Clare County Council says it removed the stranded whale from a North Clare beach which has been the focus of a countywide search for many days.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group had appealed for the public to contact them with information on the mammal, which was reported stranded on Liscannor beach last month but then mysteriously vanished.
Descriptions of the whale and it’s long tusk have led scientists to believe it is of the Narwhal variety, which had previously not been discovered in Irish waters.
But speaking on Clare FM’s Morning Focus today – Betty Devaney of Clare County Council’s Environment Section revealed the carcass was removed and destroyed for public health reasons.
She added the Council was unaware that it may have been a rare species, and staff didn’t know the dead mammal was a whale, due to its badly decomposed state.
