Fast ferry left dolphin watchers ‘bouncing around like corks’

My husband, myself and two friends had enjoyed a beautiful day in Herm. As with all good days it became time to leave, so we hopped on the Trident for our return journey to St Peter Port.

Half way across the skipper announced that dolphins had been spotted and we would be taking a small detour to watch them. We had jokingly said to finish a perfect day would be to see dolphins on the way back and lo and behold there they were.

We could all see a pod of dolphins of maybe 10 or 12 playing in the water, leaping clear and frolicking around having a fun time. The skipper was very good and stayed a safe distance away, but kept us facing them. Wonderful, we thought, a five minute bob-about watching them would be super. We were not alone as there must have been around 10 small vessels in the area all watching the dolphins play.

Then from out of the harbour came Condor Liberation. Now the captain must have seen all of us bobbing around and the dolphins leaping, but without warning when the ship was past the harbour mouth he put the power on and ploughed through the playing dolphins. I know the dolphins would have moved out of the way, but was there really any need to go at such speed? All the smaller vessels were bouncing around like corks, but I must say I have nothing but praise for the Trident skipper, who manoeuvred the vessel to ride out the bow wave and return us safely to the harbour, but I am angry with the Condor captain for his complete lack of consideration.

Now I don’t suppose the Condor captain will read this, but if you do, please be a bit more observant, there was no need to rush through like you did. Another two minutes on your journey time wouldn’t have hurt and we all could have enjoyed the dolphins a little longer.

Name and address withheld.

Editor’s footnote: Ian Le Moigne, media relations manager, Condor Ferries, replies: Thank you for your correspondent’s letter and suggestions.

Together with your reader, we also enjoy seeing these beautiful visitors in our waters and are sympathetic to their presence as we recognise our responsibilities as a safe and considerate sea operator.

While we will always endeavour to look out for important sea life, our operation is quite different to that of the local ferry company which your reader describes. We operate a 24/7 schedule, serving a network of five ports with much larger vessels and different pressures and perspectives.

We are not convinced that passengers would appreciate Condor adopting a policy across its network of delaying and stopping for each sea creature we pass when we have been previously criticised for not keeping to our published timetable.