By Ruth Little – Cape Farewell

Coming to the end of our third week on Song of the Whale, on a windless afternoon in a rolling Atlantic offshore from Heisker – the Monach Isles – in the Outer Hebrides. A pod of dolphins break the silver-blue swell and disappear beneath the boat, blowing loudly as they pass. The lighthouse on the islands is an anomalous vertical line on a horizon of sea and low-lying dark silhouettes. We sailed this morning from St Kilda where we’ve spent the last 2 days walking in wonder among the ruined and rebuilt houses above Village Bay, climbing the spongy uplands and cliff-tops, and warding off dive-bombing arctic skuas.

High Street St Kilda

We left Oban on 15 July and have sailed from Mull to Rum and Eigg, Skye, Canna, Mingulay, Barra, Vatersay, South and North Uist and St Kilda. Tonight we’ll anchor off the Monachs before journeying to Taransay, Harris, Stornoway, the Shiant islands, Skye and Eigg again. We’ve been blessed on our travels by fair weather, a wonderful and talented crew, and by this beautiful boat, which has held so much of our conversation, reflection and research. And a lot of story and song: we’re joined on board this week by Lewis story-teller and poet Ian Stephen, and three great Gaelic singers, Julie Fowlis, Mary Smith and Mary Jane Lamond from Cape Breton. On board and ashore, they’ve shared with us the most beautiful and haunting songs from the islands: tales of lost love, wild weather, birdsong and departure. They’ve spent the last week on Song of the Whale, the third of four crews of artists and scientists sailing across the Hebrides for a month as part of Cape Farewell’s tenth anniversary expedition.

Designed in partnership with MCR skipper Richard McLanaghan, the project is an exploration of the notion and practice of stewardship across Scotland’s islands in times of ecological and climate change, and a celebration of community initiatives around sustainability. In all, over 30 artists and scientists will join the boat – among them poets, playwrights, photographers, film-makers, visual artists, sculptors, designers, architects, oceanographers, marine biologists and ecologists. We’ve squeezed companionably into the Song of the Whale’s 4 cabins, galley and saloon; eaten delicious locally produced food on her decks, become masters of the arcane art of pumping the heads…Well, perhaps not quite masters…We’ve leapt in and out of the zodiacs, clambered to the crow’s nest, crawled with engineer Mat Jerram around the engine room, and hauled, reefed and tangled ourselves in ropes with crew member Jo Royle, who sailed last year from San Francisco to Sydney on Plastiki – a boat made entirely from plastic bottles and recycled materials.

The past three weeks have been astonishing and inspiring. Song of the Whale has been our  base for countless forays onto rocky headlands, white shell-sand beaches, flowering machair, crofting communities and island townships, for plunges into cold clear Scottish waters, where we’ve swum with grey seals, kelp and basking sharks, watched puffins burst from clifftops and gannets drop like plumb lines into the sea. We’ve held ceilidhs on Eigg, Skye, Barra and North Uist, visited crofts, heritage sites, community land ownership schemes and bird reserves, and learned about local projects in renewable energy and food production. We’ve learned too about the resilience and value of the Gaelic language and culture; its rich oral traditions and its communal spirit, which Mary, Mary Jane and Julie express in everything they do. We’re soaked in new knowledge, old myths, sunshine and salt water, and we’re faring very, very well.

Boreray seen from St Kilda

Song of the Whale (By Rody Gorman)

On Cape Farewell’s Song of the Whale, the last
Leg on the journey up north, near to home,
Fastmoored at first light, our little cabin
Might as well be a black township under fire.
Pitching and rocking back and forth in the berth,
I turn down my iPod and go to look out
The starboard porthole on to the Sound of Rum
And the Cuillinn Sound under phosphorescence,
Clearas Aurora borealis. In my head an Ohrwurm
Or iorram goes round and round: a long sea shanty chorus,
All these old Jack tars heaving and hauling on
Capstans and windlasses and winches, the Lower Minch
Over on the far side, the call and response.

Poet Rody Gorman keeping watch from SOTW's A-frame

By Jo.

Well, we are sat on anchor off Mingulay at the southern end of the Outer Hebrides, surrounded by Basking Sharks – not bad! I think it is fair to say that the SOTW has housed a new energy over the past week. A group of fifteen people, and their wonderfully eclectic passions, have been brought together by Cape Farewell, for the first in a series of four week long expeditions. We have been cruising the Scottish Western Isles, investigating the impact of climate change on the cultures and ecologies of Scotland’s island communities.

This first week has taken us from Oban, to Mull and then on to explore the Small Isles of Rhum and Eigg, before heading back to the main land via the mighty Scabaig Loch at the foot of the Black Cullin Mountains on Skye.

This week’s sailors, Gaelic poets, visual artists, social and physical scientists, if you can box these people under specific genres, have explored the islands to converse with islanders and visit the natural environments. The topics of community and place seem to have been threaded through the majority of conversations and works carried out on shore and aboard, in order to contemplate today’s balance between society and nature.

It has been incredibly inspiring to visit remote communities, whose work and lifestyles very obviously rely on a harmonious relationship with nature, and with each other. It is been interesting to see how this balance is achieved in such a variety of ways.

The first stop was Dunstaffnage to visit SAMS (Scottish Association for Marine Science), where we met with the Director, Professor Lawrence Mee. Professor Mee, has had a rich career in Marine Science, having spent several years working at the United Nations followed by Plymouth University’s Marine Science Department, before moving to SAMS. It was really interesting to hear how his focus is moving from physical oceanography, towards addressing the relationship between people and the sea – especially as I have just written a MSc dissertation on this exact topic. If we protect what we love – how do we learn to love what many people do not see or experience? We discussed the challenges of conserving an environment that lies masked in the deep blue. Very fittingly for the focus of Cape Farewell. As I walked back to the boat with Environmental Forensic, Antoine, and award winning writer and film maker Xialu, I realised the importance of the work being carried out on Song of the Whale this week, it is incredible to debate the topics, from such diverse viewpoints, that many of us work on in isolation.

Next stop, Tobermory, Mull. Trips ashore involved a visit to Mull Cheese, and the Arts Centre. The sun set on the first night was magical as a fairly deep low pressure system pushed a moody sky towards us. A few of us went beach combing, discovering the healing powers of local seaweed, and collecting items that were then turned into pieces of art aboard Song of the Whale.

Time on Rhum gave us a brief insight into a very small and fairly transient island community. The previous wealthy owner built a fairly odd looking mansion seemingly to throw big parties in – a great set for a vampire movie. Now, islanders are struggling with accommodation to house a community which wishes to expand, and together they are learning to slowly become more self-sufficient, yet are drastically restricted by funding and the lack of knowledge that comes with having so few people to share ideas with.

Approaching Rhum

Eigg was our next island – and I was surprised we left after our stay with as many crew members as we arrived with. The energy from the land and the community were equally as powerful, and we could write pages on what we learnt from a brief period of time on the island. You might have heard of Eigg, which since it’s buy-out, has really proven to be an inspiring case study of a community who have worked hard to become self-sufficient. The island has about 85 residents and produces almost all its own power in a scheme which brings together wind, hydro and photovoltaic renewable resources to provide islanders with 24 hour reliable electricity. Electricity consumption on Eigg has been kept low through a combination of demand management and behavioural change. Renewable energy, home insulation, solar water heating, local food growing and waste management have also contributed to reducing carbon emissions. CO2 emissions per household are 20% lower than the UK average, and electricity use is 50% lower. Our visit was made particularly special as Lucy Conway, who lives on Eigg had spent the week on Song of the Whale. It was brilliant to be a part of sailing Lucy into her home harbour, and to receive such a warm and open welcome from her extended family. We used bikes to explore the island, visiting Crofts, Eigg Electric, farms, cows lazing on the beach and just generally sharing time with the people of Eigg and the peace and vitality of the land itself. On the first night of our stay we gathered together in the community hall for a ‘pot luck’. I felt very humbled to be asked to share the story of the Plastiki expedition with the community, as many of my inspirations when building the Plastiki and preparing for the voyage were drawn from communities such as Eigg. Incredibly some of the island watched us sail across the Pacific. Time on Eigg gave us all much food for thought, we stage expeditions, write scientific papers, produce art to discuss the balance between people and nature – yet the people on Eigg are visions of action. Every day they work on addressing the harmony between themselves, each other and the land and sea on which their survival is dependant. I really look forward to visiting Eigg again very soon, especially if the dancing at our final night Ceilidh is a regular occurrence – and Maggie’s Whisky pouring!

Cows enjoying the beach on Eigg

The dramatic scenery of Scabaig Loch, at the foot of the Black Cullin Mountains was the perfect next and final stop for the week. Giving us all some space to contemplate the hive of active thoughts scurrying around our minds after learning so much in such a short space of a week. Mat and I went on a ‘walk’ in search for a waterfall he had been to as child. Mat’s walk at the best of time is my slow jog – but he chose to run up the face of the mountain, in hot pursuit were Chef Oliver and artists / boat builder Tom. Awesome – standing at the top of such massive scenery really makes us feel so very small!

Friday came around far too quickly and it was time to say good bye to the community which has quickly established itself on SOTW. As sailors we are used to being a part of a transient community, in an environment where you do build great relationships quickly. However, SOTW really housed a special vibe this week; Ruth, who is leading the expedition, had brought together a group of people who seemed to magically create a very balanced, extremely fun community. Serious debates could have tipped in difference of opinion – but always resulted in laughter, and without a doubt expanded all of our thinking. This fact, mixed with the incredible scenery of the Scottish Isles, and the unique experiences we had all enjoyed ashore, has certainly resulted in one of those weeks that will still be in my thoughts as I sit on my chair as an old lady. It really has been an incredible week, so rich in lessons that address our connection with the environment – from which our survival is truly dependent upon.

MCR is delighted to be working with pioneering climate change charity Cape Farewell during July and August.  Based onboard the RV Song of the Whale and in partnership with Cove Park artists residence,  Cape Farewell are embarking on a month-long expedition through the Hebrides from Oban to Lewis, via Mull, Rum, Eigg, Skye, Canna, Mingulay, Barra, the Uists, Heisgir, St Kilda, Harris, Lewis and the Shiants.

After eight expeditions to the high Arctic and one to the Peruvian Amazon, Cape Farewell brings the notion and experience of expedition and exchange home to local frontiers, with an exploration of island ecologies and cultures, and of the stewardship strategies for sustainable and resilient futures being implemented across the Scottish Western Isles.

The Cape Farewell team of 12 will rotate each week, and is made up of island artists, storytellers, film-makers, playwrights, architects, designers, musicians, community leaders, social scientists, ecologists, marine biologists, oceanographers, poets, acclaimed Gaelic singers and a chef.

Having  completed the harbour porpoise survey the R/V Song of the Whale journeys to the Channel Island of Alderney, once more with a new visiting researcher, Fabrizio Borsani. Fabrizio is Italian, and first worked with the SOTW team in the Mediterranean in 1994; he is now studying for a PhD with Prof Paul White’s group at the University of Southampton.  We begin a new project, to develop a low cost and simple field methodology to measure the sound profiles of shipping traffic, the results of which will be reported back to the International Maritime Organisation’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) .

There is a scarcity of data on the variability of ship noise under real operating conditions and it is unclear how factors such as loading, speed and vessel type act together to change the noise emitted. The literature gives examples for individual ships but there is little information on the variation between vessels.  The data collected during this work at sea under real-life conditions will be used to quantify the variability in noise (in a chosen frequency band) from various types of ship, which will help to identify which are most likely to be the major contributors to ocean noise overall.

This project has required a lot of preparation, including the building of two new hydrophone systems, one very sensitive calibrated hydrophone to deploy from the Song of the Whale and the second from a Nauti-buoy (autonomous) system, complete with its own AIS beacon and GPS recorder.

Continuing challenges with the weather mean that we manage 3 full days of data collection in a variety of sea states and wind conditions.  The learning curve is steep on the first day, discovering the feasibility of our intended methodology within the constraints of being offshore and liaising with passing vessels.  As the days move on and the weather improves, it is clearly evident how much added low frequency noise is created by the drift of our vessel and increased sea state.  We have several very cooperative vessels on the second and third day, which not only provide us with in-depth information about the state of their load and draft but also pass within just a couple hundred metres of us – tending to make the captain very uncomfortable!  Recordings are made, photos taken and data processed, and adrenaline levels are high as these huge, 200 metre long cargo and tanker vessels pass close by with waving crew and a following huge wash.

We obtain a number of good recordings of a variety of vessels types and sizes and will be able to  compare sound profile results between our buoy, the calibrated hydrophones deployed from SOTW and Fabrizio’s hydrophone.  Now the hard work ahead is to analyse the data and adapt the previous standardised IMO methodology, reporting back to the IMO MEPC and making recommendations based on the results of this  fieldwork.

A collaborating vessel makes a close pass to SOTW's calibrated hydrophone.

As we come to the end of the project, approaching Lymington, the mist on the horizon is filled with sailing vessels.  Via the radio we learn that as we pass the Isle of Wight we will cross through the Round the Island Race – the wrong way!  1,800 boats are around us tacking and gybing ,vying for the front of the pack, as Jim skilfully slaloms through the fleet of vessels – quite an impressive end to our Channel surveys.

The weather is windy and the sea choppy when we leave Plymouth and head out towards the French coast, but it feels so good to be at sea again! Due to the rather rough conditions, we are unable to use the A-frame as the observation platform, but even despite this, Jim manages to spot a harbour porpoise from the deck in the afternoon, and with the hydrophone in the water behind us, we are confident that our acoustic detectors will pick up more porpoises than we can see. There are quite a few species of cetacean that are particularly hard to detect visually, due either to their small size, elusive nature or long and deep dives – these include beaked whales, sperm whales and porpoises (including the highly endangered Mexican Vaquita) – all of which we have worked with over the years with the aim of developing acoustic detectors to facilitate improved survey ability and to compliment more traditional sighting surveys.  The wind and waves start to die down as we passed the Les Sept and Les Triagoz Isles that night, and finally turn west to continue our journey northwards from the town of Morlaix, France.

As the sun rises the next day, the weather looks promising, with blue skies and sunshine. But as the morning watch climb onto the A-frame it soon becomes apparent that the cold wind is going to prevent anyone getting their shorts out and the waves won’t make sightings easy.  Despite this we shake out a couple of reefs and enjoy a good days sailing across the channel, making good speed.  As night falls and with calm weather forecasted everyone retreats to their cabins to grab as much sleep as possible before we arrive back on the French coast in the morning, hoping to find some porpoises waiting on the other side.

Porpoises do not appear the next morning but mid Channel we have a group of 5-8 common dolphins bow riding the Song of the Whale, including 2 calves which makes for an exciting start to the day.  Throughout the day however, the wind increases and by the afternoon it is clear that we should take shelter from the rough seas as no observation was possible and increasing wave noise was making the acoustic data collection more  difficult.  We anchor off Camaret, France for a full night and day to wait out the worst of the summer storm.

After spending the day at anchor surrounded by thick fog and barely able to see the shoreline at Camaret, as  night falls the winds  die so we lift anchor, set sail and headed off again into the Channel.  The fog is thick and atmospheric with shadows of rocks appearing in the beam of the moving lighthouses.  Luckily the tide and winds are with us making the passage back through the Channel de Four and Channel de la Helle relatively easy.  The fog stays with us through until morning by which time we have finished our track towards Lands End and our last crossing of the Channelis complete.

By dawn the fog clears and the shipping traffic thins. The further north we travel the more the conditions moderate until itis suddenly a proper summer afternoon. We pass the Wolf Rock light, before turning to West across the traffic separation scheme, towards the Isles of Scilly, which being very low lying, only unwillingly heave themselves above the horizon. As we follow our transects south again we enjoy an amazing sunset over St Martin before the islands fade away again into the distance.

By morning we are west of the Isles of Scilly again and enjoy a beautiful sunrise over calm seas. The sea conditions are perfect for observations at the beginning of the day, with an oily glassy sea and within the first hour watch we have already had three porpoise sightings. A lot of birds were seen as well, including storm petrels, terns, skuas, gannets, fulmars and gulls. We try to take full advantage of the good weather with our chief scientist climbing into the crow’s nest for some dual platform observations.  Unfortunately, no sooner has he climbed the mast, the swell and winds start increasing again and the conditions deteriorate. We finish the last track of the harbour porpoise survey during the afternoon and start heading back to Plymouth, to drop off our visiting crew members.

As a whole, the survey has taken 22 days with 19 sightings, fifteen of which have been harbour porpoises, two dolphin species, one loggerhead turtle and one shark.  We have suffered from unfortunate weather conditions for this time of year with only two mornings of calm weather, which for this elusive species, is key to visual observation.  Now with the field work finished, we will start detailed analysis of our acoustic data collected from this survey and see how our detection rate increases.

Our last night at sea during this survey with a perfect moonrise lighting up our path ahead

Olly took to the crow’s nest on our last day surveying to make the most of our good weather conditions by carrying out some dual platform observations.

With 3 new team members and fine weather conditions expected for the next few days we head out of Cherbourg in the sunshine – expectations of sightings and detections high in this second survey block.  As we approach the beginning of our transect line by the Cap de Hague, the currents and tides around the boat are wild with swirling eddies and standing waves all around.  The skies throughout much of the first few hours are filled with gannets in groups of 2 to 30 parading in lines above the swirling sea surface.  As we cross the Channel the seas calm further and by midnight we are surrounded by glassy seas and a crescent moon over Portland Bill.

The wild currents and eddies continue as we approach the Casquets and through the Ortac Channel, named for a rock which is a roost for many gannets. The tide runs fiercely here at springs and the sea is a dramatic sight, with large groups of feeding seabirds. Later, en route to Jersey we have our first turtle sighting of a small Loggerhead swimming close to the vessel. As we approach the north coast of Jersey, for a while it was possible to imagine the islands were in the Mediterranean, not the Channel.

We are not so lucky the next day with misty and rainy weather as we pass close to the Channel Islands of Sark, Guernsey and Herm. Unfortunately, the weather does not improve during the day, making it impossible to observe constantly from the A-Frame. But as we arrive near to the English coastline once more, the sea is mirror calm. As we approach Lyme Bay, we have our first cetacean sighting of the second leg – around 5-8 white-beaked dolphins bow-riding for quite a while with at least one juvenile. The whole crew were excited by this sighting and we try to photograph the dolphins for later photo-identification.  White-beaked dolphins, like other dolphins, can be recognised individually due to the marks on their dorsal fins including nicks, scars and teeth marks. We will compare these photos to already existing photo catalogues of the dolphins in this area to see if there were any matches.  Additionally with our towed arrays in the water at the time, we record some amazing buzzing sequences from the dolphins and looking back over their click trains it is possible to see their swimming patterns from the noises they were making.

Mat, the Engineer, has concerns about an oil seal on the main engine so at the end of the next track line we head into Plymouth so that he can investigate further.

White beaked dolphin - Lyme Bay

Rainbow Click, the acoustics program which picks up the clicks of dolphins shows how, as the white beaked dolphins left our vessel, we could still follow their swimming patterns through their acoustic activity. These dolphins were making buzzing sounds which ranged from within our hearing range (<20kHz) to very high frequencies of over 100 kHz.

The first leg of the harbour porpoise survey finished at the end of May, and Song of the Whale docked in Cherbourg for a crew change on 31st May. Our first few days of survey were a mixed bag of weather, shipping and sightings:

As we left Ipswich for our first transect across the Channel we were lucky to have perfect sightings conditions – sunshine and calm seas.  However, rather than cetacean calls, the hydrophone was filled with ship noise from the busy shipping lanes.  The noise emitted by the large tankers and even small fishing vessels, even at a distance of several miles, was clearly distinguishable and, at times, deafening.

We are getting to grips with our new sightings protocol, aimed at calculating distance to sightings (using reticules and compasses in our binoculars and taking photos of the sighting angle from the position of our feet), but unfortunately no sightings of any marine mammals today.  As the night drew in we receive reports of worsening weather so decide to shelter in Eastbourne for the next day.

Heading out again after a smooth night’s sleep, the worst of the weather was over but the winds were still high and sea state wild for the next few days, reducing our chances of sighting porpoises. The acoustic survey continues as we pass through the last of the shipping channels.

As the weather starts to improve the conditions became perfect for sailing with moderate winds and dying swell.  For as much time as possible, the team brave the A-frame to try to get sightings of the elusive harbour porpoises; unfortunately we only log one visual detection as the weather is still not ideal — we are almost completely reliant on the acoustic detection systems.  Harbour porpoises make very high frequency clicks which are not detectable to human hearing, so we run automatic-detectors on the acoustic data to pick up the harbour porpoise vocalisations
.  And to complicate matters further, because their clicks are such high frequency, they can only be detected acoustically at close range (around 250 – 400 metres) dependent on other conditions; it really feels like we are searching for a needle in a rather large haystack.

On the last survey day of the first leg, we have glassy calm seas and sunshine near the French coast and our sightings of harbour porpoises increase.  Four fleeting sightings of harbour porpoises occur, one of which was of a possible mother and calf pair which lifted the spirit of the team no end.  Although the wind picks up for our night time crossing of the Channel towards Cherbourg in France, the eastern leg of our survey has been successful in confirming the presence of harbour porpoises visually. Hopefully conditions will improve as we head west on leg two of the survey.

For this abundance estimation survey, observers on the A-frame use binoculars mounted on a frame along with a downward pointing camera. Details of the binocular compass angle and reticules are taken for sightings to determine the distance and angle to each sighting.

An example of a photo taken by the downward pointing camera during a sighting. The blue lines painted on the deck are perpendicular to the vessels heading. The offset is used to calculate the relative bearing to the sighting. SOTW's True heading is continuously recorded by the "Logger" computer enabling the actual bearing to be calculated during analysis.

Song of the Whale and team left Ipswich early this morning, bound for the Channel to begin two research projects funded by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) through MCR Ltd’s non-profit partner company MCR International.

During the coming weeks, the SOTW team, working closely with UK and French partners, will conduct acoustic and visual research into the presence and distribution of harbour porpoises in British and French waters of the Channel, between Ramsgate in the east, to the Isles of Scilly in the west. Few dedicated, systematic surveys for porpoises have been conducted in the Channel, with the existing distribution data based mostly on opportunistic sightings, bycatch and stranding records and the SCANS surveys. Harbour porpoises are known to be threatened by human activities such as fishing and habitat degradation. Survey results from the project will contribute to baseline data on the summer distribution of porpoises in these waters and will provide novel data to update the last SCANS-II survey in 2005 and to supplement ongoing research work in the region.

Additionally, data collected in the western Channel will feed in to the Channel Integrated Approach for Marine Resource Management (CHARM III) project to help establish a database of cetacean distribution throughout this area. Where possible, collaboration with existing research efforts will be made to address specific issues relating to porpoise distribution and behaviour.

The team are also aiming to make opportunistic measurements of ship noise, to add to the knowledge on levels of noise being produced by a variety of types of ships.

The next scheduled port stop is Cherbourg, France at the beginning of June.

The team onboard Song of the Whale currently are:-
Jim Compton, Mat Jerram, Edd Hewett (MCR), Oliver Boisseau, Anna Cucknell (MCR International), Sandra Nussbaum (MCR International field assistant, from France), Morgane Perri (French visiting researcher from Marine Life/Charm III), Vanessa Trijoulet (French intern) and Siobhan Mannion (UK intern).

Team on foredeck prior to departure.

We are now planning our next project in the Channel – which will begin mid May. The team will be working closely with French and British groups to conduct a survey for harbour porpoises in the Channel, as well as make some measurements of ship noise.

From the Channel the SOTW will return to London for an event and then onto the IWC meeting in Jersey.