It was minke magic on our latest expedition
THANKS TO CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC SILURIAN CONTINUED TO MONITOR HEBRIDEAN WATERS, IN THE COMPANY OF SOME VERY FRIENDLY MINKES.
Because of the amazing generosity of our supporters in our recent Big Give Green Match Fund campaign, we were able to conduct another research expedition on board our vessel Silurian last month. Due to current restrictions, we are unable to welcome volunteers on board, however we are able to safely run acoustic surveys with just the crew on board. Acoustic data collection is a huge part of our Cetacean Research Programme and is an accurate and consistent way of recording cetaceans. During the survey, we tow a hydrophone, which acts as an underwater microphone, continually recording sounds below the surface. We also slow the boat every 15 minutes to listen to the underwater soundscape, as well as running an acoustic programme to record clicks produced by harbour porpoises. In addition, we record all visual sightings and conduct photo identification methods whenever we can.
We departed Tobermory on the 19th of June on a gloriously sunny day, sailing west, before anchoring at the Isle of Rum. The next morning we continued west with the conditions even better than the day before. It was glassy calm and we encountered common dolphins and porpoises along the way. Before heading into Lochmaddy that evening, we even had our first basking shark sighting of the year! The Juvenile shark swam by the vessel and we had an incredible view of the whole animal as it began feeding beneath the waves.
The spectacular conditions remained as we sailed north to Stornoway and we had some fantastic encounters with harbour porpoise, common dolphins and even a pair of white-beaked dolphins. However, it was the minke whales that were the true stars of the show! We recorded nine minke whales during the day, with three animals associating with the vessel. One particular juvenile spent 30 minutes swimming around and underneath us and even spy hopped next to the vessel – a behaviour where the animal pokes their head out of the water vertically. It was an incredible encounter, with the calm seas allowing us to see the whale clearly under the water and giving us great views of their ‘minke mittens’ and even their throat grooves!
Our luck with the weather finally ran out as we made our way back south. However, we were able to shelter to the east of the Isle of Skye, surveying the Inner Sound, Loch Carron, Loch Horn, and the Sound of Sleat. We did manage to dry off by the end of the survey though, as the sun began to shine again as we made our way back into Tobermory, via a detour to the Isle of Tiree.
In total, we surveyed over 425 nautical miles and collected over 69 hours of acoustic recordings. During the survey, we encountered seven species of marine megafauna: including basking sharks, common dolphins, harbour porpoises, white-beaked dolphins, minke whales and grey and a common seals.
Tracklines showing where Silurian travelled on our latest survey