The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) is on alert as a pod of pilot whales that narrowly avoided a mass stranding in Scotland heads south towards Ireland.

The situation has prompted fears of a repeat of last year's tragic beaching of 33 whales on an island off the Donegal coast.

Simon Berrow of the IWDG told The Guardian: "We're on standby to see if the pilot whales come to Ireland, and we're getting regular updates from our colleagues in the UK. So we're watching and waiting."

The Guardian has more on the story HERE.

Rescuers reports that a pod of around 60 pilot whales at risk of beaching in shallow waters off Scotland's Western Isles appear to be out of danger.

According to The Guardian, the whale pod alarmed conservationists by swmming into Loch Carnan in a remote part of South Uist last Thursday.

The whales have since moved into open water heading south, but Dave Jarvis of British Divers Marine Life Rescue said they were not yet in the clear, as the rocky coastline hosts a number of inlets and bays that could present dangers to the pod.

Some of the whales have injuries to their heads which are believed to be caused by striking the loch's jagged shoreline.

The Guardian has more on the story HERE.

Basking sharks have dominated recent sightings of large marine wildlife, according to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).

The largest shark species in Irish waters accounted for a whopping 43% of sightings submitted to the IWDG's ISCOPE database between 22 April and 1 May.

Other marine species spotted include minke whales (14%), bottlenose dolphins (10%) and sperm whales (2.5%).

April's unseasonably warm weather and calmer seas brought more people out to the water, which may account for this rise in figures.

Ireland's Wildlife has more on the story HERE.

Fáilte Ireland has come under fire for an advert that shows a whale that cannot be found in Irish waters.

According to the Irish Examiner, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has questioned by images of humpback or fin whales, which are a common sight off Ireland's coast, were not used instead.

The IWDG'sSimon Berrow said: "It’s great that we are promoting marine tourism but if we are serious about it, let’s do it properly."

Last year Fáilte Ireland was criticised for a similar advertisement that used stock footage of a whale species not found in Ireland.

The Irish Examiner has more on the story HERE.

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group's (IWDG) recent workshop on the post-mortem examination of stranded dolphins and whales is hoped to encourage the building of much needed experience for Ireland's vets dealing with marine animals.

More than 20 veterinarians from across the country attended the workshop in Athlone, where they were shown how to carry out a post-mortem from a research perspective and taken through the post-mortem protocol, as well as the collection of samples for various parameters from bacteriology to genetics. 

"The IWDG have long advocated that the post-mortem examination of stranded cetaceans should be carried out by veterinary pathologists to determine their cause of death and provide samples for life-history studies," said the group's Dr Simon Berrow.

The pod, which had been observed in waters between Arranmore Island and Burtonport during the week before they stranded themselves on a beach on Rutland, were also believed to be the same pod monitored off the South Uist, off the Hebrides. Shortly before that it was feared that the whales may have also attempted to beach themselves.

Dr Simon Berrow of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) said he could not rule out sonar interference for confusing the whales and leading to their beach deaths. For information on the IWDG logon to www.iwdg.ie

New figures to be released this week on marine animals point to a whopping 25% increase in whale and dolphin strandings in the UK and Ireland.

BBC News reports that data collected by the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) show reported strandings have risen by a quarter since records began 20 years ago.

The news comes just weeks after the shocking mass stranding of pilot whales in Co Donegal.

It's also reported that at least 500 dolphins, porpoises and whales have been found stranded on British beaches this year.

Commenting on the rising numbers, Ian Enlander of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) told BBC News: "It may be a sign that awareness of strandings is increasing, or perhaps something else is going on."

The BBC News website has more on the story HERE.

A new pontoon intended to refloat marine animals such as beached whales and dolphins along the Atlantic seaboard was demonstrated at the weekend ahead of the Galway Science & Technology Festival.

The Irish Times reports that divers, scientists and local volunteers were among those participating in the training exercise on Gurteen beach, near Roundstone, which involved rescuing and refloating a dummy pilot whale.

Dr Simon Berrow of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) which ran the exercise said he hoped other coastal communities would follow the example with their own training sessions, given the growing number of strandings along Ireland's west coast.

The new pontoon - which was put on display in the festival exhibition at NUI Galway on Sunday - was purchased with funds raised by the local community and a BBC television team producing the latest series by popular adventurer Monty Halls.

A humpback whale has broken the world record for long-distance travel by any mammal.

The female whale swam at least 9,800km from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean in search of a mate, marine biologists reported earlier this week.

Humpback whales are known for long-distance migrations between their feeding and breeding grounds, but such journeys do not usually take them east or west, or much further than 5,000km.

Scientists as yet do not know whether the female's incredible journey was intentional or the result of a navigational error. Previously recorded long-distance movements have all been of male whales.

Renowned diver Monty Halls is set to present a public talk on his marine animal work filming whales, sharks and dolphins around the world tomorrow night (7 October).

Halls, who has been in Ireland since April making his latest documentary series for the BBC, has been assisting the Irish Whale and Dolphin group (IWDG) with its research on whales, dolphins and basking sharks in Irish waters.

The diver, filmmaker and former Royal Marine, who is also a popular motivational speaker and performance coach, will talk on his experiences filming and diving with marine mammals around the world, and will surely provide some great entertainment.

The talk, part of the Tales of the Whales Lecture Series organised by the IWDG and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), begins at 8pm on Thursday 7 October in Lecture Room 1000 at GMIT, Dublin Road, Galway. The event is free and all are welcome to attend.