Drone footage shows seal using a mussel farm to hide from killer whales

Sadly, when it left its hiding place and headed for open water, it was caught and killed by the whales (Image: PA)

A seal being hunted by a gaggle of whales tried to hunt sanctuary by hiding in a mussel farm.

A drone digicam captured the astonishing footage of the harbour seal being hunted by a pod of eight orcas.

In an try to flee them, the seal sought to hide itself between two traces of mussel ropes on the Grunna Voe mussel farm, which is to the north of Lerwick, Shetland.

Sadly, when it left its hiding place and headed for open water, it was caught and killed by the whales.

Emily Hague, a PhD pupil researching the influence man-made buildings can have on marine wildlife, stated it was ‘fascinating’ to see them ‘probably being utilized by prey to cover from predators’.

However she additionally warned that if creatures corresponding to seals ended up spending extra time in and round places corresponding to fish farms and offshore vitality installations, there may very well be at a better danger of entanglement.

The seal’s try to evade the orca pod was captured on digicam by native drone pilot Nick McCaffrey, who had been alerted to the whales’ presence by a neighborhood Fb web page and WhatsApp group detailing any sightings.

His 38 minutes of footage from the incident in March this yr was then analysed by Hague, a pupil at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt College.

‘Interactions involving man-made buildings are hardly ever, if ever, caught on digicam. This makes this footage additional particular and really insightful from a scientific viewpoint,’ stated Hague.

Hague added that the drone footage ‘offers us an entire new perspective on how marine life, on this case two high predators, live with man-made buildings in our seas’.

A drone digicam captured the astonising footage of the harbour seal which was being hunted by a pod of eight orcas (Image: PA)

‘It’s fascinating that these novel buildings within the marine surroundings are probably being utilized by prey to cover from predators. Interactions like this could additionally make clear potential dangers to marine mammals,’

Final yr, a juvenile member of this killer whale group died entangled in rope and was discovered on Orkney.

‘If this group is spending lots of time round marine buildings, then this will have related dangers, like entanglement,’ stated Hague.

Hague has printed her evaluation of the incident within the the newest Aquatics Mammals journal.