Beached whale buried in Ballycroy

BURIED?Locals organised to have this whale, which was beach at Dooriel in Ballycroy in February, buried last week. ?Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Beached whale buried in Ballycroy


Áine Ryan

A GIANT sperm whale beached in Ballycroy during January’s storms has been buried because of the concerns of locals, it has emerged. The Mayo News reported last month that the county council, in consultation with the NPWS (National Parks and Wildlife), would not bury the mammoth mammal, which was almost 50-foot (14.6 metres) long, with a four-metre wide tail fluke.
Speaking on behalf of the council in mid-February, Mr Martin Keating said the local authority had no plans to bury this whale, as there was a significant logistical exercise involved in this instance.
“It is stranded on a very rocky beach which is over a kilometre from a public road and is also away from local houses,” Mr Keating said.
The dead whale, which had a deep gash on its back possibly caused by a passing ship, was dead when it was washed ashore and discovered by a local boatman at Dooriel Beach on Sunday, February 9.
However, Erris Sinn Féin Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh told The Mayo News yesterday: “With the high tide last Sunday week, we were presented with an opportunity as the whale had moved from the stony part of the beach onto sandy ground, and we got a local contractor to dig a hole as it was easier to bury it.”
She said she was ‘very concerned that if it was left to rot there over the summer months it would become a health and safety issue’.
“It would have taken several months for the whale to decompose and during that time the people of Ballycroy would have had to endure the smell and unsightliness,” she continued.  
It is very unusual for sperm whales to come into Mayo waters. Reportedly, the last time a sperm whale was stranded on the Mayo coastline was at Ballycastle in the late 1980s.
Sperm whales are easily identifiable by their huge heads and prominent foreheads. Experts say they have the largest brain of any creature known to have lived on Earth.