A female bottlenose dolphin was washed ashore in Doonbeg, Co. Clare yesterday. The animal was caught in gillnets, with net wrapped around the mouth and 7m of net trailing behind.
The Shannon Estuary is home to Ireland’s only resident population of bottlenose dolphins. The stranding comes hot on the heels of a report from the Moray Firth (Scotland’s only resident population of bottlenose dolphins) that illegal salmon driftnets are the main threat to the dolphin population in the Firth, which has been in decline for a number of years. (For the full report on the Moray Firth bycatch problem see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/scotland/newsid_2092000/2092403.stm )