Flying fins provide a special treat for watchers

WEST Cork offers marvellous whale-watching just now. Heading out past the Stags last week, our boat was soon surrounded by playful common dolphins. The colourful frolickers rode the bow wave, daring the boat to bear down on them and delighting the children on board.

Why do these marine revellers suspend hunting to squander their hard-one energy playing? Isn’t chasing great whales more fun, and far more productive, than following boats? “It is little he knows about the sea,” declares Maurya in Synge’s famous play and it is little we know about cetaceans.