To mark the 30th year of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, we have invited a number of the founder members to reflect on those first few steps towards establishing such a successful NGO.
For our second invited piece we have a contribution from Brendan Price. It was Brendan, who driven by the vision to declare Ireland a Whale and Dolphin Sanctuary, called and organised the meeting in the ENFO office in Dublin on 1 December 1990, out of which the IWDG emerged.
ROAD TO WORLD WHALE SANCTUARY !!
Among Whale Folk, the Outward Search for Sanctuary, ultimately and inevitably has as it’s Zenith a World Whale Sanctuary. By measured steps from childhood, through the Stages of Man, re-births, successive civilisations and “wherever you’re coming from yourself !“, we reach closer and closer, never quite getting there!! And when our Labour has Exhausted us and Enlightenment Eluded us, in Rest we realise Sanctuary resides within, however we toil without!! Sanctuary is a word that has defied Definition, is as much about the Quest as the Conquest and the Journey as the Destination. And so the Search for Sanctuary is a Carousel, we step on and off putting shoulder to Wheel and appointed tasks, where Effort and Comradeship are the Reward, rather than the Result.
Sanctuary is of the Heart and the more True Hearts bond together, the greater it’s Embrace on our External World.
And so it is Worthwhile, to relate one such Sanctuary Story I was privileged to witness and be part of, a story not yet ended, which may be the greatest of all, in search for Sanctuary and that is the Tale of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, which gave Life to the Sanctuary of the same Name.
Following a “drizzly November” of the Soul and the exhortations of one Gabriel of the Quayside, a simple Summons was sent out across the Island of Ireland, that was to bring together a quiet, shuffling group of men and women on December 1st 1990, to meet in a “toxic” building in the Capital City, Dublin. As Apprehensive and Hypo as Ishmael amidst Whale-hunting men that first night in the “Spouters Inn”, this Group set to chart a new Future for the Whale. As sure as St. Elmo’s Fire charged the Lances and chilled the Souls of Ahab’s Harpooners in their Monomanic Quest for the Great White Whale, a Spark Ignited among that Group, Uniting them in Common Purpose to secure the Sanctuary of Irish Waters for all Whales and Dolphins, the very Nemesis of the Hunts, which brought the Great Whales to the very Verge of Extinction in Our Time.
Unlike Ahab and his bedfellow Revenge, or the Monomanic Hunt for Profit, this Unity of purpose giving rise to simultaneous and spontaneous Whale Sanctuary and Guardians, was borne of a Romantic Love and Truth such as that, sustained the Troubadours of Middle Europe in the Middle Ages, emerging from a Very Dark Age. This Group Heralded an Age of Enlightenment for the Welfare and Well-being of Whales and Dolphins, built on it’s popular base, representing so many inhabitants of the Island of Ireland and has grown and developed the Knowledge and Science about these great Animals.
Anyone, who has attended Whale Rescues, Strandings or Whalewatch Events becomes transformed by the experience, passion and dedication of this Group and their all consuming effort, in protection of Whales.
In that Room, at that Moment in Time, the Stars were Aligned, the Opportunity was Right and the Right People were there to Seize it.!
To this day, the State Authorities have yet to register the Sanctuary at International Level, but the Hearts of those, who brought the Dream to Reality, live by it’s Bounty and Play in it’s Waters, Sustain it!! Gan Tir, Gan Croi !!
Sanctuary has brought benefits of Tourism, Employment, Science and Enlightenment for Many. The Taoiseach of the day, one Hon. Charles gave it Imprimatur and what Legal standing it has and his Family donated Celtic Mist, the Family Yacht, to explore Sanctuary the More!! Sidney of England, Father of Modern Whale Watching, exhorted other Nations that the Sanctuary ” Contagion spread”. Under the Guidance of Simon (not Peter but Rock, nevertheless), a Group of Modern Knights gathered around…. Pádraig, Don, Dave, Emer, Marie, Sean, Mac, Johnny, Mick, more and their Successors, each with their own Magic and bound by Chivalric Code, as Guardians of the Sanctuary.
Sighting schemes, Stranding schemes,. Rescues, Whale-watching, Eco-tourism, Science, Research, all flourished on the Backs of the Whales and this New Sanctuary. Needless to say the Whales are Safer and what New Threats they face, the Group faces with them! Sanctuary Blesses Giver and Receiver alike!!
And so Sanctuaries ,like Tectonic Plates are merging and coalescing and in less than thirty years we have welcomed Antarctica; Antarctica extended; Indian Ocean; Ireland (as Europe’s first); Ligurian Sea; Chile; with Proposals for Mexico; Hawaiian Islands; Great Barrier Reef; South Atlantic; South Pacific and more!! We have seen Nations accord Constitutional and Legal rights to Nature!
As the “Spark was Lit“, the Contagion has become a Conflagration and the Greatest Unfinished Tale of any Group, yet Told, in Defence of the Whale and Promotion of Sanctuary. The Stories and Successes of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group are now Legion and Ground-breaking at Global Level.
It has been my great Pleasure to journey with them a While, along the Road and in their Company, One and All, I see the Range of Sanctuary extending.
The Final Page of World Whale Sanctuary is yet to be Writ and there is no Doubt but that the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group continue part of that Glorious Quest.
The Moral of the Tale must be, a Group, however Small, United and with Sanctuary in their Hearts can Chart the Course of Natural History and Earth for the Good!!
Brendan Price
Irish Seal Sanctuary, Skerries marine Watch and initiator of the IWDG
Emerged out of a meeting on 1st December 1990 in Dublin
On the 1st December 1990 a group of people interested in whales and dolphins met at the newly opened ENFO Offices in St Andrews Street, Dublin. At that meeting the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group was formed and Dr Don Cotton, Lecturer in the Sligo Institute of Technology was elected Chair. In the first of a series of invited articles to mark 30 years of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, Don recounts that first meeting:
Original IWDG logo, designed by Don Conroy
An island divided
Prior to the foundation of the Irish Whale and Dolphin there were several areas of the country where individuals were already making fairly regular observations about cetaceans. The time was right for some sort of ‘coming together‘ and coordination of what was an uncoordinated interest.
Professor James Galway of UCG had published three books specifically on mammals and many papers and notes on Irish mammals. He was already internationally known as Ireland’s mammologist. His most recent book was a thoroughly readable summary of many bits and pieces about Irish Cetaceans, a topic that had been hitherto almost neglected, but which thoroughly deserved his analytic approach (Fairley, J. (1981) Irish Whales and Whaling. Blackstaff Press). He had guided many post-graduate students through to doctorates but his own dedication to mammal matters was well known and James was always an individual who worked from sunrise to after sunset in his rooms in the old quad building where he burnt ‘the midnight oil’. His light was the only one on shining down into the quad. On occasion, when a (cetacean) stranding came to his attention along the west coast, he would be there taking measurements, samples and writing a note for publication to describe the find for the Irish Naturalists’ Journal.
During the same period, the general public on finding a stranded whale, would occasionally send in their observations to the Natural History Division of the National Museum of Ireland where their letters ended up on the desk of the Director, Dr Colm O’Riordan. He added them to his annual notes mixed up with other miscellaneous observations, like those for fish etc. I don’t remember hearing about him actually going out to visit the dead cetacean but letters would pass to and fro with the finder. He probably contacted James for west of Ireland observations but most information came in too late to get further detail from an active field biologist.
Meanwhile, down in UCC a post-graduate student, Simon Berrow had been visiting stranded animals, outside of his PhD studies, and collecting tissue samples for pollution analysis.
As far as I know, my own efforts of keeping records of every living thing worth recording in Sligo meant that I was also a local one-man shop for cetaceans amongst other things. The link between a Sligo student attending UCG, Martin Cawley, with Professor Fairley brought Sligo and Galway closer together and my involvement with the Irish Naturalists’ Journal published from Belfast, also started to cement together more coordination between those interested in the mammals at a wider geographical level.
The Dublin area also had its enthusiasts and Brendan Price was becoming well-known for his attempts to rescue stranded seals in his underfunded Irish Seal Sanctuary. It was only a small step to gain an interest in live stranded dolphins and porpoises so he was a natural proponent to become connected with those interested in whales and dolphins.
In Northern Ireland there was legislation that defined a stranded whale as belonging to ‘The Crown’ which in theory meant that such creatures had to be officially reported. Government officials and local amateurs interested in such things were tied to report their findings to the British Government and therefore their records went to the British Museum (Natural History) and links were forged with the National Museum of Ireland.
The meeting
It was the UCC group that saw the need for a more coordinated attempt to treat Ireland as one unit and somehow it was through the good offices of Simon Berrow that people were contacted and the suggestion made to hold an ‘all Ireland’ meeting to see what could be achieved. He booked the meeting room at ENFO in the heart of Dublin, circulated the date and encouraged key people already mentioned, and anyone else with an interest to attend. I think that 6-8 people were there. I don’t know what he expected but at the first meeting a Chairperson was appointed and I found myself in that seat with a disparate group of enthusiasts all with their own angles and ideas about cetaceans a wide geographical spread of activity, but no common direction.
The meeting was quite informal and sociable but with some quite different ‘takes’ on what was needed. There were those scientists who wanted to set up a recording network and take post-mortem samples to determine pollution levels in tissues, to those who wanted a ‘flying column’ to rush out and rescue unfortunate creatures that had live stranded but these individuals had little time for the scientists sampling dead animals.
One thing that did come out of the meeting was the desire to keep in touch. To have a newsletter and to support one another in all of our aspirations. This needed a name for what would be an informal organisation. It couldn’t be a club, or society, or association, or conservancy or many other things.
Somehow the chairman (Don) steered it to ‘a group’; it had to be all-Ireland and so Irish was in the title; and it was for those interested in cetaceans but that word was a bit too fancy. ‘Whales and dolphins’ was fine but what about the poor little porpoise? That was one step too far and it remains the black sheep that is in there, but not by name!
And so the group was formed. A constitution was written and a first public meeting was organised in the Regional Technical College, now the Institute of Technology in Sligo. It didn’t ‘flop’, in fact it was attended by about 70 people, now called members. The second public meeting in UCC was even more well attended and “the rest is history!”
Dr Don Cotton
Retired Senior Lecturer at Sligo Institute of Technology
