Limerick girl’s magical Kerry find on the shores of the Maharees

Eagle-eyed eight-year-old Aisling Kinsella has made one of the marine biology finds of the year in Kerry after spotting and correctly identifying the large egg case of the critically-endangered White Skate in the Maharees – just hours after attending a talk on the subject!

The egg purse or ‘mermaid’s purse’, measuring 15.5cm in length, has captured the imagination of all involved in conservation locally, who’ve been striving hard for years to help protect the area’s precious White Skate population.

For its message is ultimately one of profound hope for all skates and relatives in the elasmobranch family of fish – skates, sharks and rays.

That it came just hours after Aisling had attended the very talk in which she received the key details necessary to make the identification on Maharabeg made it even more special.

Wildlife Biology Officer at the MTU Louise Overy, who is a member of the Irish Elasmobranch Group, was the expert who delivered that talk at the Maharees Conservation Association Mermaid’s Purse Identification event the day before (supported by the Local Authority Waters Programme Community Water Development Fund).

Louise put Aisling’s find in context as she met up with her on Saturday to examine the egg case: “Adult White skates can reach an impressive 2m in wingspan and have been found to live to 74.

“However, they are also very slow growing and very late to mature and so this makes them particularly at risk of population decline. Some estimates have shown that they don’t start reproducing until they are 20-23 years old and each embryo within the egg-case may take as long as 15 months to hatch. Aisling’s egg case capsule was very well preserved and measured 15.5cm in length.

“There have been 33 species of elasmobranch species recorded in Ireland to date and many of them lay egg cases that can wash ashore, all of unique shape and size to each species.

“This can be really helpful in helping us to identify areas all around our coast that are particularly important for them. Tralee bay is one such example and recognized internationally as being a vital area acting as a nursery for many threatened elasmobranchs and indeed it is one of the last remaining places in Ireland you may still be incredibly lucky and find a White skate egg-case.”

Limerick native Aisling is certainly counting her lucky stars after making the find. Her mom Máiréad spoke of their pride in her discovery: “We love visiting the Maharees and have learned so much about the environment and precious ecology of the area from the Maharees Conservation Association. We spend so much time here, it’s important to me that Aisling and her brother Oliver appreciate the uniqueness of the area and the wonders we can see.

“We went to the egg purse talk last Saturday and after seeing the sample Louise had, Aisling immediately recognised when she spotted the white skate egg purse on the shore a few days later. We are so proud that this is a important discovery with significance for the conservation community.”

Colum Walsh, Community Water Officer for Kerry with LAWPRO praised Aisling’s skills:

“The outer Tralee Bay is one of Kerry’s 68 Blue Dot catchments designated for their high-status water body objectives under the Water Framework Directive. It is heartening to hear how quickly the Ray and Skate egg case identification training day skills were put to use by Aisling! It’s very important to encourage our young people to act as citizen scientists which the team in Maharees are doing with funding from the Community Water Development fund.

Martha Farrell of the Maharees Conservation Association Biodiversity team said: “We are just delighted that our event made an almost immediate impact. The fact that Aisling, at such a young age, noticed and correctly identified the case on a family walk along the beach motivates our team to keep engaging our visitors and community in Maharees wildlife experiences.

“These citizen science records are really important to the biologists and state agencies trying to conserve our native species.”

Anyone coming across a White skate egg-case can send a picture to the IEG Facebook or Instagram page or by email to [email protected]

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