RowAroundScotland 2021 Microplastic Trawl practice!

RowAroundScotland is an expedition in coastal rowing boats around Scotland as part of Scotland's Year of Coasts & Waters 20/21. As Sue explains, "the pandemic forced the RowAroundScotland to become Virtual in 2020, but the real circumnavigation, take two, will now happen in 2021. The row must go on!" Check it out here! 

One sunny day before lockdown and before Christmas I headed out on a skiff with the Fentons! Throughout my time at school in Wales (yep shock I am Welsh but have a very English accent haha), I competitively rowed. I rowed in 8 seaters, 4 seaters, double, and single rowing boats - there was a point in my life where we were training 6 times a week to try and make it to Wales! So, since stopping rowing when I left for Uni I have always wanted to try skiff rowing on the open sea - very different from rowing on a wee river in Wales. I never did pursue rowing at University because there was a rule that you were not allowed to drink during the week, I quickly declined because all the best parties were midweek...I enjoyed working hard and playing harder so that was never going to work...

Firstly, thank you so much to Sue, James, and Mairi Fenton for letting me join you on your beautiful Skiff. The skiff was community-built and owned by the Isle of Seil Coastal Rowing Club

The aim of rowing on the Fenton's skiff was to test out the microplastic trawl that I spoke about in an earlier blogpost. I am helping out with the citizen science side of this project, where alongside the big RowAroundScotland the rowers will be collecting samples with our aim: to assess microplastics in waterways and around the coast of Scotland during the RowAround Scotland  2021. My other aim is that a student from SAMS will learn how to analyse the samples on the SAMS FTIR and hopefully assist Mairi and me with publishing the data! 

We launched from the picturesque Balvicar on Seil, which is just outside Oban. The launch site is fantastic, at high tide, the skiff is rolled down on a trolley (which is being replaced soon to make it easier) is launched!

The stroke is the rower closest to the stern of the boat. Everyone else (is meant to) follow the stroke's timing - placing their blades in and out of the water at the same time as the stroke. 

James was our cox for the day, James would tell us when to start rowing and if we had to turn for example he would say who should do what with their blades.

It was just before Christmas, so of course, we wore our Christmas hats! We also had to wear masks for COVID regulations! 

One other task we had was to try and draw something festive on our Strava Track as part of a Scottish Coastal Rowing competition. I think it was meant to be a tree...but for now, let's just blame the tide. 

One of my favorites might be Shieldaig regatta's around the island Rudolph!

The net as shown by Mairi with the RowScotland and HighwaterSails Logos shining in the sun!

We also tested out things like washing down the net whilst on board so that the full sample from the net went into the pot.

Sea trials of the microplastics trawl were practiced around the Sound of Seil. The trawl, Netty McNetface as Sue Calls it definitely added a bit of a drag. To give it a proper test we took one sample down the sound, James measured 1 km. We then changed over bottles and rowed back up the sound for another 1 km against both the wind and tide, unfortunately!

The bottom of the net is designed so that the sample is collected into a pot. When I am allowed back into SAMS I will analyse these samples for our preliminary results.

 With a few tweaks, Sue has asked Millport to make a second net with some funding she has secured last year!

At the end of every adventure we always make time for a cuppa and a swim!

And make time to watch the sunset...this was taken from the Seil Bridge where you cross the Atlantic.

Storytellers of STEM podcast!

 

Here Rachel is explaining the type of Airboat that she uses as a wetlands ecologist in the US!

I recently had a great chat with Rachel Villani from Louisiana! We had made contact through Twitter as I had seen back in September that she was doing podcasts on Antarctica and wanted to speak to people that have worked in the field.

One of my major goals whilst being within the science world is to communicate what I do and hopefully inspire others. I also think that within the scary online world that there are some fantastic tools out there, one of them being Twitter if you use it in the right way. I use Twitter to keep up to date with the latest science, policies, ideas, and also network. Zoom is also a great tool to have a virtual meeting and Rachel uses it to record her podcasts. 

Storytellers of STEMM is the podcast Rachel hosts, "since January 2020. Everyone has a story, and these are the stories of the people in STEMM - their successes, career paths, research, fieldwork, struggles, and everything in between. Each episode features a different storyteller and new episodes come out every Tuesday (and sometimes more frequently)!"

You can listen to our podcast here! We cover so many different things, mostly what work I am doing currently at SAMS, working as Marine Assistant at Rothera, Research vessel work, NERC Changing Arctic Ocean Programme and going up to the Arctic, transport aquarium, diving, microplastics, PhDs, developing your career, wetlands in the US, comparing UK and US!!

If anyone wants to speak to Rachel and be on her podcast then you can contact her through her website!