Apparently Fungie the Dingle Dolphin has gone missing. Here’s the article from the Washington Post; it might be behind a paywall.
Best guess is that he joined a pod or swam away. And by best, I mean most optimistic. The article notes, “Bottlenose dolphins rarely wash up on shore.”
Awwww...saw him in 2014 as we did Rick's walk out to the Lighthouse on our free day on the Best of Ireland tour. We kept glancing down toward the harbor area and saw the tour boats go out...then suddenly...there he was! Very cool and funny that he was so visible.
Had it between my toes once and had to get a prescription. Not fun.
we had debate about that after we saw it on our local news.
He may have just gone down to the corner shop for a coffee. Only been gone a week.
I think he may not have liked the last storm to come through in a season with more than its fair share of unusual storms.
I think and hope he'll be back soon.
Why did he leave? Everything has a porpoise.
I’m a couple months late seeing this thread, but on our first Ireland trip, back in 2011, Rick’s guidebook suggested, even back then, that Fungie was pretty old, in Dolphin years, and wouldn’t be around much longer.
Still hearing about him a few years later, I wondered whether the original Fungie had departed the ocean, and if somehow another had taken up the role of representing Dingle to visitors. Maybe the original was still at it all this time, and maybe he’s still around? I hope so.
Our second Ireland trip, in 2018, included the coast northeast of Belfast. Hiking the coastline on The Gobbins walk, we were accompanied by a seal, who followed us much of the way, popping his (her?) head out of the water frequently to look at us. The guide suggested there was something really odd about that seal, which apparently wasn’t a regular part of the experience. Maybe it stuck around - perhaps the Fungie of Northern Ireland???
Aww.. My wife and I were in Dingle at the end of September, 2019 were we saw Fungie. I have to imagine that his loss is going to impact a bit of the tourist dollar, which is unfortunate for the locals who depended on it.
