As I write this, my lovely colleague Dr Ellie Owen is on a chilly, windy island off the west coast of Scotland, probably half way down a cliff suspended on a rope. Terrifying!
She has been there since April, and will pretty much stay there, separated from family and friends apart from the occasional visit, until the end of summer.
The idea of a few days or perhaps even a few weeks on a remote island is heaven – but months? Too long for me. So why is she doing it?
Ellie is a seabird scientist – one of a small flock of people working day (and night) to generate vital information about where our seabirds go. She and her small team of researchers are taking part in a multinational project called FAME – Future of the Atlantic Marine Environment*.
Surprisingly, we know more about the journeys of albatrosses in the vast Southern Ocean than we do about some of the seabirds around our own shores, despite our Atlantic Ocean being far smaller and far busier. We urgently need to know more about where our seabirds go to make sure we protect areas that are vital for their food supplies. If we don't, their chicks starve. Some years ,whole colonies of kittiwakes fail to raise a single chick into adulthood.
So, Ellie (pictured on the right) and her team are taping tiny tracking devices to five species of seabird – kittiwake, fulmar, shag, guillemot and razorbill. Have you seen how sharp their beaks are, and can you imagine how a nesting shag would react to being caught? But Ellie and her team have been carefully trained and are licensed to carry out this tricky work.
We are now starting to generate the vital information we need to help protect our glorious seabirds. We will be campaigning to make sure the information is taken into account by the Government when they designate Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) – a network of safe zones where all marine wildlife can thrive and replenish the surrounding seas
You can help too
Thankfully we don't all have to hang off cliffs to help marine wildlife. Instead we can all choose to eat more sustainable fish, and avoid buying products that damage the marine environment (such as coral jewellery).
You may have noticed the luxury emporium Selfridges recently launched a high profile campaign called Project Ocean. Their flagship Oxford Street store has been overtaken by amazing fishy and fun displays, and six full weeks of events in their Ultralounge.
Selfridges are raising money to support Marine Protected Areas in the Philippines (we need MPAs all around the world), and underpinning this impressive project is a commitment to only using sustainable fish throughout their stores and concessions. Not “we’ll do it in the future”, but “we’ve done it”. This signals the start of an ongoing programme to make all their products throughout their stores more environmentally friendly.
If you can, I’d recommend dropping in to see it all – especially on Thursday 26th or Saturday 28th May, when we will be there, promoting MPAs for the UK (rah rah rah!!).
If you're not able to get down to London, you can still show your support for Marine Protected Areas by signing our pledge - it's quick and easy to do.
* The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is funding 65 percent of the FAME project