Wildlife enthusiast captures rare drone footage of humpback whale in British waters near Newcastle

An avid drone pilot and wildlife enthusiast has captured mesmerising footage of a huge humpback whale swimming in British waters off the north of England. Gareth Tibbs caught rare footage of the whale swimming in waters off the shore of St Mary’s Island, near Whitley Bay after he was informed by a wildlife WhatsApp group that there had been recent whale sightings in the area.

The 43-year-old said: "Whilst at home I received a Whatsapp via our wildlife group that there was a whale spotted a few hundred metres away. I grabbed my drone and headed to the point and could see it immediately.

“It was about 300 metres from the shore. I called Air Traffic Control to get approval to fly and within a few minutes I was hovering 50 metres over the whale capturing the images.”