Pádraig Whooley, IWDG sightings officer examines the recent rare sperm whale sighting in Dursey Sound, Co. Cork. Sperm whales are the largest of the toothed whales and were the species portrayed as the villain of the piece in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby Dick“. I’ve seen sperm whales several times in Irish waters, but they’ve almost
The Irish Government has issued a notice warning that a French ‘missile/rocket firing exercise’ will take place in Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone to the southwest of the country from 21-27 June. The IWDG have expressed concern to the French embassy regarding the planned military exercise. Although we understand they are not planning to use active
Ireland’s Marine Protected Areas must increase 18-fold by the end of the decade in order to restore critical habitats, safeguard wildlife and address the climate crisis according to a new report commissioned by the Fair Seas campaign. Fair Seas is a coalition of Ireland’s leading environmental non-governmental organisations and networks. Fair Seas is urging the
Day 1 Well, one down and hopefully many to come. We couldn’t have asked for a better start to what we hope will be a long and fruitful partnership with the Centre of Excellence for Climate Action & Sustainability (CECAS). With over 30 whale enthusiasts booked on, most staying residentially, and high pressure establishing, the
A live stranded whale was reported to the IWDG stranding scheme in Glengarriff, Co. Cork on 1 May 2022. Although it managed to refloat itself before members of the IWDG Live Stranding Network arrived to the scene, it was unfortunately found washed up dead the following day. The IWDG can now announce that the whale
This humpback whale of unknown gender, known to IWDG as # HBIRL77 was first recorded off Inis Oirr, Aran Islands, Co. Galway, by divers on 27th Aug. 2016. He/she has been photo identified every year since, with re-sightings on 22 dates over the past 7 years; most of which are from the known Irish Southwest
Explore the rich variety of life in Ireland this May with a host of wonderful events and activities for the whole family. “This year join in with our 10th annual Biodiversity Photographer of the Year competition, a weekend Biolitz and Scavenger Hunt, and events every day on all things wildlife in Ireland! Events will
The IWDG are collaborating with our colleagues BiosCV on Boavista in Cabo Verde on a new project to try and capture the range of vocalisations (singing) by humpback whales on these tropical humpback whale breeding grounds. Photo-id of humpback whales in Cabo Verde has revealed matches between Ireland and Cabo Verde (see https://iwdg.ie/2nd-irish-humpback-match-to-the-cape-verdes/) showing we
White whales are for some, the most mythical of creatures; they are the Holy Grail of whale watching. For the very few fortunate enough to witness such a rarely seen animal, it’s likely to be a transformative experience. So what do we know of this anonymously pigmented or leucistic humpback whale? Well to start with,
It’s been quite a while since IWDG attended an industry show, but with a little encouragement from Sandra O’ Donovan, we took the plunge at last weekend’s Irish Skipper Expo, where all roads lead to the University of Limerick sports complex. The only fly in the ointment was that the show was right in the