past , porpoises puffing and every so often the great blast of a surfacing whale that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up . In my view , the most evocative of all the sounds of the animal kingdom .
BIG DAY AT EDDYSTONE As usual , I was bursting with excitement as I paddled out from Plymouth sound towards Eddystone in early August this year . This is the time of year when cetaceans reach their peak numbers , feeding on the seasonal boom in shoaling fish such as sandeels and mackerel .
It was the first day of light winds for weeks , and the surface was as calm as it gets . I had passed a pod of porpoises and dolphins before the sun had come up . Three miles offshore , there was an explosion of water behind me . Not the benign splash of dolphins , or the slap of a breaching sunfish , but a ripping noise that made me crank my neck around in an instant . An area of the sea the size of half a football pitch was being churned up by a load of enormous fish whose spiky fins were raking the surface . With an occasional one , the size of a dolphin , jumping clear . Giant Bluefin Tuna !