Ó Catháin Iasc Teoranta’s processing plant, which was once at the centre of the fishing industry in Dingle, began a new life at the weekend when the doors were opened on WAVE – the Wild Atlantic Virtual Experience that now occupies much of the former factory floor. After three generations in the fish processing and export business, the Keane family felt that, with so much uncertainty in the fishing industry, a move into tourism promised the most viable future for the processing plant and the jobs that remain there. The result is WAVE, which takes visitors on a virtual undersea journey to view the marine life, shipwrecks, and other wonders in the sea off the coast of West Kerry. The ‘above water’ side of the exhibition includes information panels on famous shipwrecks including the Spanish Armada’s Santa Maria de la Rosa which sank in the Blasket Sound and the German U68 which was sunk by a British warship south west of Dingle Bay. “Ten years ago our fish factory was working flat out for six or seven months of the year. Then it declined until our season was down to about six weeks because of a lack of fish quota and the closure of the herring fishery,” Owen Keane told The Kerryman. “We were thinking that with the season getting shorter and shorter we were going to have to come up with something different.” Owen and his brother, Michael, felt that a change of direction would have to involve tourism and the idea for WAVE grew out of that. For a family that grew up in the fishing industry there’s sadness about the having to make the move but it means jobs can be saved and part of the plant will remain as a fish processing facility catering mostly for the local market.