And what did we sea?

LIFE after Fungi. Perish the thought . . . or the dolphin, indeed. However, even as Kerry's ageing cetacean considers applying for his free travel pass, Dingle's own David Bellamy has planned ahead.

Not that Kevin Flannery would like to be described as such, but the infectiously enthusiastic Department of the Marine fish quality officer, who has done so much to arouse public interest in the marine resource, was one of the first to make acquaintance with the bottle nose. The town has done well out of it since, knowing it was never going to last. The life span of the wild dolphin is thought to be about 35 years.

Still, a superficial interest in Fungi's environment had to be cultivated, in Flannery's view. How? With a resident Kerry home for Dingle's many rare fish.

Fish like the baby basking shark caught recently off the south west known on this Atlantic seaboard as the sunfish, because of its tendency to appear in secluded bays in fine weather, the species was once hunted for oil. Lucky that it was to Dingle that this 100 lb youngster was brought recently. Anywhere up in the Shannon estuary, and it might have become a "waterworld" freakshow, competing for public attention with saunas and jacuzzis.

Yes, "seaworld" is now in very real danger of becoming the marine equivalent of our interpretative centre on this coastline, in yet another effort to burn up EU structural funds.

EU fleets may be fishing out Irish waters - waters which have already become a dumping ground for raw sewage and nuclear waste - and access to beaches and the marine environment may already be under pressure. But who cares about buckets and spades and little nets for catching pinkies if kids can enjoy an "indoor sea experience", funded by Brussels, in a heated, chlorinated pool?

Since the first public aquarium was opened in Regent's Park, London, just over a century ago, most seaside aquariums were little more than ill lit, dank shelters from the rain. Without an obvious identification with the immediate environment, such projects were always doomed to fail. The alternative - pure entertainment - depended on keeping seals and dolphins in captivity, as the most expressive "creatures of the deep".

Which is why Dublin financier Dermot Desmond should think twice about his aquarium plan, advertised as part of a £120 million retail project at the International Financial Services Centre, with a glass tower higher than Liberty Hall. Indeed, he might be better occupied with financing a 50 metre horizontal structure, for humans rather than fish. For even he could not hope to match Dingle's Mara Beo.

Opened by Tanaiste Dick Spring this summer, Mara Beo is the result of some 15 years work by Kevin Flannery. He was assisted by local fishermen and fellow biologists like Declan Quigley of the ESB. Supported by Udaras na Gaeltachta, the concept is very different to that being developed by Shannon Development further north, where a "seaworld" in Fenit has been followed by a £2 million sealife and leisure centre in Lahinch. A similar waterworld is to be developed in Kilkee, while Galway Corporation is confident that its £2 million proposal for Salthill will be approved.

It is unfortunate, if not ironic, that the Lahinch development should have been opened by the Minister for Tourism and Trade, Enda Kenny, just a couple of weeks after the resort lost its Blue Flag. In fact, all four of Clare's finest beaches have been stripped of the award, having failed to comply with water quality standards. Unfortunate, also, that Galway Bay should be so polluted that many swimmers have abandoned it. Which begs the question: what good is a museum or aquarium, if there isn't a clean sea?

By contrast, Dingle - and this island's first aquarium on which it is modelled, Portaferry had established a reputation for wild and wonderful sealife long before the word "tourist" or "waterworld" was ever coined. Both began attracting much scientific interest over the last couple of centuries because of the biological diversity of their coastal zones.

IN Portaferry's case, its Exploris centre reflects the unique habitat of Strangford Lough, which has been chosen as this island's first designated marine nature reserve. More than 2,000 recorded species are nourished by the tidal race through Strangford's narrows.

In Dingle's case, much of the aquarium's "crop" has been landed by local boats, which have been equipped to carry rare species live into port. As both Quigley and Flannery have explained in their extensive contributions to scientific journals, the broad expanse of shallow continental water fanning out from Dingle Bay supports some of the most interesting marine species and ecosystems in northern Europe. It represents a biological funnel", concentrating warm, cold, shallow and deep water species into a "colourful kaleidoscope" of exotic marine life.

Among the summertime migrants are Lusitanian species from the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean, Boreal species which normally only extend as far south as North Sea coasts, and the vagrants carried across the Atlantic on the Gulf Stream. Most regular wanderers have been loggerhead turtles from the Gulf of Mexico, which were often shipped to Portaferry for safe keeping before air transport back home.

It was in the last century that Dingle's diverse marine fauna, was first, recognised by an English naturalist. William Andrews, whose most notable discovery was the "spotted slug of Kerry". He made the first record of the trigger fish, and his work attracted "praegers" a nickname for the Victorian naturalists inspired by Robert Lloyd Praeger and the like. In the 1950s, a Dingle publican named Michael Long began collecting many marine species from the fleet, and was responsible for recording some 82 per cent of rare fish species found in Irish waters.

Catching attention with the whalebone in its front garden, the aquarium maps a magical mystery tour from the Kerry mount, Brandon, to the "abyss" beyond. It pays homage to St Brendan and his transatlantic voyages, and then runs from the inshore lakes of Annascaul and Glenbeigh, with their are Arctic Char, to the harbour mouth, and to the Atlantic beyond.

Highlights include the tank, which allows young visitors to tickle ray and other flatfish, and Fungi's Garden; a riot of colourful anemone, shrimp and starfish frequenting one of the caves in Dingle harbour. Flannery's favourite is the octopus, which has a brain the size of a dog and can open a screwtop jar. "Jarred" live crab has been cancelled from its daily diet, however, due to complaints of "cruelty" from foreign tourists.

Unfortunately, Kerry's armada legacy has to be represented by replicas, as much of the original material has gone to Britain. The one "commercial" for Udaras na Gaeltachta is a section on farmed fish, including Cape Clear island turbot and abalone.

Already, Mara Beo has exceeded visitor projections, and its nursery tank has even borne fruit. In early June, some 200 baby lumpsuckers were hatched from eggs laid by, their mother, and "breathed" on by their father over four weeks. The "breathing" is to keep the eggs clean and free of infection, after which the life cycle of the male comes' to a swift, unrelenting end.

As a commercial/educational venture, this is sustainable tourism at its best. Mara Beo even has its own security system. Landed by a local vessel, the electric ray in its touch pool can generate up to 220 volts. As for the abyss ... well, Dublin property/ pyramid builders could never match that.