Harry gets up close to Myrtleville’s dolphins

A BRAVE swimmer from Crosshaven has described his experience of swimming very close to a pod of dolphins in Myrtleville last week as ‘fantastic’.

Speaking to The Southern Star, Harry Casey – who swims out to Myrtleville every day – said he got close enough to the common dolphins to be nervous.

‘The dolphins have been around for the past two weeks so it’s been fantastic to see so many of them. I got close to them two weeks ago but got a lot closer last week,’ said Harry.

‘I spotted the dolphins from the beach before I went in so I swam out to them and luckily for me they got a little bit curious and came over to say hello. I reckon I got within about 10ft of them so it was a fantastic experience.

Harry’s encounter with the dolphins was beautifully captured by Carrigaline photographer Derek McGreevy. ‘It was great that Derek happened to be there and he got some great shots which he has kindly sent onto me and it was a nice way to round off the year.’

Derek said that he has never seen so many dolphins in the sea between between Fountainstown and Myrtleville at this time of the year.

‘There has been a lot of activity all week but when I went down one Tuesday morning the place was just alive and particularly busy. A humpback whale even popped up the previous Sunday but hasn’t been seen since, so it may not have liked what they were feeding on and moved on,’ said Derek.

‘There were at least 60 common dolphins there. You might normally see a few out around Roches Point during the summer,  but you’d never see them in by here. They seem to be hanging around so there must be a world of feeding there!’