Posts Categorized: News

The first meeting of a new IWDG Group in North Kerry will take place  on Friday 9th December at the visitor centre for Tralee Bay Wetlands Centre in Tralee, Co Kerry from 19:30-21:00pm. A talk by biologist Dr. Marie Louis on her work on bottlenose dolphins in Ireland and internationally will be followed by a meeting on how to go

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Whale Live Strands in Mayo

Earlier today (27 November), a large baleen whale c.12m in length was spotted struggling in very shallow water at Cross Beach, Killadoon, Co. Mayo. The whale was effectively stranded but as the incoming tide rose, surfers from nearby managed to encourage it away from the beach and it eventually managed to swim away in a

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The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) will run a Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) course in Cork at the Maldron hotel on January 14, 2017.  On Sunday the 15th a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Protected Species Observer (PSO) course is proposed to be held at the same venue.  Cost of

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IWDG welcome New Director

IWDG welcome a new edition to their Board with the appointment of Conal O'Flanagan.  Conal lives in north County Dublin and has been interested in cetaceans for over 30 years. He was delighted to hear in 1999 that a number of people had come together to set up the IWDG.  He joined the Group soon after and

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This event is being hosted by the Cork branch of Bird Watch Ireland and will comprise a talk by IWDG Sightings Officer Padraig Whooley titled "Whale and Whale Watching along the Cork coast". This is a free event and open to both Bird Watch Ireland and Irish Whale and Dolphin Group members and indeed anyone

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The seas around the Irish southwest coast, from Counties Cork, Kerry, Clare and Galway, have enjoyed unprecedented sightings of humpback whales this spring, summer and autumn.  It has been over 15 years since the IWDG started documenting the annual arrival of humpbacks into coastal Irish waters, but in the last two years their numbers have

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The IWDG have deployed Static Acoustic monitoring devices off the North-Antrim coast in the Skerries and Causeway SAC to monitor the presence and behaviour of harbour porpoises. The funding for this project was awarded to the IWDG by the DAERA Environment Fund and is supported by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast. The Skerries

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The number of strandings of common dolphins over the last few years has increased and it is now the most frequently recorded species. Strandings typically peak during the winter and the evidence is that these deaths are associated with fisheries bycatch and especially from trawl fisheries. The IWDG Stranding Scheme identifies unusual events or trends

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