IWDG members are invited to attend our Strandings Network Meeting, which will include updates on strandings from around the country, the work of the tissue bank that the network feeds into, and coordination of the network for the coming year. It will also be a great opportunity to brush up on some of the finer
Posts Categorized: News
UPDATE 21 MARCH 2017 IWDG have received a letter from Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys following our concern regarding increased strandings, especially of common dolphins. In the letter the Minister states that "the Department have a robust programme of scientific monitoring in place for all species including extensive offshore
Our Whale Tales and Dolphin evening at the Sweeney Culturlann Library, Kilkee, was a great success on Friday night. The evening included a series of talks and presentations on whales and dolphins from Irish inshore waters, highlighting the exceptional year for Humpback whale activity off the Clare coast. Unprecedented numbers of whales were recorded by
The IWDG will be at the Dive Ireland International Expo in Athlone this weekend, March 4th and 5th. Come visit our stand and find out about whale and dolphin ecology and biology, as well as the best places to see whales and dolphins around Ireland.
The IWDG is contracted by Dublin Port to deliver a Marine Mammal Mitigation Plan as part of the Alexandra Basin Re-Development. This plan involves monitoring of piling, dredging and dumping operations and long-term acoustic monitoring. The first phase of the long term acoustic monitorng using Static Acoustics (SAM) was enabled in December when CPODs were
On Jan 16th 2017 there was quite remarkable footage (below) and stills taken from Cork Harbour mouth which showed a pair of bottlenose dolphins attacking and presumably killing a harbour porpoise. These incidents are likely to be relatively common, but getting such compelling evidence is not. The event was documented and reported to IWDG by
The new Mammal Atlas published this week by the National Biodiversity Data Centre and National Parks and Wildlife Service is a huge achievement. Comiled over many years with the support of many organisations and individuals. The IWDG were key partners and are delighted to have been able to provide thousands of inshore and offshore cetacean
IWDG recently made a submission to the EPA regarding the application by Arkow Energy Ltd., Wicklow to to remove up to 99,999 wet tonnes of material over an eight-year term. Unfortunately we missed the deadline for submissions, which was on 7 January, and our concerns cannot be considered by the EPA. The IWDG were not aware
UPDATE: The latest news is that three common dolphins were found at Dungarvan but only two were still alive when found. Both of the live animals were in poor condition and one was confirmed dead later. The third dolphin moved inwards with the tide but was in poor condition and was still in the area
IWDG learnt about a number of seals and a cetacean washed up at Ardmore Co Waterford on Monday. We sent down a local member of our Strandings Network, Andrew Malcolm, who identified it as a harbour porpoise and suggested the cause of death was fisheries interactions. However, it has been reported that pair trawling was