Dolphins return home

THE three dolphins who stunned experts by coming inland as far as Bunratty this spring have been spotted back in the Shannon Estuary.
Simon Berrow of the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation said he is pleased they are still alright and that the right choices were made when they were at Bunratty. “It’s a great story and it’s always nice to have an ending. When they left we assumed they went back to the estuary but we didn’t know for sure, so it’s nice to have confirmation that they are fit and healthy and we made the right call.”
He said they were found very quickly after summertime monitoring got underway. “I have some research assistants for the summer to do dolphin monitoring and on their first trip out they came across dolphins off Moneypoint and they were the three at Bunratty. The fact that the three of them are still together as a group is impressive.”
The second time they were seen was off Beal on the Kerry side of the estuary three days after they were first spotted. They were in a group of 16 dolphins at that stage.