Rare sighting of sperm whale near Waterford coastline

A sperm whale that swam up the Waterford Estuary on Tuesday afternoon was just the 27th such sighting of the species along the Irish coastline.

According to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG), sperm whale sightings are usually reported well offshore of the west and south of Ireland.

There were fears initially that the whale could become stranded in the estuary due to low tide on Tuesday morning.

However, the whale was seen departing the Estuary by late evening.

Providing context to Tuesday’s sighting, the IWDG said, “Since the IWDG was established almost 35 years ago, we’ve documented 5,856 sightings of our smallest baleen whale, the minke, 2,111 sightings of our largest and fastest coastal whale, the mighty fin whale, and 1,705 records and counting, of our most charismatic whale, the humpback. All these big numbers reflect the fact that these rorqual whales do most of their feeding in inshore waters and hence we get to see them with some regularity.”

The sperm whale, the largest of the odontocetes or toothed whales, in sharp contrast isn’t so much a rare species, rather they are rarely seen, reflecting their habitat preference for deep canyon systems off the Continental Shelf Edge.

“Such places are typically a long way offshore, (unless you live on Mayo‘s, Mullet Peninsula), and so from the Irish south coast, you’d need to motor offshore for some 8-10 hours before you’d find yourself in the zone,” added the IWDG.

In August 2011, a sperm whale became stranded on the Cunningar Spit near Dungarvan, County Waterford, where it finally died the following day.