Engineers at Holyhead are examining an Irish Ferries vessel for damage today after it collided with what is believed to have been a whale in the Irish Sea yesterday.
The incident took place at round 2pm yesterday when the Dublin Swift service from Dun Laoighre was about 30 minutes from docking at Holyhead. There were 490 passengers, plus staff, on board but no one was injured.
A spokesman for the company said: "As the vessel was approaching Holyhead it suffered some sort of soft impact and we believe it may have hit a whale or another underwater mammal."
According to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group the incident was unusual incident because whales rarely visited the sea along the Dublin-Holyhead shipping route
However, the recent hot weather has seen a significant rise in the number of mammals spotted in the Irish Sea. The IWDG said Minke whales are the most common whale in the area and that these were typically quite small, at about 30ft long.
Today's Dublin Swift service has been cancelled. The 4,000 passengers booked on the sailings will be accommodated on the company's car ferry.
A spokesman for the company said: "As the vessel was approaching Holyhead it suffered some sort of soft impact and we believe it may have hit a whale or another underwater mammal."
Passengers due to sail can call information lines in Ireland on 0818 300400 and in the UK on 08705 171717.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/64c7504b-f9dd-4cbf-ad7c-534bbb1857e7.png)