Lobster Mobster Maine attraction

A strange object has made its way from the north eastern shores of America to Cork and it’s making quite a splash.

Lobster Mobster, a large buoy which has found its way from Maine on America’s east coast to Cork Harbour, is now the source of a tidal wave of excitement on Leeside.

Originally found by Shawn Kingston from Kinsale Boat Yard, the buoy is now in the possession of fifth class pupils at St Columba's GNS with Facility for Deaf Children in Douglas as part of their project for a Port of Cork initiative for a healthy harbour.

“It's like a 21st century message in a bottle,” fifth class teacher Colleen Forsythe told the Cork Independent.

Upon further investigation, the inquisitive youngsters found that the buoy belongs to Craig Wood of Buck’s Harbour in Maine, USA. There were also contact numbers written on the buoy.

“I tried to get on to Buck's Harbour but I couldn't get through so I went to the harbour authority in the USA and they put me in touch with a school in Buck's Port, where the Lobster Mobster is from,” said Ms Forsythe.

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Together with Buck’s Port teacher Lynn Redman of Miles Lane School, Ms Forsythe went about organising a Google Hangout between her class and that of Ms Redman which will take place today, Thursday 23 May.

Ms Forsythe said: “We just had a trial run. We are going to treat them to a bit of Irish, and we will sing some songs in Irish for them. We have a deaf unit in our school so we are going to do a bit of sign language as well.”

Miles Lane School will have a lobster fisherman on hand to offer an educated guess as to the route that the runaway buoy may have taken on its journey to Cork.

It is thought that the buoy may have traveled from the east coast of America following the North Atlantic drift towards Ireland.

The story has also attracted the interest of NBC, one of the USA’s largest television networks, who are covering the story.

The buoy currently remains at St Columba's GNS with Facility for Deaf Children in Douglas.

“My dog has his eyes on it, but we’ll keep it within the school because it's part of the project we're doing,” concluded Ms Forsythe.