#MARINE WILDLIFE - Ten different cetacean species were accounted for among 143 sightings validated by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) for the month of June.
"It’s tempting to overinterpret sightings from a single month’s snapshot," said IWDG sightings co-ordinator Pádraig Whooley. "But we are confident that these 143 sightings... represent a reasonable sample size."
The number is less than half of the 315 records for the same month in 2009, which Whooley says "illustrates how big an influence the weather is on our ability to detect cetaceans".
Basking shark sightings are particularly down after the worst June weather on record. "There is strong evidence that the 2012 shark season is as good as over," said Whooley, noting that this year's sightings peaked as early as April.
There was a flurry of minke and humpback whale sightings off Dublin and the Kish Bank in mid-June - possibly related to the rare sighting of a minke whale breaching in the Irish Sea.
However, the vast majority of activity for these large marine mammals is off the south and southwest, with Slea Head and Dingle Bay enjoying the highest diversity.
Orcas, minke whales, humpbacks and a "blubber biomass" of six fin whales were all spotted off the Kerry coast in June, not to mention the month's largest concentration of dolphins - some 400 common dolphins spotted off Clogher Head on 10 June.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group has much more on the June findings HERE.
