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Cetaceans sighted up river by Peace Bridge, Lough Foyle, Co Derry.

admin admin • Apr 07, 2020

Lucky people from Derry may have a chance to observe harbour porpoise and bottlenose dolphins up river in Lough Foyle. Two wonderful sightings from Northern Ireland were reported to Ocean Research & Conservation Ireland to add to the Observers App database yesterday and it turns cetaceans have been there for a few days now.

One harbour porpoise ( Phocoena phocoena ) swimming up river in Lough Foyle was sighted by citizen scientist Pól Coyle last Saturday, April 4th 2020.

" It was heading in the direction of Peace Bridge", says Pól.

" It would have travelled a right few miles from the mouth of the Foyle. Although it was a good distance away it did look quite small. I did get a photo on my phone but its not very clear because of the distance ", he elaborated.

On April 6th we received another report from Matt McKeown of bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiopis truncatus ) sighted by his brother in-law Brendan, seen foraging by Peace Bridge, Lough Foyle, Co, Derry. From our examination of the footage, we think there were at least 10 bottlenose dolphins present.

This isn't the first time we have received reports of bottlenose dolphins in Lough Foyle, back in August 2019, we also received a report of 8 adults bottlenose dolphins from Scenic Ferries.

What is interesting about the most recent report of bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoise, is that generally aren't seen in the same area around the same time, so this has sparked O.R.C.'s Events Officer; Einne O' Cathasaigh's curiosity as he is currently doing his masters thesis in Marine Biology on the spatial distribution between bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoise under the supervision of Professor Emer Rogan of University College Cork (UCC).

We are really grateful to the people who have submitted records of these interesting sightings and hope citizen scientists within 2km of Lough Foyle can help us to monitor this situation and provide more records to help us understand how cetaceans are using Lough Foyle. Get the Observers App FREE on Google Play or from our website www.orcireland.ie and submit records of what you see in Lough Foyle.

All records are really important to help with our research, especially Einne's MSc Thesis. So use your phone for good, stretch your legs and take a walk along the river, as you never know what you will find! Reports can be made through the green button in the Observers App and images can be uploaded through the "Send us Images" tab. Videos can be sent to us directly either through the Observers App Facebook Page , or by emailing O.R.C.'s Data Officer Jane Sheehan directly on observersapp@gmail.com.

© Ocean Research & Conservation Ireland (ORCireland) and www.orcireland.ie , est. 2017. If you like our blogs on the latest news in marine science and would like to support our work, visit www.orcireland.ie to become a member, to volunteer or to make a donation today.

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