A fin whale found stranded near Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry at the weekend will not be subject to a post-mortem examination to determine its cause of death, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has said.
The whale was visited by IWDG strandings officer Stephanie Levesque under the Deep Diving and Rare species Investigation Programme (DDRIP).
DDRIP was initiated by the IWDG in 2022 in response to a well-documented increase in recent years in cetacean stranding records reported through the IWDG’s stranding scheme.
“Unfortunately this individual was too decomposed for a full post-mortem,” the IWDG said. “Stephanie collected a number of samples useful for biological studies but [was] not able to establish cause of death.
The whale was a male measuring 19 metres in length which would have made it not fully grown. Samples of skin, blubber and baleen were taken, the group added.
As for next steps, the IWDG says that Kerry County Council is intending to let the remains rest in situ as it is on private land in a secluded area.