CARRIGAHOLT fisherman Donal Farrell was stunned to find that he had a whale for company on the Shannon Estuary when he was fishing this morning.
He was fishing, under the early morning sunshine, between between Kilcredaun and Ballybunion, which is located across the estuary on the north coast of Kerry.
“It’s very unusual to see them in the estuary at all. You see them passing by Loophead in the Autumn but it’s very unusual to see them in the estuary,” Donal told The Clare Champion.
“I’m not sure whether it was a Minky whale or a Right Whale. It was one or the other. It passed relatively close and it looked like it was heading in the river,” he explained.
The Carrigaholt man said that the mammal was making rapid progress.
“It was motoring and moving very fast. It looked healthy enough. It was probably just in with the high tide, feeding on mackerel. But it was still very unusual to see it that far in the estuary. A very big mammal it was,” Donal recalled.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.