Isles of Scilly visit

By Jason Birt (Programme Manager-Wildlife Education & Media)

“Where?”

“There!”

“Where?!”

“300 metres, 9 o’clock. See the fins breaking the surface.”

“Oh yeah!”

So ran a conversation on the port side of the Scillonian when the largest group of common dolphins broke the surface. An hour earlier we had left the dock at Penzance en route to the Isles of Scilly. With only a gentle swell greeting the bow of a ship renowned for inducing nausea, we felt some confidence that the students would escape the worst and be able to stay up on deck for an informal cetacean spot. As we sailed past the Runnelstone Reef (now part of a Marine Conservation Zone), an area famed for cetaceans and seabirds due to the upwelling of currents that drives food in the area, Manx shearwaters wheeled past on the hunt, with gannets flying past looking for somewhere productive to dive.

The intention for the day was to give the students from the marine, zoology, Conservation and Ecology, and Wildlife Education and Media degree courses some experience of distance sampling from a moving vessel. At arrival on the islands, the students could disperse to explore under their own supervision or to join us staff on two “expeditions”. The first, led by Dr Kelly Haynes and I, was to head to the island of St Agnes and its sister island, Gugh, joined by a tombolo at low water, to meet with Jaclyn Pearson, Project Lead of the RSPB seabird Recovery Project. We were joined by seven students who also wanted to see a conservation project in action. 

The intention was to find out about the rat eradication project that the RSPB have run for the last few years. It is a fantastic community based project, designed to eradicate Gugh and St Agnes of rats. It has been successful so far, with both islands being rat-free for two years. Why would they want to eradicate rats? In this instance, rats are an invasive species and they eat an awful lot of insects, shrews and – this is why the RSPB have been involved – eggs and chicks. Eggs and chicks of seabirds, some of whom have had precipitous drops in numbers in recent years for a host of reasons. Lesser black-backed gulls are ground nesters and rats will eat their eggs and young. Likewise for terns and Manx shearwaters. We went to look at the nesting gulls and could see them tending to the eggs and young, occasionally wheeling close to make sure we did not present a threat. A little later, we went in search of Manx shearwater burrows. These oceanic birds are not comfortable on the land and for a nest use old rabbit burrows. When these lifelong monogamists pair back up for nesting, they search for an empty burrow by calling their mooing, screeching call down a burrow. A mooing, screeching call back from the depths of a burrow indicates occupancy and the investigative pair will move on. It was that behaviour we were exploiting to find an occupied burrow. Jaclyn, and her assistant Lydia, played calls from an iPhone down a succession of burrows in the hope of eliciting a call. After several burrows and some frustration we finally had a call back, an eerie moo from a burrow facing out to sea.

After an adjournment to the most south-westerly pub in the UK, the Turk’s Head, we discussed the progress of the project and how this was one of the speedier conservation successes. Numbers of nesting Manx shearwaters had already increased, with nesting success also increasing. It was heartening to see a successful conservation project in action and it served as a reminder that what we do and what we teach really can make a difference.

The second expedition was led by Bex Allen, our seal expert, and involved getting in the water. In wetsuits. A number of students joined Bex, and a guest of ours, Annabelle Lowe of Atlantic Diver (a boat we use for student teaching operating out of Newquay), to head over to St Martins. The purpose? To go seal snorkelling! Working with Scilly Seal Snorkelling, Bex and the students were kitted out in neoprene and dropped off the side of a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) when some seals were spotted. The Isles of Scilly, particularly the outer islands are home to hundreds of grey seals, feeding around the islands and breeding in the late Autumn. Seal snorkelling is one of those bucket list moments. The interaction is amazing with these playful, inquisitive mammals, with them nibbling at your fins a real possibility. It is all safe and under considerable supervision but it must be stated that this is not something you should try at home, on your own! The students who went on this expedition came back tired and yet buzzing with whole experience and the photos and videos only hint at the excitement of the activity.

On return, many slept. The day trip to the Isles of Scilly is always a tiring one. Those of us who weren’t tuckered out kept watch for cetaceans. We were rewarded with a lone bottlenose dolphin in the approach to Penzance harbour. This was one for a photo-ID project as it had a nick in the fin. In all, we experience 14 common dolphins, one porpoise and a bottlenose dolphin, not to mention the close-up seal action, nesting gulls, mooing shearwaters and flocks of auks and gannets. This is an annual trip and one that always has us wondering whether it should be a residential one, so we can experience the magic of these islands for longer. 

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