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Ireland has fallen prey to the mysterious disappearance of a beloved dolphin.
Fungie, a lonely bottlenose, turned up in County Kerry’s Dingle Harbor in 1983 and never left. It quickly became a major tourist attraction in the area and charmed generations of foreign tourists and Irish visitors alike.
Now it has suddenly disappeared. Local boatmen say he had never been gone for more than a few hours in 37 years.
Locals say he was never gone for more than a few hours
A multi-vessel search that involved sonar scanning and divers has been called off, as the city begins to come to terms with the fact that its prized asset will never return.
“We all feel really sad,” said Nuala Moore, an extreme swimmer who often met dolphins in their daily bath.
“We have been sharing this body of water for 30 years. I grew up swimming with it.”
Moore says the harbor is much quieter without Fungie and the boats that accompany him.
“There’s a sound of laughter when people see it, wild screams of ‘yay’,” he said.
“In a world where we don’t laugh so easily, anything that stops you in your tracks and forces you to appreciate nature is special. It is more than nature.”
Nuala Moore says the port is much quieter without him
Ms. Moore often brings her waterproof camera to the harbor and says that Fungie was a helpful guy.
“I’ve always noticed that just when I’m about to click, he makes this little pregnancy pause,” she said.
“If you look at photos on the surface of the water, he has this little moment where he looks at you. So it’s my opinion that he poses for the photos.”
Fungie, named as the oldest lone dolphin in the world by Guinness World Records, was thought to be 40 years old or older.
The life expectancy of wild dolphins is about 50 years, and local marine biologist Dr. Kevin Flannery says time could have taken its toll.
“I would say that at this stage, because he has not returned, we are looking at the age profile,” Dr. Flannery said.
“Basically what happens to old dolphins at that stage is that they can’t catch their own food and, with their age profile, they may have starved to death.”
There are other theories, including Fungie escaping from a large number of other dolphins currently around Dingle, chasing Sprat further out to sea, or even eloping with a partner.
But many in Dingle say that this day was always going to come, and the town has to adapt accordingly.
Dr. Kevin Flannery believes the dolphin may have died of old age
About a dozen companies offer boat tours of Fungie, directly employing about 50 people. But the dolphin charm has supported many more ancillary jobs in the village.
Mary Ferriter is the global ambassador for Dingle Distillery.
According to her, “Fungie’s part in Dingle has been to unify many businesses.”
“People can come see Fungie, but from there they’ve discovered Dingle,” he said.
Ferriter is optimistic that the beloved mammal could still return. Dr. Flannery is more pragmatic and says that now it may be a case of honoring Fungie’s legacy.
“He became a national icon because the Irish could go visit him and they were guaranteed to see a dolphin, they didn’t have to go to Florida or anywhere else,” he added.
“It had that dramatic impact, it made people think differently about the ocean. People realized that it was not necessary to harvest the ocean, simply by observing and protecting the wildlife.
“He gave us 37 good years. If he has changed people’s minds … he has done his job.”
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