An Irish expedition is setting off for west Africa next month to trace the breeding grounds for humpback whales which feed regularly off the Irish coast.
The group of scientists, led by Dr Simon Berrow of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG), will spend a month off the volcanic Cape Verde islands, working on a photographic inventory of humpback whales. These images will then be compared with photographs of humpbacks taken off Ireland.
Dr Berrow led a similar attempt to establish a "missing link" two years ago, but this proved inconclusive. "The theory is that the same humpbacks spend late summer and winter feeding in rich Irish coastal waters before travelling the 4,000km to the Cape Verde to breed," he said.
"Cape Verde is a very difficult place to go to, extremely hot with strong winds and big seas almost guaranteed. But we are determined to try and prove the link," Dr Berrow said.
"Over the last five years the number of humpback whales observed in Irish waters has increased considerably, but we still do not know where they are breeding."
The apparent increase in activity - which may be due in part to greater awareness about cetaceans (whales and dolphins) in Irish waters - is now helping to sustain several marine tourism operators on the south and southwest coasts.
The team of ten - comprising several marine biologists, two cameramen and two experienced sailors - will also try to obtain skin biopsies for DNA analysis, and make recordings of the humpback whales "song".
"We can recognise individual whales from the unique patterns on the underside of their tail flukes, a little like fingerprints on humans," Dr Berrow said. "There is a catalogue of over 5,500 individual humpback whales recorded in the north Atlantic and, to date, we have identified six individual whales in Ireland."
The group will send updates to the IWDG website at www.iwdg.ie/capeverde2006