The waters west of Ireland host one of the world’s “whale superhighways” which are under various threats from human activity according to leading conservation charity.

And the WWF is now calling on the world’s governments to extend legal protections for marine wildlife such that they overlap these “blue corridors”.

The 2022 report from the charity’s Protecting Blue Corridors project presents a visualisation of the satellite tracks of 845 migratory whales around the globe and “outlines how whales are encountering multiple and growing threats in their critical ocean habitats”.

It identifies the waters off Ireland’s West Coast as hosting a major migratory path for fin whales that traces all the way from Morocco in North Africa to the Arctic Circle.

But it also notes that these long-distance migrations are under considerable threat from human activity, whether that be climate change, ghost nets, noise and plastic pollution, offshore mineral exploration, shipping or whaling.

“Whales are a flagship species of our oceans and play a crucial role in the overall health of the marine environment,” said Chris Johnson, global lead of WWF’s Protecting Whales & Dolphins Initiative.

“We have to look at our ocean as ‘one ocean’ without boundaries. Only through building new and innovative collaborations worldwide and protecting their entire range, can we safeguard whales for future generations.”

The full report is available from the WWF website HERE.