WDCS Fieldwork Blog

I’m sure it was the lure of more Ginger Nuts but we were successful in getting everyone out of bed and onto the boat for a 4am start – we didn’t of course tell them that we hadn’t been shopping and were now down to the bourbon creams and digestives – they’d soon find out but by then it would be too late….they’d be adrift at sea!!

The sunrise (0413hrs) was sadly unspectacular (this may have had something to do with the complete cloud cover), the sea conditions on the other hand were very pleasing indeed and would make for good survey conditions. To set the scene and help you get an idea as to exactly what we were doing out there, the plan went something like this. Each shift lasts half an hour and with 7 crew members (not including Skipper Davy and First-mate Iris) we rotate (very punctually) through the following stations: - Bow / Data Logger / Break / Port / Starboard / Acoustics / Break. When we have additional assistance we include a bird shift after the last break but when limited in people we stick to the cetaceans!

The (early) morning was a very quiet affair for both sightings and general hilarity – when not on watch everyone tried to grab 30 winks! The waters of the Moray Firth weren’t throwing up too much of interest, even the birds appeared to still be in bed and it was spookily quiet out on the moving sheet of black velvet. With the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting due to begin on the 22nd June in Madeira it is a very timely thought that one could be forgiven for thinking that the Norwegians and/or Icelanders had been out here pillaging the minkes from under our noses……and you never know, they could very well be the same ones being targeted just now by the whaling vessels parading the North Atlantic. We know so very little about the minke whale in the Moray Firth, more specifically where they go when they leave or where they’ve been when they arrive. It could be “our” minkes that are running the gauntlet of the whalers harpoon……food for thought eh?

All was not lost however and over the next few hours we logged not only a minke but several porpoises, some grey seals (including one that had obviously been dead for a while) and a variety of our feathered friends, including several young gannets, the lesser seen black guillemot, a manx shearwater and a great skua! We also have a conundrum to solve – see the image below and let us know if you know what it is…..!!






Before long we were back on dry land and it was home for a slap-up Sunday Roast (free-range of course) courtesy of our lovely volunteers! (They appear to have forgiven us for the lack of Ginger nuts!)

Tomorrow it’s another early start and the plan is to head for Fraserburgh where we’ll anchor for the evening before returning the following day! Hopefully being a bit more coastal we’ll encounter a few more of the Moray Firth bottlenose dolphins. We’re also to be joined by one of our dear ex-colleagues, the infamous Mr Simon Keith is to grace us with his presence and become crew member no. 8!!

Tune in again tomorrow, if we can find internet access (and Ginger nuts) in the far east (of Scotland) that is, to find out more!!

And now i hand over to our very capable volunteers who have compiled todays blog.......!!!

It was the third day of surveying aboard the Gemini Explorer for this years WDCS moray firth survey work. Unlike the first two days the weather wasn’t quite as cheerful as the volunteers. The rain didn’t dampen our spirits, too much. It also didn’t bother the cetaceans as we saw both minke whales and a harbour porpoise. We couldn’t stay out for the full survey period as the weather deteriorated still further, forcing us to head for home early. Probably a good thing as even the wildlife was beginning to get hostile, one of the volunteers was accosted by a kittiwake whilst on cetacean watch.

While the day lasted it was eventful with a few sightings. There weren’t many birds out and about although the weather may have accounted for that. The swell picked up and the bow watch position became a considerably wetter place to be. Dodging the waves became a more and more difficult task until at last we were forced to abandon the bow watch post. Even with all the rolling and bouncing there was still time to catch a quick nap in between shifts, probably for the best as we prepare for a sunrise start tomorrow. We’ll be braving the weather but maybe more importantly 4 am, for another chance to get on the water and make the best of the time we have.



It’s certainly been a hard first week with a number of important lessons for the sea life volunteers learned, not least the best place to feed the fishes from. Hopefully though we’ve all adapted to life on the open seas now, meaning that the fish might be hungry but the sightings have definitely been on the up. Tragically though we are running low on ginger biscuits and the team aren’t sure how we will cope without them.

As we headed out to sea this morning we were accompanied by a very sobering thought. Yesterday, SNH (Scottish Natural Heritage) issued a new report detailing the fact that Scotland’s seabird numbers have plunged by 19% between 2000 and 2008. The main reason for this appears to be a shortage of food, such as sandeels whose numbers are affected by a rise in sea temperatures. SNH explain that lower fish numbers led to lower numbers of adult birds surviving from one year to the next, and not enough chicks being produced and surviving to replace them. Some worrying statistics included the fact that there are 71% fewer Arctic skuas breeding in Scotland than in the mid 1980s – making our sighting yesterday of 2 individuals all the more pertinent! (We may be here to find out more about the whales and dolphins in the Moray Firth but in addition to recording cetacean encounters we log all seabird sightings too).

Despite this slightly depressing start to the day we were in for an absolute gem of an adventure! The clouds soon parted, the sun beat down from high in the sky (oops….global warming? This is Scotland after all – and suntan lotion was the order of the day) and the water was positively mill-pond-esque, even with a gentle swell.

During the early hours of the morning you could have been forgiven for thinking that we were adrift in a great blue desert (or black desert depending on your line of sight). Quiet seas is an understatement, no cetaceans, no birds and certainly no other vessels – except for the fisheries protection vessel (could it be the same one that we'd been seeing over on the West coast?) that appeared to be patrolling the outer limits of the Moray Firth (more on fishing in the Moray Firth in a later blog!).

However by the time the sun hit its zenith things took a turn for the better and we started logging sighting after sighting. The day brought us 2 minke whales (1 sighting was to bring much joy and huge smiles to several members of the team as it was a very close encounter – no binoculars required – and verification of why they were here!), 4 harbour porpoises, 5 bottlenose dolphins and a couple of grey seals. Even the seabirds weren’t to disappoint and very soon we were clocking up the sightings including several young gannets, a great skua and 2 puffins!

The hydrophone came into its own and we recorded what can only be described as an absolute hive of porpoise activity – again, it just goes to show you what’s out there that you can’t always see with the naked (or “binoculared”) eye!



Before we knew it our survey hours were over and we were steaming back into Buckie harbour, all with red faces (from the sun – as all breaks were taken lying prostrate on the upper deck!), a belly full of ginger-nut biscuits (always a good addition to a day at sea) and excited about what tomorrow was to bring. Weather is looking good so come back this time tomorrow for another update!!

The weather gods were looking down on us this morning and smiling…..time for us to test out the sea-legs again and get back out on the water. With only a few changes to the crew (Kirsty from the centre and Hywel from RSPB) we headed off into the outer Moray Firth following a transect line that took us out to the Beatrice oil platform and back home in a rather large “figure of eight” – a trip that lasted approximately 12 hours. Thankfully the sea-state was constant somewhere between 1 and 2 and the swell was less than half a metre so no fish-feeding today!

The day began fairly uneventfully with few sightings, even of birds, but once we got out into deeper waters things started to pick up and we were soon logging sighting after sighting. Rafting birds were a-plenty, from the compact little kittiwakes to the highly visible gannets, and from the straight-winged fulmars to the everyday run of the mill herring gulls. Even the fairly elusive skuas were out in force and both the “great” and the “arctic” varieties treated us to a fly-by.

Although we only had the occasional sighting of the cryptic harbour porpoises the hydrophone picked up a fair few clicks emitted from these little critters and was reinstating the value of towing this acoustic device behind the boat – you may not see them but it doesn’t mean they’re not there! We had 4 really nice minke whale sightings (well some of us saw them at least - I believe I was at an advantage here as I’ve just spent a month scouring the Minch for them so was “tuned” in) all of them lone individuals sedately looking for what food the Moray Firth had to offer.



The late afternoon brought an unexpected visitor to the boat in the form of an RAF Rescue helicopter! Requesting permission to land, they dropped one of their crew onto the moving fore-deck as part of a practice drill, only to airlift him back up from the aft-deck. The whole event took over half an hour….and although happy to help when it comes to rescue practice (who knows when one may need it) we were wondering whether or not we could ask for reimbursement for lost survey time!! After my month of military spotting in the Minch, this as you can imagine was a rather surreal encounter!



And so a very successful day at sea came to an end and we all ambled back to the cottage in time for a quick dinner, some data downloading and a well deserved sleep! The weather isn’t looking great for tomorrow but we’re holding out for Friday!

Today, the weather was too rough, so we stayed on shore and decided to take the Sealife volunteers to the Wildlife Center. We had just taken a closer look at the exhibition and the new Harbour Garden and - for us – newly re-arranged shop when we met colleague Alice outside on “shore watch” talking to some visitors about the work WDCS does up in Scotland. She had just taken these visitors on a tour of the ice house and left us in charge of the big eyes binoculars when an osprey made its appearance dropping into the water and taking off with a fish in its claws. Brilliant sight! Then Scott said peaking through the big eyes: “I can see a black fin out there!” And he was so right! A small group of about 4 dolphins started to frolic just outside the river mouth to the joy of about 25 school children from an elementary school in Elgin, our Sealife volunteers and all the other visitors at the center!







We followed them with the big eyes all the way through the bay until we lost them in the haze and the waves. Excellent! After a refreshing lunch, Alice took us round the center and into the ice house, impressing the volunteers with whale bones and orca teeth and squeaky dolphin sounds from the sonobuoy in the bay.







On our way back to the cottage I spotted some dolphins just off of Buckpool jumping through the waves. We watched them for about 10 minutes until they had gone and all of us went home with a big grin on our faces! Maybe we will see them tomorrow when we go out?