It's become an impossible task of late, trying to run whale watching trips while the jet stream roars across Ireland, bringing never ending turbulent weather with it. Now and again the wind eases, the sun is shining but a high Atlantic swell prevails, making poor conditions for both locating and watching cetaceans. We cancel our trips when the swell exceeds 2 metres. It's difficult to find whales in a swelly sea. Even at close range, in a high swell they are difficult to see.
From years of experience, most people are fine at sea until the swell becomes greater than your own height. By the time the swell reaches 3 metres, anyone prone to get travel sick is likely to do so. and it becomes downright uncomfortable for everybody.
The weather looks continuously disturbed for several days to come.
A short clip shared here of the Stags and Toe Head getting a battering from storm Ashley on Sunday afternoon
If Ireland is famous for anything it has to be it's changeable weather conditions, controlled entirely by the North Atlantic's jet stream. For the last 4 weeks the jet stream seems to be clamped in position over Ireland and is forecast to continue that way for the remainder of August, feeding us a never ending supply of low pressure systems with windy weather, bouts of rain and high Atlantic swell. I am sure it's been the most unsettled August we've ever had over the last 50 years or more, and no sign of any improvement in the week ahead.
Our whale watching exploits have been seriously curtailed by the poor weather conditions and there has been just a handful of days in August when the sea has been settled enough for whale watching.
Cetaceans are still very scarce in our patch of the ocean with just a few minke whales about and the occasional fin whale. Even common dolphins are in lower numbers than I've ever seen before.
I have not seen a single bait ball of sprats so far this season, it has become very obvious that they have been overfished to the point of extinction. No sprats about means no prey for whales to feed on, hence the very low numbers of them, they have moved on in search of better feeding opportunities elsewhere.
A clip shared here of a few highlights from the last couple of weeks. Minke whales up first, lunge feeding with common dolphins and a crowd of manx shearwaters, followed by a lunge feeding fin whale in company with common dolphins, and last of all a small group of common dolphin bow riding with a few tiny new born calves amongst them, showing the speed and agility they are born with.
We had a lot of settled weather in the first half of July that gave us good conditions for spotting cetaceans off the West Cork coastline. The second half of July is not looking good with the dreaded jet
stream sweeping over us once more keeping the weather in an unsettled state. We found plenty of common dolphins about on all trips but whales in pitifully low numbers. 2024 has been a disappointing season so far and no surprise either, based on the fact there are hardly any sprat shoals left for the whales to prey upon. After 24 years of watching whales feeding at close quarters it becomes very clear that minke, fin and humpback whales all visit Ireland's coastal waters to feed almost exclusively on sprats and juvenile herrings as their preferred prey, just occasionally feeding on lesser sand eels if there are no sprats to be found.
The lack of sprats is entirely down to the overfishing of them every autumn, when they shoal together in sheltered bays and harbours attempting to spawn. Huge, locally owned trawlers have persistently and skillfully removed every shoal they can find over the last 30 years to the point of near extinction. The coastal waters of Ireland, once teeming in fish and great biodiversity have become almost barren as a result of this ill advised fishery. Even pollack, Ireland's most abundant predatory fish species, like all other species, are becoming scarce due to a lack of sprats to feed on.
ICES has issued advice to ban commercial fishing of pollack based on dwindling stocks, They are not being overfished but starved out of existence by the removal of the vital supply of these miraculous little silvery and prolific fish that exist in their billions, feeding exclusively on zooplankton in the coastal waters of Ireland. There are no sprats to be found offshore, out in the open Atlantic, they are sprats that are indigenous to the coastal
Due to a last minute group cancellation we have spaces available on tomorrow's trip going at 10:30, with wonderfully calm weather forecast.
Over the past week sightings have included scattered minke whales, plenty of common dolphins, lots of sunfish, manx shearwaters and puffins, grey seals and on Wednesday last we saw 2 fin whales, our second day sighting these giants.
A short clip of one of them shared here with the usual escort of common dolphins.
Today is World Ocean Day when we are supposed to celebrate our human interaction and awareness of the world's oceans.
The sad reality is that the oceans are polluted with chemicals, nuclear material, overfished and choking in pieces of plastic. All the while this situation is getting worse with no improvement in any of those factors. There's not much to celebrate when the oceans have had nothing but abuse from humanity. It would be wonderful to see any change for the better health of the world's oceans.
It seemed appropriate to be out whale watching on World Ocean Day and we were duly rewarded by a surprise encounter with our first fin whale of the season amongst a lot of dolphins and scattered minke whales. Fin whales usually show up later in June or early July, so this one is an early arrival.
A short clip of today's fin whale that shows clearly how dolphins like to bow ride in front of large whales, just as they do with boats.
Up until the last few days, the month of May has produced a lot of settled weather making ideal conditions for whale, dolphin and shark watching on most days.
The huge swarm of basking sharks that were all along the West Cork coastline during May, mysteriously evaporated on the 21st and not a sighting since, or any clue as to their current whereabouts.
It is disappointing that we have had no further humpback activity, May has become the best time of year for them over the last few years, until now. We are still finding minke whales and porpoises in low numbers on almost every outing and common dolphins in abundance on every trip, often running into hundreds of them.
A short clip of them shared here showing their exuberance and boundless energy, sprinting alongside and bow riding the boat as they like to do.
West Cork has certainly been the place to see basking sharks over the past week or two. There were so many of them assembled in the harbour entrance for a couple of days, it was difficult to move through them without colliding with one. Dense concentrations of zooplankton is keeping them happy, all sharks mouth agape gorging themselves on plankton like there's no tomorrow, whilst that scything tail drives them gently through it.
We are seeing minke whales in low numbers on all our trips and common dolphins in large numbers. One or two sunfish about already, harbour porpoises in small numbers and lots of puffins over the past week. We sighted our first humpback in weeks today and promptly lost contact with it, which doesn't often happen.
A clip shared here of the basking shark activity from the the last couple of days
Lots of settled weather has kept us busy at sea over the last couple of weeks in search of wildlife. We are seeing multiple minke whales on all trips and common dolphins in abundance with them, as is the norm for this time of year. We've had no further humpback activity as yet, since our encounter with HBIRL 82 on April 21st and it's high season for them at this time of year.
With basking sharks in swarms off the west coast over the last 2 months there has been mysteriously close to none of them showing along the south coast until this weekend. On our trip on Saturday we had a dozen or more feeding under the cliffs around the eastern side of Toe Head, which has always been a hot-spot for these fascinating fish. A short clip of them shown here and so close to the land you can hear wrens singing in the background !
We were delighted to see our first humpback of the season today in company with several minke whales and scattered common dolphins in small groups all in the same area, with a small number of harbour porpoises on the way out. No feeding action on the surface today with all the whales feeding 30 to 40 metres below on shoals of lesser sand eels and all in sunshine and a calm Atlantic, for a change.
A short clip of today's humpback shown here, fluking before diving for unusually long periods, 16 minutes on one dive, almost twice as long as normal, undoubtedly lunge feeding deep in the water column. Our colleagues at IWDG tell us that this is #HBIRL82 who spent almost all of May 2023 in the Tragumna Bay area. This latest sighting brings to 35 the number of confirmed sightings of this individual on 7 years since IWDG first documented it off Valentia Isl. Co. Kerry in Oct 2015. Like so many other humpbacks that visit our shores, he/she is a creature of habit, showing incredible site fidelity to this area.
At last we are seeing signs of some settled weather later this week with high pressure predicted to develop over Ireland from Thursday until Tuesday next week with light winds, sunshine and very little swell, absolutely ideal weather for locating and watching cetaceans.
We intend to run trips from Thursday onwards and have spaces available on most days.
From experience over the last few years late April is a good time of year for multiple minke whales, lots of common dolphins and the first humpbacks of the season.
A very short clip shown here of an early season humpback giving a tail lobbing demonstration, just the sort of thing we'll be looking for.
Unsettled Atlantic weather continue to play havoc with our attempts to get out whale watching for another week, with high swell and rough seas as prevailing conditions. Yesterday we had storm Kathleen passing through and West Cork waters were positively violent as a result. The last time it was so rough here was the effects of Hurricane Ophelia making landfall in 2017.
A short clip shown here of Toe Head and the Stags getting a battering at the height of the storm. The rocky point in the foreground at the start of this clip is a bit over 30 metres above sea level to give a sense of scale to the awesome size of the waves rolling in.
Yesterday, after months of inactivity with the Holly Jo tied to the mooring, we finally got a break in the incessant low pressure weather systems and went out looking for wildlife. Our efforts were rewarded when we came on a patch of activity with 6 or 7 minke whales in company with about 60 common dolphins, all taking interest in a shoal of bait fish that was 40 to 50 metres below the surface. No feeding action on the surface so we had to be content with glimpses of the whales surfacing for air every 7 or 8 minutes in between their underwater feeding bouts.
We are seeing very little opportunity of getting out again in the next couple of weeks based on weather predictions for the next 14 days, with lots of rainy windy conditions heading this way and all the while a high Atlantic swell keeping a rough sea going.
Share here is a short clip of yesterday's action with bow riding common dolphins and a minke whale taking a few breaths of air.
