WHALE watchers returned cold but elated to Duncannon on Thursday evening after spending eight hours at sea hoping to get up close with the newest humpback to grace our shores.

The group of 12, including four people who travelled down especially from Dublin for the day, were brought around the Hook and Baginbun areas by Duncannon based skipper Martin Colfer.

Maurice Byrne was one of the whale watchers who journeyed down especially from the capital hoping to catch a glimpse of the whale.

Sadly Hooky never showed face on the day. However, a group of fin whales kept the group well entertained for many hours putting on a diving display.

'We saw five fin whales and 20 spottings of the same fin whales', said Maurice, who hails from Sandymount in Dublin.

'I came down specially today. I saw an article in the paper about the whale and looked it up on the web and got Martin Colfer's number and came down. It was absolutely well worth the journey down. It was gorgeous.'

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was how Kathleen Murphy from The Rower and Bonnie Breen from Cushinstown described their whale watching experience.

'It was absolutely brilliant,' said Kathleen, who was lucky enough to be out on the Rebecca C on Sunday when the humpback whale appeared to delighted onlookers.

'It was a chance in a lifetime. It was cold but beautiful. I never did anything like this before. I never thought I'd get that chance.' said Bonnie.