Hundreds of onlookers lined Cork's city quays yesterday to catch a glimpse of a juvenile Risso's dolphin which had made its way upstream. The young mammal, thin, and showing some signs of scarring, a feature of Risso's dolphins, became separated from the pod and wandered from Cork Harbour into the Lee river system early yesterday.
Initial attempts to persuade it to turn round failed and may have increased its stress levels, according to experts from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group who arrived at Father Mathew Quay to take charge.
Risso's dolphins are not like Fungi in Dingle Bay, a bottlenose, who likes to socialise with people. Their socialising is reserved for family groups and the kind of inshore frolicking that has so endeared Fungie to thousands of people over the years is foreign to them.
The probability is that the juvenile who braved the unclean waters of the Lee yesterday was not only lost and disorientated but frightened and hungry as well. Risso's dolphins feed on squid, and the pod may have been following its food in the harbour when the young calf branched off and found itself swimming upriver.
According to Dr Simon Berrow, of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, the last time a lone dolphin was seen so far upriver was in 1998 when one negotiated the Nore almost as far as Kilkenny. Usually, the prospects for lone strays from the Risso's group was not good, he added.
However, by late yesterday afternoon Dr Emer Rogan and a group from UCC had managed, with the help of a canoeist, to shoo the dolphin gently down river towards the mouth of the harbour and to safety.
There was some concern that salmon nets in the river might have caused problems for the mammal, but personnel from the Naval Service were on hand to help Dr Rogan's team smooth the way.
"We've no idea why the dolphin became separated from the pod, and there's no telling if it will try to get back into the river again," she added.