Moray Firth dolphins help rescue missing swimmer off Ireland
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A pod of dolphins from the Moray Firth was involved in a dramatic rescue of a distressed swimmer hundreds of miles away.
The man who had been missing for almost 12 hours was rescued after a lifeboat crew's attention was drawn to the wayward dolphins.
The RNLI volunteers spotted the exhausted man among the dolphins in the sea near Castlegregory in County Kerry.
Conservationists identified the animals as being from a population of bottlenose dolphins that feed and breed in the Moray Firth.
The discovery of the swimmer's clothes on a beach led to RNLI and coastguard teams carrying out a search into Sunday night.
The RNLI said: "At 20:30 the volunteer lifeboat crew with Fenit RNLI spotted a pod of dolphins and a head above the water about two-and-a-half miles off Castlegregory beach.
"The casualty was conscious and immediately recovered onto the lifeboat and brought into Fenit Harbour to be taken to hospital."
Fenit RNLI received a call after clothes were discovered on a beach
The Moray Firth dolphins have been seen off the Irish coast since 2019.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group confirmed the identity of Sunday's dolphins as the same animals. Conservationists can identify individual dolphins by the shape and markings on their dorsal fins.
The Scottish pod had included a dolphin known to conservationists as Spirtle, who survived being badly sunburned while stranded on mudflats in the Cromarty Firth in 2016. After appearing off Ireland, she later returned to the Moray Firth where this month she was spotted with her new-born calf.
