Today the blog is written by Lewis Drysdale, a SAMS undergraduate about to go into 4th year. He is a bit of an expert on cetaceans so everyone relies on his identification. The boat he works on at weekends,taking sightseers whalewatching, buzzed us in the Sound of Mull as we were sampling the first station and we somewhat upset yachtsmen participating in West Highland week as we were 'parked' in the middle of their race track (but not for long)
Location: Barra head (Berneray), the most southern tip of
the outer Hebrides and our last sight of the UK coastline for a few weeks for
most of us and for 6 months for those going to the Arctic.
Conditions: Moderate swell, light winds all lit by a full
moon and starry sky.
Today, after a relaxing couple of days settling in to the
boats rhythm, we finally started ‘the line’. The first cast was performed not
long after breakfast near Tobermory, Isle of Mull and also near some Basking
sharks, much to the delight of the first watch. This fantastic wildlife
sighting was to set a precedent for the day. I’m told there was some frantic
goings on during this first bit of science but I was blissfully unaware being
still in my bed trying to settle into my watch routine. However, by the time I
came on deck things were running very smoothly and the atmosphere was a good
one. We continued West towards the island of Coll sampling every 3 miles or
thereabouts, the short passages between stations were punctuated by a plethora
of marine megafauna, I think the final count was +30 Dolphins (short beaked
common type), 2 Minke whales and some Basking sharks, not a bad day for
wildlife! The weather was pretty good as well, some of the off-duty scientists
(and some of those on-duty) were seen soaking up the sun on the after deck,
casually glancing at the more active dolphins.
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