Baleen Whales

A young Minke Whale showing it's baleen and throat grooves.

 Otherwise known as the Mysticeti suborder group of the Whale family system, these animals include the largest species that have ever lived. This of course includes the mighty Blue Whale,Fin,Sei,Northern Right and Minke Whales. Although all of these Irish species look somewhat different, they all share the same body plan, just altered to maximise the animals efficiency at sea.
 These animals adapted to return to the sea rather than live on land like the majority of species choose to do after spending Milena undersea, the Cetacean family did this to take advantage of the plentiful supply of food found in the oceans.
 In doing so these animals underwent extreme physical changes, most notable the loss of their hind legs which are now only recognisable as minute twig like vestigial bones found around the back half of the animals stuck in place by a mass of flesh. Cetaceans also manoeuvred their nostrils to the top of their heads to improve efficiency while at the surface to intake more air. These animals also became extremely streamlined in the form of a more pointed head, hairless body and horizontal tail fluke (unlike a fishes vertical tail).
 Now with all these changes to a once land animal did result in the split of the Cetacean family between baleen Whales and the more common toothed Whales that I will go into more detail at a later date.
 So baleen Whales have all of the above features except for the following: baleen (or whalebone as the whalers referred to it as), throat grooves (not found on the North Atlantic Right Whale due to this animals massive mouth and feeding strategy which made such an adaptation redundant) and a double blowhole.

Inward bristles of baleen

Baleen is a unique feeding adaptation only found in the Mysticeti suborder of the Cetacean family group. It comprises of Keratin which is then made up of protein. It is the exact same as our own finger nails and hair, it's just a combination of the two!. It is a very flexible substance while living but once disconnected from a Whale it becomes rigid and begins to taper inwards. A single Whale can have hundreds of these baleen plates, they are only found on the roof of the animals mouth and are triangular in shape when seen from the side.
 It was known to whalers as 'Whalebone' as it is only derived from these animals. Baleen truly was the plastic of it's day, the most acknowledged use of it was in the creation of corsets in the fashion industry!, but baleen also had a niche in the production of brushes, to stiffen silk fabrics and even in judges wigs to name a few.

Outside view of baleen

Baleen works on a very simple premises, to ensure that virtually no prey items escape the clutches of a Whales massive mouths. It works synchrony with the Whales throat grooves, when the animal opens it's mouth just before swimming through a school of it's prey, it's throat grooves expand to accommodate a higher water intake thus engulfing more prey. Upon closing it's mouth the Whale then uses it's tongue to push all of the seawater it has taken in. This forces it's prey into the inward facing bristles of it's baleen while allowing the sea water to escape and this simple syphoning system has allowed Whales to grow to the enormous sizes they are today... all fuelled by unsuspecting prey that alone would barely support ourselves let alone a Whale! but due to such a large intake of these animals using an efficient system there really was no size limit in these animals weightless world.

Fin and Minke Whale baleen plate comparison

CSI: Cetacean Stranding Investigations

  I am involved in the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group's stranding scheme where as much information as possible is gathered from the carcass of a Cetacean. Now what does this really mean?

Common Dolphin stranded at Rossbeigh

Well the basis of this scheme revolves around most crucially obtaining a skin sample from a fresh animal which is sliced approximately into two thin 5mm long and 1mm wide strips without any blubber attached with a disposable scalpel to ensure that it can fit into a minute vial filled with ethanol to preserve the specimen. This sample is then accompanied by a card displaying relevant information on the samples date of collection,location along with its own unique code to keep track of every individual sample. The sample is then packed into a padded (pre-paid) envelope and sent directly to the Natural History Museum on Merrion Street in Dublin and placed in the national Cetacean genetic tissue bank which is run by the IWDG so that a substantial genetic collection of Ireland's Cetaceans is readily available to researchers in the future likelihood that a wide spread research project will be under taken in the coming years.

Skin sample taken from the above Common Dolphin

 Other than taking a skin sample (where possible) I also measure the animal from the tip of its lower jaw to the tip of its tail fluke and also the animals girth/waistline which tells us whether the animal was fully mature and roughly if it was at a healthy weight and not malnourished which may signal that there were some issues limiting the animals capacity to feed it self which could have eventually had led to its death, now if a Cetacean does not feed it also does not take in water which is ironic for an animal that spends its entire life in a weightless world of water so the only way for the animal to stay hydrated is to feed  so if this is diminished in any way it can be detrimental to  the animals health.

Harbour Porpoise skin sample ready to go.

 Now this abnormality may come about for a number of reasons, firstly the animal may have been too old and weak to catch prey, it may have been sick and injured either by one another or due to an altercation with man be it directly in the form of a collision with a boat or indirectly with fishing gear among many other factors which many have led to any one of the deaths of such animals that end up stranded along the counties coast be it already dead or still alive these issues are only theories unless proven beyond doubt but this highlights just how important this stranding scheme is even though it only covers very minute, specific data there is always room for more direct actions if more funding was made available such important initiatives.

The Irish White Tailed Sea Eagle reintroduction project: Early years

  In 2007 perhaps the most captivating conservation story of the past decade began to become a reality, bringing back the biggest bird in Europe to soar over it's former haunts, the White Tailed Sea eagle.
 I first heard of the project over the radio on my way home from school early in 2007 and was immediately perplexed with the concept that EAGLES would be released into my locality in the coming Summer months.

Admiring the pens view.

In preparation for the birds arrival the NPWS (National parks and wildlife service) constructed holding pens complete with a artificial nest which composed of a ply sheet lined with moss and boxed off to avoid any accidents. This provided the birds with some form of home comforts with an additional level of shelter. The pens also had a wide open area which was cris-crossed by burly branches to take the birds weight while they would eventually test their wing muscles in anticipation of their release in the end of August, to coincide with when the chicks would fledge from the nest in the wild. To top the pens off they were divided into at least four separate sections to divide the birds into smaller groups and even had fist sized holes covered over with a sleeve or leg from an old pair of pants! to ensure that the birds would not associate people with food as this would cause problems for the birds in the later years. The location of these pens remain a secret but are firmly in the heart of Killarney National park.

 In the early years of the project the birds were fed an exquisite mixture of 'surf n turf' which consisted of Red Deer hearts among other parts and the remains of Cod, Monk fish and other fish depending on availability. But this varied diet turned to mainly fish orientated menu in the latter years of the project.

    Two chicks on a makeshift nest.
 As already mentioned the birds would be released by mid to late August to coincide with when a wild chick would leave the nest. This is due largely to the fact that it takes the entire Summer for each chick to build up enough strength in their wings to support their body weight during flight.
 In the first year of the project 15 chicks were taken from various nests around the Norwegian coastline and surrounding islands. Each chick or eaglet was taken from nests that housed two chicks, a harsh reality in the natural world is if things come in twos or more it simply is a strategy to ensure that at least one individual survives especially in predatory birds where the larger sibling uses it's size to have the first go at any food brought into the nest, this results in the smaller chick becoming more feeble and unable to take in enough food which results in the bird being unable to fend for itself, so in a sense because one young bird was removed from per availing nest, the likely hood of both chicks surviving was greatly heightened!. A key concept during this phase was to maintain a 50/50 ratio between males and the larger females to avoid any future issues of having too many birds of the same gender as this would be of no use during the wild breeding stage of the project.
 The chicks were kept in a converted Norwegian barn during the collecting stage and once the quota of birds was reached they were carefully loaded into individual dog carriers and flown to Kerry on the projects own chartered plane!
 Once in the Kingdom the birds were met in 2007 with a placard of farmers showing their opposition towards the project at Kerry airport with the unwarranted fear that these large birds would pluck young lambs off of the counties countryside. But beyond this minor negativity the birds were ushered to the park in a convoy of vehicle and aptly placed in their new home in anticipation of their eventual freedom in the following months.
 I will follow on from this with the further trials and tribulations of this captivating project and my own experiences with these mighty birds over the past few years.

My Summer office

 Over the course of the year I make my way back West to Valentia island's Bray Head as soon as a decent spell of settled weather rolls in from the Atlantic, this combined with the sudden influx of large Whale activity in Dingle bay from mid-July running through to September in recent years that has been recorded from both Slea head and the Blasket islands further incentives me to intensify my efforts. This in a way dilutes the information obtained from the site as it is only consistent for some section of the year but due to the distance involved in travelling back to Valentia, I tend to go back when both of the above are in sync as it's better to observe some Cetacean activity rather than none at all!



Bray head is the western most point of Valentia island this prominent piece of landmass juts out into the North Atlantic and is flanked from the North and South by two varying seascapes, the outer Dingle bay to the North and by the highest cliffs in the county followed by the steeped sided Puffin island further out to the South. Immediately in front of the headland however is perhaps the most iconic sight in the country, the twin (although not identical!) rocky pinnacle peaks known as the Skellig islands.
 I chose Bray Head as a vantage point to spot Cetaceans because from the Southern half of Dingle bay right along the coastline until you reach West Cork there is a massive "black spot" as I call it where virtually nothing is known about the Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises that frequent and use these productive waters. There had been a few watches conducted from Bray head in the years running up to my own watches and these proved worthwhile as various species were recorded over the years even though they were not continued.

 For those of you who have never ventured up to the head, the 40 minute walk over the continuously inclined dirt road is well worth tackling as once you finally reach the Bray head tower, in my view you are rewarded with the finest view in Ireland due to the spectacular features as mentioned above.
 All of my sightings are officially validated via the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group's sighting scheme where they are put into the countries online database, by doing this I contribute some data towards a scheme that over time will allow us to piece together the movement's and uses Cetaceans have of the South-West coastline of Kerry, even though I set out deliberately to locate these marine mammals if you by chance spot what you deem to be either a Whale, Dolphin or Porpoise you can too add to our ever growing bank of information by filling out your own sighting report on the site.
I will delve into how I've located Cetaceans from land in my next post and go through why this past year has been my most productive to date.
Watch this space.
Sean

And so it begins..

Hello
 My name is Sean O'Callaghan and I have created this blog to achieve a very simple goal, to reveal Kerry's wilder side (hint in the title!). The county of Kerry is famous for it's sporting triumphs and stunning landscape's which has made this rugged area of the west coast world famous with it's varied vistas ranging from rolling mountains to jagged coastal cliffs with golden miles of beaches in between, but amongst all of this natural splender a major component has been overlooked almost entirely... the species that live on and off the landscapes we are so familiar with.
 I am currently in the build up to my leaving cert and throughout my school years I have only once been exposed to this counties multitude of species other than the stereotypical "nature table" which would consist of various leaves and the odd feather that most teachers wouldn't have a clue whats on display other than Oak leaves, Horse Chestnuts etc. But coming back to the time I was directly taught about the wild animals of Kerry, it was second class in primary and we had our own nature copy, our lessen consisted of us taking down a brief overview of the animal we were looking at which would include it's diet, where it lived, what it looked like and so on, we always finished with my favourite part.. drawing the animal and although both our attempts and the teachers were crude at best, the fact that I had an image to go with the information we had meticulously taken down and for me this made the lessen come to life and feel "real". Now even though this direct approach did introduce us to a somewhat unknown subject matter our teacher never strayed from the woodland critters that most of us would think of when the word 'Wildlife' is mentioned these included Badgers, Hedgehogs, Foxes, Bats and the animal synonymous with Killarney, the Red Deer.Now bear in mind my primary school was literally across the road from the countries oldest and most varied wild areas Killarney National Park we never once were brought on a "world famous" 'nature walk' we had become familiar with as a means to have an easy day while we were brought around a convents grounds when we were younger!. The teacher's tendency to select these animals limited our understanding of the species that share this county with us, but to be fair perhaps the most interesting species that frequent the county have only been noted in the past number of years, these are of course our marine-mega fauna be it the second largest fish in the world the Basking Shark or the largest of all animal's the Cetaceans (Whales,Dolphins and Porpoises) we have only begun to scratch the surface and so we live in very interesting times, since the eighties the only Cetacean associated with the county was Fungi, an adult Bottlenose dolphin now world famous with his own bustling tourist industry, but now the county is beginning to become known as a Whale hotspot with a year on year increase in large Whale activity around our inshore waters as our Whale population increases n the wake of the worldwide ban of commercial whaling, Humpback Whale numbers have increased greatly off of Kerry with Fin Whale's (the second largest living animal) following in toe.
 So to improve the general public's knowledge of  our wild neighbours and to boost the counties reputation on these wild matters in the wake of the deplorable actions of certain individuals in respect to the spate of White Tailed Sea Eagle poisonings in recent years and the callous case involving the Grey and Common Seal beheadings the county and it's people as a whole are and have been unfairly tainted with indiscriminate criticism which is mostly undeserving.
 This initiative will be a long term project of mine to both uncover a wild side all too often overlooked in the county and as a basis to show those outspoken and undisclosed critics of the county that we are not all mindless killers like they think, when in fact we value our natural heritage more than most we just don't express it as others would. I will achieve my aims through the use of my own knowledge of Cetaceans, White Tailed Sea Eagles, Killarney National Park and other areas I know well, I will also feature videos of the counties wild landscapes and inhabitants via youtube and in time I hope to build up a circle of experts to explore their own specific fields to add a varied depth on my future website which I hope will encompass all aspects of Kerry's truly Wilder Side.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, more will follow
Sean