Season's second Blue Shark is landed by Dublin fire fighter

WEST Cork’s first blue shark of the season was caught by a Dublin fire fighter off the Courtmacsherry coast. 

The catch (and release) was just the second of its kind in the country this season, and took place last Sunday around noon. Just less than an hour earlier, the first catch was made in East Cork. 

The Dublin fire fighters (pictured, right) were fishing with Mark Gannon who runs Courtmacsherry Sea Angling and Whale Watching tours. 

So far this season he said they’ve had visitors from Bandon, Ballineen, Brussels and Berlin, and everywhere in between. 

In recent days, he said they’d had to cancel some trips out due to weather conditions. 

‘You’d expect that in October, but not June,’ he admitted adding that between last Sunday and Tuesday water temperatures had dipped from 14 degrees to 12 degrees. ‘We’re seeing two to three seasons in a single day at the moment,’ he said. 

There’s still plenty of wildlife activity off the coast though, he said.