First Research Expedition of 2022 Kicks Off!
WE’RE OFF! THE SUMMER FIELD SEASON (APRIL - OCTOBER) ON BOARD OUR RESEARCH VESSEL, SILURIAN, HAS STARTED. DESPITE CHALLENGING CONDITIONS, THE TEAM REMAINED STEADFAST. HANNAH, OUR SCIENTIST WHO LED THE DATA COLLECTION ON BOARD SHARES THE EXPEDITION UPDATE BELOW…
DAY 1
Our excited volunteers Jackie, Ruth, Ted, Mary, David and Mike arrived and were greeted to Silurian basking in the evening sun in front of Tobermory’s multi coloured houses. There was a buzz in the air as everyone was super excited to be part of the first expedition of the season, with the crew even more delighted to welcome members of the public back on board in two years! After getting settled into the cabins and figuring out how to use the heads, we were treated to a big bowl of veggie spaghetti bolognaise rustled up by 4th crew Caren. Suitably stuffed, we spent the rest of the evening going over why we’re conducting this vital research and ended the evening with a species ID talk.
DAY 2
The volunteers were up early for breakfast and keen to get out on the water. Training continued in the morning and focussed on survey protocol and acoustic recognition. The volunteers got on deck and practiced ‘Man Overboard’ scenarios and played a fun game of ‘Guess the Distance’ using the range finder. Ruth was the champion of guessing the distances of buoys and boats from Silurian, often less then 5metres out of range!
The weather was slowly starting to change so the crew produced a plan to try and dodge the bad weather so kitted up in our new Fladden suits and we headed up the Sound of Mull aiming to get to the Isle of Rum. Sadly, once we came out of the sheltered bay of Tobermory, the swell and visibility were significantly worse than expected. Nevertheless, the volunteers battled through rain and swell to get to Ardnamurchan point where the decision was made to change the survey route and head to Loch Dromnabuie for sheltered waters. Tea that night was a delicious curry prepared by Mary and David to warm the team up after a difficult first day of survey effort! The evening was concluded by a birds and boats presentation in the hope of better sightings over the next few days.
Keeping a watchful eye out for marine mammals
DAY 3 + DAY 4
The challenging weather sadly continued into the next few days but that didn’t dampen the volunteers’ spirits! Battling through more rain, swell, wind and snow the volunteers remained on effort gathering acoustic and visual data. Travelling back through the Sound of Mull and towards Loch Linnhe the volunteers began to get familiar with identifying acoustic sounds hearing snapping shrimp, fishing vessels and the clanging chains of navigational buoys at the listening station.
Despite the challenging conditions, volunteers on the mast spotted a common seal and an unidentified seal amongst the swell which really boosted moral as well as a puffin! Heading into Loch a’Choire our anchorage for the evening was a real treat taking in the stunning scenery and even spotting some deer on the hills!
The next morning we departed Loch a’Choire, heading to Oban battling even more tricky conditions, however we hit the jackpot when Mike on the mast spotted two harbour porpoise off the portside bow – RESULT! This was just the sighting the team needed and incredibly well spotted in the poor visibility conditions. Once in Oban, we headed ashore and made our way to the pub to celebrate the first cetacean sighting of the season where we hosted our own pub quiz, so good that others wanted to join in!
Smiling despite the weather
DAY 5
The decision was made to have a day of respite after battling days of difficult conditions allow everyone to dry out. Stormbound in Oban, Hannah delivered an in-depth marine acoustics presentation to provide further insight into how cetaceans utilise sound and what we can learn from this upcoming area of marine mammal research. The volunteers had some free time to stretch their legs in beautiful Oban before participating in a marine species research project in the afternoon. Each of the volunteers picked a species to learn more about using the books from the science station and delivered a wee talk to the rest of the team. Through the power of ‘Science Twitter’, Helen Hiley a PhD researcher from SAMS, joined via zoom to give a talk the volunteers a guest lecture about monitoring for harbour porpoise using static passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) which was fantastic with everyone learning more about habitat use and how incredible the UK’s only porpoise species are!
DAY 6
Heading back towards Tobermory, the rough weather was still present so only an acoustic survey could be conducted, until we reached Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull where the sun began to break through the clouds. Hannah and Caren took over the science station so all the volunteers could be up on deck enjoying the best weather of the trip, trying to get any final sightings whilst enjoying the stunning scenery of the mainland and Mull.
The evening was topped off by a delicious meal at a local pub where we shared stories of the week and praised everyone on how they had done in challenging conditions.
It was a tricky few days onboard Silurian for the first survey of the season battling wind, rain, swell and even snow but we had a fantastic bunch of volunteers who were tough to crack and really supported each other and boosted moral when it was needed the most! Over the survey we covered 197.5km with 18hours of acoustic and visual data collected sighting 2 harbour porpoise, 1 common seal, 2 unidentified seals, a puffin and a whole lot of rain!!
We’d like to extend a massive thank you to Jackie, Ruth, Ted, Mary, David and Mike for joining us on board to participate in a research expedition. Without you, we simply couldn’t undertake the research work we do!
Track lines showing the area covered during the expedition