IWDG have in the past few hours received an image from Sean Pierce, Shearwater Sea kayaking, confirming the first humpback whale on the eastern Irish Sea in almost 20 years. The animal, sub-adult in size, was photographed within metres of the Cardinal marker off Howth Head, between Howth harbour and Ireland's Eye this afternoon Thursday
IWDG have alerted NPWS and local cetacean recorders and Brendan Price of the Irish Seal Sanctuary. Although the image taken by Sean confirms its species, it is too distant to match this individual with any of the existing 11 humpback whales currently on the Irish Humpback Whale Catalogue (link below).
If fortunate enough to re-locate this whale, we'd ask all mariners to note Marine Notice 15 which protects these endangered marine mammals from harrassment from boats. They also have full protection under Irish and EU legislation. Boats should maintain a 100m distance and keep speeds to less than 7 knots, do not cross the animals path, and please maintain a parallel course with the whale if travelling with it.
We have been informed of at least two reports of this whale approaching and even nudging boats in Skerries and around the back of Ireland's Eye today. So this whale clearly has little fear of boats, which may well raise management concerns for how this situation is handled if large numbers of people go to sea to view this animal. But the unsettled weather may work in our favour in this regard.
IWDG would really appreciate any images especially of the whale's ventral surface of the tail flukes or dorsal fin. These images may help us match this whale with others on the Irish catalogue or with the North Atlantic Humpback Whale catalogue which currently has over 5,500 recognisable individuals which can be matched by their unique scarring on their flanks or pattern on their flukes..
Sean reports ...."...it stayed around Cardinal Mark off Howth for over 2 hours. Just seemed to be lolling about pushing head into trailing weed and perhaps scratching itself? I'm back to sea over next few hours so will keep you posted if I see it again.."
We are just now receiving reports that this same whale was off Skerries last night (Wednesday) 14/07/10. Neil Cramer reports......
"It was spotted only about 500m offshore in the Kelly's Bay areas just north of Skerries harbour on Wed evening. The whale was just astern of our committee boat which was anchored while doing race management for our usual Wednesday night racing in the bay. The whale remained in close proximity to the boat for about 20-30minutes and came to within touching distance of the boat, and in fact could be felt rubbing off the underside on a few occasions. It had a series of bumps or lumps on its head which is more consistent of a humpback. It finally left around 21:00hrs heading north toward Balbriggan area having been observed by about 20 different sailors.....end"
To put this sighting into perspective, this is likely to be only one of a handful of validated records of this species in the Irish Sea in the past century. So let's all work towards ensuring it and others of its kind keep returning to these waters along our eastern seaboard. The IWDG have been monitoring humpback whales in Irish waters over the past decade and almost all records of this species come from the South and Southwest coast....so far!
Irish whale and dolphin group.:16-7-10 Post Title
→Sea Kayaker spots humpback whale in Dublin Bay.
Post URL
→https://national-grid-news.blogspot.com/2010/07/sea-kayaker-spots-humpback-whale-in.html
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