A British diver and underwater filmmaker has spotted a rarely seen humpback whale off the Pembrokeshire coast in West Wales, capturing footage of the moment the ocean giant swam by his vessel.
Dan Abbott, who makes a living as a professional filmmaker and ocean educator, was scuba diving near the Celtic Deep, a 100m depression in the West Wales seafloor, when the whale made an appearance.
At this moment, the cinematographer was aboard his group’s boat with smartphone in hand to capture the incredible scene. “It is a humpback!” Abbott shouted in jubilation as the whale drifted by, spraying a plume of water from its blowhole, while other group members shouted in excitement.
Above: watch the moment the humpback whale appeared near Abbott's boat
The sixth-largest whale species in the world, humpbacks can grow up to 48 to 62.5 feet (14.5 to 19 meters) in length and weigh up to around 40 tons. They have dark bodies with white undersides, a small hooked dorsal fin on a distinctive hump, and knobby bumps called tubercles on their head.
While Abbott said that seeing a humpback in Welsh waters isn’t unusual, it’s far from an everyday scene. “There have only been a couple of sightings in the last five or six years,” he explained in an Instagram post. “As you can hear in my voice, I was quite surprised,” he added.
However, according to the Marine Conservation Society, humpback sightings are increasing in the UK.
While the organization is unsure exactly why, it believes this could be down to increasing whale populations following the 1986 Moratorium (ban) on whaling, as well as warming oceans amid climate change causing the migratory species to change its movements.
A humpback whale was previously spotted off the coast of Pembrokeshire in 2024. According to the BBC, the animal was “quite small” and covered in scars and had “signs of previous viruses.”
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