A humpback whale seen in Irish waters in January of 2010 and not reported again for thirteen years has been spotted off Newfoundland.
Sighted on January 17, 2010, inshore off Hook Head, County Waterford, by Irish Whale and Dolphin Group members, a biopsy obtained under a National Parks and Wildlife Service licence confirmed it as a young sub-adult male and a new humpback in Irish waters. It was added to the IWDG’s Irish Humpback Whale Catalogue as #HBIRL11.
“As with all humpbacks photographed in Irish waters, images of it were shared with IWDG partners ‘Allied Whale’ at the College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA, who manages the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalogue and have a database of 11,000+ individual humpbacks,” according to the IWDG.
It had remained adjacent to Hook Head Peninsula until February 28, 2010, and was regularly observed feeding on sprat and herring, often in the same area as fin whales and short-beaked common dolphins.
For the past 13 years, ‘Hooky’ as he was colloquially dubbed has not been recorded in Irish waters, but Allied Whale has now told IWDG it was seen off Newfoundland in 2018 and 2021.
“This is an important development, the first re-sighting between Ireland/British Isles and the western North Atlantic feeding grounds,” said Padraig Whooley, IWDG Sightings Officer. “The fact that this whale has been recorded in two known feeding areas, Newfoundland (Summer) and Irish South coast (Winter), is noteworthy.”
