Kitchen Garden Forum

A week or so ago I was on the Dingle peninsula. I like to visit these places before the season crowds them out. I stopped in the layby on the Slea Head Drive where the pieta is and there was a man with a big telescope watching Great Blasket. He pointed to the sea below us and there were porpoises coming up, then let me watch through is telescope the seals on the beach at Great Blasket.. sheer magic.... I have asked our local charity shop, KLAWS, who work with rescues, to set aside the next binoculars that come in if they are cheap. I could watch these critters for hours...

Evening Marigold,
When I was in the Merchant Navy I was fortunate in that I was able to take my wife with me on a couple of occasions and a favourite pastime of hers was to sit up at the bow of the ship watch the dolphins,porpoises cavorting in the bow wave.As you state,Marigold,sheer magic.

I've never been to dingle but I've been out fishing from kilmore query on quite a few occasions I've been in the middle of cormorants when they have been diving into the sea all around us when feeding, one time we had dolphins jumping out of the sea over 2 miles in any direction we looked but seals are a pest I detest them they they do untold damage to fish stocks they will decimate an area then move on we have around 300 at the mouth of the river Dee no doubt feeding on salmon

Robo
Sorry to read that you detest seals and have issues with them.

Their predation of the Salmon is as natural as mans desire to fish for it, but they were probably catching Salmon long before man.

Can't say as I have heard of Salmon being on the endangered list yet though despite how many seals kill and waste.
Bit like foxes, killing for the sake of it. Have you noticed when watching documentaries how much bears waste as well.
I guess the birds then move in at some point, and its all part of their food chain.

Marigold
I think if I were at the Dingle peninsula and saw
dolphins etc playing I would not be able to resist naming them.
The following may be wasted effort on my part as you may not get the relevant programme in South West Ireland, but that wont stop me

The most elderly one would be Zac,, dodgy ones would be Cain & Charity, the one farming the seaweed would be Moira
and the slightly gullible one would be Chastity (a misnomer if ever there was one )

Each Christmas they would be joined by Dingle Belle, Dingle Belle

Don't get me wrong pa snip I would not harm a seal or any other wild creature but they are one of the few things at sea that are thriving

robo wrote:Don't get me wrong pa snip I would not harm a seal or any other wild creature but they are one of the few things at sea that are thriving

Robo, I didn't think for one minute you would harm them.

Think they've had their problems in the past as well in terms of survival. They seem to be doing well at present.

Pa Snip wrote:RoboHave you noticed when watching documentaries how much bears waste as well.

The bears aren't actually wasting anything, they are in a glut of food, the salmon run, so they catch as many as they can and eat the high energy bits, discarding the bulky lower energy bits. In essence they eat the oily skin rather than filling up on flesh. Which seems a nonsense to us, but evolutionary pressure must have driven them that way, laying on fat for hibernation. All the birds and other animals profit from the discarded bits.
The end for the salmon that make it to the spawning grounds seems to be a slow death and the rotting carcases spark the microbeast population growth in time for the hatchlings to profit.

Pa Snip wrote:

robo wrote:Don't get me wrong pa snip I would not harm a seal or any other wild creature but they are one of the few things at sea that are thriving

Robo, I didn't think for one minute you would harm them.

Think they've had their problems in the past as well in terms of survival. They seem to be doing well at present.

Robo; the idea that seals destroy salmon stocks is a total myth created by greedy salmon farm owners. I lived in Orkney many years and saw the conflict at first hand and it was proved time and again that seals did no harm. Fish stocks are endangered because of human overfishing. Here in ireland we have strict fishing quotas to curb this. Makes me very sad to read your angry words. Watching wild seals is a delight and a joy and I will not let you spoil my very well informed joy! In Orkney I aw many terrible atrocities committed against seal and those who tried to help them and spent one memorable day and night watching over a baby seal on a shore until its mother came to collect it, knowing that if the fish farm staff came they would slaughter it. Won that one and learned so much that day. Yesterday I watched youtube on Great Blasket and the beaches covered in seals...

peter wrote:

Pa Snip wrote:RoboHave you noticed when watching documentaries how much bears waste as well.

The bears aren't actually wasting anything, they are in a glut of food, the salmon run, so they catch as many as they can and eat the high energy bits, discarding the bulky lower energy bits. In essence they eat the oily skin rather than filling up on flesh. Which seems a nonsense to us, but evolutionary pressure must have driven them that way, laying on fat for hibernation. All the birds and other animals profit from the discarded bits.
The end for the salmon that make it to the spawning grounds seems to be a slow death and the rotting carcases spark the microbeast population growth in time for the hatchlings to profit.

what a wonderful and humbling post ; thank you! There is no waste in nature is there?

peter wrote:

Pa Snip wrote:RoboHave you noticed when watching documentaries how much bears waste as well.

The bears aren't actually wasting anything, they are in a glut of food, the salmon run, so they catch as many as they can and eat the high energy bits, discarding the bulky lower energy bits. In essence they eat the oily skin rather than filling up on flesh. Which seems a nonsense to us, but evolutionary pressure must have driven them that way, laying on fat for hibernation. All the birds and other animals profit from the discarded bits.
The end for the salmon that make it to the spawning grounds seems to be a slow death and the rotting carcases spark the microbeast population growth in time for the hatchlings to profit.

Good post Peter. My use of the word 'waste' was, even within the context of my own post, inaccurate.
I did try and qualify it by saying the 'waste' became part of the food chain.

You phrased it so much better than I.

Marigold please don't let my post upset you it's just my own personal view, one of the best things I came across in Ireland was the basking sharks they are massive creatures but move at a very leisurely pace, one of my mates was anchored in his boat watching the ends of his rods waiting for some sign of a bite when from the blind side of him came this monster it was leisurely floating along with its mouth open as they do when it's tail slapped the side of his boat sending two of them flying

robo wrote:Marigold please don't let my post upset you it's just my own personal view, one of the best things I came across in Ireland was the basking sharks they are massive creatures but move at a very leisurely pace, one of my mates was anchored in his boat watching the ends of his rods waiting for some sign of a bite when from the blind side of him came this monster it was leisurely floating along with its mouth open as they do when it's tail slapped the side of his boat sending two of them flying

Not upset just my sense of justice and injustice when I read what is not true. I suffered on that island believe me, seeing the brutality of the local men to these gentle creatures. Their salmon were after all safe in cages.. early one day I went out to post a letter and a young seal was on the road near the shore that led to the fish farm. They have ferocious teeth and I spent a very tense while trying finally successfully to get him to cross back to the safety. We had a local seal sanctuary who got threatened and shot at. We coexist on this planet, each with a place and each with a need. Greed cuts across all of that. Jut watched a Blasket youtube of the seal on the beach there and the huge attraction they hold for the visitors we rely on here for income.

Taken off coast of Sth Africa

Ah lovely photo! robo I am deeply grateful to you for all the memories your post evoked of my friendly seals. My first Christmas on the island I was walking along the empty beach singing carols and had the sudden awareness I was being watched,,, just along the sea was a row of seals, all heads up listening.. after that would sing every time I went there and out they would come, whiskery miles. There was one oddly marked one would follow me in the sea when I walked the coast. Friendly faces..

You may, or may not, all know about the dolphin called Fungi who has lived in Dingle Harbour for years. Boat trips to see him are run by locals and one local (who obviously is not involved) told me that "Fungi has made the idle rich".