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Displaying items by tag: Banna

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has confirmed it is investigating the recent discovery of beheaded seals on a Co Kerry beach.

But as TheJournal.ie reports, the situation may not be as sinister as might appear at first glance — with experts saying it’s not unusual for seal carcasses to wash ashore headless by various causes.

The most recent concern was prompted by a report from a woman walking on Banna beach in Co Kerry, where she described happening upon mutilated seal carcasses on the sand.

However, Melanie Croce of Seal Rescue Ireland in Courtown, Co Wexford says that while it does appear the seals in question were beheaded, “this is actually something that we’ve seen for many years and many other rescues see it as well worldwide.

“Unless you’re doing a post-mortem examination, it’s very difficult to determine the cause of death. But, you know, we can’t prove anything either way,” she added.

Seals have become a divisive issue in the South West in recent years.

Earlier this month the Government shot down proposals to allow the culling of seals by rifle in the vicinity of protected areas where local inshore fishermen claim their catch is being depleted by the appetites of seal colonies.

TheJournal.ie has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Marine Wildlife
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Local residents have been disturbed by the discovery of decapitated seals on a Co Kerry beach, as the Irish Examiner reports.

Speaking to Kerry Today on Radio Kerry, a local woman described coming upon the grisly scene on Banna beach where a number of seal carcasses lay mutilated.

And she suggested that the heads had been purposefully removed in incidents that were not the result of an animal attack.

The revelation will recall memories of similar seal beheadings in Dingle in the summer of 2012, for which the culprits were never found.

The Irish Examiner has more on the story HERE.

Published in Marine Wildlife
Tagged under

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.