Battling through snow and hail on our February winter survey!

Wild weather extended into February as we began to plan for our next winter survey. With the boat still down in Crinan, getting much needed TLC and shelter, we decided this would be our rendezvous point. Departing from Crinan would allow us to survey the waters to the south and west of Mull, remaining sheltered from the huge swell which had developed further out to sea. We boarded Silurian on a crisp morning, with the sun shining and the waters calm. We were all excited to get going and we sailed out of Crinan, full of anticipation for the survey ahead. We hadn’t even left Crinan harbour before we spotted a curious otter, who swam by the boat before disappearing and returning to the shore. We continued onward, sailing north before entering Loch Spelve, where we anchored for the night. The next morning we set sail with the sun still shining. We were surrounded by beautiful scenes of snow capped hills as we sailed up Loch Linnhe. However, after enjoying our second breakfast the skies began to darken and the wind began to howl.

We were soon being pelted with hail, as safety glasses were passed around, so that we could try and spot any cetaceans through the storm - not easy! The rest of the day was spent battling through snow and hail, with intermittent sunny spells keeping us going. The next day brought along more challenging conditions, as the wind continued to blow stronger and stronger. We decided to head up Loch Sunart, which was wonderfully sheltered, giving us some relief from the storm. We had a great view of several groups of porpoise in the calmer waters, with one group surfacing close enough for us to see the colour patterns on their flank.

With the storm passing over night we decided to head east for the final day and survey the waters to the north of Mull, before we returned to Tobermory in another hail storm!

During the survey we covered a total of 143.1 nautical miles, recording over 20 hours of acoustic data, with our citizen scientists spending over 13 hours on effort.

Track lines from the February survey

All of the volunteers on board did a phenomenal job, we couldn’t collect this new and vital data without you! Thank you to Carrie, Robin, and Stefan - I hope you enjoyed surveying in the snow!

Thanks also to Scottish Natural Heritage who help fund the data collection programme aboard Silurian.

Feeling inspired to get involved with our marine conservation efforts? Keep up to date with opportunities to join us for our summer season 2020/21 for your chance to contribute to our research and encounter some of the cetaceans we have in our waters!