Thursday 8 August 2013

New addition to the Irish Humpback whale collection

Previously unrecorded Humpback spotted off Kerry
August 2013. The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) have confirmed the first addition to the Irish Humpback whale catalogue of the 2013/14 large whale season after a whale, romantically named as HBIRL23, was observed by IWDG member Nick Massett on both 27th & 28th July off Clogher and Sybil Heads in West Kerry.

Whale identification
Fluke and dorsal shots have been run through the IWDG catalogue and they have confirmed that this individual has never previously been documented in Irish waters.

Looking for match in USA
The flukes of this "type 1" are extremely white with >90% white pigmentation which is not common in Irish waters. The superb quality fluke shot was taken by Nick Massett has been forwarded to the Allied Whale, Bar Harbour, Maine, USA, who curate the North Atlantic Humpback whale catalogue, where it will be run through a database of over 7,000 fluke shots for matching patterns.

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