The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group have given an update on Wally the walrus today (August 18) as the Arctic visitor that was taken to the hearts of the people of Tenby during his time in the seaside town, continues to be spotted in Irish waters.

After spending four days between August 9 to 13 in the Dunnycove area of Clonakilty Bay, Co. Cork, Wally next appeared off the Castlepoint area of Roaringwater bay on Tuesday where he was filmed at sea.

This morning (Wednesday) it was reported to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group by Schull Sailing Club Commodore Sean Norris that Wally had been spotted (and photographed) hauled out on a small leisure boat in Crookhaven.

The group said that it was a great opportunity to view this rarely seen species in Irish waters, but urged people to use ‘common sense’ and to watch Wally using optics from the shore, as he continues his ‘remarkable story’ after travelling for five months over five countries and 3,000 km.

“Please don’t harass it or crowd around it on boats. Walrus need to spend a lot of time resting and if it is being continually harassed by a floatilla of small boats, then it is unlikely to get the sort of rest it needs for the longer and more difficult journeys that lay ahead,” stated Irish Whale and Dolphin Group on social media.

“While no doubt, well intentioned, attempts by a local commercial entity with welfare groups to build a pontoon for the walrus to haul out on whilst in Dunnycove came to nothing, as the walrus had simply moved on before the necessary foreshore licences, navigation lights or insurances were in place.

“But apart from such administrative matters, IWDG question whether building a more comfortable place for it to haul out on, is in the long term interest of this animal.

“There are plenty of remote areas of the coastline for a walrus to safely come ashore for rest and providing it with a purpose built bed may just be sending it the wrong message.

“We all surely want the same thing, which is for it to stay only as long as it needs and then move on. Otherwise it just becomes a circus.

“Assuming it continues its current track over the coming days, it will at least be tracking northwest, but it won’t be till it passes Valentia Island and rounds the Dingle Peninsula, that we can say its truly northbound.

“As always, we’d ask members of the public to report sightings of the Walrus to IWDG either on our new Reporting App or via the Report a Sighting link on www.iwdg.ie,” they added.

Wally arrived back in Irish waters at the start of August, after first being spotted off Kerry in Ireland, on March 14, after it is believed he may have fallen asleep on an iceberg off Greenland which drifted to Valentia Island.

Within six days he had made his way over to Pembrokeshire where he was spotted at Broad Haven beach, and within a few days he rocked up in Tenby, mostly making his home on the RNLI’s lifeboat station slipway, where Wally remained for around seven weeks, before heading to Cornwall.

By late May Wally continued to track south to France, before eventually returning to the UK, arriving in the Isles of Scilly on June 17, where he caused a bit of mischief for boat owners, in trying to rest up on their vessels, before a special floating purpose-built pontoon was created for him to relax on with his scent to attract him away from boats and other areas.