The expert’s three main theories about what happened to Fungie, with...

The legendary Dingle dolphin Fungie has been missing for over a week – and people across Ireland are desperately looking for something to explain his worrying disappearance.

Now an expert has weighed it up – and suggested a number of factors that could shed light on Fungie’s whereabouts.

The marine biologist Dr. Kevin Flannery – the director of Dingles Oceanworld Aquarium – tells Irish Spiegel there are “some biological explanations” for Fungie’s continued absence from Dingle Harbor.

And one of them could give hope to fungie watchers that the legendary dolphin is still out there.

Two weeks ago Fungie was seen playing in the Dingle Harbor estuary with a number of whales – humpback and minky.

It’s possible, says Dr. Flannery that Fungie ran off with the whales for feeding purposes.

“He may have decided to go with them because when humpback whales catch fish they are like a big jaw and they spread the fish everywhere.”

Romping with the whales would make Fungie’s life easier while feeding, says Dr. Flannery.

Over the past few weeks, theories have risen on social media about possible explanations for the remarkable disappearance of a dolphin that Dingle has stayed with for nearly 40 years.

But Dr. Flannery poured cold water on the idea that Fungie, now well over forty, might have run away with a dolphin woman.

“Perhaps an obvious legacy came back to him and said, ‘Dad, you have to go out and join us,'” jokes Dr. Flannery before dismissing that statement as a “flight of fantasy”.

“The possibility that he will meet and leave just one romantic partner is unlikely.”

Unfortunately, warns Dr. Flannery, there is a simpler explanation – and a more likely one: Fungie, like all of us, has simply succumbed to fatherhood.

“He has been with us for 37 years. He was a young adult when he first got here, so get on with it, ”says Dr. Flannery.

“As a wild animal that had to catch its own fish for 40 or 50 years, it would slow down, as we all do up to that age.

“And trying to catch fish is not going to be that easy, so the possibility of starvation comes into play – that it could have died of starvation or something.

“He could have just gone off with the whales because it was the first time I saw humpback whales with him or near him.

“Or just hungry.”

In any case, Dr. Flannery highlight the cultural and environmental importance of a dolphin that thrilled the Dingle crowd for nearly four decades.

“You can use Caesar’s three big words – veni, vidi, vici,” he says.

“He came, he saw, he conquered.”