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whales and dolphins

2024 Discover Wildlife Weekend Dates

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve finalised dates for our popular Discover Wildlife Weekends on the West Cork Coast for the 2024 season. We’ll be running 4 weekends spanning spring, summer and autumn next year, and hope you can join us on one of them. Wildlife Weekend Dates for 2024….

Free shore-based whale watching events to mark National Biodiversity Week

Whale Watching Biodiversity Week

The Irish Whale And Dolphin Group (IWDG) is hosting free shore-based guided whale-watching events around the Irish coast on Saturday 21 May to mark National Biodiversity Week. IWDG personnel will lead events in 5 counties, assisted by local members and experienced observers who will share their skills and experience on….

Irish Humpback Whale linked to Cape Verde breeding grounds

Humpback Whale match Cape Verde

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has announced a positive match between a Humpback Whale photographed at feeding grounds off the Irish south coast in 2015, and an animal photographed at breeding grounds in the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa in April of this year. This is the….

Wildlife highlights of a memorable year

Breaching Humpback

Life is punctuated by years that are particularly memorable for wildlife. Calvin Jones looks back at some of the highlights of the 2016 wildlife year on the West Cork stretch of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. With 2017 well underway I’m looking forward to the wonderful wildlife encounters the year undoubtedly….

How to watch whales and dolphins

Whales and dolphins are an exciting part of Ireland’s wildlife. As an island nation perched on the edge of the north east Atlantic we have some of the best whalewatching in Europe right on our doorstep. This in depth feature will help you spot whales and dolphins around the Irish….

Saturday 27 August 2016 is Whale Watch Ireland Day

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) continues it’s annual all-Ireland synchronised whale-watching event in 2016, with this year’s event scheduled for Saturday the 27 August between 2pm and 5pm. Timed to coincide with Heritage Week, the event, supported as always by Inis Cologne, takes place simultaneously at 20 headlands around the Irish….

New whale species for Ireland: Bowhead Whale confirmed at Carlingford

Bowhead Whale Ireland

The Irish Whale and Dolphin group (IWDG) has confirmed that an unidentified whale seen and photographed by the crew of a pilot vessel at the mouth of Carlingford Lough yesterday is a young bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus). This Arctic whale species has never been recorded before in Irish water, and fittingly becomes….

Whale Watch Ireland 2015

On Sunday 23 August, as part of Heritage Week 2015, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group is hosting its annual shore-based all-Ireland whale-watching event, Whale Watch Ireland. Taking place at 20 land-based vantage points around the coast of the Island of Ireland, the event aims to raise awareness of the 24 species….

Rare beluga whale sighting off Antrim coast

A rare beluga whale, a species usually only found in Arctic and sub-arctic waters, was captured on camera off the Antrim coastline late last week.   This is the first confirmed report of this rare cetacean in Irish waters since the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) started keeping systematic sightings records in 1991 and….

Resident killer whales could die out due to pollution

Killer Whales in Ireland under threat from marine pollution

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has expressed concern that Ireland’s only resident group of killer whales (Orcinus orca) could be dying out due to the long term effects of marine pollution. Known as the Scottish west coast community group, the killer whale pod is the only known resident pod….

Underwater whale footage… with broom-cam!

Minke Video

The BBC and National Geographic have gizmos like “Turtle Cam”, featuring cutting edge remote filming technology. Here at Ireland’s Wildlife we have a camera strapped to a broom. It works better than you might think. Check out the video below of a young minke whale visiting the Cork Whale Watch vessel The Holly….

Harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)

harbour porpoise

Reaching a maximum length of around 1.9 metres, the diminutive harbour porpoise (also known as the common porpoise) is Ireland’s smallest cetacean species and our only species of porpoise. Found right around the Irish coastline, it is one of the most widely distributed cetaceans (whales and dolphins) in the northern hemisphere…..