Mark O'Connor

And there's no better fuel for curiosity and the want to learn than seeing something you don't know a whole lot about.

And basking sharks aren't really that well known or researched globally.

But local communities, we've little to know.

knowledge of them because they're not seen but now they're on the doorstep now that we've seen them all week there's certainly a lot of hype a lot of interest and a lot of questions being asked which is great for us as donegal bay trust because we are a conservation trust and we exist at community level to connect people with their local habitat and their local environment so this is nothing short of very very special and for a humpback to show up towards the end of the week it's just going to grow that interest and that curiosity

Absolutely.

I couldn't agree more.

It is nice to see them from the water and the headland.

If you get that balance right and the ecotourism is sustainable and people follow codes of conduct and educate people as to best practice, then I think it's win-win for people and for the species out there.

It's a very interesting question, and it's certainly one that I won't claim to be qualified for in any sort of depth.

But I do know that the...

There is a lot of talk about the temperatures of the sea and other factors that are influencing the food source.

So as opposed to the actual larger animal that we see itself, it would certainly influence the plankton and is thought to be influencing other forage fish that perhaps the whales are feeding on.

So the best way for me to answer that is I think there is an impact and there is a change in the food source in Ireland of our big fish and our big mammals.

For example, there's more than 50% rise in basking shark sightings in Ireland in 2026.

That's from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group statistics.

But over 50% of humpback whale sightings were in Donegal Bay in 2025.

So there's a big shift and those are unusual figures.

So something is influencing that.

And I think there's certainly some understanding about it, but there's work to be done to fully understand why these changes are occurring.