Beached whale found on White Strand

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 they can report a stranding on the IWDG website or they can phone the numbers on the website. Especially if it’s a live stranding you need to do the right thing. But even if it was dead, you can tell a lot of things from the carcass, although not in this case. It was too poor but they still took a sample of skin for DNA testing,” he added.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group can be contacted on their website at iwdg.ie, while Dr Simon Berrow is contactable on 086 8545450.