SLS's 30th Season...

Sea Life Surveys’ 30^th anniversary season is coming to a close but what a truly fantastic 7 months we have had. Whilst parts of the UK suffered with the wettest summer in 100 years, Mull seemed to escape the vast majority of the bad weather having spells of sunshine and calm winds lasting weeks at a time.

The excellent conditions helped with our sightings by allowing us to get out to the whale grounds on the majority of our Whalewatch Explorer trips. After the first Minke was spotted on the 3^rd of May we had a very high success rate throughout the season. We experienced some incredible Minke encounters with a number of very close associations; skipper Popz often commented how the whales were trying to join him in the wheelhouse! However, even watching these fascinating animals feeding at a distance or trying to track down the more sneaky individuals is such a privilege.

Minke whale heading over to Sula Crion on an Ecocruz with skipper Lippy and guide Jayne (taken from Sula Beag)

For those who follow our daily updates on Facebook or Twitter you will probably be familiar with some of our named whales that we have been lucky enough to see on numerous occasions this season including 2 of our most regularly sighted whales, Knobble and Kasey. Knobble (first identified in 2002) was seen on 12 separate occasions this year from the 5^th of May right though the season until our last sighting of him/her on the 22^nd of September. We do not know where this whale spends the winter months or where Knobble travels to in between our sightings however I find being able to observe and learn about a tiny fraction of this Minke’s life truly fascinating. Another whale with a very recognisable dorsal fin is Kasey (first identified in 2000)… guide Ewan had a very special encounter with this whale on a 2 hour Ecocruz on the 20^th of July when it surfaced right beside Sula Beag allowing all onboard the chance to view Kasey’s whole body under the water and even look in to a wild whale’s eye, wow!! Kasey stayed around for a couple of weeks and we managed to catch up with him/her on 4 trips.

Kasey the Minke whale, seen 4 times this season :-)

Even on some of the rougher trips the Minkes did not disappoint. A windy Wildlife Adventure trip on the 15^th of August saw a breaching whale! And one particularly choppy trip when Captain Lewy came back to skipper on the 16^th of June turned out to be one of my most exciting whale experiences yet!  We headed north to the Isle of Muck and through the chop managed to track several whales by following their blows as they swam around us and even travelled alongside us. One whale appeared to bow ride, surfacing on either side of Sula Beag’s bow a couple of times!

The 2012 season has been an incredible season for a number of other cetacean species including 2 new species for me! The first was the white-beaked dolphins which we saw a total of 3 times in less than 2 weeks in June. Whilst a sighting of these beautiful dolphins is not unheard of in these waters, it is rare as they usually inhabit waters further offshore and favour the northern Hebrides. 2012 is only the second season SLS has come across them in 30 years! The other new cetacean species was a real dream come true… one of the top predators of the seas, ORCA!! Although there is small resident pod of orca off the west coast of the UK these individuals cover a vast area and to bump in to them we just have to be exceptionally lucky. It took me 4 seasons but on the 24^th of August with a boat FULL of passengers my wish came true and we had an encounter which still gives me goose bumps! I feel incredibly fortunate to have seen one of the world’s most iconic species full stop but to do so off Mull and onboard Sula Beag with skipper James and guides Ewan and Andy Tait was truly magic.

Rare sighting of white-beaked dolphins, seen 3 times in June!

Orca!! Seen on a Wildlife Adventure, 24th of August 2012

Our more frequently sighted species of dolphin cannot be forgotten as we’ve had some superb sightings of common dolphins sometimes in huge feeding frenzies with diving gannets, an incredible wildlife spectacle. However, one of my favourite common dolphin encounters has to be from just a couple of weeks ago on the 18^th of October on an Ecocruz!! The dolphins were with us for around an hour, once again proving you never know what we will come across! We also had several great sightings of bottlenose dolphins and on one Wildlife Adventure on the 5^th of August we heard their bizarre clicks and whistles on the hydrophone as they played around Sula Beag, an unforgettable experience.

Common dolphin adult and calf bow riding

The smallest cetacean species, the harbour porpoise, have stolen the lime light on many shorter trips. On one dreich Wildlife Adventure on the 31^st of August we were surrounded by around 10 porpies, whizzing alongside Sula Beag and even turning on their sides to look up… who was looking at who?! They kept this behaviour up for around 20 minutes, such amazing wee animals!

Harbour porpoise circling Sula Beag

A HUGE summer visitor which was the highlight on numerous trips has to be the basking sharks which graced the waters around Mull from May until the end of August. We had some fantastic views of these animals both beneath the surface as they swam right alongside us and above it when they breached clean out of the water, a truly awesome sight! SLS was also involved with an exciting project with the University of Exeter and Scottish Natural Heritage this year satellite tagging these giants. Unfortunately several of the tags have detached however one female shark named Cailleach was tagged between the Isles of Coll and Tiree and is now swimming south past Portugal, 180km from the island of Madeira!! Incredible to see where this shark is heading and we are keeping everything crossed the tag stays attached for the winter months, you can follow her journey here, safe travels Cailleach!!

One of many fantastic sightings of basking shark feeding at the surface

Mull’s good weather has also benefited a lot of the island’s wildlife including the eagles. Mull’s had a bumper year of white-tailed eagle fledglings and we’ve been fortunate to sail past a nesting pair allowing us to follow the progress of a white-tailed eagle family. The pair successfully raised two fit and healthy fledglings who Debby Thorne from the Mull Eagle Watch hide kindly let our passengers name… the winning suggestions (made by Angela Gray) were Hoy and Grainger, 2 Scottish Olympians, we think very fitting names for such magnificent birds born this year! We’ve also had some incredible views of a local golden eagle pair who have also been successful with a juvenile, what a joy to watch these awesome birds soaring on the thermals over Mull.

The 2.5 m wingspan of one of our local white-tailed eagles

As well as running the daily boat trips, SLS has also been busy this year with some fantastic charters including trips to the Treshnish Isles and Staffa to visit some of our fantastic nesting seabirds, filming basking sharks with the BBC Springwatch team, BBQs at Sanna Bay and the fantastic week-long basking shark adventures with Acuatours. However, one of my personal favourite charters (and favourite days of the year in fact) was the day spent filming with Ray Mears for ITV1’s Wild Britain. After some wild weather the previous day everything turned in our favour and we headed out with most of the SLS team in search of sharks. We couldn’t have wished for better conditions and before too long we found good numbers gorging on a thick soup of plankton allowing the film crew to get the footage they wanted, Ray in the water with the second largest fish on the planet! After an incredible day we sailed home for Tobermory and spotted a Minke in glassy conditions, Ewan counted 48 storm petrels and we had one of the most beautiful sunsets of the summer (plus enjoyed a curry with Ray onboard afterwards seeing in Jimbo’s birthday!!). We think Wild Britain is due to be aired in the New Year so look out for more details from us nearer the time!

The SLS team with Ray Mears and the ITV film crew

The Sea Life Surveys team have recently just returned from our end of season bash aboard Hebridean Sea School’s boat Bold Ranger (many thanks to Norman and Lesley for the use of their fantastic boat). After years of seeing the Outer Hebrides on the horizon and many jokes about heading west to reach them we all finally did it!! The SLS team spent 2 nights away anchored off Vatersay and Eriskay exploring the remote islands. Highlights of our trip has to be sat among over 500 fulmars wheeling above us off Barra Head, several dolphin encounters, sailing beneath the huge cliffs of Mingulay and viewing hundreds of grey seals with their fluffy pups hauled out on a sandy beach…. anybody fancy trips to the Outer Hebrides for the 2013 season??!

It’s hard to sum up such an incredible season but these are SOME of my highlights… here’s to an awesome 2013 season, see you there!

Ruth :-)