My last day in Europe

As the title clearly states, today is my last day in the UK, and subsequently, Europe. Tomorrow I make the 16 hour journey to San Francisco. First stop, London. Then LA and finally SF. I've packed my 23 kg of luggage, mostly consisting of warm layers, waterproofs and various gear that will help me to survive on a remote island for 3 months. All that is left for me to do is to check-in online, print off various documents which are a triumph in themselves (it is ridiculously hard to get long-term travel insurance which involves living on a rugged island surrounded by large grumpy mammals, especially as I have moved between countries in the last 12 months).

I've said goodbye to my friends, my girlfriend, and I am spending my last day with my parents. It will certainly be different spending Christmas, New year, and Valentines day away, but I'm sure that it will be an experience I will never forget. Now that I have researched SF and what there is to do, I'm really looking forward to a tired Tuesday exploring.

Golden gate bridge (Wikipedia)

My plan is to wander along the waterfront to fishermans wharf to see all of the fish vendors, and to Pier 39 to see the Californian sea lions which have made it a favourite haul out spot. As this will be my first sighting of a species which will share the Farallones with me, I am rather excited to see them!

A busy day at Pier 39 (criticallyrated.com)

My next stop will of course be the bridge itself, which I plan to walk over, and possibly explore the national park if time allows. I'm aiming to see china town and downtown too, but if I don't manage to fit them in this week, I'll be back in February during my time off from the island.

My next post is likely to be either whilst very tired in SF, busy in Petaluma (the location of the Point Blue Conservation Science office), or on the island itself. Therefore it may consist purely of photos, so the above should give you an idea of what I was up to!

Pre-fieldwork update

So, in-keeping with tradition, it has been 7 months since my last post, and a lot has happened. The grovelling outlined in the post below did indeed result in a free copy of the macro software which was used thoroughly; although now I know I didn't actually need it!! I attended UKRSC in St Andrews and presented the methods of my thesis, which seemed to go down well. I am now on the organizing committee for the conference, which is being held in Bangor, Wales in January.

I spent 5 months in Belmullet (County Mayo, Ireland) over the summer, writing up my thesis whilst doing intermittent fieldwork.  I am rather happy with the result of the thesis, gaining a first (distinction), and I am currently writing up a section of grey literature, a note, and a paper resulting from it! I've also submitted an abstract to present at the European Cetacean Society in Malta next year titled "Developing acoustic parameters for dolphin detections and species differentiation using C-PODs." Probably the most notable experience over the summer aside from the academic work was the day that 6 common dolphins live-stranded on a beach nearby. I was working in the office and got a call telling me the situation. Myself, my housemate and an intern drove down and helped out, which ended up taking the entire day, mostly in the water whilst wearing the clothes I'd put on for office work. Thankfully it is a casual office, there were no suits involved; however I feel like I was a bit less prepared than those that turned up in wetsuits! We managed to refloat the dolphins (apart from one that died soon after stranding), although some did re-strand the day after, and again were re-floated by another team.

Live-stranded common dolphins, with me in the middle trying to stop one from rolling over (Photo by Ross Culloch).

After my time in Ireland, I spent a month in New Quay, Wales volunteering for the Seawatch Foundation. Although there wasn't really anything new learned here, it did provide a great opportunity to gain more boat time, becoming experienced in line-transects within Cardigan Bay. Which also allowed me to practice my marine wildlife photography from a platform which wasn't a cliff!

Bottlenose dolphins in Cardigan Bay (James Robbins / Seawatch Foundation)

Since then I have spent some time at home with family, and have just returned from a month with my girlfriend Kathryn in Southampton. I am now preparing for the next adventure which starts in 6 days, which will see me travelling to California! I'm to be a research assistant with Point Blue Conservation Science, working on a rugged and remote island called South-East Farralon (SEFI). It lies almost 30 miles off the coast from San Francisco, and is only 2 miles from the continental shelf. As such it receives a whole host of wildlife taking advantage of the high productivity, including some impressive predators. I'll be living on the island for 3.5 months with human populations ranging from 4 - 8 people. Our research will focus on elephant seals, however we will also study other pinniped species (stellar and californian sea lions, fur seals, harbor seals), migrating grey whales and any other cetaceans seen from atop lighthouse hill, and there will be a few projects carrying over from previous seasons including burrowing owls, and the documentation of any white shark attacks (which will be coming to the end of their season at the islands).

A view of the farallons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Islands) 

For an insight into life on the islands, have a look at some of these links:
http://vimeo.com/23880275
http://losfarallones.blogspot.co.uk/

There are also a few other videos on vimeo and youtube dedicated to the islands which can be reached by searching for "farallon islands" or "SEFI".

I'm sure that I will be very busy once there, putting the finishing touches to the manuscripts for publication, keeping in touch with family and friends, and enjoying the spectacles that the islands have to offer, but I will attempt to keep this blog updated for once, with stories and photos of life on the island.