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A giant walrus the size of a milk bull has landed on the rocks of Valentia Island in the first sighting of the arctic species in Ireland.
Local man Alan Houlihan and his five-year-old daughter Muireann spotted the finned marine mammal emerging from the water while walking along Glanleam Beach on the island of Kerry yesterday morning.
Marine biologist Kevin Flannery believes the arctic creature may have fallen asleep on an iceberg before being carried across the Atlantic Ocean to Kerry.
Islander Alan Houlihan said his little daughter, Muireann, was the first to see the giant creature on his walk.
“Muireann is the David Attenborough of Valentia Island.
“It is huge, the size of a bull or a cow.
“My daughter and I were walking on the beach near the lighthouse,” he said, “He came out of the water onto the rocks and gave us a bit of a show.
“At first I thought it was a seal and then we saw the tusks. Like he jumped off the rocks. He was huge. It was the size of a bull or a cow, quite similar in size, it’s big, big.
“He was right next to us, less than 50 meters from us. He was gone again for a while and came back and went back to the rocks.
“It is brilliant.
“He was sitting on the rock now like posing, at one point he threw a fin and it looked like he was giving us all the birdie.”
Dingle Oceanworld director Kevin Flannery said it’s an incredible sight.
“Is incredible.
“This is the first confirmed sighting of a walrus. It is something unique as far as I am concerned.
“I hadn’t seen it before, maybe others might have thought they saw one before, but this is a definite confirmation of one.”
The leading marine biologist has his own theory about how he ended up in Kerry.
“It is from the Arctic. I would say what happened is that he fell asleep on an iceberg and drifted away and then he went too far, into the mid-Atlantic or somewhere like that, possibly Greenland.
“I’d be pretty tired and pretty hungry at this stage.
“That is what usually happens with them, is that they fall asleep on an iceberg and then they are taken away from the Arctic.”
He urged the public to give the walrus some peace to recover from its gigantic journey.
He is asleep on the rocks. I ask people to go away and let him rest and rest and rest until he comes back.
“I have seen photos of him sent by Seanie Murphy, the ex (boatswain) of the lifeboat, and I have confirmed that he is a walrus, not a seal with a toothache.”
Alan Houlihan, who grew up on the island, said the walrus was trembling on the rocks before leaving it yesterday.
“I do not know if it’s ok”. Flannery said its fangs are used to pull clams out of the ground.
“Hopefully I can get some scallops around Valentia.
But at this point, he wants to rest. It comes from the North Pole, possibly from Greenland.
“He could also go island hopping and went to Iceland and then to Shetland, but that’s unlikely. I’d say it came from the Atlantic. It is thousands of miles away.
“If he regains his strength, hopefully he will go back up.”
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