Date: Wednesday 9th September
Anchorage: Loch Spelve, Isle of Mull
Position: 56°04’.136N, 06°11’.034W
Distance: 49.0NM

Today our sightings consisted of a few seals and harbour porpoises. Although the rough whether the previous days (actually the last 6 weeks!), the Sound of Mull was quite protected and even the sun came out to greet us. The hydrophone recorded something interesting that Nienke pointed out: when the ADD noises were no longer within detectable range the harbour porpoises appeared in large numbers. Many groups were spotted visually and even more were detected acoustically. It seems that the harbour porpoises are affected by the ADD sounds. For dinner we managed to get ahold of fresh mussels from the nearby mussel farm. While some stayed on boat preparing dinner, some people went ashore and did some exploration. A group of seals were spotted onshore. They remained extremely curious even after plunging into the water while we went ashore. Today was our first day of bird spotting, and the ones spotted today include manx shearwaters, guillemots, razorbills and kittiwake.