7 #dolphins and a #whale wash up dead along the coast in #Cork, #Ireland

Picture: Andy Gibson

Seven dolphins and a sperm whale have been found dead in the past week along the Cork coastline.

Mick O’Connell, stranding officer with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG), said that is an unusually high number of strandings in a short space of time.

“We normally get the same thing every year. It is usually more in the southwest and west, but this year, I suppose we have had more southeast winds, which probably explains it.”

The eight mammals that washed up on Cork beaches were a sperm whale on Long Strand in West Cork, a bottleneck dolphin, a striped dolphin, four common dolphins and another unknown species of dolphin.

Mr O’Connell said it was a lot of dolphins to be found dead in a week.

“That is only a percentage of what is actually dead at sea,” Mr O’Connell said. “Some 90% of strandings are dead when they come ashore, 10% would be live strandings.”

The stranding officer, who has been working with the IWDG charity for the past 18 years, said he is not sure why it is happening.

“Three of the dolphins will go for postmortem at the Cork Regional Vet Lab which will shed some light on their deaths.”

Mr O’Connell added: “There is talk of bycatch, which is when fish and other marine creatures, not intended to be caught, get tangled in a fishing net, but that is an issue up to a point, definitely in France and places like that.”

Courtesy of irishexaminer.com

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