For divers at Deep Sea World, Scotland’s national aquarium, St Patrick’s Day this weekend will be a double cause for celebration.
As well as being among the most widely celebrated Saints days in the world, March 17th also marks the anniversary of the arrival of Irish shark Scout to the aquarium.
The 2.2 metre-long shark, which weighs around 100kgs, travelled by road and sea from the south west tip of Ireland in an ambitious 18-hour journey which was featured on national television.
He was re-homed in Scotland after outgrowing his tank at the Dingle Aquarium in County Kerry.
Deep Sea World’s Aisling Thornton said: “We can’t really be sure whether Scout actually misses his Irish tankmates or not.
“He certainly seems to have settled in extremely well here and doesn’t appear to be in the least homesick.
“In fact he is now firmly established as one of the more confident sharks in our giant Underwater Safari display.
“However we thought it was only right and proper to mark his arrival with some traditional Irish celebrations and it didn’t take too much persuasion to get the divers involved as well,” she added.
Diver Euan Hazeldine donned a giant leprechaun’s hat, red beard and grabbed a pint of the black stuff before taking the plunge as part of the St Patrick’s Day celebrations
Deep Sea World has the largest underwater walkthrough tunnel in the UK. Its main display holds 4.5 million litres of seawater and is home to one of Europe’s largest collections of sharks.
Stars of the display are the giant, three-metre-long sand tiger sharks including Scout and Tinkerbell, who is thought to be one of the oldest sharks in captivity, tope sharks, angel sharks and Stella the huge stingray as well as thousands of other fish, crabs and lobsters.
