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Early date for Whale Watch Ireland 2024

Whale Watch Ireland IWDG National Whale Watching Event

Whale Watch Ireland, the annual Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) nationwide public whale watching event, has switched dates for 2024. Now in its 22nd year, this coordinated national event takes place simultaneously at 11 sites around the Irish coast, which means there is a good chance that at least….

How to watch Basking Sharks

A basking shark off the West Cork Coast

“Shark-infested waters” isn’t a term you normally associate with the Irish coastline, yet in late spring and early summer the Irish coast is one of the best places in Europe to see one of the world’s largest sharks. The basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) is the largest fish in the North Atlantic, and second….

Free shore-based whale watching events to mark National Biodiversity Week

Whale Watching Biodiversity Week

The Irish Whale And Dolphin Group (IWDG) is hosting free shore-based guided whale-watching events around the Irish coast on Saturday 21 May to mark National Biodiversity Week. IWDG personnel will lead events in 5 counties, assisted by local members and experienced observers who will share their skills and experience on….

Wally the Walrus stops off in West Cork

On the most recent leg of his remarkable journey, Wally the wandering walrus who was first spotted off Valentia Island in Co. Kerry back in March 2021, was seen lounging aboard a moored motorboat in a small cove near Clonakilty on the West Cork coast. Wally, a young male walrus,….

Irish Humpback Whale linked to Cape Verde breeding grounds

Humpback Whale match Cape Verde

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has announced a positive match between a Humpback Whale photographed at feeding grounds off the Irish south coast in 2015, and an animal photographed at breeding grounds in the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa in April of this year. This is the….

Incredible humpback whale footage off Ireland’s south coast

Humpbacks and dolphins West Cork

This breathtaking drone footage of four Humpback Whales interacting with a pod of Short-beaked Common Dolphins was captured off the coast of West Cork in late April by researchers from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG). https://vimeo.com/332435303 The footage is part of an exciting new project called Whale Track….

First basking sharks and humpback whales of the year off Ireland’s south coast

Ireland’s wild south coast scored a “double whammy” in the marine megafauna stakes over the last week, with records of the first basking sharks and humpback whales of the 2018 season off the coasts of Kerry and West Cork respectively. According to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, which coordinates sightings….

Huge spike in common dolphin deaths around Ireland

Short beaked common dolphin

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group has expressed concern over a worrying increase in reports of dead common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) around the Irish coast during the first two months of 2018. According to the figures on the group’s website 2017 was a record year for cetacean strandings in Ireland, with….

How to watch whales and dolphins

Whales and dolphins are an exciting part of Ireland’s wildlife. As an island nation perched on the edge of the north east Atlantic we have some of the best whalewatching in Europe right on our doorstep. This in depth feature will help you spot whales and dolphins around the Irish….

Saturday 27 August 2016 is Whale Watch Ireland Day

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) continues it’s annual all-Ireland synchronised whale-watching event in 2016, with this year’s event scheduled for Saturday the 27 August between 2pm and 5pm. Timed to coincide with Heritage Week, the event, supported as always by Inis Cologne, takes place simultaneously at 20 headlands around the Irish….

New whale species for Ireland: Bowhead Whale confirmed at Carlingford

Bowhead Whale Ireland

The Irish Whale and Dolphin group (IWDG) has confirmed that an unidentified whale seen and photographed by the crew of a pilot vessel at the mouth of Carlingford Lough yesterday is a young bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus). This Arctic whale species has never been recorded before in Irish water, and fittingly becomes….

Sharks are back!

Basking Shark by AndrewPower

Great news for wildlife enthusiasts — sharks are back off the Irish coast. Basking sharks, the world’s second largest shark species, return to Irish shores every year around the same times as swallows.  Early sightings of these less well known but much larger harbingers of spring trickled in at the end of March from….