Portstewart Strand: Dead minke whale removed from County Londonderry beach
A dead minke whale has been removed from Portstewart Strand in County Londonderry.The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) said the whale washed up on the beach on Sunday evening.The National Trust said it worked with a range of agencies and marine mammal experts to follow protocol, removing and disposing of the whale on Tuesday afternoon. "It was important the removal happened as quickly as possible as decaying marine mammals pose a serious health risk," a spokesperson added.
Laurence Ghisoiu, senior visitor experience officer for the National Trust, told BBC News NI the last time a whale was beached on Portstewart Strand was in 2015.Back then, it was taken to landfill. While minke whales are known to be among the smallest, they can grow to about 35 ft (10m) and weigh up to 20,000 lb (9,000 kg).The species can usually be seen between July and October in UK waters and live for up to 50 years.Whales can come ashore for many reasons, including injury, illness, bad weather and navigational errors leading them into shallow water.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
NI health: Woman was asked to examine husband to confirm he was dead
A grieving woman who was told to examine her husband to confirm he was dead says it remains in her mind every time she closes her Catherine Steele's husband Anthony died from stomach cancer in May she called an ambulance but was told none were was asked to make a video call and check her husband's vital signs to confirm he had Northern Ireland Ambulance Service apologised and said: "We are sorry that she did not experience the level of service that she would rightly expect at this particularly difficult time." Video call Mrs Steele had phoned a 24-hour district nurse helpline, but she said no one picked sister then rang the ambulance Steele's sister was told an ambulance would be sent out but none sister then had to leave to pick up Mrs Steele's son from work, leaving her alone with her Steele later received a call to say an ambulance would not be arriving and was asked to take part in a video call."I had to do his pulse on his wrists, and on his neck and then I had to open his eyes up on the video call so she could see," Mrs Steele told BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan was then the medical professional on the call confirmed Mrs Steele's husband was dead. She was asked to contact a doctor, who sent out the district nurse."It's just my last memory of him and it's just in my mind every time I close my eyes," she said."It's not acceptable, I know the ambulance service and NHS is under stress but I just feel it should never happen again."I don't want this to happen to anybody".Mrs Steele said she had been prescribed sleeping tablets due to suffering from insomnia since the incident."I just close my eyes and see his eyes, and it just replays back and back and back on your mind." In a statement, the NIAS said: "We will contact Mrs Steele to arrange to meet her and apologise to her in person and, more importantly, to listen to her concerns that we might learn from her experience to help ensure that no-one else would have to go through the same."
BBC News
9 hours ago
- BBC News
Special educational needs school leavers working as classroom assistants
Classroom assistants Dan McKee and Savanna Presho are both aged 20 and have Down's with 22-year-old Ben McCreight, who has a learning disability, they are working hard to make a positive difference to pupils at two primary schools in Bangor, County and Ben work as classroom assistants in Clandeboye Primary School, while Savanna works in Bloomfield Primary principal of Bloomfield PS, Rebecca Bishop, told BBC News NI that Savanna "brings out the best in our pupils." BBC News NI visited the school to see her at work in the school's polytunnel, helping the pupils learn about how to grow flowers, plants and also works with pupils in the school's nurture unit and P1, supporting the teacher."She's fitted in here like she's part of the furniture," Ms Bishop told BBC News NI."Savanna comes in here and just enjoys being part of our everyday."She brings that natural empathy which all children have within them, and that willingness to engage and to work with new people."It's nice for them to see somebody different coming into school and have that opportunity to shine with their own personalities." Just over a third of people with disabilities in Northern Ireland are in work, compared with more than half in the rest of the to the Department for the Economy (DfE), adults with disabilities in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to be unemployed as those without a disability. Making a difference At Clandeboye Primary School, principal Julie Thomas says Dan and Ben working in the school every Monday had made a difference to said he loved the children and staff in the school and looked forward to work every Monday."We help the kids doing PE and after that doing some work," he Thomas added: "Dan and Ben have been working with P1 and in our nurture room, The Nest, to help support the children with their practical activities and their social activities and also their time outside in the playground."Within a very short time, we've seen their confidence grow."They have grown in how they're seen within the building."They've made really good relationships with the staff as well as the children and we just see them as part of our staff now in Clandeboye Primary School." At Clandeboye, Dan and Ben were role models, Ms Thomas said."With us working now fully with children who have additional needs, I think it's important for the families of those children to see that there are other experiences once the children go beyond school life themselves and on into adulthood," she said. SEN support Parents and school principals have highlighted how support for young people with special educational needs (SEN) ends when they leave have campaigned for to change that and introduce statutory support until the age of is a situation that Robert McGowan runs Strides Day Opportunity Service in Bangor, which provides work experience and other classes for young adults who have come through special education. Mr McGowan arranged Dan, Ben and Savanna's placements as classroom assistants with the two primary schools."Dan started in special education as a boy of maybe five or six, so he's had 13 or 14 years in special education," he said."Then the provision stops. Once they reach the adult sector, there seems to be a gap there."All that effort, all that consistency, all that time that's been spent that can ease off and almost dry up."Mr McGowan also said it was important to provide "meaningful" work experience for young adults with disabilities.
BBC News
16 hours ago
- BBC News
Cervical cancer: Alliance MLA Michelle Guy says screening saved her life
An MLA has said it was "shocking and really terrifying" when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in November Guy, who was 44 at the time and experienced no symptoms, said the cancer was only caught because of cervical screening."It terrifies me to think if I was blasé about going for screenings, what that outcome could have been; how more developed things might have been when I realised that there was a problem," she average of 81 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer each year between 2017 and 2021, with about 20 deaths per year, according to the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry, which hold the most recent statistics. The Alliance Party politician hopes to use her platform to encourage women to go for cervical screening."I'm relieved to have went through that process, relieved that the screening system worked for me; that it did find that cancer, and it did find it early," she mother-of-two said her diagnosis came as "a huge surprise" as her previous smear tests had always came back clear of a routine smear test two years ago showed there was "something wrong" which needed further investigation."To find myself in that position was initially unnerving," she said."But I was realistic that most people, they go through this, everything's fine."That's what the screening process is for, to identify things early." A couple of weeks after having a colposcopy, while sitting in her kitchen, she received a "terrifying" phone call from the hospital asking her to come in, but not to come alone."When you hear, don't come on your own, you know there's something wrong," she was told she had cervical was caught "at an early stage", which she said was a "relief", but it still led to months of anxiety until she completed treatment was a hysterectomy which she had in January 2024, while still working as a councillor for Lisburn and Castlereagh Council. "We got a level of reassurance that the hysterectomy would be a cure - that was the language that my oncologist used - that they intended this to be a cure," she said."There isn't 100% certainty until you've had the procedure and all the different tests are complete, so I was just really anxious and determined to get it over with."You want that operation as soon as possible because nothing's getting better while you're waiting."I was lucky that it was contained and localised in a way that going through that surgery, as dramatic and painful as that is, I was very cognizant that things might have been worse had that diagnosis not come as early as it did." What is cervical screening? Cervical screening, while not a diagnostic test, is for people without symptoms and aims to detect early changes which could go on to develop into cervical cancer if left some cases, cancer may be December 2023, Northern Ireland introduced primary HPV cervical screening, although this was after Ms Guy's checks for an infection called human papillomavirus (HPV) - the cause of most cervical newer HPV test is regarded as a better indicator than cytology of identifying who is a higher risk of developing cervical cancer. Through her diagnosis and treatment she continued to work in politics because, not only did she feel it was "vocational", it was also a "distraction".She said she had that "reflex to stay busy" and "wanted to get as far away from what I had been through as quickly as possible"."It's that sense of I was running away from it as opposed to necessarily processing it," she said she also threw herself into experiences that she may not otherwise have done so, including replacing Sorcha Eastwood as the MLA for Lagan Valley just eight months after her diagnosis. 'Hopefully do some good' Michelle understands that there is a lack of confidence around cervical screening, particularly after what happened in the Southern Trust when 17,500 women had to have their smear tests re-checked."Of course [that] would shake anybody's confidence in our system here - that women were going forward for their smears, and they were being let down," she she had kept her cervical cancer diagnosis private, she feels now is the right time to share her experience to "hopefully do some good" and encourage women to attend screenings."Not going for it and then potentially facing a diagnosis that I had and potentially one that's much more serious - that you knew you might have been able to prevent had you taken the opportunity of a screening - I really feel that that is a message that I didn't want to shy away from anymore," she said.
