Monty Halls Great Irish Escape

Monty Halls' Great Irish Escape

The West of Ireland is one of the most spectacularly beautiful coastlines in the world. For one glorious summer, it’s home from home for marine biologist Monty Halls and his over enthusiastic dog, Reuben. Some of the biggest and most mysterious animals on the planet migrate through the waters off Connemara, but nobody knows how many whales, dolphins, porpoises, basking sharks and even blue sharks are out there. It’s Monty’s job to find out, before the winter storms bring research to an end.

Monty Halls' adventure has been recorded by the BBC. Follow his travels around the West coast of Ireland, and discover Connemara’s stunning landscapes and wild seas.

Episode 1 - Great Irish Escape

Monty Hall has gone back to his roots as a marine biologist, living on an island near the fishing village of Roundstone and trying to feed himself from the sea and what he can grow in his cottage garden. The sea teems with life and Monty is soon enjoying dolphin, seal and otter encounters, plus a spectacular dive with huge conger eels.

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Episode 2 - Tracking Basking Sharks

This week his mission is to track down basking sharks, true monsters of the deep which can grow up to 30 feet long. They appear off our shores every summer, but we know remarkably little about these gentle giants and Monty is on constant lookout for their tell tale fins. Back on shore, his attempts at self sufficiency are sabotaged by otters who’ve learnt to raid lobster creels, and his faithful dog Reuben who accidentally savages him on a winkle picking expedition.

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Episode 3 - Monty visits Inishturk

This week Monty is studying whales and dolphins off the spectacular West Coast of Ireland attempting to track the dolphins in his bay using sonar technology to record the whistles and clicks they use to communicate with each other. He also visits Inishturk, one of Ireland’s most remote inhabited islands, to recruit the seven pupils of the island school as whale and dolphin watchers; has a magical underwater encounter with seals and throws his first party for the locals.

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Episode 4 - Tags Blue Sharks

Monty Halls is back to his roots as a marine biologist studying whales and dolphins off the spectacular West Coast of Ireland. This week Monty goes shark fishing, and reels in a couple of Blue Sharks that have crossed the Atlantic as part of their annual migration. It takes strong nerves and quick reactions to avoid getting bitten as Monty attaches tags to their dorsal fins and releases them back over the side. Monty’s also called out to investigate reports that a dolphin is attacking swimmers.

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Episode 5 - Races traditional Irish sail boats

Monty Halls is back to his roots as a marine biologist studying whales and dolphins off the spectacular West Coast of Ireland. This week Monty survives a close shave racing traditional sailing boats when the rigging gets tangled, flies a whale watching mission with the Irish Air Corps and is called out in the middle of the night to search for a stranded basking shark.

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Episode 6 - End of the Summer

It’s the end of summer, and Monty’s time as a volunteer working for an Irish whale and dolphin group is coming to an end. Storms are making it difficult to put to sea, but Monty must retrieve an acoustic listening device he anchored on the sea bed to monitor whale and dolphin movements in his bay. But that was four months ago and now there’s no sign of the €4000 recorder. Without the data it’s recorded, much of Monty’s six months work will have been wasted.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

Monty Halls' great Irish escape has been recorded by the BBC. Follow Monty and his ever faithful companion Reuben as they travel around the West coast of Ireland, and discover Connemara’s stunning landscapes and wild seas.