\n Although sightings of the marine mammals are classed as rare rather than commonplace, there has been a steady trickle of sightings off Norfolk in recent years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Using reports from the Sea Watch Foundation’s sightings map, here are five spots where there is a chance of seeing a porpoise or dolphin, with the odd whale as an outside bet.\n<\/p>\n
1. West Runton<\/p>\n
\n Sea lovers are being urged to join dolphin watches on the north Norfolk coast (Image: Chris Taylor)\n<\/p>\n
\n The Runtons are a common spot to see marine wildlife, with a pod of\u00a0eight to 10 photographed just 400 metres off East Runton on August\u00a014, 2023, by Sheringham photographer Chris Taylor.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n The seaside town sits on the same productive Cromer\u2013Sheringham\u2013Cley run, so the area benefits from the same deeper water and passing fish shoals that occasionally pull in porpoise and dolphins.\n<\/p>\n
2. Blakeney<\/p>\n
\n Blakeney is known for its seals, but lucky beachgoers may get a sight of dolphins. (Image: Victoria Sheppard)\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2023, at least two dolphins were seen off the Blakeney coast.\n<\/p>\n
\n Blakeney Point itself is a low, shifting spit of sand and shingle fronting a vast National Nature Reserve of saltmarsh, dunes and creeks, reached most easily on the famous seal tours from Morston and Blakeney harbours.\n<\/p>\n
\n The trips run much of the year to England\u2019s largest grey seal colony and have the chance to turn up harbour porpoises as by\u2011catch sightings, all against a backdrop of big skies, bird\u2011laden marshes and wide and empty beaches.\n<\/p>\n
3. Winterton<\/p>\n
\n There were two alleged sightings of a humpback whale near Winterton last year. (Image: Liz Coates)\n<\/p>\n
\n Although there is no official story of a humpback whale off the coast of Winterton, there is a reported sighting from November last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Two days later, the whale was reportedly seen off the coast of Sea Palling, which is just up the road.\n<\/p>\n
\n Winterton beach is a long run of pale sand backed by high, rolling dunes and stretches of open coastline.\n<\/p>\n
\n There are no promenades or arcades to get in the way of the views, so beachgoers can look straight out over the North Sea.\n<\/p>\n
4. Sheringham and Cromer<\/p>\n
\n A minke whale was reportedly seen off the Sheringham coast in April last year. (Image: Denise Bradley)\n<\/p>\n
\n Dolphins are not a common sight in two of Norfolk’s most loved seaside towns, but there have been plenty of porpoise sightings and even a reported minke whale in April last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n In January 2021, a dead sperm whale was found washed up on Sheringham’s beach, which was the third sperm whale found along the Norfolk coast that winter.\n<\/p>\n
\n Just down the road in Overstrand, a bottlenose dolphin was seen in 2023.\n<\/p>\n
\n On the right day, seaside-lovers may get a lucky glimpse.\n<\/p>\n
5. Hunstanton<\/p>\n
\n A toothed whale was seen off the Hunstanton coast last year. (Image: Newsquest\/ Ian Burt)\n<\/p>\n
\n There have been rare but confirmed sightings of whales near Hunstanton, with a toothed whale reportedly seen in September last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n A 14m-long (46ft) whale was also found dead between Old Hunstanton and Holme-next-the-Sea in 2016.\n<\/p>\n
\n For live wildlife, Hunstanton is best treated as a good general\u2011nature spot, with seals off the west coast, seabird movements over the Wash, plus the Sea Life sanctuary\u2019s rescued seals, penguins and fish if you want guaranteed close\u2011ups.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, it is not impossible to see more marine wildlife here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although sightings of the marine mammals are classed as rare rather than commonplace, there has been a steady…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-710410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}