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Displaying items by tag: East Coast Canoe Trail

#CANOEING - Top junior surf kayaker Andy McClelland was on hand this week for the official opening of Northern Ireland's East Coast Canoe Trail, as the Carrick Times reports.

The new route - running for 70 nautical miles from Strangford Village at the mouth of the Ards Peninsula to Waterfoot on the Co Antrim coast, and passing the renowned Glens of Antrim and Belfast Lough - completes a series of trails that follows the entire Northern Irish coastline.

McClelland, who was victorious in the Surf Kayak Junior World Championships in North Carolina last October, described the trails as "a real feather in our cap in terms of visiting kayakers as there are few other countries in the world which can rival the canoeing facilities we now have here in Northern Ireland.”

The launch of the East Coast Canoe Trail comes almost a year after the introduction of the Foyle Canoe Trail and the 'kayaker's dream' South East Canoe Trail, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

The route is completed by the North Coast Canoe Trail, highlighted on BBC TV last year, which takes in such remarkable sights as the Giant’s Causeway and Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge.

Waterproof guides for both trails are available free from from local tourist information centres or online from CanoeNI.com. The website also features detailed online mapping and charts of the routes.

The Carrick Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in Canoeing

Marine Wildlife Around Ireland One of the greatest memories of any day spent boating around the Irish coast is an encounter with marine wildlife.  It's a thrill for young and old to witness seabirds, seals, dolphins and whales right there in their own habitat. As boaters fortunate enough to have experienced it will testify even spotting a distant dorsal fin can be the highlight of any day afloat.  Was that a porpoise? Was it a whale? No matter how brief the glimpse it's a privilege to share the seas with Irish marine wildlife.

Thanks to the location of our beautiful little island, perched in the North Atlantic Ocean there appears to be no shortage of marine life to observe.

From whales to dolphins, seals, sharks and other ocean animals this page documents the most interesting accounts of marine wildlife around our shores. We're keen to receive your observations, your photos, links and youtube clips.

Boaters have a unique perspective and all those who go afloat, from inshore kayaking to offshore yacht racing that what they encounter can be of real value to specialist organisations such as the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) who compile a list of sightings and strandings. The IWDG knowledge base has increased over the past 21 years thanks in part at least to the observations of sailors, anglers, kayakers and boaters.

Thanks to the IWDG work we now know we share the seas with dozens of species who also call Ireland home. Here's the current list: Atlantic white-sided dolphin, beluga whale, blue whale, bottlenose dolphin, common dolphin, Cuvier's beaked whale, false killer whale, fin whale, Gervais' beaked whale, harbour porpoise, humpback whale, killer whale, minke whale, northern bottlenose whale, northern right whale, pilot whale, pygmy sperm whale, Risso's dolphin, sei whale, Sowerby's beaked whale, sperm whale, striped dolphin, True's beaked whale and white-beaked dolphin.

But as impressive as the species list is the IWDG believe there are still gaps in our knowledge. Next time you are out on the ocean waves keep a sharp look out!