Porpoise latest marine stranding

The harbour porpoise is the commonest cetacean around Northern Ireland's shores

By Arthur Strain
BBC News

They are spectacular visitors to our shores, but more than 60 marine mammals have been stranded in Northern Ireland since 2000.

The latest incident was a dead porpoise, washed ashore on Tyrella beach in County Down on Sunday.

Beach users said that the animal appeared to have been injured.

However, the NI Environment Agency said the carcass was past the stage where a post mortem examination could establish how it died.

The carcass was removed by Down District Council, which runs the beach.

The waters around Ireland see a great diversity of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoise) with 24 different species recorded to date, nearly one-third of the 84 species known worldwide, the NIEA said.

Inevitably some sick, injured, old and dead individuals wash ashore.

Since 2000, more than 60 cetacean strandings have been recorded around Northern Ireland, most involving dead animals.

More than half were the Harbour Porpoise, such as the one at County Down over the weekend.

This is commonest cetacean around Northern Ireland's shores.

Typically, adult porpoise are stranded but occasionally small calves come ashore.

In addition, rarer cetaceans have also been recorded around the coast including species typically associated with offshore waters such as Sperm Whale, Sei Whale and Pilot Whale.

Dolphin species recorded include Bottlenose, Common, Risso's, Striped, Atlantic White-sided and Beaked.

Many of these are species that are rarely seen around the coast.

The porpoise was washed up at Tyrella on Sunday

In a statement, the NIEA said the stranded animals gave an indication of the range of species present offshore as well as providing an opportunity through post mortem studies to learn more about these remarkable mammals.

"The greatest diversity of strandings have occurred in County Antrim with nine different species found while the majority found along County Downs' shores have been Harbour Porpoise," they said.

Recording of stranded cetaceans is carried out by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, a charity dedicated to the conservation and development of a better understanding of whales, dolphins and porpoise in Irish waters.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency is a co-funder of the IWDG's ISCOPE II project (Irish Scheme for Cetacean Observation and Public Education) which aims to teach the public more about cetaceans and encourage them to submit details of sightings.

More than 11,500 sightings have been validated and recorded by the group to date, details of which are available on their website.