“I found my job… working on this boat!

Thanks to everyone who supported The Big Give Green Match Fund campaign which took place last year. Your donations enabled four new schools - never before visited by Silurian - to join our floating classroom, allowing the children to find out what it’s like to live and work on a working research vessel.

From 24 - 28 April, our education team jumped aboard Silurian, our research vessel, to transform her into our popular floating classroom. Our Education and Sightings Officer, Sadie, shares the fun everyone had - not least the pupils visiting but the HWDT team on board Silurian.

“It was excellent. Beyond expectations in terms of pre-visit comms, staffing, organisation, timings and responsiveness to individual pupils. Thank you so much.”

— Glassary School Teacher

Sailing down the Sound of Mull towards Lismore, we were excited to welcome our first school of the year on board. While preparing for the sessions ahead, we were also keen to collect data, so kept a watchful eye on the sea to record any whale or dolphin sightings and towed the hydrophone behind us to pick up on any underwater sounds. As we approached Lismore to anchor for the night, the weather, unfortunately, had other plans. Unable to safely anchor off Lismore, the decision was made to head to Oban and catch the ferry across to visit the pupils in their school.

After a fun interactive session looking at the whale and dolphin species seen around their local area, exploring bones, teeth and baleen and measuring out the length of some of these amazing animals, (that wouldn’t even fit in their classroom!) we took a wee wander to a local headland. Here, we conducted a watch from land using our community sightings app, Whale Track. After almost 20 minutes of watching, the pupils identified several seabirds, including shags and kittiwakes, an elusive seal and a potential porpoise.

After arriving back in Oban, we were bound for our next school, down the coast towards Easdale. Here we were greeted with 10 excited faces of the P1-3’s, who got their first look at Silurian, during the fun tender ride across from the pier. Eager to explore, the pupils set off on a scavenger hunt to find as many things on their list as possible, including having a go at hoisting the sails and flushing the toilet!

“I liked seeing the masts and the scavenger hunt.”

— Ollie

“I liked hunting for things and the toilet...it made funny noises. I had to pump it 25 times!”

— Struan

To catch the tide and reach our next destination, as soon as the last group were safely back on dry land, we wasted no time in setting sail further down the coast towards Ardfern Yacth Centre. As we reached Ardfern, we prepared ourselves for two days alongside the pontoons offering not only floating classroom visits, but open boat events for the local communities, in which we open our doors (or hatches) to visitors to come and explore Silurian and learn more about the work of the Trust.

The evening was spent enjoying the sights from the Ardfern pontoons, including the bustling seabird island adjacent to the boat, where common gulls, Canadian geese, and Eider duck were our constant companions and proved to be very useful for our sightings activities during the visits to come, with many children shouting SIGHTING for the eider ducks passing by the boat.

We took the opportunity to do a little more training with our newest trainee education volunteer, Nici, who in turn introduced us all to a fun new game, HeckMeck - a game all about collecting worms! After that, every evening was a battle for who could collect the most worms and make the best eider duck impression.

As we went into our third day of the trip, we were excited to welcome more children onboard from a school we had never worked with. The 12 pupils from Glassary School, boarded in two groups of 6 to explore Silurian and learn more about the work conducted onboard, including how we monitor acoustics by listening to porpoise clicks and dolphin whistles.

“I would like to work in the sound station and listen to the whales and dolphins. The killer whale sounded like a penguin in distress and the minke, like a beating heart. ”

— James

“I think it is important to listen on the hydrophone so maybe you can find a new species.”

— Rocco

“The sound station was great. The humpback sounded like a cat purring. ”

— Freya

“I loved identifying sounds. Each one has a its own individual pattern. Echolocation is amazing… how they use it for navigation.”

— Sylva

“I really enjoyed learning what the hydrophone was for as dolphins and whales struggle to navigate if the noise of the boat is too loud - that is not nice for them.”

— Rali

Whilst also having to listen to ‘dad jokes’ from our very own comedian, Andy. ‘Do you know what baby jellyfish are called? Jelly babies’

“The jelly babies joke was a typical dad joke.”

— Eilidh

The following day saw students from the local school, Craignish, boarding Silurian. After an introduction to the team and their roles, the pupils got to explore every part of the vessel, from how to flush the toilets, to where we stored the anchors and even where we kept our secret stash of coco pops.

“I loved exploring every single space on Silurian. I opened every door and eventually found the coco pops.”

— Arran

With a wide range of interests from the groups, we thoroughly enjoyed adapting all the activities for a fun and engaging learning experience for all pupils. The pupils learnt how to conduct visual surveys - including spotting with binoculars and shouting “sighting!” With some pupils, being expert spotters, providing both the degrees and distance of their sighted animal.

“…I enjoyed screaming the most and shouting SIGHTING. I saw the porpoise at 300 degrees and estimated 3.5metres for the distance.”

— Inis

“Accessible for pupils of all ages. Inclusive approach for pupils. Safe and responsible citizens promoted.”

— Glassary School, Teacher

In the evenings, whilst alongside the pontoons in Ardfern, Silurian was open to the public and almost 20 visitors joined the crew on board. The team were delighted to hear of the amazing encounters folk had experienced and showed people around the vessel, answering questions about the Trust's research expeditions which monitor whales, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks across the west coast. We also had some visitors given a tour by their own children, who had taken part in floating classroom earlier in the day!

Our last day of floating classroom was held at the beautiful location of Crinan, with 10 pupils from local school Tayvallich, enjoying a short tender ride out to Silurian. Although a little misty, the pupils were star spotters, with SIGHTING being shouted out for seabirds, a seal and our star of the show Paddy the porpoise.

After a successful week, we reflected on everything we had delivered and the experiences offered to over 60 children, with the sessions aimed at giving them a glimpse into what it is like to live and work on board a whale research yacht, including the different roles of both staff and volunteers who participate in research expeditions, learning basic nautical terminology, experiencing how we monitor acoustics and learning how to conduct visual surveys. Many pupils were inspired to one day come back aboard as a volunteer or even a member of the crew!

“I found my job… working on this boat!”

— James

“I really want to be a crew member”

— Thea

“I liked spotting Paddy the porpoise, my favourite marine mammal. I’m going to come back in 6 1/2 years to do the volunteering job. This really was the best day I have ever had!”

— Alyssa

We would like to extend a warm thanks to Ardfern Marina for hosting us and everyone else who made it possible, including our fab boat crew, long term volunteer Andy and trainee volunteer, Nici.

Special thanks go to everyone who donated to The Big Give Green Match Fund fundraising campaign in 2022, your generosity had a positive impact in inspiring the next generation of conservationists.