The seas that surround us here in beautiful North Wales are richly diverse and are teeming with life. We’ve long known that the shores of Snowdonia are home to some stunning wildlife and sea creatures, but a story we heard this week about a very rare whale rescued on Anglesey, proves just how right we are.

Experts were called out to Newborough beach on Anglesey last week, to go to the rescue of a stranded Pygmy Sperm Whale. It was at first thought that the lost whale was a porpoise, which are a common sight along the North Wales coast, but in fact it turned out to be the much rarer Pygmy Sperm Whale.

The rare Pygmy Sperm Whale was stranded on this beach on Anglesey last week.

The whale had got into trouble off the Anglesey coast and had drifted onto the beach. When the tide started to recede, the poor whale was stuck on the sand. A team of rescuers helped the whale back into the sea on a stretcher, and at the last sighting later in the afternoon the whale was seen in deeper waters, although experts think it’s possible it may become stranded again.

The Pygmy Sperm Whale is a rare sight in British seas, they more commonly live in the tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. However, even in these temperate seas they aren’t spotted very often, so all we know about them has come from data gathered from animals that have drifted onto shores and beaches, just like the one on Anglesey.

And although classified as a Sperm Whale, the Pygmy Sperm Whale lives up to it’s name – it’s a small breed of whale, often not much larger than a dolphin or porpoise, but the large, square head is a very distinguishing feature.

We do hope that the little Anglesey Pygmy Sperm Whale found his way home, and didn’t get stranded again! The story ended happily this time, for the whale and his rescuers, and just goes to show what fabulous marine life we have here in North Wales. Come and see it for yourself!