Distinguished Contributors Awards 2019 is a series of new annual awards which acknowledges those who have made a significant contribution to the work of the IWDG.
The recipient of the DCA from the IWDG for Best Use of IWDG Data is James Hedderman.
IWDG CEO Dr Simon Berrow who nominated James says:
“IWDG get a number of requests each year to access IWDG sightings and strandings data. These data are typically for under and postgraduate studies from third level institutes from within Ireland and the UK. This is a great use of IWDG data and adds great value to our recording schemes. James Hedderman is a mature student at the National College of Ireland, Dublin where he is studying for a Higher Diploma in Science in Data Analytics. James required a data set to explore using the R programming language to create visualisations showing the distribution of species, geo-mapping and seasonal patterns. Developing scripts to analyses big data sets is critical. IWDG have over casual 30,000 sighting records with ancillary data and many tens of thousands of data-points in the Ship Survey database. We were attracted to James’ project as it shows the way forward for analysis of these data-sets. His novel approach and data request for the first time from the National College of Ireland together, with the prompt delivery of his thesis report, gave him the advantage over other users of IWDG data”.
Congratulations and thank you James
The recipient of the DCA from the IWDG Cetacean Sighting Scheme is David Williams.
IWDG Sightings Officer, Pádraig Whooley who nominated David says:
“David’s first cetacean sighting report to IWDG dates back 16 years to March 2003. Since then David has reported in excess of 800+ sighting records from 7 the Northern Irish coast. Importantly, most of his sightings are “effort related” and so provide IWDG with an invaluable dataset of year-round coverage from a number of potentially important sites which he has been monitoring from locations such as Bloody Bridge, Newcastle, Killough, Ardglass, Burr Point, Grey Point in Co. Down, Blackhead, Co. Antrim and Portstewart in Co. Derry. David has also contributed to IWDG’s offshore ventures such as the Cetaceans on the Frontier Cruise in August 2009. IWDG Directors and Officers, wish to acknowledge David’s mammoth effort over the years in reporting cetaceans and wish him the very best in the years ahead.”
Congratulations and thank you David.
The recipient of the DCA from the IWDG for work done on the R.V. Celtic Mist is Neil Barnaby.
Fiacc O’Brolchain and Mick O’Meara of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group nominated Neil and presented him with a DCA certificate at Whale Tales 2019 in the Green Isle Hotel, Dublin.
Mick O’Meara says “Neil is relentless in his commitment to volunteering on the Celtic Mist winter maintenance programme even though he has no opportunity to reap the rewards by sailing on the boat in the summer season. He is a unique volunteer in that he is most annoyed when there are no tasks ready for him to work on.
He arrives over from Holyhead early in the morning and is regularly on the boat ready to work at 8 am. He only breaks for a quick lunch and only stops when he needs to rush back to the ferry. On occasions, he has slept on the boat. Neil never shirks a task. He has worked himself into some impossible places to chip, sand and paint. He power washed the hull of Celtic Mist early this year when it was dried out at Poolbeg. He was soaked and filthy when the job was finished and even though he couldn’t get a shower in the clubhouse he never complained.
A true hero and deserving of the award”. #whaletales2019
The recipient of the DCA from the IWDG Cetacean Stranding Scheme is Kevin Delahunty.
IWDG Stranding Officer, Mick O’Connell who nominated Kevin says:
“Being asked to nominate one particular member of the IWDG strandings network team is a difficult thing to do. Not because it’s hard to pick someone, but because it is difficult to leave out others who contribute so much time and effort in attending strandings. Over the years, Kevin has been very willing to visit stranded cetaceans in his area, sometimes at rather short notice! Living in the Dublin area, cetacean strandings are generally few and far between and are most often of harbour porpoises. While some parts of our coastline have regular strandings of various species of dolphins and whales (sometimes quite unusual ones!), I think it takes an extra ‘something’ to maintain an interest in cetacean strandings where they are relatively infrequent. Kevin has persevered in his enthusiasm despite usually long intervals between calls which is why his name came to mind as the nominee for 2019”.
Congratulations and thank you Kevin
