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#Angling - Breast cancer survivors gathered at Mount Falcon in Ballina last weekend for a angling retreat organised by Casting For Recovery and supported by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI).

Thirteen women from Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Fermanagh, Galway, Mayo and Cambridge in the UK attended the free fishing retreat which incorporated medical advice, education services, counselling and relaxation techniques.

The retreat was delivered by trained professionals including a psycho-social therapist, a health care professional as well as qualified fly fishing instructors and fishing guides.

Casting for Recovery UK & Ireland is a flagship project of The Countryside Alliance Foundation, a charity dedicated to increasing access to the countryside and helping as many people appreciate the great outdoors in the UK and Ireland.

Casting for Recovery provides an opportunity for women who have gone through a breast cancer journey to attend a retreat at a spectacular venue to learn the art of fly fishing.

This was the eighth year which the initiative has been held at Mount Falcon, with participants receiving fly fishing coaching and advice from local volunteers.

Many previous participants have taken up fly fishing as a hobby, with one even graduating to fish on the Irish Women’s Team – selections for which have begun ahead of the 2018 Home Internationals, according to The Irish Times.

The event was supported by IFI’s Sponsorship Scheme for angling events and initiatives across the country.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the scheme will support 79 initiatives in 2017 to the overall tune of €30,000, with a focus on those which help grow Ireland’s angling tourism product and support novice anglers.

In other angling news, the Irish Federation of Sea Anglers has announced its junior and youth teams to represent Ireland at this year’s Junior Shore Angling Worlds on the Cote d’Opale in Northern France, as the Belfast Telegraph reports.

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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!