The last day dawned calm and sunny, surrounded by the beautiful lush green hills of Loch Moidart. The survey route took us initially north to the Sound of Arasaig and past some spectacular scenery and a group of burly looking kayakers. We then headed back south around Ardnamurchan Point and into the mirror-calm of the Sound of Mull. Where, while I cooked up endless reams of crepes, the volunteers leaped around the deck sighting porpoise after porpoise and Marjolaine heard their characteristic buzzes from the hydrophone (sound slowed down so that we can hear them!). As we headed back into Tobermory, sadly mourning the end of the trip – we were greeted by our first minke whales of the trip! FINALLY! So the species list was finally complete…
We motored into Tobermory, the survey over, to finish the trip with haggis, neaps & tatties (a traditional Scottish fare) and a few drinks in the local trip (for me a nice wee dram of local whisky). And so I would just like to thank the volunteers for all the hard work they put in – the trip began with a lot of sea-sickness, and few sightings… and ended with volunteers immune to whatever the sea threw at them, lots of sightings and lots of data for me to analyse (Marjolaine & I will be kept busy with all the acoustic porpoise data we collected after finally getting it working).
Now off to our respective homes and a well deserved nice long hot bath… well except for Marcus who is staying on for the next trip!
;o) Clare, Science PI


The volunteers (from left) - Prash, Ale, Robert, Carla & Sheh... THANK YOU!!!!!