Braving some truly biting northeasterly winds and moderate to poor sea conditions, hardy IWDG members gathered in Rosscarbery, West Cork for our inaugural winter whale watching weekend. The first of these two weekends 20-22nd November had to be cancelled due to severe flooding in the area, but with an improving weather forecast we were delighted
Yearly Archives: 2009
A 5.1m long finned pilot whale Globicephala melas washed up on Dollar Bay, 2 km south of Duncannon on Sunday, 22 November 2009. This is the second stranding of this species on the Wexford coastline recently and only the 5th recorded stranding for this species off the Wexford coast. A 4.9m female pilot whale was
IWDG will be doing a talk and manning a stand at the Science Fair in Sligo I.T. this Sunday (8 November) from 12 noon. If you’re in the area, why not pop by, there’s certainly plenty of stands and activities to entertain young and old. And after the recent weather we’ve been having, the best
The NPWS Cetacean Action Plan is now available for public consultation. Please make your opinions known to the NPWS on this very important plan. The NPWS were required to produce a Cetacean Action Plan in response to the European Court of Justice ruling that Ireland was doing insufficient to protect cetaceans in Ireland. The Action
Survey Ended: FSS Celtic Sea Acoustic Survey 2009 Area: South and Southwest Shelf. Agency: Marine Institute Ship: Celtic Explorer ______________________________________ 27th October 2009 At dawn we were already in Galway Bay and due into Galway Docks at midday, thus marking the end of survey… the 5th successive year in which a cetacean survey has been
I have just started a PhD project on the feeding ecology and migration of baleen whales in Irish waters at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, under the supervision of David McGrath, Ian O’Connor and Simon Berrow. I will be carrying out fieldwork and attending strandings to obtain samples on an ongoing basis. Baleen tends to be
Survey: FSS Celtic Sea Acoustic Survey 2009 Area: South and Southwest Shelf. Agency: Marine Institute Ship: Celtic Explorer ______________________________________ 21st October 2009 The identity of the distant whale remains a mystery as, though we spent the day just east of Ram Head (where the whale was seen last night) the weather was blowing a gale
This year the Conamara Sea Week celebrates 25 years. the IWDG have been involved since the early 1990’s and the event has acted as an inspiration to the IWDG in its informative years. IWDG will be strongly represented with IWDG Co-ordinator Simon Berrow, Director Fiacc O’Brolchain and Committee member Faith Wilson and Eithne FGriffin (ex-Committee)
Report II, 09/10/09. The flow of sightings in recent days leaves little doubt other than the core area of large whale activity, namely fin whales, remains tantalisingly just outside the reach of many. From land there are several options but the easiest may be the Lusitania memorial at the Old Head of Kinsale (please note,
Report IV, 05/10/09. Just talking to Nick Massett, in Kerry this morning (5/10/09) while he was watching the humpback whale #HBIRL10 (above) from Slea Head, “Pec-slapping” some 10 miles offshore. Nick first observed this adult humpback three weeks ago on 19th Sept and has recorded it on 8 days in the interim period. Nick’s effort