A new study of whale activity in Irish waters has found that large whales are regular, rather than occasional, visitors to the southern coastline.
The study by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group identified fin and humpback whales off the south coast during six of eight days spent at sea last year.
Fin whales are the second largest creature on earth after blue whales, and the whale group is trying to establish whether there is a correlation between the presence of such mammals and the productive planktonic waters of the south coast.
Eight different species of whale were recorded in 47 sightings made during 20 days at sea.
Among the other species were smaller minke whales, harbour porpoises and common and bottlenose dolphins. A total of 125 bird counts, comprising 22 species, were also noted.
The field work by the whale and dolphin team was carried out during July, September and November 2003 - with November being the month when there is normally peak activity for such cetaceans. The timespan was also selected to compare oceanographic factors from early summer to late autumn.
Since 1999, sightings of large baleen whales have been recorded by west Cork whale watcher, Mr Colin Barnes, mainly within 10 nautical miles of shore between the Stags and the Old Head of Kinsale.
The project, involving Mr Barnes's vessel, followed four years of land-based monitoring activity by Mr Pádraig Whooley of the whale and dolphin group from the Old Head of Kinsale.
The group intends to deploy time-depth recorders onto fin whales this autumn to monitor diving behaviour, and hopes to tie this in with the distribution of fish to determine how the mammals are feeding.
The group has been active for more than a decade since Ireland was declared a whale and dolphin sanctuary, and runs an island-wide sighting and stranding scheme which monitors movements of the mammals around the coast.
It is hosting a national whale-watch day on Sunday, August 1st, at eight headlands, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and is also hosting its first international conference in Co Cork in late September. Details of National Whale-Watch Day and the conference are available on www.iwdg.ie
