Courtmacsherry Whale Stranded Co Cork Ireland Kilbrittain Fin Whale

Aug 2010: Photos of whale skeleton in Kilbrittain Aug 2010. Located : N51 40.407 W8 41.247 3.7km from stranding. Also Galley head whale watch ireland photos.
All Photos of the stranded Fin whale Courtmac Co Cork Jan 09
Map images showing where the whale stranded
Channel 4 aired the post mortem program on 6th July 2009 - see it here.
Fin Whale live stranded on 15 jan 09, these photos taken on 17th:
- Tongue, inflated by gas inside the decomposing whale
- Intestine
- Liver (black in center of photo)
- Blubber, from lower side

Video in windows media format (right-click to download):

The whole lot uncut 15mins: 55mb, 255mb.
Edited 9 min: 188mb, 64mb, 40mb. Timeline-> 00:12 Courtmacsherry bay entrance, 00:37 the tongue inflated by gas, 01:22 underside, 01:27 Simon Berrow & Pádraig Whooley(IWDG), 01:53 Joy Reidenberg clambering up, 02:40 cutting open underneath, 03:00 Pádraig cutting out intestines, 03:32 Baleen Plates, 04:34 Tearing away underside, 05:50 section of underneath removed - spongy to walk on, 06:30 Fluke, 06:35 children, 06:52 pectoral fin, 06:53 Intestines, 07:15 Joy toward the front, 07:52 liver (dark grey), 08:05 cutting the baleen plates, 08:46 liver, 08:50 Joey's chip van! 09:00 end.
Some short clips:
- Tongue, inflated with gas: 14mb, 4mb
- Intestines (left photo): 30mb, 8mb
- Underside being stripped off: 39mb 5mb

About the gross post mortem on 17-Jan-09 shown in the above photos and video clips:

It was led by Joy Reidenberg, Associate Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She flew over from the USA that morning. Her research focuses on upper respiratory tract anatomy in a wide range of mammals with particular emphasis on whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Others also working on the gross post mortem were members of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (including Simon Berrow and Padraig Whooley), UCC. Cork County Council were present and the civil defence.

The major organs were removed for tests and then all the flesh was removed for inceneration. There were very hight winds on the day (17th) so the video shots are not very steady.

National Geographic (and Channel four?) had camera crews on site, program to be shown in june 2009 (IWDG will inform members closer to the date)

	National TV coverage from TV3 & RTE on the day of the stranding 15 jan 09. It shows the whale still alive before it stranded. Video clips: WMV18mb or AVI55mb (righ-click to dowload) A lower resolution clip is available at RTE.'s website.

	Exploding Whale - USA 1970 - How NOT to dispose of a beached whale Video clip WMV 3mb (right click to download, you might need VLC player) Also on YouTube.

	Living the WildLife - Whales RTE coverage of the Fin and Humback whales off the cork coast on Colin Barnes's "Holly Jo" boat. You can view it online on RTE's web site here. .

	Not to be viewed just before going to bed.... Graphic content! YouTube. 'Self exploding', ameland beach holland, whale presumably from gas building up insidethe decomposing whale (or click on vidoe to the left). Some more clips of self exploding whales : Denmark 1991, another. Large stranded turtle.

	keywords: beached stranded courtmacsherry kilbrittian kilbrittain bay ireland irish dolphin jan 2009 fin dorsal pectoral fluke blubber baleen plates youtube humpback pilot exploding whale images photos