Watch: Drone footage of 70ft fin whale captured in West Cork

"No many how many times I see a whale, they never stop amazing me," said local wildlife photographer Dan Lettice

A fin whale lunge feeding on sprat with common dolphins and Manx Shearwaters in attendance. Fin wahle feeding off Union Hall, Co Cork Pic; Tom Ormond

A West Cork based wildlife photographer has shared some stunning drone footage of a fin whale surfacing in waters off Toe Head this weekend, in a clip that has been viewed by over 50,000 people already. 

Dan Lettice was venturing out to sea with local skipper Rory Jackson, the man behind West Cork Ocean Tours, when they spotted the whale. 

"It was great to see. I've seen a lot of whales over nearly 20 years but I have been trying to get drone footage of one for the last two years and I was so delighted to finally succeed. I never tire of seeing whales, they never stop amazing me," Mr Lettice said. 

Fin whales are fairly common visitors to West Cork waters from June to January each year. Only the blue whale outsizes them in the ocean, as they are the second biggest animal on the planet. 

"This whale was feeding at a depth and only surfacing every seven or eight minutes to breathe. They take five or six big breaths at the surface and that is the only opportunity you get to film them. We took this footage via drone at a height so as not to disturb the whale, and our boat was drifting with the engine off nearby," Mr Lettice explained. 

To date over 60 fin whales have been identified in Irish waters, mostly along the south coast. One whale, known as 'Scar', has been recorded for over a decade by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, as the whale has appeared from Cork to Waterford numerous times since 2005. 

Fin whales are extremely large, typically spanning 21 to 22.5 metres in length, with a pointed head and a tall, curved dorsal fin. They are uniquely asymmetrically coloured with a black lower left jaw in stark contrast to their white lower right jaw. 

The tall columnar blow they produce, like the one in this video, can reach 7-8 metres in height. They almost never breach of tail fluke in the water.