With summer coming to a close, some of the Irish whales and dolphins couldn’t help but strap on their wellies and pack their tents for a proper landlocked party. They were kind enough to bring the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group with them.
For the third year in a row the IWDG was invited by the Irish Environmental Network (IEN) to join Global Green at the Electric Picnic. Our bright blue marquee fit snuggly between the Irish Wildlife Trust and a tent called Crucial Space; to our right were recordings of Ireland’s native wildlife species and to out left was spoken word, dance circles and art. Guess who was who!
Global Green was soon filled with curious festival goers, ranging from long time IWDG members to enthusiastic families to rambunctious kids to delighted adults. People were drawn into our space by our resin killer whale skull, nicknamed Fluffy. While previously kids mostly guessed that it may be a T-rex replica, this year people leaned heavily on the side of it being an alligator skull. It was the perfect excuse to hand them a real killer whale tooth, baleen of a minke whale or the tooth of a Cuvier’s beaked whale and introduce them to the world of Ireland’s marine megafauna.
Our new games turned out to be a hit as well. The memory card game, Double Blubber, soon had kids of all ages crowded around our table, trying to match whales and dolphins with their behaviour. Most had never heard of a Risso’s dolphin before or had no clue that humpback whales could be identified by their fluke.
Our Wanted cetacean game had people running around hoping to snap a shot of the whales and dolphins at large and on the loose around the festival, but also the life-sized basking shark hanging from the trees in the Salty Dog Arena. Wanted posters found their way into various campervans, coffee trucks and stages advertising the grand prize of a punny pin for whoever reported a whale or dolphin on our brand-new reporting app.
A definite highlight for our crew was the visit from the Mary Wallopers. In the summer of 2024, a pair of lucky common dolphins were assisted after live stranding by Sean McMahon and Andrew Hendy under the guidance of our live stranding officer, Gemma O’Connor. When we heard that the Mary Wallopers would be playing at EP, we reached out to them to let them know we had a little thank you bag hidden away in our tent. Low and behold, after blowing us all away with their fantastic set on the Saturday evening, Charles Hendy popped by for a chat and to receive our thanks in name of his brother and friend.
Of course, it wasn’t all just fun and outreach at the festival, we had to do some educating as well. Outside of our general chats with the public answering questions and introducing them to species they had never heard of before, two of our team were invited to give a talk in the Nature Tent; Project Officer of the Atlantic Whale Deal, Emilie De Loose, showed off thermal footage of large whale blows and explained their significant in the reduction of ship strikes. Cian Ó Nialáin, our Education and Outreach officer, explained the importance of citizen science in between fluky whale facts about our favourite Irish Wildlife.
From entertaining a crowd in dolphin costumes, to debating with nuns while dressed as a killer whale, showing off our new app and hopefully inspiring a new generation of cetacean conservations, this year at EP felt like a true success. While it may have been mucky and our IWDG tent may have been flooded once our twice, it did not keep our spirits down. After a weekend of enthusiastic yapping about whales, dolphins and porpoises we are now all a little bit hoarse and back to our desks until our next adventure.
Emilie De Loose
Project Officer of the Atlantic Whale Deal