{"id":7517,"date":"2025-09-08T10:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T10:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/7517\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T10:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T10:42:10","slug":"university-students-have-magical-encounter-with-pilot-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/7517\/","title":{"rendered":"University students have &#8216;magical encounter&#8217; with pilot whales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Archie FarmerBBC News, South West<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ec2930d0-87dd-11f0-9457-214de3f1fa91.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Becky Dudley\/University of Plymouth A picture of two pilot whales under the water. They are black in colour. They are swimming in a blue coloured water. \" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Becky Dudley\/University of Plymouth<\/p>\n<p>Researchers from the University of Plymouth were on the vessel<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A group of researchers had the &#8220;luck of a lifetime&#8221; after a close encounter with a group of pilot whales. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Researchers from the University of Plymouth were on a vessel which students board to conduct surveys on the marine animals along the South West coastline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">On the way back to the city, a student spotted a fin poking out of the water, over a nautical mile away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">While approaching the group, the captain then cut the engine, which led to a special encounter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Becky Dudley, a researcher at the University of Plymouth, said: &#8220;The group of pilot whales just spent half an hour or so feeding and we had a few really curious animals, one of them swam right under the boat, we could hear them vocalising.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;It was one of the most magical encounters I have had with marine mammals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;It&#8217;s so interesting to note the behaviour and seeing them this close to shore is a bit more unusual.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/f6efacb0-87dd-11f0-9457-214de3f1fa91.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Becky Dudley\/University of Plymouth A picture of a pilot whale under the water. It is white and black in colour. It is swimming in a blue coloured water. \" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Becky Dudley\/University of Plymouth<\/p>\n<p>The captain cut the engine, which led to a special encounter<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Speaking on the importance of turning the engine off, she added: &#8220;It&#8217;s really important we cut the engine, this encounter highlights what happens when you let the animals come to you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;We also have a microphone below the vessel, so when you cut that engine you can really hear the sounds that they are making.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;Helping the animals to have the choice to choose the encounter is really special.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Archie FarmerBBC News, South West Becky Dudley\/University of Plymouth Researchers from the University of Plymouth were on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-7517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}