Incredible footage has shown the moment that humpback whales were spotted in the UK this week.
Wildlife experts have been left "extremely excited" after two rare sightings of the enormous animals have been reported along the Cornish coast recently.
The sightings took place in Mount's Bay and off the Lizard peninsula on November 29 and December 1.
Dave Stevens, from NCI Penzance, which is part of the National Coastwatch Institute network, was among a team who witnessed yesterday's whale sighting.
He was at a lookout station when his team were shocked to see a huge mammal breaching the surface of the coast. They turned their web camera to get a closer look at the creature, but weren't sure what it was at first.
After sharing the video on their Facebook page, commenters told them that it was a humpback whale.
Dave told CornwallLive : "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.
"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."
He added: "It was in the bay for around five minutes and it was quite the sight to see. It brought back lots of personal memories for me when I worked on cruise ships for many years, and we followed whale migrations from the coast of Mexico all the way to Alaska."
The first sighting of the whales earlier this week was also captured on a video taken by staff at the Polpeor Cafe, who spotted two of the spectacular animals along the Lizard peninsula.
The clip, which was shared on Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Facebook page, captured the whale's breaching behaviour as it rose out of the water.
A spokesperson for the Wildlife Trust wrote: "We were extremely excited to receive reports of an adult and juvenile humpback whale spotted together around the Lizard peninsula on Tuesday afternoon."
They also said that sightings have been increasing in recent years, adding: "Until recently sightings of humpbacks were extremely rare in Cornwall. But since 2019, we’ve recorded more than 75 sightings of them around our coastline.
"Our Seaquest Southwest team are hoping for a flurry of whale sightings over the next few months, as these magnificent marine mammals return to our shores (with sightings typically increasing over winter)."
Marine conservation officer at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Abby Crosby, added: “We were incredibly excited to hear this news. Only in the last few years have humpback whale sightings really shot up. Before then, it would’ve been extremely rare to spot one around the UK.
“People may not realise how incredible our seas are, even in the winter months. It’s magnificent to see these creatures up close.
"But as always, we’d like to encourage people to put wildlife first, be respectful and keep their distance, should they be so lucky as to have an encounter with one of these amazing creatures.”
