A tour guide operator interrupted an outing for his guests to help rescue a beached whale calf in Galway yesterday.
Damien O'Malley was bringing out a group on a tour of Roundstone Bay and Island as part of his business when he saw what he at first though was just a peculiar shine in the water.
"I wasn't too sure what it was," he said. "Then I thought it was a dead dolphin that had landed in [on the shore].
"Once I tied the boat up and looked over the pier, I could see there's actually a little bit of movement."
Mr O'Malley went down to the animal where he realised it was a small whale, and it was still alive.
In fact, in turned out to be a minke whale calf that had become stuck on the Galway coast.
"I just ran to the boat," Mr O'Malley said.
He got those on his tour to help him pour buckets of sea water over the whale.
The whale began to make more noise and then more movement.
"It was coming back to life really; there was not much movement before that," said Mr O'Malley.
"The tide was coming in. I knew we'd have to have it underwater in say an hour and a half or two hours. We kept covering it with water until then."
As the tide came in, he tried to encourage the whale to go out to sea.
"And it kept beaching itself again," said Mr O'Malley.
The whale calf tried and failed to go out to sea three times.
Eventually, Mr O'Malley used his boat to get as close to the whale as he could and moved the animal off the rocks.
"Soon we had it in the middle of the water. We just let go and it seemed once it had a little bit of space, it seemed to get its energy," he said.
On its fourth attempt, the whale calf was free and was swimming in Roundstone Bay.
Mr O'Malley is hopeful that the calf will be able to reunite with its mother as he fears it is too young to survive on its own.
He admitted that yesterday was not his usual working day.
"It was an eventful day," he said. "We didn't expect it along the tour."
The Irish Whale and Dolphin group has advised the public that if they ever come across a stranded dolphin, whale or porpoise, to contact a dedicated emergency hotline on 097 28118.
It said it has a network of trained responders around the coastline, who may be able to assist in such cases.
