As a kid in Scotland, I grew up reading The Sunday Post. Admittedly I was more interested in The Broons and Oor Wullie originally, but it was still a regular feature of my weekends.

So I was pretty excited to feature in it last week! The two-page article focused on a scientific paper published by myself, Phil, and two collaborators in Australia, which focused on foraging behaviour of pygmy blue whales off Timor Leste.

Despite being one of the largest animals in the ocean, we still know relatively little about where and how pygmy blue whales spend their time. For a long time, it was thought that the whales followed the same pattern as other large baleen whales – a feeding ground in the poles, a breeding ground in the tropics, and a lengthy migration between the two with no feeding en route. But it turns out pygmy blue whales don’t follow this “fast and famine” method. Instead, they need to feed fairly often so instead have ‘pit stops’ along the migration route where they can top up their energy reserves. The challenge is finding out where these crucial pit stops are located.

Our collaborator and good friend Chris Burton from Western Whale Research was undertaking work as a Marine Mammal Observer on a seismic vessel operating off Timor Leste. He collected numerous sightings of blue whales over a two year period, including evidence of feeding. Phil and I helped to analyse and write-up these data, demonstrating that whale presence was linked with areas of high productivity, near to areas with marine canyons and a flatter seabed. Such areas are likely to have high prey density. This was further supported by the fact that some individual whales were hanging around this area for a few days and engaging in steep, fluke-up dives, which suggests foraging at depth.

From this evidence, we conclude that pygmy blue whales are likely using the Timor Trough as a foraging pit stop on their migration. This makes it an area of biological importance, and we now need to consider how to best manage it in the face of human threats… but that is a whole other research study!

An exciting (but slightly outdated) announcement! At the start of summer, I successfully interviewed for a new role as a Lecturer in Ecology at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). I’m now six weeks into my new job and loving it!

A big part of the appeal is that the staff have all been so lovely and helpful. From lunchtime gossips to helping set up classrooms to meme-filled Whatsapp group chats, I feel like I’ve struck lucky with all my new colleagues! The work itself is also an exciting change – smaller class sizes mean I can give my students more attention and support, which is super rewarding. I am teaching a more diverse range of subjects, including venturing back into the terrestrial realm! Requires a bit of extra reading, but this already paying off through interesting facts and new research ideas.

Of course, a big side bonus of this new job is the location… Not only back in Scotland, but back to my hometown of Aberdeen! It is wonderful to be back near family and friends, especially after the lockdown restrictions of the past 1.5 years. We’ve moved to a small village on the coast, and Monty dog is loving his daily beach walks! We’ve been practicing his “watch” command in anticipation of new wildlife-watching opportunities! We’ll make a marine biologist of him yet!

So whilst it was sad to leave Portsmouth, we are very much looking forward to new adventures up north!

The ocean is increasingly facing threats from human activities, and mitigating these requires the support of the general public. However, many people see little or no connection between their actions and ocean health. It is therefore important to monitor and assess public perceptions of the marine environment, as this will help us understand how we can change them for effective conservation.

Two of my undergraduate students at the University of Portsmouth are studying this topic for their Honours theses. They have created an online survey with questions about marine conservation in general and marine megafauna in particular. Now we are looking for people to complete the survey!

To participate, you must be an adult living in the UK. All answers are anonymous and voluntary, and if at any point you no longer wish to participate then you can simply close the webpage. Your answers will be used to investigate whether any patterns exist in how people perceive the marine environment.

If you would like to participate, please follow this link: https://forms.gle/p3uwV9NBCE2uqR5m7

We would also appreciate it if you could share this link far and wide! This will help us to collect a diversity of viewpoints. We will be closing the survey at the end of March.

On Monday, I gave a presentation about dolphin acoustics in the Swan River at a free public seminar called “Sound Science in the Swan“, supported by Acoustics2017, the annual conference of the Australian Acoustical Society.  Over 60 people attended the two-hour seminar, with the audience containing both scientists and members of the public.

The evening kicked off with an introduction by the organiser, Dr Miles Parsons from Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST) at Curtin University, who explained what sound is and how animals use it underwater.  I then demonstrated this through my interactive Soundscape Game, where the audience members are each allocated the role of a different underwater sound source and produce them together to create a ‘soundscape’.

Me yelling at some audience members to “make snapping shrimp noises” (Photo: Sylvia Parsons)

Miles then explained more about some of the anthropogenic (man-made) sound sources in the Swan River system, including things like vessels, pile-driving, airplanes, drones, and even human swimmers!

Miles presenting experiments examining sounds produced by swimmers (Photo: Sylvia Parsons)

This was followed by Dr Iain Parnum (also of CMST) who explained his work using underwater acoustics for the purposes of habitat mapping within the Swan.

Iain using acoustics to ‘see’ underwater (Photo: Sylvia Parsons)

After the break, I was up to present about dolphins!  I started with examples of the different sounds dolphins make and why underwater sound is vital for their survival.  I then applied this to the Swan River, by showing it as a busy, noisy environment – and therefore rather challenging for dolphins!  However, as I explained, my research shows that the dolphins don’t necessarily leave noisy areas, although they might have strategies for dealing with them.

Me showing some theodolite tracks of dolphins and vessels within the Swan River (Photo: Sylvia Parsons)

I was then able to present some research on dolphins and pile-driving, on behalf of my PhD supervisor Dr Chandra Salgado Kent, who was unable to attend that evening.

The evening finished back with Miles, who spoke about mulloway and some of the research surrounding the calls made by these fish.

A thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an evening!