Beluga’s summer visit unusual

In December 1948, lighthouse keepers spotted what turned out to be a beluga whale off Clare Island, County Mayo.

It was the first, and for almost four decades the only, sighting of the species in Irish waters. Then, in June 1988, one turned up in Cork harbour. It could be seen from the seafront at Cobh. The recent visit of a beluga to the shores of Co Antrim, therefore, was a rare event indeed.

‘Beluga’ is Russian for ‘white’. Gourmets will be familiar with ‘beluga’ caviar, the roe of the great white sturgeon. The sturgeon, of course, is not a whale but a fish. The adult beluga whale is white all over, effective camouflage in the icy-cold arctic waters it frequents.