Relax, Fungie has just been visiting some friends

Don’t fret, Fungie has just been hanging out with some new friends

Last night, 2020 struck a further relentless blow when Dingle residents became increasingly concerned about the national icon that is Fungie the dolphin.

Jeannine and Rudi, who have visited Fungie for almost 30 years, wrote about their concern on the ‘Fungie Forever’ Facebook page in an emotional post. The post stated that despite several boat searches of Dingle harbour and coastal waters around the peninsula, Fungie hadn’t been seen for days.

They wrote; “We have all [known] that one day the day would come that Fungie would not show up in his beloved bay”.

“Dingle will never be the same.. but keep Fungie alive in your hearts.. and he will live forever.”

Well, before you have a breakdown at the unceasing cruelty of 2020, you should know that this morning, a Dingle fisherman has said that he saw Fungie just yesterday and he seemed grand.

Mr Paul Hand told RTÉ: “I am one thousand percent certain it was Fungie. I’ve been looking at him for the last 40 years. It was definitely him. He swam alongside my boat for a spell as I headed out into the bay”.

The fisherman told RTÉ that the arrival of a large number of feeding dolphins off the west Kerry coast could be the reason of Fungie being away from home. He’s just swimming with some new friends. Feel free to insert your own bad joke about Level 3 restrictions and social distancing here.

“There’s a share of other bottlenose dolphins out in the bay at the moment because the place is full of sprat. I saw at least five or six of them out there yesterday. There’s a lot of feeding going on and what’s happening is Fungie’s is following the fishing boats out into the bay and is deciding to stay feeding with the other dolphins.

“He is enjoying the company,” Mr Hand said.

Phew.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

FUNGIE! It has been brought to out attention that some upset has been caused by another page stating that Fungie had been missing for the last 2 days. Just to be very clear this is not true. Bridget and Jimmy are not in Dingle at the moment but we can assure you we check on fungies wellbeing daily, from Fishermen,Fungie boats, and all his other friends and Fungie was alongside one of the Dingle Fishing boats yesterday morning. Thank you for all the texts emails phone calls and messages and we are sorry for any upset caused. We will keep you posted.

A post shared by Dingle Sea Safari (@dingleseasafari) on Oct 16, 2020 at 1:19am PDT

Photography by Unsplash.

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