Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...

IT’S the time of year when many people explore the shoreline, cagily wet their toes in the incoming tide, more daringly breast the white-fringed waves, or simply stroll along our beaches.

You don’t have to be a beachcomber to enjoy our 7,500km coastline. For, the wonders of nature and wildlife are all around — underfoot, overhead and in the water.

The lengthy fine spell so far this summer has attracted thousands to the seaside. Whether you’re a surfer, swimmer, birdwatcher, or a person that just loves to inhale the bracing air, you’re always sure to leave feeling better than when you arrived.

Even with so many new-fangled artificial attractions, there’s still the timeless, primeval call of the sea, so well voiced in John Masefield’s immortal poem, Sea Fever, that every schoolboy and schoolgirl once knew by heart: “I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.”

Next Sunday, August 6, is National Whale Watching Day and members of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) will have experts at 13 headland locations around the coast to help interested observers. Irish waters are among Europe’s richest for extended whale families, with an impressive 24 species recorded to date.

In 1991 the Irish government accepted an IWDG proposal, declaring Ireland a whale and dolphin sanctuary — the first of its kind in Europe.

Whale watching is one of the fastest growing tourism industries in the world and the potential in Ireland is considered hugely under-developed, according to the IWDG’s Padraig Whooley.

The Shannon Estuary is regarded as one of the best places to watch dolphins, though they were to be seen from the majestic cliff-top walk in Ballybunion last weekend.

Seals can be seen anywhere along the coast, with areas such as Achill Island, Clew Bay, Galway Bay, the Kenmare River and Bantry Bay being among the most likely viewing areas. They are protected under the Wildlife Act, but seals are still slaughtered because they are seen as a threat to salmon stocks, with a mass killing near the Great Blasket being among recent incidences.

On a sunny day, with temperatures rising into the 20s, it’s hard to equal our clichéd golden strands, straight out of those John Hinde postcards that unfailingly depict Ireland as a land of cloudless, blue skies and shimmering seas.

In an age of PlayStations and computer-generated entertainment, it always lifts the heart to hear the carefree laughter of children, and to see them play creatively and take pride in building their sand castles as Atlantic rollers murmur soothingly in the background.

Mayo has the longest stretch of coastline, followed by Cork, Kerry, Donegal and Wexford, with each area having plenty of sandy, blue flag beaches, some of which are quite deserted, even at the very height of the summer.

Beachcombing can sometimes be an adventure and you never know what’s going to turn up, even a bottle from some far-flung part of the world with a message inside.

Goose barnacles and tropical plants, from as far away as the Caribbean, can attach themselves to drifting timber and end up on our beaches.

Jellyfish of various kinds have already been washed up this summer. The most common is the moon jelly, with its ring of four purple markings.

The much bigger lion’s mane jellyfish can give a nasty sting and people are advised to keep away from it. Then, there’s the quaintly named species of jellyfish known as by-the-wind-sailors, which are tiny and are blown in on the tide in huge numbers.

Strandings of larger animals such as whales and turtles occur occasionally. Turtles can end up cold and hungry on an Irish shoreline, thousands of miles from their natural tropical habitat. We’ve had some touching stories about these creatures being nursed back to health here before being released back to sea.

Shellfish collecting is a dying tradition. In the days before fancy seafood restaurants, bags of periwinkles gave people a taste of shellfish and it’s good to see ‘perries’ still on sale in some popular resorts.

There’s a market in France, by the way, for commercial Irish collectors of periwinkles.

In his excellent book, Ireland’s Coastline, Richard Nairn says other shellfish are quite easily collected if you know where to look, pointing out that the edible mussel grows attached to rocks near the low water mark, but is often hidden by seaweed.

Cockles can also be found buried in clean sand in estuaries.

“The collection of these shellfish was once a common practice among coastal communities in Ireland, but has now almost died out”, he notes.

People interested in whale watching on Sunday next can get details on www.iwdg,ie. And don’t forget the binoculars and suitable clothing.