ETHICAL TRAVELLER: Catherine Mackon responsible tourism
SUMMER IS DRAWING to a close, and with many of us holding memories of nothing but cold, wet days there is an epidemic of cabin fever. If you fancy an exciting close-to-home break, however, the whale-watching season is just warming up. Fin whales arrive here in June and stay for up to seven months, and you may even be lucky enough to catch sight of a humpback whale between now and November.
Marine conservationists strongly urge using a recommended company when trying to catch a glimpse of a whale or a dolphin. Without their expert knowledge, you risk harming these incredible cetaceans.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group is Ireland's leading conservation group for these animals - and, with more than 24 species on its books to date, it is kept busy. It was thanks to the group's recommendation in 1991 that the government declared Ireland a whale and dolphin sanctuary, meaning all such species are protected.
If you want to go dolphin-watching on the Shannon Estuary, it is worth knowing that all commercial practitioners there must have the permission of the Minister of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, as it was designated a Special Area of Conservation in 2000. But this is not the case on coastal waters, so check the credentials of your guide.
There is still no required training for guides in Ireland, so best to choose one who is not only a member of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group but also an experienced conservationist. The group lists practitioners on its website (www.iwdg.ie), but it is impossible to police them all, so the group has to depend on tourist feedback if an operator is just out there to make a fast buck on a bottlenose.
You couldn't get more qualified than Nic Slocum of Whale Watch West Cork. He is a zoologist, marine conservationist and skipper of a bespoke whale-watching catamaran named MV Voyager. He goes out daily from the stunning little pier in Reen, near Union Hall, until November, weather permitting.
Slocum has drawn up an impressively detailed code of conduct. As a marine expert, he knows that behaviour varies from species to species, each with its own breeding and feeding patterns. He has studied codes of conduct from around the world, drawing from all of them, and created a code that he hopes other responsible Irish tour operators will follow. This includes guidelines on boat speed and direction of approach and warnings that a boat must never come between a mother and her calf and that watching distance should never be less than 100m. You can see a copy of his code, as well as a great daily sightings blog, on his website (www.whalewatch westcork.com).
If you want to travel out of Ireland, another responsible company is Out of the Blue, the tour branch of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (www.wdcs.org/outoftheblue), all of whose staff are experienced conservationists. It has a whale-watching trip this month to Gairloch, in Scotland, with an emphasis on photographic skills, as the guide is a professional wildlife photographer and a field officer for the society's Adopt a Dolphin scheme.
This company, among many others, has had training and accreditation from WiSe, an organisation set up in the UK for this purpose. For details of its training, and operators that have undergone it, including several in Northern Ireland, see www.wisescheme. org.
On a final note, and sad for those who, like me, are of the Flipper generation, remember that most responsible whale- and dolphin-watching operators do not offer an opportunity to swim with them.
• macktourism@yahoo.co.uk