Are Fungie's cousins living around the corner from his adopted home in Dingle Bay? The bottle nose dolphin has for several years been a profitable tourist attraction and there are various theories as to why he should have opted for the solitary life and sole company of humans who swim with him and delight in his presence.
The popular belief is that Fungie arrived in Dingle from some exotic location like the Caribbean but, while he has been basking in the limelight, in the nearby Shannon Estuary a pod of dolphins has been living a much quieter life.
There may be more than 100 dolphins in the pod. The likelihood, according to those in the know, is that Fungie broke away from them and went off to live in Dingle. The Shannon Estuary dolphins were recorded between Kerry Head and Loop Head as far back as the 1800s and have probably been in the area for much longer, yet Fungie is the one who has achieved superstar status.
That may be about to change.
Mr Simon Ingram of UCC's department of zoology has been studying the dolphins in the estuary. The doctorate on which he is working will concern their behaviour, movement and numbers. Here is a native Irish population of bottlenose dolphins and it may be that one maverick stole the show because he flipped his tail fin and went to Dingle where things suited him better. The local boatmen weren't complaining either, as people have been queuing up to see Fungie. The Shannon contains the only known resident population of dolphins in Ireland. Being one of six known populations in European waters, it is of international importance and it is vital, says Mr Ingram, that a proper scientific study is carried out. With the help of the Marine Institute, he has been doing that but funding is running out. The grant of £63,000 is coming to an end and now the hope is that industrial sponsorship might become available.
What is needed, he says, is a conservation plan for the Shannon Estuary dolphins; continuous monitoring and codes of conduct and guidelines for boat operators who may want to make a living out of the growing dolphin-watch business.
There is a huge dolphin population in the estuary which must be protected. If that happens, there is no reason why an eco-tourism business plan could not be developed, says Mr Ingram. Given the necessary financial support and backing, a computer database could be assembled to gauge the estuary's potential as an important breeding site during the summer calving period and to make mathematical models predicting future population size and social structure.
Fungie may have met his match.