A postmortem is due to be carried out today on the remains of a young humpback whale which was found beached at Inverin, Connemara, over the weekend.
The whale calf was only 5½ metres (18ft) long, suggesting it is less than a year old and may have still been suckling. "This could mean that its mother is still out there fairly close by," Dr Simon Berrow of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) told The Irish Times last night.
Humpback whale strandings are relatively rare in Irish waters, with only six on IWDG records over the past century. Sometimes called a "knucklehead" because of the knobs on their heads, humpbacks have complex underwater songs and migrate between polar waters - where they feed on crustaceans, fish and squid - to warmer breeding grounds.
The IWDG has been studying one such breeding ground off the Cape Verde islands. "Given that this is such a young animal, perhaps there is breeding closer by off the southwest coast," Dr Berrow said. Just several weeks ago, a BBC film crew filmed a humpback calf breaching off the Kerry coastline.
The Inverin whale was examined yesterday by Joanne O'Brien, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology researcher and IWDG member. She reported that the carcase was in good condition, with most of its skin intact and no obvious lesions. Dr Berrow and Ms O'Brien will carry out a postmortem today, and hope to examine BBC film footage of the Kerry sighting in case it is the same animal.