Over a 5-day period in early August, five strandings of Cuvier’s beaked whales were documented in various areas around Ireland. Three were found at the same time in separate locations (Donegal and Mayo) with two further standings in County Galway and County Sligo.
To have five of this species strand along the coastline in under a week is definitely cause for concern. An investigation is now underway to find out if these deep-diving marine mammals were affected by military exercises being conducted to the west coast of Scotland. Beaked whales in particular are severely impacted by loud underwater man-made noise, for example naval sonar, and this can cause them to strand. The cause of these deaths is not yet known, however, it is believed most of the whales had been dead for several days as their carcasses were in a poor condition when washed ashore. So, did these animals drift towards the Irish coast perhaps after dying? A long-finned pilot whale, another deep-diving species, was also reported to have been stranded dead recently on Cross Beach in County Mayo, close to the same location as one of the stranded Cuvier’s.
Between December 2014 and April 2015, 11 Cuvier’s beaked whales were stranded on the Irish coast, around the same time as a similar number were recorded in Scotland. A connection between the events or the causes of the deaths was not established, but military sonar is once again seen as a likely culprit.
