Narwhal Ocean survey Tobermory

Join Narwhal at 4 pm in the sweet fishing village of Tobermory.

Once you’ve met your fellow guests and are settled in, Eric and Katherine will introduce you to everything that you need to know about living afloat onboard Narwhal and there will be initial safety briefings. Weather-permitting we may cast off and head to a nearby anchorage where we can all enjoy the beginning of our adventure and our first wildlife encounters. We will cook a hot dinner onboard to enjoy in the beautiful and secluded surroundings, a great way to get to know your fellow crewmates as well as discuss how the expedition and surveying will run.

The sheltered waters around Oban provide a great opportunity to become familiarised with the boat. We will introduce you to the survey methodologies as we undertake cetacean surveys and microplastic trawl sampling. You will be involved in all aspects of the surveying from observing and recording wildlife sightings to undertaking trawl samples and analysing the contents. As evening approaches we will select a sheltered anchorage to log our recordings, analyse samples and complete our journal entries and relax on deck as the sun goes down.

Using the unique access that sailing by boat gives us, we will head ashore to monitor the impacts humans are having on remote, inaccessible beaches. We will show you how to complete a number of beach-based surveys including beach litter surveying and cleaning using the OSPAR guidelines, beach microplastic monitoring and nurdle surveying. The great thing about these surveys is that once you have learnt the survey methodologies you can repeat them yourselves on beaches closer to home. We will make sure you know how to run your own surveys and who to submit your data to so that it can be of most use to scientists for affecting change.

Sailing along the beautiful Hebridean coastline provides unique and diverse habitats to discover. Time and tide permitting we will introduce you to some of its rockpool residents and enjoy some sustainable foraging. We will work together to transport all of the beach litter that we have collected back to Narwhal. Depending on how long our shore surveys take, we may make a short sail to a different anchorage in the evening.

We will spend our final day conducting cetacean surveys and microplastic trawl samples as well as enjoying the Scottish scenery as we sail back towards Oban. We will moor up in Oban in time to swap stories, highlights and pictures from the expedition as well as return equipment and issue you with your Ocean Survey Certificates before departing the boat at 4 pm.

Please note that the itinerary provided above is provided to illustrate the general areas that we will visit and surveys that we will undertake on the expedition. The exact itinerary and surveys that we conduct will be chosen each day by your skipper in order to make the best use of the weather conditions. Since we operate with just a small number of guests on board you will have lots of opportunities to get involved with both surveying and sailing.

Travel insurance notes

As this is an active adventure holiday, we advise that everyone has the appropriate personal accident travel insurance whilst onboard in addition to standard travel insurance which would cover you in the time between making your booking and departing for your adventure. These policies can sometimes be combined so please check with your travel insurance provider.

You can also read more information on our Insurance guidelines page. Additional information about one of our trusted insurance providers for UK residents is attached to this email.