Thursday 14 August 2014

Leaving :(

Having been on Sherkin Island for almost 2 months I have now had to say goodbye to the beautiful place and my fellow Marine Station Bods. I have had a great time exploring the little island, trying out a new aspect of marine biology, and boggling (among many other things). I am sad to have left - although I am a little excited to not have to prepare meals for 8 again any time soon!

Final photos - courtesy of Robbie Murphy. Don't we all look very
well behaved and smiley?
Then came the jumping.. soooo much jumping..
I think this one was 'be a sea creature'? But it really could be anything..

I think I will definitely have to visit Sherkin again in the future! The Marine Station is celebrating 40 years of surveying next year and Matt is hosting many past bods for an anniversary gathering so perhaps I will be going to that. Living on Sherkin has been an experience that I certainly won't be forgetting for a long while! Goodbye!!!

Last night at the pub!

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Fun and dolphins!

The other day we went out on Charlie's boat (a different Charlie - I don't secretly own boats now) to see some of the little islands surrounding Sherkin and to see if we could find any wildlife. It was such a nice day and we had a lovely time - we ended up seeing many dolphins and rather a lot of seals too!

Fabulous sun-bathing seal
Me, Nonny and Ruth after the
boat trip - smiley happy
boat faces!












There is one dolphin that hangs out on its own near the marina on Sherkin and it decided to join our boat for a good few minutes on our way back to shore. Charlie's dog, which was onboard the boat with
us and having a great time, was the first to see the dolphin and proceeded to jump in after it (presumably with a view to catching it, but i'm not sure about the logic of this as the dolphin was quite large). We got the dog out of the water and watched the dolphin swim lazily around near the boat. 

Lazy dolphin



Danger danger!!

We have successfully identified a HAB (harmful algal bloom)! We found hundreds of Dinophysis acuta  in our plankton net haul! We then did precise counts from the different depths sampled and found that the levels of Dinophysis are well above the level that can be dangerous for shellfish!

So many Dinophysis acuta (the grenade ones)! Much danger!
Also look at that lovely big Coscinodiscus (the big round one) - isn't it
pretty!
We quickly found out if any oysters have been farmed locally over the last week (or if there are plans to harvest them soon) so that they can be checked for DSP and people don't eat them if they could make them ill.