Scotia

On behalf of our local marine Group Comann Na Mara" or Society of the Sea, I take weekly samples of sea water from Lochmaddy Bay, for the Scottish Fisheries Laboratory at Aberdeen. I filter and pack or freeze them and then send them across each quarter. My back up for this is Donald Archie Nicholson, skipper of a local Prawn boat. We are one of five or six such coastal sites in Scotland and the results can be viewed under "coastal monitoring" on the lab web site which is <http:www.frs-scotland.gov.uk> . A poster depicting 2002-2003 results from all sites, is in the corridor of Lochmaddy Hotel.

Due to the above, John Dunn, one of the senior scientists at the Lab, invited me to be a guest observer for their December trip. It emerged that several items of the equipment that they use had been invented by him and are used across the world. I was excited about the trip partly due to the prospect of seeing the work but also because I had not spent two consecutive nights at sea since finishing in the Royal Navy in 1959.

Taking water samples

I joined the ship at Aberdeen. She was built by Ferguson’s of Port Glasgow in 1998 and looks like a giant trawler. She is about 210 feet long and has a single propeller driven by two electric engines which are powered by three diesel engines that run at a constant speed. The engine room is amazingly well sound proofed to avoid underwater disturbance and in the cabins, it was hard to tell if the ship was moving or stopped. The ship is a maze of wiring for computer and sensor controlling everything from engines to winches. There is a large deck hatch and through this, seven steel container modular laboratories are taken aboard. These have varied electronic or chemical function and the type taken each trip depends on the work plan. She also has a nine foot drop keel on which are mounted the transducers for the varied echo sounders so they can be changed by just hauling up the keel. The extra depth of keel also aids her stabilisers to keep her steady in rough seas.

The ship is owned by the Scottish Government, works from Aberdeen and is managed by Marr Ltd., of Hull so most of the crew are ex trawler men with a dialect that I struggled to understand. My status as "observer" was a very loose one and I found that I was in the noon to midnight watch as a scientific assistant. This was far better than being a mere" observer" as I was on deck (albeit under shelter) for the twelve hours each day so I was closely involved in all the activity.

The first week was to work along long established, measurement lines in the area of Faeroes and Shetland. The ship stopped at designated spots and different sorts of gear were lowered to measure temperature, water conductivity, take water samples for salinity, chemistry and plankton. The most frequently used item was the CTD which can take 12 water samples at pre-set depths as well as transmitting back a multitude of electronic information. A giant sled called Aries and one of John Dunn’s inventions could be lowered and towed on its crane. It was loaded with echo sounders running at different frequencies and could take 60 water and 110 Plankton samples from varying depths. The gear was lowered and recovered at a rate of 20metres per minute and when you consider that some of the depths we were working at were over 1,000 metres, then each drop could take a while. On the return of the CTD or Aries, wires were connected up for the on board and also onshore computers to record the results. Water and plankton samples were taken and put into special containers for analysis either aboard or kept for return to Aberdeen. The weather was nasty and we were not able to carry out all the tasks. It is the 40 year recording at these sites that have shown the slight rise in temperature and the drop in plankton numbers in the Faeroe /Shetland trench, that links to the proven melting of the Greenland icecap and the theory of global warming.

The effect of 3.000 depth on a polystyrene cup

It was back to Aberdeen for two nights and then off towards Norway to work amongst the twinkling lights and shooting flares of the Balmoral oilfield. This week was to again sample at specific sites but also to recover plankton and identify them so that the type could be matched against the echo soundings at varied frequencies that were recorded on the bridge. Twice a huge mid water trawl was towed but only a few fish arrived aboard. Weather was again rather rough so we had to pack up some hours early and dodge our way back to port.

Accommodation and food were excellent. All crew and scientists had individual self contained cabins with TV, radio and music kits. Mine was five decks down from the bridge and had a port- hole that was just above sea level so it was gorgeous looking out as the bow wave broke just outside. I am very grateful for having had this opportunity to observe the work of the scientists at sea and to have experienced a trip in such a fine ship with a crew who were all tremendously helpful. It was also a fine feeling being "deep sea" again and though I had not been able to predict how my otoliths would respond to the constant motion, I had never even the slightest feeling of sea sickness. Although I had to take out special Insurance over and above my annual world travel policy and my Defence Union demanded a fee for cover there were no anxious moments. Several of the crew had a viral illness ,but they all used their own ship system of care and I was not coaxed for advice, which is a tribute to them.

Dr. John A.J.Macleod, Lochmaddy , Jan 2004.( Retired Island G.P.)