A DEEP sea fishing vessel from Union Hall recently landed a gigantic whale bone, which weighed an estimated 50kgs.
Skipper of the Ocean Pioneer, Daragh McMenamin, and his crew of five used the boat’s hydraulics to bring the 2.5m bone – which is believed to be a pectoral fin of a blue whale – on board.
Daragh said they were fishing 70 miles west of Dingle at the time, east of the Porcupine Bank last week.
‘We were out in 300 fathom water and it came up, stuck in the net,’ he told The Southern Star.
‘We freed it, tied it aboard, and brought it ashore.’ Darragh, who has been fishing for most of his life, said the whale bone was one of the biggest he had ever seen.
‘We were lucky not to do any damage to the net and decided to bring it on board instead of possibly picking it up a second time,’ he added.
‘We pick things like that up all the time, but rarely anything that big.
‘Although, I once landed a giant squid, four years ago, and that was 2.5m long as well.’
A photograph of the bone has been sent to the National History Museum in Dublin to see if they would be interested in having it as an exhibit.
If not, one person suggested the bone would make an auction item – possibly for a business with enough room to display it – and that the money raised could be donated to the RNLI. ‘Either way,’ said Daragh, ‘I’d be happy to see it go to a good home.’
