BRITISH ADVENTURER and broadcaster Monty Halls is to row a currach solo from the Aran islands to the Connemara mainland to raise funds for a rescue system for whales and dolphins.
Halls, who is nicknamed "action man Attenborough", has spent the past six months in Roundstone, Co Galway, filming a new Great Escapeseries for BBC2 television.
The marine biologist has been so struck by the diversity of marine life off the Irish west coast that he is committed to buying a pontoon which can help to refloat stranded whales and dolphins.
"I'm a complete catastrophe in a currach, but I'm in training already," he told The Irish Timesyesterday. He and his television crew are also hosting a fundraising "dive fest" and beach party this weekend in Roundstone with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).
The group says there are up to 150 strandings on the Irish coastline annually, some 20 of which are “live”, but there are only two rescue pontoons on the island which can assist in refloating mammals.
“The pontoon concept was developed in New Zealand, and is very effective,” Halls explained. “It seems such a shame that there are only two of these systems on the entire Irish seaboard. I am hoping that the Aran Sweater, as the sponsored currach row is called, will raise the cash for a third.” Ireland’s 7,800km coastline was declared a whale and dolphin sanctuary over a decade ago.
Halls, his co-partner and Alsatian dog Reuben, and his BBC team have been filming marine life from Malin Head, Co Donegal, down to Kerry as part of the Great Irish Escape series to be broadcast next spring.
His team has shot what may be the first underwater footage of blue sharks on the Irish coast, and he has learned how to tag basking sharks with the IWDG off Donegal.
The Roundstone dive-fest can be contacted on email: diveroundstone_at_gmail.com and the sponsored row website is www.mycharity.ie/event/aransweater