Walrus an unusual visitor

THE Irish Sea has some unusual visitors this summer.

Normally, only porpoises are seen from the shore with bottle-nosed and common dolphins a bit further out. Minke whales, although common off the west, rarely visit the east coast. This year, however, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) recorded minkes close to Dublin. On June 17, a fin whale was seen 14km off Howth Head, the only record for the Irish Sea since 2005. Then, on June 23, the IWDG received a call from a member of the public, John Byrne, about a creature he saw swimming at Magherabeg Beach, County Wicklow. The animal, too big to be a seal, was ‘reddish-brown with a lot of facial hair’. Only one sea mammal is prone to blushing, so Padraig Whooley of the IWDG concluded that the creature ‘may well be a walrus’.

This species is relatively new to Ireland; an animal on the Shannon in 1897 provided the first record. There were no further sightings until the 1980s, but there have been over 20 since then. Two carcasses were washed ashore, removing any lingering doubts that these Arctic-dwellers occasionally visit us. In April 1999, a walrus came ashore at Clew Bay and, in October 2004, surfers watched a ‘tan-coloured cow-sized animal’ exit the sea there.