Evil rat-like trigger fish

When the summer arrives, so do the silly stories.... News reaches us that a local radio station is reporting that our seasonal visitors, the triggerfish, are very dangerous and biting local divers, they even want them renamed 'devil fish'! Last year the Kerryman reported that they were 'like boyz in the hood, going round in packs with their rat-like beaks' and that they were responsible for low numbers of lobsters as they were 'stealing' them from lobster pots! While it is true that some species of triggerfish can be territorial in the breeding season, our grey triggerfish are quite placid and their diet consists mainly of bivalves such as scallops as well as sea stars, barnacles and algae. Our own experience with them has been amazing, we love to see these large, very attractive, tropical looking fish arriving in the summer. They appear to come from the Med and North Africa on warm currents and start arriving in Dingle around July. They hang out in shallow areas around rocks and wedge themselves into gulleys and ledges when feeling threatened. Last year there were lots and it was quite a sight to see 60 or so in a large school.
If you have any stories about triggerfish sightings, we would love to hear them.

A typical divedingle barbeque!

Everyone loves Derek's cooking

The new dolphin

Had an amazing time with the new dolphin out at the Blaskets last Friday, Jacquie's family were visiting and everyone got in and snorkelled with him/her. In the meantime Neal sat underneath the boat in scuba gear and was treated to some really close up photo ops. The dolphin made a point of visiting all of us on the surface as well as paying attention to the ferries coming from Dunquin. He seems quite reluctant to move away from the moorings and although we have taken to using the nickname Saska, it seems he may be the travelling dolphin, Dony. See www.irishdolphins.com for more info.

Summer is here (we think)

Judging by the number of people in town it must be summer and the sun has finally come out. We had a very, very, busy week, just as Derek decided to have the weekend off (deserter)! By last Monday the boat was fully booked until the following week, Marlin SAC had the use of the boat for most of the weekend and managed some good dives even though it was a bit rainy. We got to the Quebra on Saturday, which can be tricky to dive as there's sometimes a fair bit of current, consequently not everyone saw the wreck, use the shot line next time!! Have to admit the vis here is beginning to puzzle us.. out at the islands it is much better, but we still have strange thermoclines and big patches of plankton, usually by now it is all gone. It has meant that there are still basking sharks and sunfish in the area though, so it's not all bad.

Jacquie

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog! We hope to keep you up to date on all the news, latest sightings, conditions, planned dives and events plus any bits of random gossip we hear... Please feel free to add your comments or ask questions.

First a little about us....

The dive centre was set up about eight years ago right on the waterfront on the Dingle Marina and was taken over by Neal & Jacquie in June 2003. We have two other instructors here at the moment, Lisa & Derek plus a trainee divemaster, Della and a lunatic dog, Rasher. Jacquie's neice, Rachel also helps out in the shop from time to time. We have an 8.5m RIB which gets us to a vast array of divesites, from 'muck diving' at 6m to wrecks to 60m drop-offs. Our days are really varied, we run two dives a day, plus have courses going all the time and do lots and lots of try dives as well.