THERE WERE few fish to be had off Burtonport in Co Donegal at the weekend, but one lucky skipper wasn’t complaining.
Fisherman John Rafferty and his nephew Adam Rogers set out from Burtonport at 3pm on Sunday for an afternoon’s angling when they spotted something in the waters off the Gaeltacht island of Arranmore. When the pair went to investigate, they found themselves in the middle of a pod of up to 50 bottlenose dolphins.
“We saw a bit of activity and headed over. There was a pod of about 50 dolphins and as we went past, they started to follow the boat.”
Mr Rafferty, who is also editor of the Irish Skipper magazine, said: “That was the end of our fishing. It was down with the rods and out with the camera then.
“They were really playful – they were hunting for mackerel and then started to play with the fish, just tossing them up into the air.” Mr Rafferty said.
“They were just inches away from the boat. Some of them were the length of a family car.
“There were baby ones there, too.”
Passengers on the Burtonport to Arranmore ferry also got to see the display.
Arranmore island native, Anne Connolly, who was taking the ferry home from work on Sunday evening, said: “About six dolphins swam along by the side of the ferry. They stayed with the boat as it came into the harbour at Arranmore.”
Ms Connolly said that growing up on the island, she had never seen dolphins in the area.
“Its really just in the past five years you see them,” she said.
Simon Berrow of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group said: “The continental shelf waters off Ireland is home to up to 50 per cent of the bottlenose dolphin population in Europe.
“Ireland is very important to their conservation.”
Speaking of the sighting off Arranmore , Mr Berrow said: “This sounds like an unusually big group of dolphins. “Through markings on their bodies, weve been able to identify the same dolphins in waters off Cork, Antrim or Dublin. These animals really travel around our coast.” When asked what advice he would give to dolphin spotters, he said, “just enjoy the spectacle. Dolphins are really boisterous and theyre great fun. We discourage swimming with them so enjoy them, take some pictures and send them to us.”
