Blue whales, the planet’s largest living animals, have been spotted off the west coast of Ireland in what experts say is the first validated sighting on record.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) confirmed today that one of its members had photographed the whales off the Kerry coast while on board a fishing vessel on Monday.
The MV Atlantic Explorerhad been searching for albacore tuna, which had been associating with fin whales in the area off of the Blasket Islands, when at least one and probably two large whales approached vessel.
IWDG member Ivan O'Kelly photographed the whales, which were later confirmed as blue whales on account of their pale colouration and unique mottling pattern.
The IWDG says this is the first validated sighting of a blue whale in any Irish waters in living memory.
Although there was a reported sighting by researchers from University College Cork in the late 1990s, there are only two other recorded sightings of blue whales off the Irish coast, the last of which was in Bantry Bay, Co Cork in 1957, the other was from Magilligan Strand, Co Derry in 1907.
However, acoustic monitoring studies in the North Atlantic conducted by US researchers from Cornell University has indicated that upwards of 50 blue whales pass through Irish offshore waters in late autumn and early winter on what is their southbound migration.
Nevertheless, sightings of the creature are extremely rare as their numbers remain low as a result of decades of over-exploitation by commercial whale fisheries.
“So hopefully this sighting will herald the beginning of a new era, in which blue whales will continue to recover and begin to visit our inshore waters, in the same way as their smaller cousins, the fin and humpback whales,” the IWDG said.
