BALIK PULAU, MALAYSIA - A pod of six porpoises was spotted in the waters off Penang, about 200m from the shores of Kuala Sungai Burung near Pulau Betong here.

The Star photographer Wan Mohizan Wan Hussein, a part-time fisherman, saw the porpoises as he was testing his boat after some maintenance works at 11.30am yesterday.

"It looks like they were having a fun time. As I had left my camera in the car, I rushed back to shore to get it and went back to the same spot."

"I followed them for about 45 minutes on my boat," said Wan Mohizan, 41.

He said he was sure they were porpoises as they were similar to the carcass of a porpoise that he found in 2006. The authorities had confirmed then that the carcass was that of a porpoise.

When contacted, Universiti Sains Malaysia's School of Biological Sciences lecturer Professor Dr Zulfigar Yasin said these mammals were known to appear in Penang waters between January and February annually.

"They normally swim along the Sumatran and Andaman coasts towards Indian Ocean."

"In our census in 2006, we spotted 114 porpoises in one afternoon," he said. Porpoises are migratory mammals that are related to whales and dolphins.