Blacksod Bay, Co. Mayo, is one of Ireland’s main live-stranding hotspots. Already in 2025, 24 dolphins have been in trouble here — and in 2022, 33 common dolphins stranded in a single day across three beaches, the largest mass stranding ever recorded by IWDG.

But these events are not new: one local who grew up overlooking one of the hotspot beaches recalls burying 28 common dolphins in the 1950s after a mass stranding, and recounts multiple mass strandings in the area, every decade since.

The reason is mainly geography and bad luck on the common dolphins part. Like Cape Cod in the USA, Blacksod bay is sheltered from the open water of the Atlantic by a peninsula. Pelagic common dolphins — oceanic dolphins not adapted to shallow coasts — follow small fish into the bay to feed. But when they try to head back west, they encounter the Mullet Peninsula and its large tidal sandflats dotted along the east side of the peninsula. Counter that with large tidal ranges during spring tides, sometimes as much as 4m, mass strandings do easily occur here. From Belmullet to Blacksod it can be 20 km before they reach open water. At low tide, the whole sandy seabed looks the same to them, and their echolocation seems offers no way out. As the tide drains, the dolphins are left behind, live stranded on drying beaches.

Right now, we have an amazing crew of IWDG Live Stranding Volunteer Responders who work hand in hand with the local community during live strandings. We adopt the same rescue plan as the Brandon Bay dolphin live-stranding hotspot in Kerry and IFAW Marine Mammal Rescue in Cape Cod, in that we lift the stranded dolphins out of the hotspot and transport them by road to selected beaches on the west or south west side of the peninsula, depending on swell and weather.

Our IWDG volunteers respond with borrowed open farm trailers, which means packing all equipment from scratch each time and securing it tightly so it doesn't blow out of the open trailers. This uses up precious time, and the sooner we reach stranded dolphins, the greater their chance of survival.

We urgently need Ireland’s first dedicated Dolphin Rescue Trailer: a quiet, enclosed box trailer, which can be towed by a car, always packed and ready to safely transport dolphins to deep-water release sites, store essential rescue gear, and provide shelter for volunteers during long rescues. We also need funding to kit out this trailer with compact storage, PPE, safety equipment and dolphins specific waterproof soft foam flooring mats, to reduce bruising to the dolphins and allow their lungs to expand more easily now that they are experiencing the full weight of their bodies out of the water.

Please donate today — every euro helps bring this essential rescue trailer to the IWDG Live Stranding Volunteer Responders and community in Erris, Co. Mayo who give their all during dolphin live strandings.