How humpback whales behave in coastal waters around Ireland is a ‘mystery’ to scientists. A study on the movement of the humpback by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) – working in tandem with scientists in the US, Iceland, Norway and Holland – found no evidence of the whales intermingling outside of the region with others.

A humpback whale

A humpback whale. Image by Gregory “Slobirdr” Smith / CC BY 2.0

The research, according to RTE, compared 28 humpback whales that were photo-identified around Irish waters with a catalogue of 8,000 similar whales which recorded elsewhere throughout the North Atlantic. The IWDG described itself as being “staggered” that they failed to discover any matches between the ‘Irish’ whales and those located on the breeding grounds of the West Indies and Cape Verde.