Nimmo the Bottlenose dolphin is Back at Galway Pier!
If you live in Galway then this may brighten your day! Nimmo the bottlenose dolphin is back, with a validated sighting for the second time this year! Bottlenose dolphins are usually highly social animals that spend time with their family pods, however year and year out, Nimmo has turned up solo to Galway Pier, spending months at a time in the same area foraging, resting and playing. You could say Nimmo is excellent at social distancing. It might be April 1st but this is no April fools. Read on to find out more.
Today April 1st 2020, Ocean Research & Conservation Ireland (O.R.C.Ireland) received a report through our website to the Observers App database that Nimmo the bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus
) is back at Galway Pier. This is truly wonderful for local Galway residents who can observe this dolphin in the wild within a short walk or journey from their homes, (within 2 km ), while the rest of us around the country are lockdown.
Kristina Steinmetz gave a detailed and validated report of Nimmo to O.R.C.Ireland after she first saw the dolphin at 2.30 pm today. Nimmo stayed around foraging for 35 minutes and was noted to swim in circles (known as milling), chase fish (known as surface rushing) and then resting. It can be tiring catching your lunch! Kristina has been observing Nimmo for a couple of weeks now since mid March, almost on a daily basis!
It's about time we received some positive reports, with the weeks leading up until now mostly consisting of stranded deceased animals reported to the Observers App. Nimmo has been showing up at Galway Pier for years, first seen in 2015 and is an anticipated visitor. This city visitor is much loved by the local community and Nimmo's visits provide a wonderful opportunity for families and students to get out and engage in citizen science and report their observations of what Nimmo is doing to the Observers App on a daily basis. Sign up via the members tab in the Observers App and get a years free membership to Ocean Research and Conservation Ireland. Help protect what you love and send us your photo's through the "Send us Images" tab to validate the species. Dive in to a world of citizen science with the Observers App and above all stay safe folks!
© Ocean Research & Conservation Ireland (ORCireland) and www.orcireland.ie , est. 2017. If you like our blogs on the latest news in marine science and would like to support our work, visit www.orcireland.ie to become a member, to volunteer or to make a donation today.
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