Dead humpback whale to be buried in Louisburgh beach

A humpback whale that washed up dead on a Louisburgh beach is to be buried by Mayo County Council.

The whale, which was first spotted at Doughmakeon on Friday morning, had been in poor health and was dead upon landing on the shore.

Such whale beaching are a rare occurrence on the west coast of Ireland.

A team from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group took samples from and measured the animal, which is to be buried by the county council in accordance with their Large Whale Stranding Response Protocol and following consultation with the National Parks and Wildlife service.

Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Environment, John Condon, told The Mayo News that whales will normally be buried within a day or two of their discovery.

Stranded animals are usually buried when they pose a risk to public health while those who wash up in remote areas are sometimes left to decompose.

Stephanie Levesque, Irish Whale and Dolphin Group’s Strandings Officer, told The Mayo News that this was the eleventh such humpback whale stranding recorded in Ireland.

She added that a sperm whale washed up in the area a number of months previous to this incident.

More sightings

“We are getting a lot more humpback whale sightings so where you have more animals you are going to have more animal mortality so there is a certain amount of natural death,” she said when asked about why the animal washed up in Louisburgh.

“It was underweight and also you could see lice on it so to me that could indicate that it was in poor health. Then there are loads of other factors. Sometimes you get animals that get caught in fishing gear or thin slices, so the cause of death can really vary.

“For this particular animal we didn’t see any obvious signs of entanglement,” she added.

“But it had been dead a while so as the body decomposes so may the signs that you see on the outside of the body.”

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group are encouraging the public to contact them if they see any living or dead stranded animals.