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Chapter 1: What is the significance of Donegal Bay for marine life?
Now earlier Simon Barrow from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group was telling us all about the fact that Irish coastal waters were designated an International Whale and Dolphin Sanctuary 35 years ago. And he was saying that perhaps, and because we did that, we were ahead of our time doing that kind of stuff.
there are more whales populating our waters than ever before, and that now you could kind of rely on the same whales coming back each year. And he mentioned one in particular, that's humpback whale number 102. That was spotted in Donegal Bay a few days ago, and as I understand it, is still in the area. Let's talk now to Mark O'Connor from the Donegal Bay Trust.
He sent me a press release during the week to tell me about the basking sharks, but he has an update on that particular humpback whale. Hello Mark, how are you?
I'm great, thank you. Yes, so Donegal Bay, Ireland's biggest bay, is coming to life. The last few weeks we've had pretty special basking shark encounters. which have naturally started to dwindle as the sharks have possibly moved on. But just yesterday, we have had some reports, validated reports and footage of humpback whale activity in the bay.
So how many were there exactly?
So there was one humpback whale. And although there was one also spotted earlier in the week or possibly last week, we had the opportunity to ID this one with Irish Whale and Dolphin Group. And it's known as humpback whale.
102 which means it's the 102nd humpback to ever be ID'd in Ireland and we've had it in Donegal Bay before and not only is it there it's there and feeding so it's putting on quite the show and seems to be hanging around eating up all the forage fish that are in the area. Is it easy to spot from the mainland?
Absolutely you certainly don't need to go out in a boat although there are ecotourism type trips going out in the bay from
both Donegal and Sligo side but you just have to get yourself onto your headland with your eyes wide open and ideally with some form of binoculars and you'll see two things you'll see the blow of the animal as it breathes out when it surfaces and you might even see it feeding but one of the things that humpbacks do that other whales don't that we have in the area is they show their tail which is called a fluke and that's unmistakable you can absolutely see that from land
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Chapter 2: How many humpback whales are currently in Donegal Bay?
Why isn't it with a mate or with a few others? Well, interesting question, because in 2025, most humpback sightings in Donegal Bay had two or more animals in a group. But I guess this one might be the first. It's certainly the first one we've been able to validate.
And it's not unusual to see them alone, but everyone in the area and everyone in Donegal Bay Trust, we certainly have our eyes wide open expecting to see another one pop up any minute, any hour or any day.
Richard, you want to talk to Mark about basking sharks?
Mark, what is the tradition of shark in Donegal Bay? Is it known to be there? I'm curious about this animal. How does it find the plankton places it feeds on? It goes to places like Kean Bay and that known haunts and it's got a knowledge of where it's likely to find plankton. Does that extend to Donegal Bay? Was this a traditional place where they came to? Is this a revival of an old practice?
Certainly they are known to be in the bay and numbers are rising each year but for most years and certainly recent years we've seen perhaps large numbers but only over one day or one week. But we had quite a large amount of sightings over a few days in April and we thought that was our abundance, that was our sighting. But they have moved back from the coast of Mayo.
They seem to have tracked back in towards Donegal Bay, which of course is quite a large bay and it's hard to understand exactly how many that we have or had. But the plankton moves with the wind or the currents a lot of the time and the sharks just follow. But it's a real bio indicator, a real indicator for us as to the health of this habitat and this bay.
because plankton isn't something you would see with the naked eye, but when we start to see sharks show up in their dozens, or possibly in their 20s, 30s, in each sighting, then we know that it must be a very abundant food source in the bay.
Well, are they coming in close to the shore? In Kean Bay, they're right there beside you. And I've seen them like that off the Skelligs and places. But in other places, they stay well out. You can only see the fins far out through your binoculars. What's it like in Donegal Bay? Are they right near you or are they very far away?
Yeah, so the sightings we had this week, a lot of them were from Mullochmoor Head, which I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with. It's an iconic headland.
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Chapter 3: What makes humpback whale number 102 special?
It gives you that height advantage and we were counting over a dozen sharks within 50 to 100 meters of the shore, so only a few swimming pool lengths away. it gave a really nice opportunity for the community, not just citizen scientists or people there formally observing the animals, but just passers-by to come and see the basking sharks literally on their doorstep.
And that's something that isn't that usual. We know we have basking sharks each year. We know they're in the bay, but to see so many at the surface and for that surface to be so close to shore is certainly quite special.
That's the key, isn't it, here? Because you talk about indicator species and it's all well and good telling people how important Donegal Bay is from an ecological point of view and showing people statistics. But when they can actually see this megaphone with their own eyes and take photographs of it and experience it with their smartphones, that really puts it in a whole different perspective.
People can really see it in a tangible way that this really is a remarkable place for nature.
Absolutely. And we feel that For people to want to protect something, they have to connect with it and they have to understand it. And there's no better fuel for curiosity and the want to learn than seeing something you don't know a whole lot about. And basking sharks aren't really that well known or researched globally. But local communities, we've little to know.
knowledge of them because they're not seen but now they're on the doorstep now that we've seen them all week there's certainly a lot of hype a lot of interest and a lot of questions being asked which is great for us as donegal bay trust because we are a conservation trust and we exist at community level to connect people with their local habitat and their local environment so this is nothing short of very very special and for a humpback to show up towards the end of the week it's just going to grow that interest and that curiosity
I hope it will also encourage sustainable tourism as well, people coming to see these, especially because they're visible from land, so people can see them without impacting them in any way. Hopefully more people will realise the value of the area and then we'll show that actually there's a real economic benefit to having these species in the region too.
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. It is nice to see them from the water and the headland. If you get that balance right and the ecotourism is sustainable and people follow codes of conduct and educate people as to best practice, then I think it's win-win for people and for the species out there.
I wonder, Mark, if the warming of the seas is a factor here. There was some research done in Trinity College, I think the scientist's name was Hayley Dalton, showing that basking sharks actually generate heat internally. This is a complete... A reversal of the previous opinions about them, I gather.
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Chapter 4: How can you spot whales from the mainland?
Now, if they're raising their temperatures internally, then temperature must be important to them. And if the sea is warming up, could that be encouraging the return of our sharks? It's an off-the-wall, heretical suggestion. But what do you think?
It's a very interesting question, and it's certainly one that I won't claim to be qualified for in any sort of depth. But I do know that the... There is a lot of talk about the temperatures of the sea and other factors that are influencing the food source.
So as opposed to the actual larger animal that we see itself, it would certainly influence the plankton and is thought to be influencing other forage fish that perhaps the whales are feeding on. So the best way for me to answer that is I think there is an impact and there is a change in the food source in Ireland of our big fish and our big mammals.
For example, there's more than 50% rise in basking shark sightings in Ireland in 2026. That's from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group statistics. But over 50% of humpback whale sightings were in Donegal Bay in 2025. So there's a big shift and those are unusual figures. So something is influencing that.
And I think there's certainly some understanding about it, but there's work to be done to fully understand why these changes are occurring.
Well, it sounds like it's all happening up in Donegal Bay. If you're in the area, go to a headland, get a pair of binoculars. Don't interfere with any wild creature, needless to say. But if you're in the area, you might catch a glimpse of a basking shark, many basking sharks, or 102. Isn't that the number, the humpback whale? That's the one. That's the one. For now.
Anyway, Mark, thank you very much indeed. That's all we have time for. My thanks to Annie Nelana, Richard Collins and Niall Hatch. Visit the website anytime you like, rte.ie forward slash Mooney. Until next week, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. Mooney goes wild. Listen back on the RTE Radio Player app.
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