In our bay of Skjalfandi it is impossible to guarantee whale sightings. On some tours the bay is full of life, on others only a few whales are spotted, or even none at all.
This however, is not the case in DingleBay, on the west coast of Ireland. On our recent backpacking around Ireland, we joined a whale watching excursion from DinglePeninsula. When boarding the vessel Lady Laura, we were almost promised that we would see a marine mammal. This we couldn’t really believe, as we are both working as whale watching guides and know how unpredictable nature can be.
And then it happened! After a few minutes of sailing we did come across a bottlenose dolphin. This was not just a normal dolphin - this was Fungie, probably one of the world’s most famous whale!
What is it that makes him so special? Fungie has been resident in DingleBay since 1984! This makes him the longest standing friendly solitary dolphin in the world. He is believed to be a middle aged male bottlenose, weighing about one-quarter tonne and measuring about 3 metres.
Our encounter with Fungie was very nice. He gave us a great show and even jumped several times. Fungie seemed to be relaxed and enjoy our presence. But what has made him stay in the bay for so long? No one really knows for sure why Fungie has made DingleBay his home for the past 25 years. A lot of ideas have come up, e.g. some think that he is lonely and in DingleBay all the boats going out on Fungietours keep him company. Others believe that someone in Dingle is feeding him secretly, and yet others maintain that he is only doing this for attention – and attention he gets! Dolphins usually live in social groups and travel all around, so Fungie’s fate still remains a hidden mystery. The best thing about all this is to know that he is free to travel to other areas and move around whenever he feels like it!
