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 cliff-based watches from May through to October 2016 and then identified through photo identification.
Speakers, Dr Simon Berrow, John Collins (pictured below right) and underwater filmmaker Ken O’Sullivan (pictured below left), discussed their experiences with Humpback whales, the first tagging of Basking sharks from the Clare coast, and a subsequent resighting of a tagged shark four months later within a couple of miles from the initial tagging location. This was a great success, which was a sign of great things to come.
A significant effort was put in to try and best record the whale, dolphin and shark activity which contributed to obtaining the furthest North identifying pictures of Shannon Bottlenose dolphins outside the estuary.
From the evening, a local West Clare IWDG branch is emerging so that we can carry the momentum onwards and upwards into 2017 to best record the amazing wildlife off our coast. The aim is to get more people involved with cliff based watches and reporting sightings and strandings, while developing skills in identifying cetaceans.
Roll on 2017!
John Collins
To find out more about the new group and how you can get involved, please email: westclareiwdg@gmail.com