With the Irish summer in full swing, RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany shares the story of Mark Leslie – Ireland’s Seal Whisperer. Leslie is the founder of Martello Media, the company which produced many of Ireland’s best known interpretative centres including the Easter 1916 Commemoration in the GPO and the visitor centre at the Cliffs of Moher.
Written and narrated by Marketing.ie editor Michael Cullen, The Seal Whisperer tells the story of the WA-Woo tribe, a moniker Leslie coined for the local herd of seals around Sandycove and the Forty Foot. Leslie has names for some of the 50 or so seals based on their body markings and personalities: how they behave in the sea.
React
The grey and harbour seals, whose ‘main base’ is Dalkey Island, gather near the Old Baths in Sandycove. There they socialise and some get to know one another intimately. Leslie has advice for bathers on how to react in the event they should encounter a seal close up while swimming. Stop in the water and face the animal, just like you would a dog.
Sunday Miscellany is produced by Sarah Binchy, and Elaine Conlan is broadcast co-ordinator.
To listen back to The Sea Whisperer click here
Above: Doris the seal pictured surfacing at Sandycove Harbour
