IWDG have just confirmed that photographs sent to us this morning are indeed of a humpback whale from Rathlin Isl., Co. Antrim on Sun 11th July. This is an extremely important sighting as it is only the second validated sighting of this species in N. Irish waters. In fact as the previous sighting was closer to Colonsay, Islay, Scotland, we could easily argue that this is in fact the 1st record of a humpback whale in N. Irish waters.
Interestingly the only other sighting in the past century was on 15th July 2002, only separated by 4 days from this current sighting on 11th July 2010, when Julie Staines of RSPB, and Jo Corkish observed and photographed a medium sized whale within 100m of the cliffs on the West side of the Co. Antrim Island.
IWDG are awaiting high resolution images which may enable us match this Rathlin humpback with the Dublin animal who turned up off Skerries, North Co. Dublin on Wed 14th July and the following day off Howth on Thurs. 15th July. If we can find they are the same animal, it shows this animal moved south down the Irish Sea, a distance of c135 miles in 3 days.
Co-incidentally, IWDG also today received track data for a humpback whale mother satellite tagged in early May off Guadeloupe, in the Lesser Antilles, Caribbean.
Phil Clapham, leader of National Marine Mammal Laboratory's Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program reports ......
"It is assumed she's heading towards Arctic Feeding grounds off Bear Island in North Norway but she's nowhere near home yet!" This humpback is on a two-day reporting schedule (odd days), so we won't hear anything else till the 21st July."... It is unclear as to how long the tag will stay attached, but the researchers are optimistic that it will work long enough to complete her return voyage.
That said she is only 600 miles off the Irish West Coast, and with recent humpback sightings from the Irish Sea and North coasts, whose to say that she won't take a detour to the Emerald Isle?
But such real time data shows the value of satellite tagging of these highly mobile marine mammals, which cover vast expanses of ocean as they migrate between tropical breeding grounds and high latitude feeding grounds. IWDG have disappointingly been declined a licence from the Irish Government (Dept. of the Environment) to satellite tag fin whales in Irish waters.
Pádraig WhooleyIWDG Sightings Co-ordinator
Irish Whale and Dolphin Group
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