I didn’t take this picture but I wish I had. I popped down to Salthill Prom for a coffee on Sunday morning, and spotted the dolphin swimming about 80 metres offshore. It was raining, so I drove honme, grabbed my camera and raingear and set up on the Prom. It never showed. The rain got heavier, it became colder and greyer, and after about 90 minutes, I gave up and went home (ok, I drove down to Silver Strand afterwards and waited there for a while too).
Obsessed ? Moi? Well, maybe only a little bit. At least I’m not alone. While shivering in the cold on Sunday, I got talking to Brendan, who had been taking pictures near me on the previous Sunday. He’s even more addicted to the dolphin than I – he often passes the Prom during the week, and now, he has to stop every time to scan the water. It’s just as well, because one day last week, he stopped during lunch for a quick look, and the dolphin obliged by doing a backward balancing act on its tail (the picture he took above, with a Canon 20D and a 24-70 zoom).
I was chatting to one of the lads with a scubadiving group that was setting up nearby – he mentioned that the dolphin isn’t the least bit interested in divers and doesn’t come near them. It will be interesting to see how the dolphin reacts when the bay fills with boats next week.
Niall O’Brollchain (the Green Party politician) has started a Facebook site as a sort of fan club for the dolphin, which he has nicknamed Sophie. Personally, I don’t have much time for anything even vaguely antropomorphic, such as giving a wild animal a pet name, but that’s just me.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group are always glad to hear of sightings – they particularly want detailed images of the dorsal fin of the dolphin to help identify it – apparently, for dolphins, a dorsal fin is like a fingerprint, but bigger, and greyer, and wetter…