Father and son Terry and Tomás Deane went out from the Kerry coast on the longest day of the year with the intention of finding marine wildlife.

But little did they expect they would come face-to-face with a pod of humpback whales — one of which spyhopped off the bow of their RIB.

As RTÉ news reports, the duo spent an hour watching the pod of three humpbacks feeding some 15 miles north-west of Brandon before the cetaceans approached their small boat.

The magical moment when a 14-year-old boy came face to face with a humpback whale off the Co Kerry coast ? pic.twitter.com/g6Yr0MP3zr

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 16, 2019

Using a GoPro camera, they were able to film the whales swimming about around and beneath their vessel before the surprising moment when one spyhopped — surfaced vertically to get a better look — just feet away.

“It was unreal,” says Terry. “We were shaking, not with fear, but in awe.”

RTÉ News has more on the story HERE.

#Kayaking - RTÉ News reports on the death of a woman in her 30s in a kayaking incident on the River Roughty near Kilgarvan in Co Kerry yesterday (Sunday 4 November).

The Cork woman was one of a group that had been kayaking in an area popular for enthusiasts of the watersport. Rescuers recovered her body two hours after she got into difficulty around noon.

The Irish Times has much more on the story HERE.

The death of three men whose upturned fishing boat was found off Coonanna in Co Kerry last night has “devastated” the local community, as BreakingNews.ie reports.

Post-mortems will be carried out today (Monday 1 October) on the bodies of the three Eastern European fishermen, who lived in the area.

It is understood that two of the men were found underneath their upturned 15ft fishing punt in the sheltered end of Coonanna harbour. The third may have tried to reach the shore before he died.

BrekaingNews.ie has more on the story HERE.

#Rowing: Portmagee Rowing club will host the Irish Offshore Rowing Championships on Saturday, September 8th. The event will be run by Rowing Ireland and the venue is O’Carroll’s Cove beach bar near Caherdaniel in County Kerry. This will be the first time this event will be held in Kerry.

 More than 80 crews, made up of 220-plus oarsmen and women will compete for national titles. The event is the Fisa ranking event for the World Coastal Rowing Championships 2018 which will be held in Canada in October.

 Kerry rowers have a good record in Coastal/Offshore Rowing. Ireland international Monika Dukarska, from the Killorglin Rowing Club, is a double world champion in the women’s single. Johnny Casey, whose grandfather was one of the legendary Caseys of Sneem, was the Irish men’s single champion last year.

  This year’s course for the Offshore Championships is the same stretch of water that the Caseys, the "toughest family on earth", would have trained and raced on in the Seine boat during their heyday in the 1920s and 1930s. Johnny also teamed up with his brother James and uncle and father, Steve and Patrick, to win the All Ireland senior men’s four 20 years ago.

  This year, the Courtmacsherry men’s quad crew who have defeated all comers over the last few years, put their title on the line. Waiting to take them on are the might of Muckross. Paul Griffin, an Ireland Olympian in Athens in 2004, when his Ireland lightweight four reached the A Final, and Beijing in 2008, is set to be in their ranks.

#CoastalRowing: The good results kept coming for Kerry clubs on the second day of the All Ireland Coastal Rowing Championships in Wexford. Flesk Valley won the senior men’s championship, while Workmen’s took the senior women’s crown. A Donegal club did break into the winning ranks. Cumann Rámhaíochta Chloich Cheann Fhaola (Cloughaneely CCF) had wins in women’s, men’s and mixed classes.

ICRF All Ireland Coastal Championships (Selected Results; winners):

Saturday

Men

Open Classic: Cloughaneely CCF

Celtic Longboats: Vartry A

Heritage: St Patrick’s. Under-18: Cromane

East Coast Skiffs: St Patrick’s. Under-16: Stella Maris

Under-21: Flesk Valley

Under-16: Fossa

Intermediate: Workmen’s.

Pre Veterans: Commercial, Killarney

Masters: Glenarm

Women

Celtic Longboats: Vartry

Heritage: St Patrick’s A. Under-18 Heritage: Cromane

Open Classic: Cloughaneely CCF

East Coast Skiffs: St Michael’s. Novice: Fingal

Under-21: Workmen’s

Intermediate: Workmen’s

Pre Veterans: Workmen’s

Mixed

Veteran: Workmen’s A

Sunday

Men

Senior: Flesk Valley

Currach: Cloughaneely CCF

Novice: Flesk Valley

Junior: Vartry

Under 18: Workmen’s

Veteran: Commercial, Killarney

Women

Senior: Workmen’s

Currach: Fergus

Novice: Cloughaneely CCF

Junior: Workmen’s

Under 18: Workmen’s

Under 16: Flesk Valley

Veteran: Sneem

Mixed

Senior: Vartry

Currach: Cloughaneely CCF

Pre-Vet: Workmen’s

Masters: Templenoe

#Kerry - RTÉ News reports that a kayaker drowned off the Iveagh Peninsula in Co Kerry yesterday afternoon, Friday 10 August.

Emergency services were alerted around 2.30pm to Cromane after the kayaker had been recovered from the water by a local fisherman who attempted CPR, but the casualty was pronounced dead at the scene.

#StormHector - One sorry yacht owner felt the wrath of Storm Hector today (Thursday 14 June) when their vessel was founded beached near Waterville in Co Kerry, as RTÉ News reports.

The Hanse yacht, named Seabiscuit, broke its mooring in Ballinskelligs Bay and was blown ashore on Inny Strand below Waterville Golf Course amid severe gusts that were forecast to reach as high as 125kmh overnight.

A Status Yellow small craft warning remains in effect on coasts from Hook Head to Erris Head to Howth Head with west to southwest winds reaching Force 6 or higher.

#Rescue - RTÉ News reports that two fishermen were rescued after abandoning their sinking vessel off the Kerry coast this afternoon, Monday 7 May.

The Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 115 was dispatched to the scene south off Scariff Island to recover the two men from their life raft.

#Rescue - A surfer was rescued in West Kerry on Monday night (22 May) after he was pulled from the shore by a rip current, as RTÉ News reports.

Dingle Coast Guard and Valentia RNLI fought difficult conditions – with a heavy swell and thick fog – to locate the man, who had managed to climb onto rocks beneath high cliffs near Com Dhíneol, a popular surfing spot.

The incident occurred just weeks after a Scottish surfer was rescued off Northern Ireland after more than 30 hours at sea.

Elsewhere, gardaí are continuing to investigate after a person was reportedly spotted in difficulty in the water near Sutton Dinghy Club on Monday night.

Howth Coast Guard and RNLI lifeboat crews from Howth and Dun Laoghaire found nothing on their low water searches, concentrating on the area between Sutton and Dollymount Strand and returning twice more, before dawn on Tuesday (23 May) and later that afternoon.

#MarineWildlife - Three dead dolphins have washed up on Kerry's shores in recent days – and one Irish fishery expert believes so-called 'supertrawlers' in the area might be responsible.

According to The Irish Times, former Sea Fisheries Protection Authority inspector Kevin Flannery says one of the three common dolphins found between Dingle and Smerwick Harbour since last weekend had a rope around its tail, presumably discarded from a fishing vessel.

He added that while there is no proof of precisely what became of the dolphins, it was "no coincidence" that the incidents occurred while a fleet of mainly Dutch factory fishing ships was spotted off the Blasket Islands.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.