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On our return
to Cahersiveen Marina,
Ivan reported the sightings
and photos to
Pádraig Whooley Sightings coordinator of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group who
confirmed it as a blue whale, the largest creature that ever lived.
As Pádraig said “To
put this sighting into context, this is the first validated sighting of a blue
whale in any Irish waters since the IWDG began almost 20 years ago. Although,
there was a single record of a sighting made by UCC personnel in the late
1990's. There are only two stranding records of blue whales on the Irish coast,
the last of which was in Bantry Bay, Co. Cork in 1957, and then you have to go
back to Magilligan Strand, Co. Derry in 1907. Even with today's relatively high
level of offshore cetacean survey activity by researchers and Marine Mammal
Observer alike, sightings of this species remain extremely rare events,
reflecting both their preference for offshore shelf edge waters and their
globally low numbers as a result of decades of exploitation by commercial whale
fisheries.
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