Round Ireland yachts keep a look-out for giant whales

Yachts in the Round Ireland race have had to be on the lookout for giant fin whales which have been sighted off the Old Head of Kinsale.

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group has confirmed sightings of fin whales, said to be second-largest living creatures, along with minke whales, between five and 25 miles off the Old Head.

The fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) is not only one of the fastest marine mammals, but also the only consistently asymmetrically-coloured mammal in the world, that is, it is black on one side and white on the other.

It can be up to 85 ft long; its name derives from the dorsal fin which, along with its black and white coating, distinguishes it from its larger cousin, the blue whale.

Mr Padraig Whooley, secretary of the whales and dolphins group, made his first sighting at the weekend, just hours after the Round Ireland fleet set off on its south-about route from Wicklow.

Mr Whooley recorded three groups of the animals at 8.10 p.m. on Sunday.

"The first sighting of the fins on Saturday night was just off the Kinsale gas platforms, and they didn't move, so they must have been feeding," Mr Whooley said. On Sunday evening they were closer to shore. Weather has been very good in the area in the past week, and Mr Whooley said he was treated to a "most amazing" display by whales and dolphins in a two-hour period.

"There I was, looking at these leviathans through the telescope, and next thing three minke whales swim past. I had harbour porpoises just beneath me on the Old Head, and also bottlenose and common dolphins," he said.

"It was quite something. I have whale-watched in Patagonia, British Columbia, Mexico and all over the world, but it is on occasions like this that you realise that Irish headlands offer some of the most amazing sights when the weather is right."

The fins are among the most common of the large whales. Their migratory route takes them from the high latitudes in summer towards the Equator in winter for feeding.

Irish waters were declared a whale and dolphin sanctuary almost a decade ago, and the fin visit comes just a week before the annual International Whaling Commission meeting in Australia, when an Irish proposal to allow limited resumption of whaling within 200-mile limits will be debated.