Bottlenose Dolphins & Sunfish Dingle Bay and Blasket Islands
(c) Britta Wilkens (c) Sandrine Papias |
Bottlenose dolphins visit Ventry Harbour on the Dingle PeninsulaOn August 26 we were very lucky in Ventry to have been visited by a pod of bottlenose dolphins that included a fair number of juveniles as well as at least one calf. They stayed for the whole day busily feeding all around the harbour and afforded all our passengers a good view of them as we were heading out on our eco tour and again as we were coming back home at the end of the day. While there are always a good number of common dolphins scattered all across Dingle Bay and beyond, bottlenose dolphins only visit us every now and again before they move on. Sunfish basking in Dingle BayThese days hardly a trip goes by without an encounter with sunfish (Mola mola). They are the largest bony fish in the world and can grow to a diameter of about two metres. They feed, amongst other things, on jellyfish (good to know someone likes to eat them!) and have a habit of basking on the surface of the water, affording us a good view of their rather lopsided appearance as they swim on their side, their pectoral fin flopping back and forth as they scour the water for food. |
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