I was lucky enough to be offered the last place on a Skomer Island staff evening cruise to the Celtic Deep on the Dale Nelson. We left Martins Haven at about 4.30 and had a couple of porpoise off Jack Sound before picking up the bulk of the passengers. We had common dolphin not far off Skomer as we headed just south of Grassholm but we could not stop to play because we heading for deeper waters. We passed a number of other small pods on commons as we proceeded offshore and eventually arrived at our destination. A likely area containing common dolphins, gannets and a few storm petrels. Jason and Leighon then had the pleasure of opening the bucket of foul smelling chum to entice the wildlife. It acted like a magnet to Storm Petrels. We had loads behind the boat as we slowly motored around. Unfortunately we saw no whales nor any sign of the 250 pounds blue finned tuna that had been caught and released out there the day before. Other birds included sooty shearwater and great skua. We got back to Martins Haven through rafts of manx shearwaters at 9.30 via Skomer. All in all a very pleasant cruise.
Steve Rosser
