Dolphin strandings may be due to global warming

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has reported a significant increase in strandings of a tropical dolphin species off the west coast.

This has led the group to suggest that global warming may already be affecting Ireland's Atlantic seaboard.

The discovery of a striped dolphin at Ballyferriter, Co Kerry, on Monday is the fifth stranding of that species in six weeks, Dr Simon Berrow of the IWDG says. Similar strandings were recorded at Ballyferriter on September 24th; Westport, Co Mayo, on September 18th; Rossbeigh, Co Kerry, on September 17th and Inishbofin, Co Donegal, on September 15th.

The striped dolphin is a tropical, warm-water species common in the Mediterranean and was first recorded in Ireland in 1985.

However, it became more and more common in the 1990s, before reaching an unprecedented peak in the past two months. It now ranks as the third most frequently stranded cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) species in the Republic.

The rapid increase suggests the seas around Ireland are warming quickly enough to change the distribution of marine predators such as dolphins, Dr Berrow says. "If the effects of climate change are affecting the marine environment so markedly, perhaps the recent floods and gale force winds are a sign of future weather patterns," he says.

"The change in pattern of activity and distribution isn't just confined to cetaceans," Dr Berrow told The Irish Times. Weever fish and trigger fish which were very rare up here before are now quite common, and yet they are warm-water species."

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group has been co-ordinating a stranding and sighting scheme around the island of Ireland since 1991 and has been involved with the Air Corps as part of the project.