Whale watching in Ireland

[cruachan]

have just taken our boat over to baltimore in SW Ireland for a spell of summer cruising. Noticed several signs advertising whale watching off the coast. according to sites on the internet this is an up and coming tourist attraction in this area - does anyone have any experience of this in the area around baltimore/fastnet and how best to find them - it will save a trip to new zealand!!

 

[ROCKETSHIP_11]

I did an offshore race around the fastnet last month and we saw many fin and pilot whales it was light airs for most of the race and we smelt the whales breath before we saw them in many cases "STINKS" great to see and helped cheer up a crew which had spent the night drifting around at 0.3Knots over the ground.

 

[hlb]

Think finding wales, dolphins, basking sharks is a bit hit and miss, if anythink like devon/ cornwall. I've seen loads in the past, even dolphins and seals in harbours. But not seen a thing for two years between the Solent and the Scillies.

 

[Dyflin]

The Irish Department of Marine have issued a marine notice regarding whales and dolphins. Have a look at http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Marine/

It's MN number 15 of 2005

 

[graham]

The bit in the directive about not spending more than 30 minutes with Dolphins made me laugh.

When your sailing at 5 knots its the dolphins who decide when the party ends.

On a recent passage across the St Georges Channel I met 2 or 3 groups on the way from Milford Haven to Kilmore Quay and about 5 or 6 groups of dolphins on the way back.Mostly in mid channel or closer to the welsh coast.

The Dolphins must have read the directive as the longest they stayed with me was about 20 to 30 minutes.

One group was at least 20 common dolphins putting on an amazing display darting under the boat at incredible speed and swimming along so close I could have reached out and touched them.It really was the highlight of my passage.

 

[kindredspirit]

Look at http://www.iwdg.ie/ or contact Keith Buchanan at www.irishdolphins.com

 

[Gunfleet]

It is just about the most exciting thing. I also find seals swimming slowly and almost silently up our East Coast creek exciting.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

St. Georges Channel Dolphins

I have just put my dolphin movie back on line. It is 3.8Mb and is quite high compression. We have been among dolphins on almost every trip out this year which is a good sign.

This film is from a selection of much of the footage we took in 2003 crossing over from Waterford to Milford Haven.

Dolphin Movie