The Hebrides has both diverse land and seascapes and an abundance of wildlife. TheWaters around Barra and its neighbouring islands host are known to host a wide variety of marine life including whales, dolphins and porpoises. Twenty-four species – nearly a third of the world total – have been reported in this region, from the mighty blue whale to the tiny harbour porpoise. Marine life that have been spotted in this area are:

The bottlenose dolphin is a stocky dolphin with a short beak. Scottish bottlenoses are somewhat special, being larger than their cousins worldwide. The colour is variable - usually dark brown or grey on the back, white on the belly and light grey on the flanks, with no distinctive markings. They are identifiable at sea by their large, dark dorsal fin and apparently uniform colouring.

Scottish bottlenoses are at the northernmost extreme of the species' range, and are seen throughout the entire Hebridean area. They are usually seen close inshore, hugging the coastline around headlands and bays. Hebridean sightings hotspots are the Isles of Mull (in particular the Sound of Mull), Iona , Coll, Tiree, and Barra - there are believed to be resident populations inhabiting these waters year-round.

Of all cetaceans they have the shortest lifespan.  Capable of reaching up to 20 years, but rarely do, the average life is around ten.  Sexual maturity is reached at three to four years with females gestating for approximately 11 months.  Only one calf is born annually, which means the porpoises reproductive life is extremely short.  Calves are born at around 70 centrimetres long and have a strong bond with their mother.  Males play no part in the upbringing of the offspring.  Weaning can ocur quickly and individuals as young as six months have been known to become independent.  With such a short lifespan and reproductive life harbour porpoises are highly susceptible to sudden decreases in local populations.

The harbour porpoise is the most widespread, commonly seen and studied of all porpoises. They are very shy animals and only show their backs and dorsal fin when surfacing the water. One of the harbour porpoises names, the puffing pig, is derived from the noise of its blow when they surface the water for air. The noise made sounds like a human sneezing or puffing.

The Risso's dolphin is a large dolphin with a robust, stocky body that becomes more slender behind the dorsal fin.  The head is bulbous.  Striking is the tall dorsal fin, which is at the mid-point of the body.

Large animals are typical for being silver-grey or cream-white, although the dorsal fin, flukes and distal half of the flippers generally remain darker.  The body is covered with scratches and scars, which increase with age.

Risso's dolphins tend to form small to medium-sized pods of 2 to 45 animals, although they may be seen singly or in large groups of several hundred or even thousands.

Risso's dolphins social behaviour haas been described by researchers as 'rough and obviously physical'; behaviours included slapping, splashing and sometimes striking one another.  The high degree of scarrng on the skin of these dolphins is though to be attributable to this intraspecific behaviour.

Risso's dolphins are often seen travelling and surfacing slowly, although they may be highly active, occasionally bow-riding and often breaching clear of the water and slapping their heads, tails or sides on the surface.

Orcas (or killer whales) are actually part of the dolphin family.  They have jet-black, brilliant white and grey markings making them quite distinctive.  They have a white belly, a large white patch on the side of the head and a grey saddle patch.  The adult male's dorsal fin is huge at up to 1.8 metres making them easy to identify.  Females and young males however can sometimes be mistaken for Risso's dolphins, False Killer whales or Dall's porpoise from a distance.

These animals are very intelligent and because of this can be very inquisitive and approachable.  However, they rarely bow-ride but instead can often be seen breaching, spy-hopping (just the nose coming out of the water), flipper splashing and lobtailing (slapping their tail-fin down on the water). Powerful swimmers, they can reach speeds of 55km per hour.  In the Hebrides, killer whales are known to spend a whole day with a boat, delighting the passengers.  Despite the name "killer whale" they do not harm humans in the wild and agression within a pod is rare.  The life span of a wild orca is up to 60 years for males and 90 years for females - this is drastically reduced in captivity.

 

Perhaps the most widely known and well-recognised of all the cetaceans. At a distance its blow is easily identified being angled forwards and to the left. Its body shape is unique with a square, blunt head which is about 1/3 of the total body length. Sperm whales have a single s-shaped blowhole at the left side of the front of the head and their long, narrow lower jaw fits neatly into the underside of the head. The pectoral fins are small and broad, with rounded tips and instead of a distinct dorsal fin there are a series of small humps leading to the tail. The flukes are broad and triangular and are lifted high before a dive. Their skin is wrinkled and splotchy grey/blue. Mature males can be one and a half times the length of mature females and the females often have calluses on their dorsal humps. Their conical teeth are found only in the lower jaw and they fit into sockets in the upper jaw.

Sperm whales are found in all deep ocean waters right up to the polar ice fields. They have evolved to live in these deep waters and are in serious danger of stranding when they move inshore. Most commonly found in submarine canyons at the edge of the continental shelf. There is a general movement towards the poles during the summer though some populations are resident all year round. Although the most heavily exploited of all the whales it is still relatively abundant.

The minke whale is the smallest of the baleen whales, and is the second most commonly sighted cetacean in the Hebrides. The body of a minke whale is slender and very streamlined; the head is narrow and pointed. The dorsal fin is prominent and usually strongly curved, or hook shaped with its pointed tip directed backwards. The fin and back are dark grey or black. The belly is porcelain white and there is a white band on the upper side of each flipper.

The minke whale is found from the tropics to the ice edges. It is often seen in coastal and inshore waters, and often enters estuaries, bays and inlets. There is not much known about the migration of minke whales but it would seem that they migrate from higher latitudes in the summer, where feeding occurs, to lower latitudes or offshore in the winter, when breeding takes place. The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust has identified over 65 individuals which inhabit Hebridean waters during the summer months - their winter whereabouts are unknown.

The humpback whale is very easily distinguished from other baleen whales by its distinctive knobbly head and the dorsal fin which is reduced to a fleshy hump or hook on a broad base set far back along its spine. The pectoral fins are huge (Megaptera means “great wing”) and may be as much as a third of the body length. These are also knobbly and usually white on both sides, though the pacific humpbacks fins are more often black on the upper surface. The body is blue-black with white patches underneath. The knobs or protuberances on the head are enlarged hair follicles and are often full of parasitic barnacles and lice. There are twelve to thirty-two deep throat grooves and its baleen is both long and wide. The tail fluke is black and white in distinct patterns and they have a clear notch and irregular trailing edges.

Humpbacks are very wide-ranging and are found in all oceans at the edge of the ice packs but they show distinct seasonal changes in distribution. Groups of four to twelve animals are common, moving to the warmer tropical waters in winter and back to the cold-water feeding grounds in the polar waters in summer. They follow the shoals of small schooling fish and can be found in shallow inland waters as well as in the open oceans.

The blue whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on earth The record length is 33 metres with a weight of 190 tonnes though most males reach only 23 metres and females 24.5 metres. The calves measure 7.5 metres at birth and weigh about 2.5 tonnes. Their mouths can be up to 6 metres long and the tail flukes 4.5 metres from tip to tip. The body is long and slender and the head is broad and flattened with a single central ridge running from the tip to the blowhole. This is surrounded by a large raised splashguard. The ridge continues along the spine to the small dorsal fin located three-quarters of the way down the back. The tail stock is extremely thick and the tail flukes are relatively small. The pectoral fins are long, slender and curved on the leading edge. Most blue whales are blue-grey and mottled with lighter spots but some appear yellowish underneath due to algae growing on them.

Although never common, the blue whale used to be widespread throughout all the open ocean areas. Mechanised whaling has brought it almost to the brink of extinction and it is found now only in small populations. It is estimated that there are only 6,000 to 14,000 left worldwide. There are three main populations of Blue whales: the North Atlantic, North Pacific and the Southern Hemisphere. Some scientists believe that these are actually 3 different sub-species: Balaenoptera musculus subspecies intermedia in the southern hemisphere, the slightly smaller subspecies musculus in the northern hemisphere and the even smaller subspecies brevicuda (also known as the Pygmy Blue whale) which occurs mainly in tropical areas of the southern hemisphere.