Donal Hickey: You never know what you might find on a walk along the shorefront
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Given reasonable weather during the festive season, many people will enjoy refreshing walks along the seashore. And you never know what you might find...
Beachcombers may come across some washed-in treasures. The seabed around Ireland has a huge number of sunken shipwrecks which can leak some of their long-lost cargo.
Gold and silver coins, even artillery shells, are among the artefacts coming ashore in recent years, not to mention countless bottles enclosing messages.
Increasingly, growing numbers of exotic marine species are turning up along our 7,500km of shoreline. Warm currents from the Gulf of Mexico, and other more temperate coasts, bring creatures which find our warming waters hospitable.
For instance, a six-inch, loggerhead turtle was washed ashore in Mayo last year, having survived a hazardous, 4,000km journey across the Atlantic.
Kevin Flannery, of Dingle Oceanworld, who regularly rescues such arrivals, collected the turtle from a beach in the Belmullet Peninsula and helped nurse it back to health with staff in the aquarium. The turtle was later released to suitable waters off the Canary Islands.
This year, a record 7,300 marine species were noted here in Explore Your Shore, a citizen science project. That was a 24% rise on last year; most useful information on visiting species, climate change and water quality.
“New kids on the block include the Portuguese Man O’War (closely related to jellyfish) which is being recorded in greater abundance and with greater regularity on our south and south-west coasts," reports Dave Wall, citizen science officer, National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC).
Known for its sting, this small, transparent creature, named after a 15th century Portuguese warship, has been seen in Owenahincha Beach, in West Cork, and on the Clare and Wexford coasts.
Now to a personal whinge: why do so many people out walking plug their ears with listening devices attached to mobile phones? Why not, instead, tune in to the uplifting sounds of nature all around?
Seabirds are calling, all different in tone and volume. And they can tell us what’s happening under the waves.
Writing knowledgeably about them, the late fisherman and naturalist from south Kerry, Michael Kirby, understood: “Fishermen are keen to observe the movement of different seabirds and how they congregate in numbers in a certain area.
"More often than not, they are the tell-tale token that vast schools of fish move beneath the surface, especially schools of herring, mackerel, pilchards, sprat etc."
“The trained eye of the fisherman will also judge the direction in which the fish is moving. Despite new technology, we should not ignore our feathered friends which live beside us in the same vineyard."