We now understand that they stranded the previous evening, Sat. 4th. Two of the dolphins died overnight but the 3rd was still alive and appeared to be quite active. Despite a heavy discharge from its eyes, it seems this animal may be suitable for a refloat attempt. At time of writing (11:00 am) a tractor
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A harbour porpoise that was live stranded in the Bannow estuary, Co Wexford was successfully refloated thanks to a very effective local effort.
“Boomerang”, as its become known, has in the last four years returned to the same area of West Cork, with a prodigious sense of timing. In each year since 2001 it has been monitored by IWDG in either the last week in August or first week in September.
In recent weeks, local IWDG co-ordinator, Mick O’ Connell has been busy in Co. Kerry. Within the last two weeks he has attended two live strandings of common dolphins in the kingdom.
On the afternoon of August 20th Emer Rogan received reports of a live-stranded “large dolphin” near Courtown, Co. Wexford. The “dolphin” which at over 13ft length was refloated around 10 times, and as one would expect after so many refloat attempts, it died around 19:00 on Fri. evening. On Sat. 21st Aug. IWDG received a
Suggested viewing sites would be Galley Head, and Dunowen Head near Clonakilty or Dunworley and Seven Heads near Courtmacsherry. The whales seem to be in an area between latitude 51 20N -51 23N and Longitude 8 50W- 9 02W. So Galley Head may well offer the best vantage point. On Sat. morning 21st Aug. a
A Royal Dutch/Shell -led group developing oil and gas fields in the Russian far east moved to assure worried ecologists on Friday it is doing all it can to protect rare gray whales living in the coastal waters.
The 2nd of this summers three weekend whale watching courses on Cape Clear Island, West Cork, produced numerous common dolphin encounters between 13th- 15th August.
Whalewatching has the potential to bring economic benefits to remote coastal communities in Ireland but is still under-developed. This workshop is organised by the IWDG in conjunction with FFAIS-5. Date: 25 August in University College, Dublin.
I received a call at 19:45 on Thursday 12 August from Pauline Beades of the Irish Seal Sanctuary who had been contacted by Tony Boyle who was holidaying in the Maharees, regarding three dolphins that were beaching themselves at Meelick, Kilshannig (near Castlegregory). I left shortly afterwards and followed Tony to the site, arriving about