Eagles & Puffins & Sunshine...

Wow, who would’ve thought it? Myself & Captain Lewie have just returned from a Wildlife Adventure WITH A SUNTAN! - in March!!
(Well, I’ve got a suntan – Lewie’s been hiding in the wheelhouse, spotting Porpoises before we could see them).

Here we were, all worried about JUST how unkind the weather would be to us this early in the season, and today(27/03/08) has been flatter than a proverbial pancake and twice as sweet. The Porpoises were glinting their shiny wee bodies all over the calm sea in this Eastery sunlight, and we even saw a PUFFIN! This is an early record for us, as we’re not often out at sea this time of year. Usually you can set your calendar by the Puffins, as they arrive on Lunga by the 14th April, and this is when Easter usually kick starts our season’s trips for us.

We were also treated to an awesome view of “our” pair of White-Tailed Eagles, who have been gracing us with their presence, together, for the last two season’s. We can tell from their RSPB “Eagle Watch” wing-tags that the Male was born in 2002, the female 2004. But she hasn’t been quite mature enough to appreciate the fruits of his labours!... This afternoon they were both sitting on the shore, side by side, looking every inch of their 2.5mn wing-span The Happy Couple. And she is showing off beautifully mature, golden-coloured head feathers. So our patient Older Male may be rewarded yet for his staying power! Watch this space for hot Eagle action....

Erika Hearn
Head Guide

Dolphins on 1st Whalewatch Explorer

2008's first Whalewatch was off to a cold start with northerly
winds and lumpy seas, but a group of 4 bottlenose dolphins saved the day!

We started the morning heading for reliable feeding grounds off Ardnamurchan
Peninsula, but the remains of the previous days gales got the better of us
and we took refuge in the Sound of Mull. No porpoise was to be seen despite
the conditions improving, but then the dolphins appeared and lifted
our spirts!

The small pod were immediately curious of Sula Beag and her
passengers, and we were able to put the hydrophone in the water and listen
to their numerous echolocation clicks and whistles while they surfaced lazily
beside us.

After lunch in Loch Drum Na Buie we found them again playing with a local
dive boat. Conditions were great by this time and the sun had even come out!
We were able to observe them flipping fish from the water, leaping into the
air and swimming upside down in front of the boat. The dolphins moved away
of their own accord and we said goodbye, but 30 mins later as we entered
Tobermory bay they appeared again!! And escorted us right into the pontoon,
and promptly leaving once we had tied up!

An incredible day for all concerned and a great start to the 2008 season.

Lewis Drysdale

Skipper

Whale Watch Vessel Refit

Our Whale Watching vessel Sula Beag has just finished her winter refit and is ready for the 2008 season.

Here you can see a picture of her in Corpach Boatyard with the final touches being added to the hull.

There's loads of new gadgets to increase safety and comfort onboard, whilst also helping us in the search for big beasties.  Some of these improvements are new radar, echo sounder, wireless pa, new propellors fitted to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions, and a new bar.  We are also installing electric toilets and running water to the heads.

All we need now is you guys to help us find some wildlife!

2008 Update - Erika Hearn, Head Guide

So, the 2008 Season is fast approaching… With Easter SO early this year, the Sea Life Survey (SLS) crew are already twitching for chocolate, and this means we’ll be out on the water as soon as March - Woohoo!

Winter for the team here on Mull has been a plethora of delights, with Skipper Jimbo and Captain Lewis setting High Standards by WINNING Best Newcomer trophies at the 2007 Mull Rally in October!! Vroommm vroooom! We were all VERY proud and feasting on Tunnocks caramel wafers in true celebratory fashion.

Jimbo then spent some reflective time in China; Popz ascended to the dizzying heights of Everest Base Camp; and I chose NOT to travel to Pakistan in search of illusive Humpback whales…. Lewis meanwhile had been joined on Mull by Tim; our newest and keenest SLS recruit. A Not-so-much-of-the-Old friend of Popz’, Tim is a wee bit handy with whatever tool you happen to pass him across the deck. Needless to say, Lew and Tim have been up to their eyeballs in overalls and undercoat during these dark winter months.

SLS are very glad to welcome Tim, and his good lady Debbie, aboard and look forward to sharing increasingly more sunny and inspiring moments on our Hebridean seas. In fact, we had an early romantic gift, as 5 - 6 Bottlenose dolphins visited us in Tobermory Bay for OVER TWO HOURS the day before St. Valentine’s! Aw. There we were, watching paint dry alongside the pontoon, minding our own February business, when, as if the cetaceans had got fed up waiting for us to get out to sea and find them, they came to us! In the SUNSHINE and Everything!! ☺

Speaking of the return of wonderful creatures, we have no less than SIX of our previous SLS guides coming back to join us this season! I’m touched, Thanks guys x So those of you who are old-timers aboard our boats will recognise more than a few friendly faces and Ghosts of Season’s Past….

Top Guide Lady Clare G who joined us at the Very Beginning of 2007 Season (yup, we had two Clare’s...), fell SO In Love with Mull(!) that she stayed ALL WINTER! Her smiley face has been adorning the kitchens of the island’s oldest pub, creating culinary delights to comfort cold locals. Contact us any time soon to organise a cetacean-hopeful excursion (our office is open ALL year round!) and it will be Clare G’s dulcet tones greeting you on the end of the line. She’s temporarily asserting herself in the SLS office prior to messing about on the water again.

Our OTHER Top Guide Lady from 2007 Season, Abby, will soon be joining us to keep the office ship-shape. Now, it’s not a Small World, it’s just a Big Bar - both Abby and Clare G studied the same Marine Biology/Zoology degree course at Bangor University as Head Guide myself did! (Several years apart, mind.) Must be something to do with watching porpoises in soft Celtic rain, surrounded by big hills….

We also welcome back Our Rach for 2008. She’s been All Around The World on BIG adventures - she’s even got ENGAGED since her 2005 Season with us as Phenomenal Bird-spotting Guide!! And wee Sam, who joined us for a few project-related weeks as an undergraduate last season, will be gracing our bows with ALL her newly-released enthusiasm for marine things this summer - Hurrah!

Sealife Surveys will also be joined by some of our favourite Leading Men for the 2008 Season…. Step forward Tom: my trusty “Lieutenant” last season, he will hopefully be celebrating his third year with SLS as he graduates with his degree in History! (See, you don’t have to know who ate all the plankton before you can come to work for Sealife Surveys. I taught him everything he knows....)

Dunk, our resident Harry Potter look-a-like, will be returning to his homeland to join us for a second season. A refreshingly salt-sprayed break from studying Law…. And he’s a few more years to go just yet, so all the better for SLS, eh Dunk!?

Of course Razor-Eyes Andy Tait, Second Ever member of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (who WAS The First, anyway?!) will be joining us throughout the season again this year. He can spot a Porpoise off Canna before we’ve even left the Sound of Mull. And our very own Nic will be back out on the water. Indeed he has been already. On the 13th of February, armed with his trusty RIB and long lens, adding to the Photo-ID catalogue we share with HWDT and improving our understanding of the distribution of these nomadic beasts. (And that’s just our Wildlife Guides….).

No, I wasn’t referring solely to SLS’s loveable rouge, “Lippy”. Last but not least, Iain has dutifully been maintaining his way through the Mull winter, and will no doubt be spotted on deck this season; coffee in one hand, white spirit in the other.

So that’s all our important people sorted for the high seas. What else is new? Well, Sula Mhor and Sula Beag will of course be looking their most gleaming and eager to carry passengers from Monday 17th March (- why not come and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a pint of Scottish black stuff on Mull?!...).

But The Best News For 2008 - ALL Sealife Surveys trips are now CO-ORDINATED with the Ferry! So you don’t even have to stay over-night to come with us on a Whalewatch Explorer!!... AND we’re getting a FAB new Visitor Centre, specially built at the top of Ledaig car park, over-looking the posh new pontoons. Fancy stuff, huh? The biggest window-hole at present (no, the building work’s not QUITE finished just yet…) is actually where our new and impressively large aquarium will be. So we will be able to watch our creel-pot creatures feed on our plankton trawl samples from OUTSIDE the office this year!

All we need now are some willing visitors to share all this excitement with!!... We look forward to welcoming you aboard soon ☺

Erika Hearn, SLS Head Guide.