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On board Silurian
Most weeks April through October she is either monitoring the waters of the west coast of Scotland for whales, dolphins, and porpoises, or serving as a floating classroom for one of the many Argyll island primary and secondary schools. Read the log below to find out what Silurian and her crew have been up to each week and all about the whales, dolphins and porpoises they spot! To find out about the latest marine life sightings spotted elsewhere, click here. If you would like to send the crew an e-mail with your questions click here. Click here to view the Silurian Log archive. June 3rd 2005
Day 12
I arrived on the Silurian bright and early today to help out with the last leg of this 2 week education trip. We will be spending the last three days of the trip carrying out educational workshops with students from Oban High School. On this first day of the visits, although the weather was rather wet we had a great day carrying out a range of actvitites. During the plankton session which I helped to run we had great fun throwing the nets out to catch a sample of plankton and identifying the creatures we caught under the microscope. We found copepods, Daphnia and crab larvae. The children also did sessions with the touch tank and marine mammal acoustics and learnt a bit about the boat and some of the special adaptations of whales and dolphins. Day 13 Today we had 2 more sessions with Oban High School. Although the weather was wet yet again the children were very enthusiastic. During the plankton activity we found a baby jellyfish, fish larvae and our old favourites the copepods. We also found an unusual worm looking creature with long spines which shone fluorescent green under the light. In the evening from 5 - 8 pm we ran an open boat session which welcomed the people of Oban onto Silurian to look round and find out about the work of the HWDT. We hd a touch tank which was extremely popular with both adults and children who were all really interested and eager to learn about the creatures of the sea around Oban. After a busy and enjoyable day we sampled the local fish and chips which were fantastic. Day 14 Today was the final day for the education sessions for Oban High School. We had a bright start to the day with Nicole's blueberry muffins, a seal in the harbour and dry weather which was great as it meant we could do the touch tank session outside on deck. In the plankton sessions we found copepods with their egg sacs, barnacle larve andsome diatoms under the highest magnification. By the afternoon the weather was great and we all prepared the boat for our sail back to Tobermory.  Louise Parker, Marine Education Volunteer Silurian Log Archives
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