Editorial Director Mark Evans and the rest of his clan braved stormy winds, choppy seas and torrential rain to head out to Lundy Island and its colony of grey seals
Photographs by Mark Evans and Colin Garrett
Did you know?
Lundy Island has a resident population of approximately 180 Atlantic grey seals.
What is it with British summers? When we planned our Lundy seal-diving adventure last year, we thought 4 August 2023 was a surefire bet for blue skies, calm seas and decent visibility. Middle of the summer hols, time for any lingering spring showers to be long gone.
Sorted. Well, the best laid plans and all that… Instead, we endured horizontal driving rain, gale force winds and vis that struggled to get over three to four metres…
Most importantly, though, we still had a blast! Okay, so the hour-and-a-half crossing to Lundy in the morning was, shall we say, a little character building, with large waves and deluges of spray the entire way to the island.
But once we got into the shelter of the island, things calmed down a lot, the rain stopped, and the sun did try and peek its head out once in a while.
Our merry band, which included BBC TV presenter and GO Diving Show speaker Miranda Krestovnikoff and her children Oliver and Amelie, were keen to get suited up and into the water, as there were plenty of inquisitive seals already swimming around, with more eyeballing us from their lounging spots on the rocks.
Diving with seals is always fun, and trying to keep track of where they are means you have to have your head on a swivel.
Add in the relatively low vis, and this gets all the more difficult! They are clumsy on land, but underwater they are effortless, gliding around at phenomenal speed – your first glimpses are normally a flash of grey as they zoom past checking you out.
Once they have gained a spot of courage, they will slow their approaches, and inquisitively give you the once over.
If you have a camera with a dome port, they will often look at their reflection, and they do love to play with your fins.
You can be swimming along looking for seals and then abruptly come to a halt as one takes a firm hold of your fin with its teeth and gives it a tug. But when you spin round, they will have disappeared as if by magic.
Luke repeatedly rolled on to his back and flailed his Force Fins above the kelp, and the seals were bemused by his antics, repeatedly nosing his fin tips and spinning upside down to look at him.
Grey Seals
Lundy has a resident population of approximately 180 Atlantic grey seals. These seals can be seen just about anywhere on the island, either hauled out on the rocks enjoying the sun, or in the water.
While in the water, they can dive for up to 20 minutes at a time in search of fish, and are common sights in and around the kelp forests.
Male seals, or bulls, have prominent Roman noses, which can help to differentiate them from the relatively straight-nosed female seals, or cows.
Males also tend to be considerably larger than the females, with some males measuring over two-and-a-half metres in length and weighing up to 350kg, while females are approximately two metres in length and 250kg in weight.
Both sexes are vocal, and are frequently heard snorting, roaring and wailing. These sounds can be amplified by sea caves or gullies, giving the impression of mournful ghostly echoes.
It is not hard to see where ancient tales of sirens and mermaids came from!
I got a few reasonable seal shots and we had some nice interactions, but Colin Garrett and his wife Sarah must have some secret seal-wrangling methods, as they were bombarded by four seals from the moment they got in for about ten frenetic minutes – most of the seal shots here are Colin’s from that epic encounter.
Things even got a little X-rated for a time when two of the seals got particularly energetic…
Thankfully, the weather had calmed down somewhat for the return journey to Ilfracombe, and everyone was smiles as we returned to the dockside.
So the good old British summer weather had struck again, and conditions were not the best either topside or underwater, but Lundy had still delivered a fabulous day out on, and in, the water.
If you haven’t dived or snorkelled with seals, I’d highly recommend it, as it is still one of my all-time favourite activities in this country.
Obsession Boat Charter
Obsession Boat Charter run two vessels out of Ilfracombe, the Obsession II and the Barbara B – we were on the former with skipper Leigh.
The Obsession II is a spacious catamaran, which even with a full complement of 12 divers/ snorkellers offers plenty of room to spread out. The cabin is large, and there is also seating on the roof. Tea, coffee and hot chocolate flows all day, and they have a great supply of choccy biscuits!
This article was originally published in Scuba Diver UK #77
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