Dolphin Fungie: The Star of Dingle Bay, Ireland

For folk music lovers, you have Rosie McCann, the star of the Northern Irish county Down. Tourists that like to visit the South of Ireland, might like to meet Fungie, the dolphin who is been the main attraction in Dingle Bay, Ireland.

Now Dingle is a peninsula in county Kerry, Southern Ireland and also the place of a town there. It is well known for hikers and backpack tourists to visit, but when you are in the town of Dingle, you can get a touristy boat trip in the bay, to spot the local celebrity, who has been swimming there since 1984.

Nobody can tell how old Fungie was when he reached Dingle Bay and decided to stay, since swimming along boats and having people staring at him, felt so much better than the open water of the sea.

But by now, he must not be that young anymore. The average age of a common dolphin that you can find around the shores of Europe, is 30 years.

More biological facts: Fungie is not a mushroom or some kind of fungus food infection, as the name might suggest, but a dolphin.

Dolphins are a kind of whales and therefore mammals and not fish, despite they are often mistaken for it. They do eat fish, since it is their main food source in nature.

Fungie is a common dolphin, but there are several more species around the world.

Dolphins like tuna and haring and therefore they often get trapped and even killed in nets of fishers. Maybe Fungie was a clever opportunist, knowing where to get food and attention. In nature dolphins live in groups and single as the one that decided to adopt human beings as company.

The pictures that you see here of Fungie, are taken myself when I was on the tourist boat in Dingle Bay Ireland:

To see Fungie yourself and have him swimming next to the boat you are in, you can get special dolphin tours in Dingle Bay that cost 16 Euro for an adult person, with the guarantee that if the dolphin does not show up, you get your money back.

But keep in mind, they will make sure that Fungie does show up, for two reasons:

- the boat needs fuel and maintenance that costs money

- the crew needs payment

And last but not least: the people have paid to see the dolphin. It might take a moment for Fungie to show up and you may see him from a distance at first, but do have some patience: fish will be thrown out and he will swim just aside the boat.