Light was fading as we made our way along the congested roadway. We’d left the car and decided to proceed on foot — which turned out to be a wise decision. A few hundred yards further on the road was completely impassable. There were cars and people everywhere, despite the inclement drizzle. Freezing drizzle and driving wind is a perfectly normal part of a West Cork January, the cause of all this commotion on this normally quiet stretch of coastal road was anything but normal.

A fin whale, one of the largest animals ever to have lived on earth, second only to it’s close cousin the blue whale, had live-stranded in Courtmacsherry estuary earlier that day. Early morning reports of a giant whale in the estuary prompted a concerted rescue effort involving the Courtmacsherry lifeboat crew, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG), the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and an army of volunteers.

But their efforts were to no avail. The magnificent creature — 19.7 metres (c. 65 foot) long, with an estimated weight in excess of 50 tonnes — died later that afternoon, left behind on a sandbank by the rapidly receding tide.

Why such an intelligent marine mammal with one of natures most sophisticated navigation systems at its disposal entered the shallow waters of the estuary we may never know, but experts from the IWDG speculate that, as in the vast majority of live stranding cases, this animal — a young adult — was probably injured or sick before it ventured inshore.

As twilight descended over Courtmacsherry bay we made our way across the channel out onto the sandbank where the whale’s body lay.

"Why did he die?" the little one asked from her perch up on my shoulders, her voice full of curiosity and wonder.

Continue reading »