It's not quite Free Willy, it wasn’t an orca killer whale, but here’s a tale with a happy outcome.
A young minke whale who became stranded on shingle in Mayo’s Clew Bay earlier this week managed to free itself unassisted and swim away.
The juvenile whale was spotted by Conor McGuire and friends at Berta on the shores of Clew Bay. It was in shallow water, and obviously not there for a quiet paddle.
As the group observed the scene – filming themselves smiling and holding their thumbs up with the whale in the background — the juvenile applied a few furious wriggles.
To the delight of McGuire and company, it then swam away at a brisk pace.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group’s (IWDG) stranding co-ordinator Mick O’Connell said that such live strandings didn’t tend to have such a positive ending.
He said that Mr McGuire was to be complimented for giving the whale the space to work its way off the shingle. McGuire’s recording is on the IWDG website (www.iwdg.ie)
Beachings can occur due to disorientation or illness, and if the minke whale was in poor condition there was a risk it could re-strand, he pointed out. “So far, so good, as no reports of same,” he said today.
The IWD has “noted with interest” that the stranding coincided with the category 4 earthquake detected on the Slyne basin 60 km west of Belmullet, Co Mayo earlier this week.
The earthquake was the largest recorded on the west coast, and the second largest recorded in both Britain and Ireland.
The IWDG said it would be keeping a “close eye” on the north-west coast in case of an increase in strandings which could be linked to the seismic activity of June 6th.
The IWDG has also marked initiation of Ireland’s whale and dolphin sanctuary 21 years ago this week by calling for a “pan-European” sanctuary.
The IWDG has recorded some 24 different cetacean (whale and dolphin) species in these waters, and the Irish sanctuary, initiated by former taoiseach Charles J Haughey, is “almost absorbed into the national psyche”, according to its co-ordinator Dr Simon Berrow.
His organisation says that a number of small marine protected areas in Europe for cetaceans. and some international sanctuaries such as the Pelagos in the Mediterranean, have important roles to play.
However, cetaceans are mobile and travel large distances.
“A pan-European whale and dolphin sanctuary will help to place cetaceans, and the threats they face, on the political agenda leading to the delivery of effective conservation policies,” he said.
In a separate development, the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) has described as “reprehensible” the pinning of two seal heads to the Dingle Wildlife and Seal Sanctuary in Co Kerry this week.
The incident, which is being investigated by gardaí, “does not have any connection”with the fishing industry, the FIF has said.
However, FIF spokeswoman Eibhlín O’Sullivan said that there was a “clear need” for a “transparent discussion” on management of interactions between seals and the fishing industry.
A working group comprising scientific, industry and non-governmental organisations had been established, she said,which has already met a number of times.
Through this type of “collaborative approach” a solution to the “difficulties currently being experienced” would be found, she said.
Seals, a protected species, are said to be swimming further offshore to take monkfish from gillnets – and even hake from nets of Spanish vessels fishing in Irish waters.
