Two dolphins were spotted swimming around Dun Laoghaire Harbour last week delighting passersby who stopped to watch them glide through the water. If ever we needed a good news story, it's today.
Clearly enjoying the water, the marine mammals perfectly timed their visit with golden hour - making for quite a magical moment for those lucky enough to be passing by at the time - local woman Laura Gannon amongst them who spotted the two while coaching a rowing group out on the water.
Speaking to Lovin Dublin, Laura said:
"I was coaching rowing on Thursday morning. It was a beautiful day and the weather was steady for most of the morning so we brought the rowers outside the Harbour which we don’t always do.
We were about 100m from the mouth of the harbour going west towards Seapoint when we saw one dolphin fin pop up and then we saw two. There was much excitement!
We were supposed to be on the water at 8:30am but luckily it was delayed till 9 otherwise we might not have seen them. It was pretty cool alright!"
Even managing to capture the sighting on video, you can see the two graceful visitors below.
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While dolphins have become relatively common in the bay area in recent years, they're still quite a rare sight within the harbour walls. However, nature lovers have been kept most happy with sightings of other sea life this summer - particularly down south where both dolphins and whales were spotted.
Rare drone footage of the world's second-largest mammal species was captured off the coast of Cork in early August this year. Seen frolicking in the calm waters, the visiting fin whale is the largest whale species to be seen in inshore Irish waters to date.
Later that same month,
hundreds of dolphins were also noticed in Courtmacsherry Bay in Co Cork - a sighting which officials at Atlantic Whale and Wildlife Tours described as "quite unusual". Exciting onlookers with their graceful water aerobics, the dolphins seemed completely oblivious to the nearby boat.
