Magical underwater world revealed

THE amazing, but largely unknown underwater world off our shores featuring basking sharks, dolphins and cold water reefs is to be the subject of a six-part series to be broadcast on TG4 later this month.

Yesterday, film-maker Ken O’Sullivan described the shooting of the Farraigí na hÉireann (Seas of Ireland) series as “a labour of love”.

The Clare producer said that filming and editing the six-part series has taken over two years with more than 200 hours of underwater footage.

“We wanted to film the sea through the seasons. We dived and shot off almost every coastal county in Ireland with most of the filming taking place on the Atlantic coastal counties of Clare, Galway, Kerry, Mayo and Donegal.”

Mr O’Sullivan said that sub-zero temperatures of the past two Irish winters created the perfect conditions for filming in the water.

“We had calm seas and brilliant light, which was great.”

According to Mr O’Sullivan, Farraigí na hÉireann is the first Irish ocean wildlife series to be broadcast.

The series was produced by independent company Seafever Productions, which Mr O’Sullivan operates with his wife, Karina Costello.

Mr O’Sullivan said: “The series brings us on a journey through the beautiful oceanic world encountering an enormous diversity of wild and colourful creatures.

“We meet playful dolphins, giant basking sharks and exotic jellyfish and travel into the deep Atlantic via a robotic submarine to see the recently discovered cold-water coral reefs in Irish waters.”

Explaining why our temperate seas are so fertile, the series follows the food chain from plankton to whales and dolphins, following the creatures’ life stories.

The series will be broadcast on TG4 every Tuesday from September 20 at 8pm for six weeks.