"It is some 30 years since I found my first True's Beaked Whale washed up dead on the beach below, and then another, a coupe of years later, farther along the shore. They were the eigth and ninth strandings of True's on global record. Then a recent invomer on this remote stretch of Mayo coast, I also happened to know which professor to invite to confirm the animal's eccentrically sparse dentition. So much for chance and statistics."