Harbour pollution ‘unlikely’ to be cause of whale’s death

A RARE whale which beached on an island in Cork harbour probably died of natural causes.

Preliminary tests carried out on the female Northern Bottlenose whale, which died on Rocky Island near the former Irish Steel plant, proved inconclusive yesterday.

But Dr Emer Rogan, a lecture in University College Cork’s zoology department who carried out the tests, said recent pollution incidents in the harbour are unlikely to have contributed to the whale’s death.