Bryan Clarkson, skipper of Esk Belle 2, said Kris Simpson and Robin Petch of the Seawatch Foundation were on his boat at the time.

Volunteer Miss Simpson said: “Since 1990 we have been spotting these fantastic creatures and trying to raise awareness of them.

“It was a beautiful warm night, it was like being abroad, there were mothers with calves but I couldn’t really put an age on them.

“Siting harbour porpoise is fairly common but bottlenose is not.”

She added there are known pods of bottlenose dolphins at Moray Firth and Cardigan Bay but they do come in as far as Berwick and Newcastle.

Glenn Kilpatrick told the Gazette: “Myself and a friend were off kayak fishing out of Runswick Bay on Sunday night.

“We were roughly 500 yards off Kettleness and were lucky enough to have a school of dolphins swimming around us.

“I would estimate there to be between six and 12 of them.

“We launched from Runswick at tea time. Around 7.30pm, the Esk Belle came past us. I thought they were watching us but when I looked up they were all looking back towards Goldsborough.

“Then I saw what they were looking at, a pod of dolphins.

“As they got closer I managed a couple of snaps.

“They aren’t great but you can see them clearly. They swam past us on the inside and then they crossed the bay at Runswick.

“As the Esk Belle went in front of them, they started jumping out of the water alongside the boat.

“What a fantastic sight it was.”

Bottlenose dolphins vary in size, but some of the world’s largest live around the United Kingdom.

The easiest way of recognising a bottlenose is to look out for an obvious dark and curved-back dorsal fin on a lively grey dolphin.

The shape of their dorsal fin, along with markings on their skin, are what researchers use to identify individual dolphins.

Every year thousands of dolphins are trapped in driftnets.

They get caught up in the nets and drown.

Dolphins are also killed when they are hauled in in nets set around schools of tuna.

For more information, go to our website www.whitbygazette.co.uk and follow the link from this story to www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk