A local IWDG group branch has been established in Galway to continue to promote the monitoring of whales and dolphins off around the coast of County Galway and Galway Bay. Several species of cetacean have been recorded in Galway Bay, including harbour porpoise, bottlenose dolphin, common dolphin and minke whale. A recent sighting of a
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The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) have been working in collaboration with the Regional Veterinary Laboratories of the Department of Agriculture (RVL) and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) to carry out a cetacean post-mortem scheme on behalf of the Marine Institute and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Utilising the IWDG’swell-established strandings scheme, which
Dr Simon Berrow highlighted the IWDG's legitimate concerns over sprat fishing in the Shannon estuary on TV3's 3news at 5.30 today. You can see the interview at: https://vimeo.com/243901078 Even though the pair trawlers have now left the Lower River Shannon SAC and are fishing off West Cork, the impacts of removing tonnes of sprat on the Shannon Estuary's resident
As part of a deal with Waterways Ireland, the IWDG has secured a berth for the Celtic Mist at Charlotte Quay in the Grand Canal Dock, Dublin. The berth will enable us to carry out essential maintenance of the vessel, give greater access to our members, and facilitate education and outreach projects with local schools and
Marine debris found in the stomachs and intestines of whales, dolphins and porpoise in Ireland in one of the largest studies of this kind undertaken A new study just published in Environmental Pollution found marine debris in 8.5% of the dolphins and porpoise examined and microplastics in every individual examined. A total of 528 digestive
Up to and including 2010, IWDG never received more than 150 validated cetacean stranding reports in any one year but things started to change in 2011 when 163 strandings were validated and we thought that annual figures had reached a new high. Little did we realise that 163 would soon become a 'quiet' year as
5 September 2017 The departure point for this years’ offshore cruise on Celtic Mist was Kilrush which we departed on Monday August 28th August. With the usual plethora of things to do before departure it was 13.30 hrs before we left the harbour in Kilrush. On going down the Shannon Estuary we came across the
On Saturday 26th August the Irish Whale & Dolphin Group delivered Whale Watch Ireland 2017. This All–Ireland Whale Watch day comprised free, guided land based whale watches at 20 sites throughout the country. Now in its 17th year, this is one of the largest events on the Irish wildlife calendar and was attended by C.1,300
The annual inshore arrival of the commonly observed whale species like the minke, fin and humpback whales has been well documented by IWDG over many years. We've a pretty good idea as to which species are most likely to occur, where and when and what they're doing while they are in our waters. And because
The trouble for anyone with an interest in the natural world is that 'offshore' wildlife is far more difficult to observe than its inshore equivalent – especially when it's something happening over 200km off the northwest coast of Donegal. Apart from our television/computer screens, we rarely get a glimpse of what is 'going on' out