Sperm whale lies dying after stranding on beach
The 37 foot whale lay deeply breathing on Cunnigar spit outside Dungarvan in Co Waterford, after coming in close to shore the night before.
Whale watchers followed the huge whale as it made its confused journey hugging the Wexford and Waterford coastline on Thursday evening and early yesterday morning.
Andrew Malcolm from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group said he was hoping the animal would die as soon as possible.
He said: “He’s washed up and he’s alive. There is no hope for him. It could take hours or more than a day for him to die. He is in a great deal of distress. He will die of starvation or from his own weight collapsing his lungs. It’s an adult male and we think he’s probably sick or has probably got some disease.”
The majestic creature had looked lost and disoriented before he finally headed to shore and beached himself on Friday morning.
Members of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group were alerted to the strange sight of a sperm whale just 20 feet from the shore on Thursday night. The whale experts knew the deep sea animal was in serious trouble when it was swimming so close to land.
The gentle giant is most at home in the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean hunting for its favourite delicacy, giant squid.
Whale expert Deirdre Slevin was one of the first people alerted to the troubled animal off the coast of Wexford.
“We went down around 8pm on Thursday night and it was about 10 feet away from the pier in Cullenstown in Wexford,” said the IWDG member.
The last live-stranded sperm whale was in Magheroarty, Co Donegal in April 2007 with only one previously validated sperm whale stranding in the south-east region, in September 1993 at Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford.
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