Plankton parties, sea dips, BBQ’s and minke whales on our first teen trip of the year

Every year we run two dedicated expeditions for yourn marine conservationists, aged 16 and 17 on board our research vessel, silurian. Our first teen trip of the year saw 6 young adults gain experience and useful skills for becoming marine scientists. Below they recount their time surveying Hebridean Seas.

DAY 1:

In the morning - our first morning aboard Silurian - we spent some important time shouting at each other (all in good practice for voicing our sightings!), practicing how to successfully ID species and working on accurately recording distances. Around 1200, we set sail from Tobermory!

During the day's surveying, we spotted a Minke whale, going ‘with whale’ to capture images for Photo ID, the whale led us inadvertently into a pod of dolphins. The day also brought us a number of seals and another playful pod of common dolphins.

The weather kept beautiful and dry for us - the wind managing to steal a hat only at the last second - and we had a wonderful first day! Anchored at Kilmory on the Isle of Rum, ready to go ashore to explore, the last thing we saw was deer scattered across the bay - a wonderful sight!

DAY 2

The next morning we were awoken by Sadie's wonderful taste in Disney songs and quickly got to work getting ready for setting off. With high winds, and high hopes following an early sighting of common dolphins, we sailed across the Sea of the Hebrides towards South Uist.

Unfortunately, due to worsening visibility and high swell, we struggled to record any more cetaceans and instead spotted a number of birds, ranging from puffins and kittiwakes to gulls and shearwaters

The conditions may not have been perfect for spotting whales and dolphins, but they were ideal to turn the engine of and sail most of the way across to South Uist, much to our Skipper and First Mates delight!

Due to the strong winds and few sightings, we managed to anchor at South Uist much earlier than we expected, allowing us to enjoy an evening of fun - we even spotted some seals lounging on the rocky shore.

Later that evening Edd, our First Mate, went out with the dinghy and a plankton net to catch some plankton for us to look at (or have a plankton party, as the crew calls it). With Evelyn's playlist playing in the background, we gathered around the microscope in the attempt to identify some of the plankton.

Sadie, our Science Officer, got very excited finding some cool looking plankton that she compared to dragons and chickens, whilst also working with us to find an actual ID in the books.

DAY 3

Once again, we were awoken by Sadie’s wonderful (and interesting) playlist. After being inspired, we all 'enthusiastically' put on our ‘foulies’ ready for a full day's work. We were stalled by Edd fighting with the engine, but we didn't let this hold us back. We were heading to Vatersay with high hopes.

We had an total of 6 sightings today, with the seals upping their game to beat the dolphins, with the most sightings. We were accompanied by gannets and fulmars when we sailed down the coast of South Uist.

Once we arrived we were greeted by a cow on the beach, but we were more interested by the service that also appeared on our phones. After dinner, we went for a walk on the shore debating whether or not to swim. However, when we went over the sand dune to the beautiful beach overlooking the Atlantic, Sadie's infectious excitement was able to persuade us to go in. Running and jumping into the waves, we felt frozen but pushed through the cold and had the most amazing time!

DAY 4

After a refreshing night of sleep, we congratulated Perdy on her 17th birthday and got ready for another day of fantastic weather. Throughout the morning, all the major sightings were of the avian variety, with 36 puffins, 21 storm petrels and 15 fulmars in one 30 minute session!

With conditions the calmest they’d been all week, many of us got a chance to climb the mast, with birthday girl, Perdy, leading the way, we each had a turn in the crows nest during our breaks, and what an incredible view it was from up there!

Once we reached the other side of the Sea of the Hebrides, nearing the Cairns of Coll - our anchorage for the night - we began to see a lot more cetaceans. A total of 105 common dolphins in multiple pods, our first harbour porpoises of the trip and excitingly 6 minke whales were seen, making this our best day yet!

Aided by our Science Officer, Sadie, who took the opportunity to spend a bit of time in the crows nest herself, she was able to call down whenever the minke whales were about to surface, so our Skipper, Charly, could position the boat suitable for our Fourth Crew, Pippa, and First Mate, Edd, to capture the all important Photo ID images.

To end an already great day, once we reached our anchorage, we were soon in the tender, making our way to the stunning sandy beach over looking the Cairns of Coll, where we enjoyed a a delicious BBQ and had great fun at spelling out the word ‘Silurian’ with our bodies!

DAY 5

Our final day started more leisurely, with a 30 minute sleep in, which was very much appreciate by everyone. As we headed out of the beautiful anchorage at the Cairns of Coll, we were all excited for more minke sightings, sure we’d see at least one on our short leg back to Tobermory. Sadly, although there were many feeding birds in the distance, the minkes remained elusive, but we did catch sight of a small pod of common dolphins as we passed Ardnamurchan Point.

The sightings that stole the show today though, were the many many sailing boats in the Sound of Mull. All taking part in the Mull Yachting week race, those on relay had their work cut out having to count over 60 sailing boats.

As we made our way into Tobermory, and the drum roll came announcing the final ‘off effort’ we all headed below deck to do one final clean up of the binoculars and get the snacks out ready to reflect on all the fun we’d had this week, which was very well summarised during the final presentation of the week looking back on all we’d done. We were even awarded a personalised certificate each to celebrate our contribution to marine science.

The crew would like to thank the dedicated teens, Rebecca, Tom, Anna, Kelsey, Evelyn and Perdy, for all their hard work. We would also like to thank our dedicated crew, Charly, Edd and Pippa for giving the teens such an incredible experience.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the teen researchers on this survey, we travelled almost 352km, recording 5 species and over 27 hours of acoustic data recordings.

If you are 16 or 17 years old and are feeling inspired to spend a week at sea, working alongside scientists as marine mammal field biologists, why not join our Teen Research Expedition next year?