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Giant oyster is a pearl of a find THE latest addition to the attractions at Dingle Oceanworld is a giant oyster which was found on the shore of Valentia harbour. The record-sized shellfish was discovered by local man Mike Murphy while he was walking on the strand at Ardcost near Portmagee.
He passed it on to Quinlan's Fish who sent it to Kevin Flannery at Dingle Oceanworld. "I've never seen anything like it in my life and it must be some sort of a national record. It's probably about 60 years old, still alive and weighs more than a kilo. It's a native European oyster. We'll put it on display here at the aquarium and see how it gets on," Mr Flannery told The Kerryman this week. "There has been a recent discovery of very large oysters in deep water off Brittany but I have no idea how this oyster came to be in Valentia harbour. Tralee Bay produces great oysters and is one of the only places around the coast where the oysters have a disease free status. But seeing this oyster coming from Valentia harbour means that the waters must provide ideal growing conditions and the harbour has the potential to develop oyster farms and stocks," he added. |
Maria Laguna of Dingle Oceanworld holding a giant native flat oyster which was found on Valentia island by local man Mike Murphy. Kevin Flannery is holding a normal sized oyster of the same species. By TED CREEDON tedcreedon@eircom.net | |
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Saor, The Loggerhead Turtle Amazingly not all visitors to Dingle love it enough to want to make it their permanent home! For the Loggerhead Turtle the waters around Ireland are far too cold for these endangered animals to survive. At Dingle Oceanworld aquarium the staff have a dedicated programme to rehabilitate these enchanting animals back to full health with the aim being to release them back into the wild in more temperate seas. In February 2009 ‘Saor’ meaning ‘free’ in Irish, was flown to Gran Canaria and released back into her natural habitat. Saor who was around three years old, was found by the Sayer family at Inch Strand, Co Kerry in March 2008, she was suffering from hypothermia and malnutrition and was slowly nursed back to full health. Over the past ten years there have been six other turtles reintroduced into the wild. Pictures of Saor's release in Gran Canaria courtesy of South West News Service |
 
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Portuguese Man O' War We recently had a very rare visitor to Dingle Oceanworld. A Portuguese Man O War was caught off of the end of the Dingle Peninsula and was brought to the Aquarium to be studied. The Portuguese man of war gets it’s name from its resemblance to the triangular sails of the 16th Century ship. They are commonly mistaken for Jellyfish but they are in fact a siphonophore, a colony of four different kinds of complex individual who rely upon one another for survival. It has no means of propulsion and thus is carried where the wind and tide predict but they are normally only found in warm waters. The stinging tentacles are designed to paralyse small fish and other prey but can also cause severe pain and on rare occasions, death in humans. |
 The Portuguese Man O' War (Physalia physalis) |
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Roses at Oceanworld As part of the international Rose of Tralee festival we welcomed a selection of this years Roses together with their escorts, to the aquarium. The ladies liked it so much that the next day all the Roses families and friends came to visit! |
 The Roses enjoying Oceanworld with Sharky |
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Leatherback Turtle Release A large Leatherback Turtle weighing 65 stone in weight was found by Pádraig Frank O Sullivan at Cuas in Ballydavid, Co Kerry on Tuesday 30th August 2005. The large leatherback turtle was stuck in lobster pots and ropes. The turtle is approximately 50 years old. These turtles feed on jellyfish and are under threat as they cannot distinguish between jellyfish and plastic, if they ingest plastic they can die. With the help of the team from Oceanworld Aquarium in Dingle the turtle was brought to the aquarium. Mr Tom Doyle from UCC along with Dr Jonathon Houghton from the University of Wales Swansea inserted a satellite tag into the turtle so it can be tracked to find our where she's travelling to. This will be the first time a leatherback will be tagged from Ireland. After two to three weeks the public will be able to log into www.turtle.ie to track the movements of the leatherback. There is much study at the moment to establish where the leatherback turtles go when they move south. Due to technology and satellite tagging we can now track the turtles movements and find out more about them. click on the image below to get her latest position 
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