Yesterday, we were blown away with information about Ireland's coastal waters. Second, third and fourth classes enjoyed a very interesting workshop with David and Cat McCann from 'The Sea Collective'. David and Cat are marine biologists and they visit schools to share their knowledge about the sea and the creatures who live in it.
Some facts we learned yesterday were...
There are 27 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, 350 bony fish, 71 species of sharks, skates and rays and one species of turtle in our waters. The leatherback turtle visits Irish waters in the summer to feed on jellyfish and then returns to Africa or the Caribbean.
The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet, it's 30m long (the length of three big buses) and weighs 180 tonnes (the same as 40 elephants). It's tongue weighs the same as one elephant! We even got to hear the sound it makes, which is the loudest sound an animal can make, it was very cool. It's so loud that if one blue whale made a sound on the west coast of Ireland, it could be heard by another whale on the east coast of America!
We held a 5 million year old megalodon tooth...it was heavy! We also explored lots of shark teeth, shells, empty shark, ray and skate egg shells and many other exciting items from our the ocean.
A huge thank you to David and Cat, The Arts Council - Creative Clusters Project and The Heritage Schools Council.
