Managing a Dynamic North Sea in the light of its ecological dynamics: Increasing occurrence of large baleen whales in the southern North Sea

A recent increase in sightings and strandings of humpback and to a lesser extent, fin whales in the southern North Sea has been well documented. This positive trend in the marine mammal community is to be welcome. A similar increase has been documented off the south and southwest coasts of Ireland over the past 20 years. The first international match of a humpback whale outside of Ireland was to the Netherlands in 2007, demonstrating a link between these two feeding grounds. Data from Ireland, largely obtained through citizen science, is presented as an insight into what may occur in the southern North Sea in the near future. Between 1999 and 2014 the number of individual humpback whales recorded in Ireland rose slowly. A dramatic increase occurred in 2015, when the number of individually identified whales increased from 30 to 66 and, to a lesser extent, in 2017 and.