Ken Whelan

And my birthday is on the 1st of April.

But in this particular case, this was a very rare skate.

And is it always the same time every year?

Not your birthday.

And to find one of these mermaid's purses was really very special.

Well, obviously with climate change and so on, it changes.

It's a period.

It gave us great encouragement to see that these creatures were actually reproducing.

But forget about climate change.

Yes, it is the same time in general.

And interestingly, just a few weeks ago, the Irish Times, Ella McSweeney actually reported that a young chap had found the mermaid's purse of what we call flapper skate.

So it'll be between, depending on the heat that's in the water during that period of late winter.

It's sometime around late March until the latest about mid-April.

And flapper skate hadn't been on the east coast of Ireland for a long, long time.

So we're now in a situation where we're beginning to see that these creatures are benefiting, I think, from some of the conservation measures that have been taken.

But the variety of different creatures that are in Tralee Bay in terms of these rays and these skates is amazing.

So you have these angel shark, which really are, you know, they're another flatfish, if you like.

Yeah, well... Certainly when the baby salmon are going back to sea, you could almost set your watch in terms of the peak of the run.

They're a monkfish.

In addition to that then as well, you have undulate rays, which are the most beautiful creatures with beautifully variegated wings as they move along the bed of the seafloor.