#MarineWildlife - The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group’s (IWDG) datasets for cetacean sightings and strandings around the Irish coast are now back online after previous versions were corrupted in a cyber attack.
The launch coincided with the hosting in Kilkenny last week of the 25th meeting of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an international network aimed at providing open access to data about life on Earth, marine wildlife included.
Twelve months of sighting and stranding data — including the recent ‘unusual mortality event’ of Cuvier’s beaked whales — can now be accessed, searchable by species, recorder, date and location, and all sightings are mappable.
Longer-term data is also available on request, for example for undergrad or postgraduate student projects.
All information in these datasets is provided by the IWDG’s loose network of volunteers around the island of Ireland, and is hailed by the group’s chief Dr Simon Berrow as “an excellent example of what can be achieved through citizen science.”
Dr Berrow adds: “Our recording schemes receive very little funding support. The sighting scheme gets no funding and currently the stranding scheme receives grant support of €10,000 from the NPWS, but it is not guaranteed and depends on other NPWS funding obligations.
“IWDG are committed to maintaining these recording schemes in the long term, as its only with time that we can identify trends; whether they are new threats to whale and dolphin populations or changing distributions driven by climate change and other large scale events.”
Both recording schemes have been run and supported by Pádraig Whooley and Mick O'Connell on behalf of the IWDG for over 20 years, and Dr Berrow says the information collected comprises “some of the most robust data in Europe to address key environmental issues and meet legal obligations.
“None of this would be possible without the IWDG members and non-members who go to great lengths to report strandings and sightings and take our calls to head out to the beaches and headlands all around Ireland to collect another data point. To them we offer our respect and thanks.”
Among the more recent sightings you’re likely to find is Boomerang, the humpback whale with the distinctive dorsal fin who’s made Ireland a regular stop since 2001.
He was spotted off the Clare and Kerry coast last month, as the Irish Mirror reports — and his return is a good omen for the quality of the ocean around Ireland, Dr Berrow suggests.
