{"id":347698,"date":"2025-12-15T23:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T23:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/347698\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T23:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T23:10:08","slug":"narwhal-recently-found-in-ireland-suggests-theyre-moving-into-new-areas-some-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/347698\/","title":{"rendered":"Narwhal recently found in Ireland suggests they’re moving into new areas, some experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Niamh Gavin and her four kids usually walk their dogs on Sweet Nellie’s Beach in Greencastle in the Irish county of Donegal. <\/p>\n

Most of the time it\u2019s an uneventful outing, but last month they came across something unusual. Gavin’s son thought at first it was a seal.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven from a distance, I thought, \u2018that\u2019s a large seal,\u2019\u201d Gavin said.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be a female narwhal.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) recovered the animal a day later, and, along with scientists from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG), conducted a post-mortem examination of the animal.<\/p>\n

Simon Berrow of the IWDG, an advocacy group, says it appears the animal may have died after it became stranded on shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wasn\u2019t in very good condition, but she wasn\u2019t emaciated. So maybe she was diseased and that ultimately led to her live stranding, and then the live stranding killed her,\u201d Berrow said.<\/p>\n

Regardless of what caused the narwhal\u2019s death, Gavin was shocked to see it on an Irish beach.<\/p>\n

\"ANiamh Gavin and her four kids discovered a narwhal on a beach in northern Ireland while walking their dogs. Her son initially thought it was a seal. (TJ Dhir\/CBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just mad to know how it ended up there, and why,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Whales ‘triggers of wider changes in our marine environment,’ advocate says<\/p>\n

Narwhals typically inhabit Arctic waters, though some have reportedly been seen elsewhere in Europe, including in Belgium in 2016<\/a> when a dead male narwhal washed up on the shore of a river.<\/p>\n

Berrow believes the animal found last month in Ireland could indicate that narwhals may be moving into new areas. That’s something the IWDG has seen with other species it tracks.<\/p>\n

Berrow says that another Arctic marine mammal \u2014 a bowhead whale \u2014 was also seen northeast of Ireland in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is really scary because when we look at whales and dolphins, they are triggers of wider changes in our marine environment,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"ASimon Berrow, the CEO of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, believes more narwhals could make their way to Ireland in the future. (TJ Dhir\/CBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to monitor them because they will probably give us insights into things that are happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moses Koonoo, a hunter from Arctic Bay, Nunavut, says he\u2019s not surprised a narwhal made its way to Ireland because the animals can travel long distances. He also believes it’s related to climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s [because] of global warming that they travel to different places,\u201d said Koonoo.<\/p>\n

However, Marianne Marcoux, a researcher with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), says the narwhal found in Ireland is “not too much of a panic.” <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been found before to go outside their normal range,\u201d said Marcoux.<\/p>\n

Marcoux points to narwhals that have been found in the St. Lawrence River<\/a>, from 2016 to 2023.<\/p>\n

Still, one Irish cabinet minister says the discovery last month is a significant event.<\/p>\n

Christopher O\u2019Sullivan, Ireland’s minister for nature, heritage and biodiversity, called it “a stark reminder of the vulnerability of wildlife in the face of a changing climate, and the need to protect them.”<\/p>\n

As for Niamh Gavin, she says her kids are ready for the next strange visitor to their favourite beach. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe go to that beach regularly, but every time we go, they\u2019re currently like the narwhal hunters,\u201d Gavin said, jokingly. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey think they are going to find live narwhals living in the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-347698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}