Now back in Tobermory bay for winter refurbishment, Silurian’s survey season for the year is at an end, and what a year it’s been! This summer, Silurian has travelled a whopping 9,500km, and has collected almost 4,000 individual animal sightings.

This year is a very special year for Silurian, reaching her 15th year of championing citizen science research. She has proved invaluable to HWDT’s knowledge of marine wildlife, this year alone spotting and recording some of the most popular species in the Hebrides, including common dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, minke whales, harbour porpoises, basking sharks and otters. A highlight of the season was when three curious minke whales swam over to Silurian to investigate – a spectacular encounter for all on board.

The Silurian crew have also had access to live marine traffic information through AIS this survey season. This data will be extremely valuable to the research collected by Silurian, as it can indicate areas of concern for marine wildlife, especially regarding potential noise pollution.

July marked another milestone for Silurian, as we have now surpassed 100,000km of effort based survey. A massive thank you to our 900 past volunteers who have made all of this possible – we really couldn’t do this without you!

Thanks also to Scottish Natural Heritage for supporting the programme over the years.

We can’t wait to see what the next season will bring for Silurian, and we hope you will join us to continue our research into these fascinating creatures.

If you want to be involved with our citizen science research expedition surveys, join us aboard Silurian in 2018!

Find out more

End of Season Summary