Despite my long experience with a volunteer cetacean watching programme, Tuesday evening was my closest encounter with a whale when a juvenile minke female washed ashore at Thurso beach. By the looks – and, quickly, smell – of it, she’d been dead for several days.
Gordon Ramsay recently was slammed for eating minke on a visit to Iceland, so perhaps as Ishmael explained as to why whalers generally did not eat their own catch, he should have had a quick glimpse of their hulk of whale carcass.
The sombre sights did not stop me from returning the next day for more photographs. Because of the heat we have had, though, I do not intend to go today.
