Fin whale stranding in Ireland
20/01/2009 08:39:43
Fin whale stranded in Ireland. Credit IWDG
January 2009. A 19.7m long fin whale live stranded near Courtmacsherry in the west of Ireland, The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) and the Irish Coastguard were quickly on the scene.
Options were very limited. The best hope was to try to prevent the whale stranding as, once stranded, refloating is extremely difficult and euthanasia is difficult as the whale would need to be shot as there are not enough drugs available to put an animal of this size down.
Sadly, however, it was not possible to prevent the whale stranding. The whale was thrashing its tail but grounded on the falling tide. As expected, the whale died shorlty afterwards. The IWDG confirmed that the whale is a fin whale measuring almost 64ft (19.7m). On closer examination is appeared to be in poor condition with bones showing through the blubber.
Fin whale stranded in the west of Ireland. Credit IWDG.
This is not that unusual an event as there have been many fin whales documented along the Irish south coast since September 2008, and if one strands alive, the assumption is that it is sick and in poor body condition. In a weakened state the whale is more likely to be drawn inshore into a very alien environment, where it realistically has little or no chance of survival.
Given the logistics of trying to move this massive animal, a decision was made to bury the animal where it stranded in Courtmacsherry. Contractors will use two JCBs to dig a massive hole which will, it is hoped, secure the animal. It's fitting that the whale's final resting place will be an SAC (Special Area of Conservation). Over time, its body will release a massive amount of energy that will feed literally billions of marine organisms that will have an ecological benefit to the entire local ecosystem, thus enhancing the areas' biodiversity.
137 live stranding records in Ireland
The IWDG have records of 137 live-stranding events in Ireland involving 307 animals. The number of live-strandings reported to the IWDG has increased in recent years with a record 28 reported in 2007. This may reflect better recording but live- strandings, especially of dolphins, do frequently occur in Ireland. Live stranded whales are less common with only four records to date, two of them on the same day in 2007! Refloating an animal over 20ft in length is virtually impossible and unlikely to be successful. 
| Whale watching in West Cork & photo ID of whalesWhale watching has been growing steadily in west Cork where boats take people out to see fin, Humpback and Minke whales, as well as common dolphins and harbour porpoise. The IWDG have been working closely with operators to record the whales in the area through photo-identification, where unique markings are recorded to enable them to recognise individuals. To date they have more than 60 fin whales and 10 humpback whales recorded (mostly from West Cork). All humpback whales have been resighted at least once, and 16 of the 62 fin whales have been resighted, a resighting rate of 25%.
This work has showed that the same whales may spend up to 6 months in inshore Irish waters and many return each year. The whale which died in Courtmacsherry was not one we had recorded previously. For more details of the IWDG Photo-ID programme click here. More about whale watching in west Ireland here. |
Updates by Simon Berrow & Pádraig Whooley, IWDG
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