Two Northern bottlenose whales strand in Ireland

02/09/2009 23:12:30 Rescue efforts in vain. Courtesy of the The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG)
September 2009. The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) received a report of a live-stranding of what were likely to be pilot whales off Whiddy Island in Bantry Bay, Co. Cork. It soon became clear that there were two Northern bottlenose whales Hyperoodon ampullatus, a deep diving species rarely seen in Irish inshore waters.

On arrival at Bantry the IWDG team headed out to Rabbit Island where one of the whales was reported to have re-stranded. The team spent several hours with this animal assessing its condition while trying to keep it off the shore by positioning the RIB (small boat) between it and the rocky shoreline. The high winds made this a near impossible task.

However it was clear that this whale was in a much weakened condition. At 12:30 Merlin Tanner & John Dukelow managed to skilfully manoeuvre the Whiddy ferry close enough to the whale to get a rope around it, pulling it out of the shallows to deeper water. Shortly after this the whale actually collided with this stationary vessel, suggesting that its ability to echo-locate had been seriously impaired. It then re-stranded almost immediately, and some time later was towed off the shore again by the car ferry and it swam towards Bantry town. The whale spent the next few hours in only a metre or so of water, in front of hundreds of onlookers before it finally expired. The whale proved to be a 6 metres long female.

In the meantime news filtered through that the 2nd whale, which was in similar perilous circumstances, had managed to swim into deeper waters on its own. This animal did appear to be in stronger condition of the two. On arrival to the area, there was no sign of this animal. However the whale, a 5.8m male animal, was unfortunately now also found dead, stranded at Whiddy Island.

Northern bottlenose whales rare in Irish waters
Sightings of Northern bottlenose whales are extremely rare in Irish inshore waters, as they prefer deep water canyon systems of 1,500m or deeper off the Irish Continental Shelf edge. Another group of three Northern bottlenose whales had already been seen this week off Carlingford Lough, Co. Down. It is possible that these were the same animals.

The IWDG would like to thank the following for their help today: Jimmy Goggin, NPWS staff, Bantry Gardai, Harbour Masters office and Whiddy Car Ferry (Merlin Tanner & John Dukelow).