North coast dolphins and a Rathlin shark
- Published
Allan Bogle put on his snorkelling gear to swim with dolphins in Portstewart
Dolphins swimming alongside beachgoers and a thresher shark leaping out of the sea are among some of the unusual images captured along Northern Ireland's north coast this weekend.
Allan Bogle was surrounded by a pod of dolphins as he swam close to the shore at Portstewart Strand in County Londonderry on Sunday.
"It was amazing," he told BBC News NI.
"They were swimming around me, diving under me, jumping over me."
The moment was caught on camera by both his wife and brother-in-law who were watching from the shoreline.
"The beach was full of people who were standing watching the dolphins - they put on a really good show," Mr Bogle added.
The 40-year-old from Eglinton was visiting his parents' holiday home in Portstewart when he spotted the dolphins from the beach shortly before 11:00 BST.
Dressed in his wetsuit and snorkelling gear, he swam out towards them to get a better look, and spent the next 15 minutes swimming with a pod of about six dolphins.
"I was just in the right place at the right time," he said.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
He estimates that the dolphins came as close as about 100 ft (30m) from the shore.
The nature fan described the experience as "right up my street" as he works as an environmental education officer for Derry City and Strabane Council.
He believes the pod had chased a shoal of herring into shallow water and were feeding on the fish.
Mr Bogle said he has been coming to his family's holiday home "all my life" and although he has seen dolphins and porpoises in the area before, this experience was unusual because they were so close to the shore and he was able to get "within touching distance".
"It was by far the best display we've ever seen," he added.
The photos were taken by Allan Bogle's wife, Alison Hill
Several paddle boarders who were at the beach also paddled out to see the dolphins and filmed the experience before the pod left the area.
Shark tale
Another nature enthusiast, Ruby Free, spotted what she believes was a thresher shark off the coast of Rathlin Island.
She was travelling on the Rathlin to Ballycastle ferry at about 17:20 BST on Saturday when she made the sighting.
"I was on my way back from work to the mainland for my days off when I started seeing splashes not far out in front of me off the ferry," she told BBC News NI.
The thresher shark was pictured off Rathlin Island on Saturday
"I'm working as the visitor experience officer for the RSPB West Light Seabird Centre and see lots of beautiful wildlife everyday.
"I've also worked out on wildlife tour boats for years, but I've never seen anything like this," she added.
"It was an absolute honour to watch this thresher shark in all its glory. I never thought I would see one considering they're listed as vulnerable to extinction."
As well as her role with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Ms Free is also a member of the education team at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary.
She managed to capture a photo of the shark "fully breaching out of the water from the force of its tail".
Thresher sharks use their long tails to hunt fish
Thresher sharks have very long tails, making up about half the length of their bodies, which they use to hunt food.
They are not generally considered dangerous to humans.
They are listed as a "vulnerable" in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
'Fantastic image'
Ms Free's sighting is unusual because threshers are mainly found in deep, open seas and rarely stray into coastal areas.
But it is a migratory species which "passes through UK waters in the summer months," according to the Wildlife Trusts, external.
"They herd smaller fish into tight shoals, swim at them and thrash their tail like a whip, stunning some of the fish and making them easy to catch," according to the wildlife charity's website.
Simon Berrow from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) confirmed to BBC News NI that Ruby Free's photo was a "fantastic image of a thresher" and that the Portstewart pod were bottlenose dolphins.
"We have had quite an increase in bottlenose dolphin sightings off Northern Ireland in recent years," he said.
"We can identify individual dolphins from unique markings on their dorsal fins. We know that these same individual dolphins occur all around the Irish coast."
The IWDG records and verifies sightings of sea creatures around Ireland and encourages "citizen scientists" to report their sightings via the IWDG app, external.