Potvissen Physeter macrocephalus voor de Nederlandse kust, april 1993

On 6 April 1993 six Sperm Whales were observed by fishermen and photographed by a helicopter pilot. just off Ameland (Dutch Wadden Sea islands: 53°29’N, 5°35’E). Because Sperm Whales are extremely rare in the North Sea, it is likely that this herd was the same as was recorded in Scapa Flow, Orkney, Scotland, from 22 February to 25 March 1993. Earlier records of larger groups of Sperm Whales off the Dutch coast are at least 200 years old. Most recent findings were strandings of adult males (15 December 1979 Egmond aan Zee, 12 February 1989 Koksijde (Vlaanderen, Belgium), and 2 April 1990 Terschelling) and a sighting of single individual swimming off the Belgian coast (8-10 December 1991).