{"id":12866,"date":"2025-09-10T19:53:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T19:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/12866\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T19:53:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T19:53:06","slug":"tributes-paid-to-marine-biologist-who-died-climbing-cork-cliffs-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/12866\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes paid to marine biologist who died climbing Cork cliffs \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tributes have been paid to a marine biologist and member of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group who died in a climbing accident in west Cork<\/a> last Thursday.<\/p>\n

Italian Lorenzo De Bonis (27) who was studying for a PhD at University College Cork<\/a>, died after falling while climbing cliffs<\/a> near the Beacon in Baltimore. <\/p>\n

Mr De Bonis, from Rome, was reported missing by his partner, Signe Martin, when he failed to return that evening. The Irish Coast Guard Marine Rescue Centre in Valentia began a search operation.<\/p>\n

Coast Guard helicopters from Waterford and Shannon were tasked with the search and were joined by Baltimore RNLI, the Irish Coast Guard from Toe Head and local volunteers.<\/p>\n

Mr De Bonis\u2019s body was recovered by divers from the sea near cliffs early on Friday morning. His body was removed to Cork University Hospital for a postmortem examination.<\/p>\n

Mr De Bonis, who is survived by Ms Martin, his parents Riccardo and Concetta and his sister, Chiara, will be remembered at a funeral service in Rome on Friday.<\/p>\n

Dr Simon Berrow of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group<\/a> (IWDG) paid tribute to Mr De Bonis on the group\u2019s website, remembering him as a fine scientist and a valued group member. <\/p>\n

\u201cLorenzo loved all outdoor activities including sailing and climbing, and it was the latter that led to his untimely passing,\u201d said Dr Berrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hearts go out to you all. Lorenzo will live on in our hearts and we will ensure his work will be published and leave some legacy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He recalled how Mr De Bonis reached out to the IWDG in 2020 and contributed to the group remotely initially by preparing podcasts on the group\u2019s Shannon dolphin research.<\/p>\n

He later wrote a story for the IWDG magazine Flukes, about how he encountered a grey whale in the Mediterranean during one of the many yacht-based surveys he carried out.<\/p>\n

Dr Berrow noted how Mr De Bonis studied for a MSc at the Atlantic Technological University Galway on the genetics of bottlenose dolphins after several strandings in the Shannon Estuary.<\/p>\n

He said Mr De Bonis\u2019s work with ATU and the IWDG on updating their knowledge on bottlenose dolphin genetics was very useful to the group, particularly in relation to solitary dolphins.<\/p>\n

That work earned him the opportunity to study for a PhD in UCC where he became a valued mentor to students at the college\u2019s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have been paid to a marine biologist and member of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12564,46,61,60,102,43,620],"class_list":{"0":"post-12866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-cork","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-italy","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-west-cork"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}