Why are Ireland's whales disappearing?
Skipper Colin Barnes, who gave up commercial fishing in 2001 to set up one of Ireland's first
whale
-watching businesses, has said the whales have left his search area of ocean off Cork because the sprat they feed on have been fished to near extinction. He could no longer offer 'world-class whale-watching'.
This decline contrasts with evidence of a rich mix of cetaceans increasingly found off Ireland including whales, dolphins and porpoises.
There is no doubt some are here more frequently due to changes in water temperature caused by global warming or having to go further afield due to overfishing elsewhere. But declaring the territorial waters of
Ireland
a designated whale and dolphin sanctuary in 1991 helped. This coincided with an increase in numbers following an international ban on killing whales introduced in the 1980s.
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'It's an empty, lifeless sea': Whales leave Cork waters, putting watchers out of business
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It fostered a new form of ecotourism, centring on Ireland's rich marine biodiversity, though some occasionally encroached too close to these magnificent creatures. To see a fin whale, the second largest mammal in the world, almost on our doorstep was awe-inspiring.
A humpback whale swims off the coast of west Cork accompanied by a common dolphin in 2021. Photograph: Nick Pfeiffer/Provision
Why are sprats so important?
Sprats are small fish indigenous to Ireland and a rich protein source for whales but also other cetaceans and seabirds. They dominate the inshore coastline in the Celtic Sea at shallow depths, making them especially vulnerable when trawlers fish for them at spawning stage from October on with no limits on catch.
Deep-sea cameraman Ken O'Sullivan has described this as 'ecological suicide' when there is little data on the species, adding that the precautionary principle should apply. Moreover, it is not a commercial catch with most sprat sold to fish farms as fishmeal.
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Shining new light on sperm whales and the importance of Irish waters to them
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Barnes claimed Government apathy and inaction towards fish conservation, however, has led to the demise of the fish by just a handful of large trawlers in Irish waters.
What can be done about it?
At a recent public meeting in west Cork there were calls for a ban on sprat fishing in inshore coastal waters. In 2019, government efforts to introduce a ban were successfully challenged in the courts. In 2024, a public consultation invited views on introducing the ban again. It attracted more than 5,500 submissions, but campaigners say more than a year on nothing has happened.
Minister of State with responsibility for nature and biodiversity, Cork South West TD Christopher O'Sullivan, has accepted the need to 'introduce measures to protect this forage species – not just for whales, but for all the other fish stocks and wildlife that depend on it – to prevent the collapse of an entire food web".
Marine ecologists and those in the whale watching business believe a strictly enforced ban cannot come soon enough.
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