Seal makes waves in Killarney lake

A harbour seal has made his way to deep within the freshwater lakes of Killarney and has been spotted alongside cormorants eyeing up salmon.

The sight of the animal about 24km away from the coast astonished Mike O’Sullivan, a keen walker and angler, when he was out for a walk on Wednesday.

Mr O’Sullivan said he met a wildlife surveyor near Muckross Abbey who told him he believed he had seen a seal.

“I thought it couldn’t be the case and that it must have been the shape of the rock. Then I thought maybe it was an otter. People mix up seals and otters. But when I looked through the man’s binoculars it was a seal. In all my time on the lake, I never saw a seal,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

He contacted his friend John Leane, a photographer, to capture the rare sighting, but the seal had disappeared when they returned.

However, minutes later the seal returned to stretch himself in the area of the rocks and practically posed for a photograph just metres from the shoreline, said Mr Leane.

Wildlife rangers have identified it as a common or harbour seal. They believe the fully grown seal is wild and moved into the lakes via the Laune River, which reaches the sea near Killorglin at Castlemaine harbour.