Ireland's ‘hotbed' for whales who have migrated from southern waters
Donegal
Bay has been a hotbed for rare aquatic mammals.
Part of the reason for this is that
whales
who may be more traditionally associated with Irish waters in the south of the country have been migrating further north, driven by a desire for one of their favourite Irish delicacies: sprat.
Residents in west
Cork
have been drawing attention to industrial fishing of sprat in their communities through a Save Our Sprat campaign.
On Tuesday, they received some encouraging news: Ireland is set to ban industrial sprat fishing in inshore waters from October next year in the move the campaign hopes will pave the way for a return of some familiar creatures.
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Members of the campaign see it as a positive first step, though they are concerned that the restrictions don't go far enough and will continue to campaign.
Pádraig Whooley, sightings officer for the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG), says that the same whales spotted off the coasts of Cork and
Kerry
15 or 20 years ago are now popping up in places like Donegal Bay.
'That's obviously where the feed is at the moment,' he says.
Other factors could include climate change, says Whooley.
'It could also be the fact that we're hammering what they're feeding on down here, which is the sprat,' he says.
'It's a very controversial one and local coastal communities are frankly getting very angry with the way we're allowing the industrial extraction of forage fish species like sprat.
'If you're into marine wildlife, and whales and dolphins in particular, Donegal Bay seems to be the place to be right now,' says Pádraig Whooley. Photograph: Joshua Nueva
'What we in the IWDG are saying is that the more sprat we're removing – and it's completely unregulated; they can catch as many as they want – we are saying that sprat is part of [the reason for] fewer of these humpback whales turning up in the likes of west Cork and west Kerry.'
Donegal Bay is an inlet that touches three counties:
Sligo
,
Leitrim
and
Donegal
. There are a number of decent viewing points for activity in its waters, among them Sliabh Liag, Muckross Head and Mullaghmore Head. A number of species can be spotted in these waters.
'We also had a killer whale turn up [there] this weekend,' Whooley says.
'When the guys were out looking for humpback whales, they found one of the Scottish killer whales known as Aquarius. He was also, about three weeks ago, down off the Blaskets in Kerry.
'If you're into marine wildlife, and whales and dolphins in particular, Donegal Bay seems to be the place to be right now ... The more you see these animals, the more anecdotes you hear about them – the less they're just a number on a database. [They develop] personalities.'
Even for experienced chroniclers of marine life, humpback whale sightings in Ireland are rare.
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Why are Ireland's whales disappearing?
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View across the bay at Slieve League cliffs, on the west coast of Donegal, Republic of Ireland. (Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
It can be a powerful moment for those that live it, as is evidenced by a video from content creator and adventurer Joshua Nueva in Donegal Bay last week.
Flanked by a convoy of dolphins, Nueva's humpback emerges from below the surface, leaping up into the air and causing its travelling companions to scatter. Initially, the dolphins appear to be playing with the whale, whose movements generate a sort of slipstream on the surface.
'It's called pec slapping,' Nueva says. 'They take their fin, and they slap it on the water. There's no real data or proof to say why they do that.
'It is a playful behaviour – it's not like they're being threatened, or they feel like they're in danger. Dolphins love to swim with the whales because they're actually quite lazy.
'Whenever there are any boats or large mammals like humpbacks travelling in the direction that they want to go, they swim with it because they don't need to expend as much energy to travel.'
Anyone who spots a whale is encouraged to contact the IWDG, as they can identify the animal. Photograph: Joshua Nueva
Nueva logged his sighting with the IWDG, who have been documenting whales in Ireland for several decades. Anyone who spots a whale is encouraged to contact the IWDG, as they can identify the animal by its fluke – a uniquely shaped and marked tail that acts as a fingerprint.
'It takes a little while to try and find them because the bay is so vast,' Nueva says.
'When I saw the humpback fin splashing the water, I thought: no way. I couldn't believe it because there were no humpbacks spotted in the bay at that time. It was only then they started to accumulate.
'For us to see it and not be aware of it, it just goes to show what is going on around our coast that we wouldn't notice if we weren't looking for it. If we kept an eye on our coastline a little bit more, we'd be surprised at what we see.'
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