Are whales changing the locations along the Irish coastline to which they are regular visitors?
Paraig Whooley, the Sightings Officer of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, has raised that interesting point on the March SEASCAPES Podcast: “Humpbacks largely remain faithful to their West Kerry haunts, which has consistently been their most productive coastal hotspot in the last 10 years. Their strong showing in Donegal Bay in 2023 could have been an anomaly, but the continuation of the trend in the North/West in 2024, suggests it is becoming an increasingly important humpback feeding area, likely happening at the expense of former hotspots like West Cork.
Reviewing the annual sightings reports, he says that the 2023 whale season produced 134 humpback sightings and there were 137 sighting records for 2024, a good spread of sightings over more counties, with the majority (50%) from Co. Kerry, followed by Donegal Bay area covering both counties Donegal and Sligo (20.5%), Cork (11%), the Shannon Estuary (9%) Mayo (5%) and Waterford (1.5%). The Shannon Estuary sightings relate to the presence of a single animal who is our latest addition to the Irish humpback catalogue, named locally as “Carthach”, who stayed in the Estuary for a minimum period of 58 days. It seems the resident bottlenose may have to add humpbacks to the increasing list of visitors to their once exclusive home.
The IWDG WhaleTrack Project is a fascinating programme. Of the 25 humpback whales photo identified under it during 2024, 15 were known from previous years. Ten were new animals, added to the Humpback Catalogue, now at 136 individuals, all recognisable by either tail fluke patterns or dorsal fin shape and markings.
