Another post mostly following up from the previous one. Two more Common Dolphins washed up on the shoreline at Creggoduff beach in front of the Connemara Golf Course in late February. Thankfully given the more easterly winds the numbers of stranded Common Dolphins haven't been hitting the Irish coastline in the last fortnight or so. That isn't to say however that they aren't still being killed in large numbers offshore. It's probably just the case that they aren't being pushed ashore. Up to the end of February of this year 87 Common Dolphins have been recorded stranded. Only ten years ago a total of 25 Common Dolphins would have been the norm!
The amount of marine litter washed up on the shoreline was depressing. The huge majority of it seems to come from the fishing industry mostly in the form of discarded ropes and netting. For an industry that relies on a healthy marine ecosystem to support sustainable stocks of commercial fisheries it seems utterly illogical for the same sector to wreck the environment so much. The large foreign trawlers can't take all the blame for this however as the the small inshore Irish boats are equally if not more responsible. Washed up along the same shoreline I recorded 1 Iceland Gull, 1 Gluacous Gull, 1 Kittiwake, 8 Fulmars and 2 seal species, all dead.
Common Dolphin, Creggoduff Strand, Ballyconneely, 26th February 2018.
Common Dolphin, Creggoduff Strand, Ballyconneely, 26th February 2018.
Bottlenose Dolphin, Creggoduff Strand, Ballyconneely, 26th February 2018.
Fishing industry marine litter, Creggoduff Strand, Ballyconneely, 26th February 2018.
Fishing Industry marine litter, Creggoduff Strand, Ballyconneely, 26th February 2018.
Plastic litter, Creggoduff Strand, Ballyconneely, 26th February 2018.
Dead adult Iceland Gull, Creggoduff Strand, 26th February 2018.
Close up on the open primaries of the dead adult Iceland. Note the grey on the outer web of p10 and to a much lesser extent on p9. Probably not well marked enough to call it a Kumlien's-type.
Adult Glaucous Gull with an adult Herring Gull, Aillebrack, 23rd February 2018.
Adult Glaucous Gull, Aillebrack, 23rd February 2018.
Adult Glaucous Gull feeding on a dead seal, Aillebrack, 23rd February 2018.
Adult Glaucous Gull feeding on a dead seal, Aillebrack, 23rd February 2018.
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