Tuesday 11th August

We had three fantastic trips today. The first one was a private charter organised by Dr Tom Horton of Exeter University, who used to be a Marine Discovery guide in another life! His recent research has investigated the stomach contents of landed tuna to see what they are eating – really important stuff if we are going to continue to protect this iconic species. The trip was a thank you to one of the funders of the project who came along with his family to hopefully see tuna and whatever else was out there. Unbelievably it turned into the best tuna trip we have had this year, with massive fish busting the surface again and again right next to us, along with masses of common dolphins charging around hunting the same shoals. Quite extraordinary.

The first Bay Discovery trip of the afternoon firstly saw several seal bobbing around the island, bottling and snoozing. Heading out into the bay, we again found stacks of common dolphins hunting, and it was more or less a repeat on the third trip of the day, with an ocean sunfish seen at the end of the trip. I guess at some point the weather will break, the wind and rain will return and everything will change, but it looks fairly stable for now.