Dolphins and porpoises off Kilkee: what you actually see

Ask about dolphins in Clare and everyone points at the Shannon. That is a different animal in a different place, and it is worth clearing up before you go looking.

First, the ones you will not see

The Shannon Estuary holds a resident group of bottlenose dolphins, based around Carrigaholt, and it is one of the largest in Europe. It is a genuine wildlife spectacle and it is worth a trip. But it is an estuary population that stays in the estuary. They do not come up the coast to us. If you book a dive at Kilkee hoping to meet the Carrigaholt dolphins, you are in the wrong water.

What we do see

The open coast between Kilkee and Loop Head is a different proposition, and a good one. It is one of the better stretches of Irish coastline for cetaceans, and the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group names the Kilkee cliffs and Loop Head among the places worth watching from.

• Common dolphin. The one you are most likely to meet. Fast, loud, often in numbers, and they will come to a boat. Look for the pale hourglass on the flank.

• Bottlenose dolphin. Bigger, grey, blunt-headed. Coastal animals moving along the shore rather than the estuary residents.

• Harbour porpoise. The easiest to miss. Small, dark, no beak, a small triangular fin and a quiet roll rather than a leap. Most people look straight past them.

• Minke whale. Not a dolphin, but it belongs in the same watch. Loop Head produced minke sightings during Whale Watch Ireland this year.

Telling a porpoise from a dolphin

It is the single most useful identification to learn on this coast, and it takes about ten seconds. A dolphin has a beak, a curved dorsal fin, and it is demonstrative — it breaches, it bow-rides, it makes a scene. A porpoise has no beak, a small triangular fin like a shark, and it surfaces with a short quiet roll and disappears. If you saw something and were not sure it was there, it was probably a porpoise.

When to look

Summer and early autumn are the reliable months. A flat, calm sea matters more than sunshine — in any chop above a light breeze you will not pick out a fin, and porpoises become effectively invisible. Check the wind before you go and pick the calmest morning of the week. The live conditions on our home page will tell you.

Calm water is worth more than a clear sky. On a glassy morning you will see things that a Force 4 hides completely.

If you see something, record it

The IWDG runs the official Irish recording scheme for whales, dolphins and porpoises, and its database is built from sightings sent in by ordinary people on headlands and boats. If you get a good look at something off this coast, log it. It takes two minutes and it is genuinely useful data.