What a morning it was! This month, Ana, one of our brilliant scientists, spent a day on Bright Blue, using a pair of binoculars and a sharp eye to record each seabird that passed by, gannets, kittiwakes, and gulls among them, as the sun rose above the water.
The Route, Twice Over
A survey involves more than one journey. First, we go to our Scarborough Marine Recovery Zone, where we grow seaweed offshore using the Kelpedo™ system, and then to a control site nearby, so we can assess Kelpedo's impact. It is only by covering areas both with and without our Kelpedo units that our science team can make a true comparison, rather than just describing what happens to be occurring that day.
Ana records all that she observes: the species, the numbers, and the behaviour. Whether the birds are feeding, resting, or only passing through, this is all noted down. From the deck it seems a bit like birdwatching, but in reality it is more like bookkeeping, involving one entry after another and one trip after another until patterns begin to emerge across the seasons.
What the Pattern Shows
The records have put together a genuinely striking picture. Kittiwake numbers at our site are eightfold higher than the surrounding waters, herring gull numbers are threefold higher, and razorbill numbers sixfold higher. Feeding activity at the site runs at more than a hundred times the level of the surrounding waters, direct evidence that these birds are finding food here. Juvenile birds show the same pattern, threefold higher than the surrounding waters too, evidence that the site is supporting a new generation, not just passing adults.
All three carry real weight in UK conservation terms. Kittiwakes are Critically Endangered in the UK's breeding-population assessment, herring gulls are Endangered, and razorbills are Vulnerable.
The records show that these species are feeding here, rather than simply resting or passing through. Our data, collected over two years, allows us to say with confidence that our Kelpedo units are providing prey and that the birds are responding to it.
Why It's Worth Doing
This matters because it lets us demonstrate, with evidence, how our Kelpedo units support protected bird species, including one of the UK's most at-risk seabirds. Evidence like that is no accident, and it doesn't come quickly. It follows the same route and the same careful counting, repeated so often that the numbers eventually come to have some significance.
Ana will be back out on the same route next month, binoculars in hand, adding a handful more entries to a record that is already reshaping what we know about this stretch of the North Sea.
