| FUNGIE' S DIARY THE LEGEND OF DINGLE |
| ABOUT FUNGIE A young bottlenose dolphin, arrived in Dingle bay, Kerry in 1983. Nobody knew where he came from. Straight away he began to befriend Dingle locals and began to follow fishing boats as well as interact with local swimmers. As time passed the dolphin did not leave and seem to be quite happy in the location and so a local fisherman christened the dolphin with the name Fungi and he remains in Dingle bay to this day chasing the many tour boats and trawlers that surround him. Fungie is an extremely sociable Dolphin and quite the show off. To call him solitary is unfair as many dolphin pods visit the bay every year and he spends a great deal of time with them. At one point a dolphin stayed with him for a while and earned the name smokey, however the dolphin returned to the ocean and Fungi chose to stay. |
| OUR FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH FUNGIE In summer 2005 we decided to travel for one night to Dingle to see Fungi. We chartered a small boat to take us out into the bay at 6am to see him. The morning was beautiful and dry but very crisp and cold. We didn' t care we were wearing our 6mm wetsuits along with hoods jackets and the works. The only boats in the bay were us and two fishing boats that had gone ahead of us. As we left the harbour we watched as the landscape began to spread farther out on each side. In the middle of the bay floated a large iron bouy, suddenly the skipper yelled out 'here he comes! to the right of the bouy' Our eyes were focused on the water when suddenly a great blast of water shot into the air as Fungi took a breath as he headed for our boat. We felt very overwhelmed as Fungi made his way to the rear of the boat and began to bow ride the waves rushing from the back of the vessel. He followed us right out into the bay where we anchored |
| THE SWIM We were first into the water. It was freezing but we didn' t really notice. Fungi circled us for a while, just checking us out. He swam under us turning on his side to have a look at these new people floating above. As he came to the surface for a breath close by us, we were so suprised at his size. Fungi is huge I would say a good 10ft long if not more, and he has plenty of winter blubber. We approached the side of the boat as the skipper could see Fungi pulling at the anchor. Fungie suddenly breached about 2 feet in front of my face. My heart pounded in shock at the size of him. Unfortunatly, as the morning went on more and more boats came into the bay and so Fungi left us to chase them. |
| THE BOAT RIDE BACK After the swim we began to make our way back into the harbour and to our surprise Fungie became very excited and followed. Nothing prepared us for the show he was going to put on. He breached and leaped at the side of the boat, clearing the water each time for up to 7ft. Fungie treated us to these acrobatics for about 20 mins before getting distracted by the other boats and heading out to chase them too. As we stepped onto the harbour, I took a moment to look out into the bay, at that moment I counted 5 boats ripping in and out of the bay and Fungie, I was concerned that this may be disrupting to Fungie and his environment, but as I observed him I saw he was very much the boss & in control of his home . I Then considered the level of noise beneath the surface that may be deafening to Fungie. But since this visit and after 6 years studying dolphins I know now that if he were disturbed by the level of noise in his home he would leave. He is happy and Healthy. |
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