Whale watch operator Colin Barnes contacted IWDG today from nine miles south of the Stags, West Cork, to report the 1st sighting of the year of this humpback who has returned to the area in each of the past five years.
The humpback was 1st photo-identified on the 29th Aug 2001 and has now been documented on 18 occasions in the area between August and November, generally arriving in the last week of August or the 1st week of September.
IWDG would ask any members of the public fortunate enough to obtain useful photo-ID images of humpback or fin whales in Irish waters, to forward them as compressed jpegs to the IWDG at enquiries@iwdg.ie.
The IWDG have been monitoring the movements of large baleen whales off the Irish south coast now for several years, and photo ID images of known and well-marked individuals is an efficient way of trying to better understand their movements in Irish waters.
Postscript
Whale Watch Operator Nic Slocum reported this humpback whale in the same area on Tues morning 16th Aug. But it appeared to have moved out of the area by the afternoon.