Feakle resident Matteo Petitti was walking with his family on the White Strand in Miltown Malbay last week when he came across a beached whale. Having found the dead whale he contacted a number of agencies, before he was put in touch with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) in Kilrush. Co-ordinator Dr Simon Berrow arrived at the scene. “I phoned Simon and he came out to have a look at the whale, saying it was a full-size female long-finned pilot whale. He sent a skin sample to Dublin for DNA testing and I recorded the stranding on the IWDG website. He said that since last weekend there have been five or six whale strandings,” Matteo told The Clare Champion. Having since learned quite a bit about whales, Matteo feels it is important that people contact the IWDG in the event of finding a beached whale, whether it is alive or dead. “The main thing is that people know …