{"id":397990,"date":"2026-04-14T13:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T13:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/397990\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T13:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T13:36:08","slug":"watch-strange-sea-creature-spotted-just-off-west-cork-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/397990\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Strange sea creature spotted just off West Cork beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rare and exotic visitor to our shores – from the Gulf of MexicoStrange sea creature spotted off West Cork<\/p>\n

A bizarre black sea creature has been captured on camera, floating off a popular West Cork <\/a>beach.<\/p>\n

The strange-looking black blob was spotted pulsing and floating in the waters off Castlehave Bay earlier this week by Kayaker Jim Kennedy, who whipped out his phone and caught some footage of what looked like a weird jellyfish.<\/p>\n

However, when Jim got back to dry land and did some research, he found that the little black blob he encountered was actually a type of swimming sea snail called the Black Sea Hare – a rare and pretty exotic visitor to our shores, which may have been blown here from the south mid Atlantic by recent storms.<\/p>\n

The creature, known as an Aplysia Vaccaria, is a dark-coloured sea slug and the largest of its kind. It feeds on algae and can release ink when disturbed, but while it is harmless to humans and it does not bite or sting; the ink may cause some irritation to human skin. These are creatures that normally prefer the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico, so maybe they are a harbinger of a hot summer to come for the South West.<\/p>\n

Jim – who runs the well-known Atlantic Sea Kayaking adventure tours<\/a> out of Skibbereen- said he was on an early morning paddle when a little floating blob caught his eye.<\/p>\n

Jim told CorkBeo: “We were out kayaking when something in the water drew my attention. The water is very clear so it was easy to spot. A lot of people have seen it before but I never did and I didn’t know what it was. We see many different types of wildlife out here, but this was unusual.”<\/p>\n

In their 30 years running Atlantic Sea Kayaking, Jim, his wife Maria and their two sons – all kayaking instructors – have seen just about everything that floats, swims or sinks in West Cork waters.<\/p>\n

And he said an encounter like this, with the Black Sea Hare, is always a reminder of how lucky they consider themselves to be able to do what they do, on the Wild Atlantic Way. “It has allowed us to live in a beautiful place and have a very nice lifestyle as a family,” he said.<\/p>\n

It’s been a tough few years, in the post-pandemic era and with the cost of living concerns challenging tourism in Ireland, but Jim said they are looking forward to a busy summer, and are thankful for the F\u00e1ilte Ireland Wild Atlantic Way Business Partnership has helped their business massively.<\/p>\n

It is a collaborative programme that supports tourism businesses along the Wild Atlantic Way by helping them improve quality, enhance visitor experiences, and align with the branding of Ireland\u2019s famous coastal route.<\/p>\n

Jim said: “The businesses has really been helped by the collaboration with F\u00e1ilte Ireland. we have a lot of collaborations that we do with local food producers and restaurants that help us both. If people do trips with either of our businesses they will get a reduction on prices and it is fantastic.<\/p>\n

“We currently have a collaboration with Gormu which is run by Conor \u00d3 Buachalla who is a history expert and the experience you get with both of us is brilliant.”<\/p>\n

They are expecting a busy period leading up to summer and you can fins out more on what Atlantic Sea Kayacking can offer HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rare and exotic visitor to our shores – from the Gulf of MexicoStrange sea creature spotted off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,620,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-397990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-west-cork","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}