A BELUGA whale has been spotted in Donegal in what has been hailed as an extremely rare sighting.
Sebastian Szumlański captured the whale on video at Fintra, Donegal Bay last Saturday.
He observed what he thought at first was a pale dolphin close to shore in the Secret Waterfall area.
He then launched his drone to capture the whale and he showed the video to a friend who has done photography out on Mullaghmore based Whale Watching boat, Kiwi Girl, with Declan Kilgannon, who shared the footage with The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).
The video confirmed the animal to be a beluga whale and only the second such validated record in Irish waters in the IWDG’s 35-year history.
The beluga is a medium-size whale species that typically lives in freezing waters of the Arctic and sub-Arctic, and can reach up to five metres in length.
Another Arctic species, the narwhal, was first documented in Ireland in November 2025, when a young female stranded on Sweet Nellies Beach, north of Greencastle.
Belugas have been reported on at least four previous occasions around the Irish coast. The first known record dates back to September 1948 off Clare Island in Clew Bay, County Mayo (Irish Naturalist Journal, INJ).
Pádraig Whooley, Sightings Officer said: “We can’t really say much about this individual other than its colour and size would confirm this to be an adult, of unknown gender.
“The videos do not give us cause for concern for its welfare, as it seems to be swimming strongly and breathing normally.
“It is also evidently in brackish and very shallow water, which is quite common among populations of belugas such as those in the St Lawrence River, Canada, who frequently aggregate in river mouths, regularly swimming hundreds of kilometers up river systems, until fresh water freezing in autumn, provides the cue to return to the safety of open sea.”
He added that a beluga was seen over the summer in Norway, Denmark and Finland, and efforts are now being made to confirm if this is a match.
“If you are fortunate enough to observe this charismatic whale, we’d ask you as always to try and get images or video and report your sighting (with images) to IWDG on www.iwdg.ie, so we can monitor its progress and track its movements in Irish waters,” said Mr Whooley.