AS WE MOVE INTO ‘SUMMER’ OFF SCOTLAND’S WEST COAST, THANKS TO THE TEAMS OF INTREPID CITIZEN SCIENTISTS, WE CONTINUE TO MONITOR HEBRIDEAN SEAS - GATHERING VITAL VISUAL AND ACOUSTIC DATA. DESPITE SOME CHALLENGING WEATHER CONDITIONS, OUR STOIC TEAM ON BOARD WERE REWARDED WITH SOME INTERESTING ENCOUNTERS. HERE HANNAH LIGHTLEY, SCIENCE OFFICER ON BOARD, SUMMARISES THE EXPEDITION…

DAY 1

Our journey began in the quiet harbour of Ullapool, framed by mountains on all sides. The crew: Hannah, Bruce and Richard and Andy were delighted to meet citizen scientists Ruth, Anna (Annie), Eileen, Sandy, Imogen and Dylan for expedition 06 of the summer season. With the group eager to get started, the evening included a quick introduction, safety rundown, delicious dinner and a fascinating whale, dolphin and porpoise (collectively known as cetaceans) identification presentation leaving everyone to go to bed dreaming of whales!

DAY 2

In typical Scottish fashion, day 2 dawned grey and drizzly. The morning was spent understanding Silurian survey protocol and practising our distances of boats and mooring buoys in the harbour, in prep for any marine mammal sightings during the week ahead! As we left Ullapool, we were waved goodbye from a white tailed eagle, a first sighting of this magnificent raptor for some in the group as we began to sail towards Loch Broom. Surveying the loch was a perfect opportunity to get to terms with different creel set ups and understanding how to use the logger forms in the science station.

On our way out of the loch we sighted something peculiar. A sunfish? A basking shark? Only when we got close enough were we able to identify this mystery animal as a pair of harbour porpoises, one of which was logging and staying at the surface for prolonged periods of time. Our resident cetacean experts were perplexed - was this porpoise just resting? potentially a female giving birth? Or perhaps an unwell individual that could have been entangled? Following our encounter, we made our way for deeper water. With the weather taking a turn for the worst and sightings reducing to several guillemots, a great skua and some great northern divers we eventually made anchor just off of Gruinard Island - AKA Anthrax island - a beautiful spot that boasts dramatic views, sandy beaches, formaldehyde doused greenery and possibly Anthrax infected wildlife. Used as a testing site for Anthrax in the 1940’s, the impacts of this biological warfare testing are still prevalent today and a stark reminder of human impact on the natural world.

DAY 3

The day began drier than we had feared and there were even rumours of sun. After a breakfast for the gods, including Andy’s marvellous porridge we were still motoring out of the bay when a couple of harbour porpoises swam by, raising our hopes and excitement for the day ahead. Conditions allowed us to have the genoa up, making Silurian look wonderful. It wasn’t long before another pair of harbour porpoises swam by, really close this time allowing everyone to get a great view of their triangular dorsal fin!

We headed out of the bay and towards the Minch. We had good breezy conditions and were able to cut the engines and go into full sail, enjoying Silurian as a sailboat – as she was designed. With no engine noise, those conducting acoustic analysis were able to hear the symphony of snapping shrimp detected from the hydrophone. This was our first day of recording boats and birds, as well as the much hoped for cetaceans, and everybody felt confident with Hannah’s excellent guidance including her joint presentations with Bruce of the “chart du Jour” not to mention Andy’s pithy quips.

Amazingly, after a few comic starts, with help from the experts on board, and another invaluable chart, we were able to distinguish between gulls, fulmars and kittiwakes. Full of optimism for seeing cetaceans and other creatures from the deep – however, today it wasn’t to be. Tomorrow will be our day.

DAY 4

An early bird catches the worm, they say. Equally an early start to catch the ‘weather window’ seemed a good idea last night – a bit less so at 5.30am. But we were all up and were lifting the anchor by 6am. With good weather conditions predicted we made our way further across the Minch towards the Isle of Lewis into deeper waters. Passing several groups of seabirds that seemed to be feeding, a feeling was in the air and shortly a sighting was called from the deck with great excitement – white beaked dolphins!! The group were overjoyed with our first dolphin sighting of the survey and this was just the beginning of what turned out to be an epic dolphin day! With the engine turned off, a ‘clean’ recording of dolphin whistles and clicks could be heard from the hydrophone much to the delight of Science Officer, Hannah. As we continued along our transect across the Minch, our dolphin encounters continued spotting several more white beaked dolphins in the distance. All of a sudden there was a commotion on the bow as several common dolphins joined Silurian briefly before heading off where they began to breach and leap out of the water putting on a show for everyone on board. Just as we though it couldn’t get any better, we had an encounter with our 3rd species of dolphin of the day - the distinctive Risso’s dolphin with their marked grey skin!

The afternoon included several porpoise sightings and even more seabirds as we headed to our anchorage in Little Loch Broom for shelter ahead of the storm forecasted. A beautiful spot with steep craggy hillsides right down into the water, and a few small settlements. To cool off from the days excitement Imogen, Bruce and Sandy went swimming off the back of the boat and emerged glowing and more deserving of a hot shower than the rest of us whilst Dylan has caught a couple of good sized mackerel and is cooking them for dinner.

DAY 5

After a short lie in following yesterdays early morning start, we donned our ‘foulies’ and rode out valiantly into the storm… for about 2 hours when we then decided to bail out and head for the relative safety of the Summer Isles. For our own safety we shall name the island we sheltered behind ‘Tracy Island’, the reason will soon become apparent. As we pulled into the bay, weaving in-between fish farms, a well-preserved boat that was sitting above the tide line caught our eye, and that - along with Hamish telling us that there was a tearoom a short walk away - convinced us to venture ashore. When we arrived to the shore, a man told us he was under an non-disclosure agreement and could only tell us that the island had been bought by a hedge fund manager, the post office had been literally picked up and moved to a different island, the houses had been converted to Airbnbs, and not to look in any windows. With that being said, we definitely did not look in any windows, especially not the bar and weird hangar that looked like a spa with fur rugs and free-standing baths. The island was gorgeous, blanketed in wildflowers some of which Andy told us were alpine flowers dropped there by the glaciers. All the houses had been renovated into what someone who only knew what cottages were from the internet would think they look like, and on our way back we saw a range rover filled with young people with matching green cargo uniforms go by. If we are never heard from again let this stand as evidence to what happened.

Back onboard the safety of Silurian the afternoon was spent watching presentations from the HWDT winter webinar series as well as listening to Richard talk about his experience with Disney+ and National Geographic recording sperm whale acoustics in the Azores. The evening was rounded off by some delicious chocolate cake baked earlier by Imogen and a general knowledge and music quiz to round off our adventurous day.

DAY 6

Day 6 started as most do, a fabulous breakfast prepared by the crew and everyone getting into position to see some cetaceans. Sadly, our attempts at seeing any were thwarted by 45 knot winds forcing us to come off visual effort for a while. As we made our way into Loch Broom the wind eased, and we managed to spot a grey seal before mooring in Ullapool. With the weather deteriorating and no space on the pontoon, Bruce and Andy took one for the team and headed into the rain on the tender to shore to pick up some fish and chips to enjoy onboard Silurian followed by an intense game of pass the pigs, won by Richard, to conclude the night.

Thank you so much to Ruth, Anna (Annie), Eileen, Sandy, Imogen and Dylan for joining us onboard Silurian for this expedition, where 160 miles of Hebridean seas were surveyed, encountering 5 different species of marine mammals!

Epic 'day of dolphins' marked the sixth research expedition

Thank you so much to Ruth, Anna (Annie), Eileen, Sandy, Imogen and Dylan for joining us onboard Silurian for this expedition, where 160 miles of Hebridean seas were surveyed, encountering 5 different species of marine mammals!