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Submarines caused death of 35 whales off Irish coast says expert

Beaching is one of the largest mass deaths of whales in Ireland’s history

By
CATHY HAYES,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Thursday, November 11, 2010, 4:18 PM
Updated Thursday, November 11, 2010, 4:18 PM

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Some of the 35 whales found beached on the shores of Donegal
Some of the 35 whales found beached on the shores of Donegal


Experts believe that the 35 whales off the coat of Donegal were killed by submarines.

The 35 whales were found on the beach at Rutland Island, near Burtonport, on Saturday by Seamus Boyle, a ferry operator.

Doctor Simon Berrow, of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group announced that an investigation into the discovery will examine the naval activity off the coast.

“That is certainly one possibility. Pilot whales are very sociable creatures but they spent most of their time in deeper waters,” Dr Berrow told Highland Radio.

“A number of experts suspect one of the reasons for beachings like this is that the whales’ sonar is interfered by naval activity such as submarines.

“They could have been driven towards land which resulted in their deaths,” said Dr Berrow.

Dr Berrow also said that this is one of the largest mass deaths in Irish history.

“This could be the third highest recording. The last highest recording was in 2001 off the coast of Co Kerry when 40 whales died.

“It’s every important now that we try and learn from this and discover why these creatures died.”

Due to the large number of whales Berrow said that Donegal County Council will probably have to bury the corpses due to the size of the operation.
 
“It will be quite a large operation and Donegal County Council may decide that they need to bury the whales. Otherwise they could be allowed to just decay but because of the number involved there could be an environmental impact,” he said.

The group of Pilot whales was swimming off County Donegal for a week before they were found dead. Veterinary experts from England and Scotland had planned to travel to the area and carry out post-mortems on the animals. However the severe weather caused them to cancel their trip.

Doctor Ian O’Connor along with a number of students from Galway / Mayo Institute of Technology are also planning to travel to the area to record data, including the whale’s weight and length. Skin and teeth samples will also be taken for genetic studies.
 
The group will also try to determine whether the whales beached in Donegal could be from the same pod that beached itself off Scotland, in the Outer Hebrides recently.

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8 Comments

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gretchenkohls | Nov 13, 2010, 02:54 AM EST
It is well-documented that submarine sonar interferes with whales. Often the whale will read it as a "foreign" pod, and follow it to potential feeding grounds. As necessary as sonar is for our protection, it (in my small opinion) that more research is carried out to find decibel levels, tones, etc. to which whales may be sensitive. I'm not a scientist, just a very concerned Irish-American.

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killowen | Nov 09, 2010, 12:57 AM EST
Israel's security essential - doing less angers g-d who are the only people he loves. The troika gaming with sonar to hell with whales.

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sirpeter | Nov 08, 2010, 04:55 PM EST
An Orangeman is behind this,downinthebasement...why did you do it.?Is it because they were Catholic whales?

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GaelicPrince | Nov 08, 2010, 03:04 PM EST
That is sad!

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philkennedy | Nov 08, 2010, 02:08 PM EST
What a terrible tragedy!

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Searlit | Nov 08, 2010, 12:33 PM EST
It's been known for many years, now that sonar interferes with whales abilit to communicate with each other. Very sad that so many don't care.

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irishfez | Nov 08, 2010, 10:42 AM EST
Blame the Brits

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downinthebasement | Nov 08, 2010, 10:06 AM EST
It must be Israel's fault...

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