A humpback whale is visiting the waters off the Dutch coast, amid worries it may have become disorientated, possibly by the presence of wind farms.

The animal was first spotted on Sunday, swimming at a distance of some 500 to 1,500 metres from the coast.

A spokesperson for charity Dolfijn SOS who happened to be at the beach at Zandvoort herself also saw the whale. “It was clearly a large animal and it turned out to be a humpback whale,” she told local broadcaster NH.

Grown humpback whales can grow to a length of 16 metres and weigh some 30,000 kilos. They are usually able to navigate shallow waters such as the North Sea coastal area. If food is plentiful it will probably stick around for a while, the spokesperson said.

“The behaviour of the whale seems ok,” she said, discarding worries expressed on social media that the whale may have lost its way because of offshore wind farms.

“We don’t know yet how wind farms influence these animals. But since the beginning of the century we have had a humpbacks visiting theses shores at least once a year. So no, not that special but incredibly cool,” she said.