Mullman - 20.4.23

In March Dougie Cowe and crewman Lorn MacRae kindly offered to let me hitch a ride on their lobster boat out to the Treshnish Isles to see if the walrus they had seen and photographed was still there.

 

I met them down the road at Ulva ferry at 7am, we loaded some bait aboard and set off. It was a stunning morning, calm and clear.

 

On route to the Treshnish isle, Dougie stopped to haul some creels and I watched a sea eagle fighting with a pair of ravens over a nest site. There were two nests within 20m of each other.

 

The ravens were landing on one, then the eagle would swoop in and chase them off and land on the other. The ravens would then harass it until it, too, flew off, and so it went on. A pair of kestrels were also prospecting a potential nest nearby and a hen harrier hunted the hill in the first rays of sunlight.

 

At another fleet of creels a couple of kilometres away, a golden eagle flew the cliff line above its nest. It glided along the cliff edge and as I followed it with my bins I recognised its change of flight as that of a bird going into attack mode. It picked up speed and then swooped down very narrowly missing a raven that was also looking to nest nearby.

 

We steamed over to where they had seen the walrus, the first recorded for these waters, at the Cairn na burg islands at the NE end of the Treshnish isles. There was a lovely roost of approximately 50 purple sandpipers but no sign of the massive arctic mammal. Only grey seals.

 

We fished more pots and I soaked up the beauty. Shags had acquired their stunning green breeding plumage and crest, and were already looking on shore and staking a claim to the best nest sites. Razorbills and black guillemots also floated nearby thinking about going ashore. A sparrow hawk, an unusual visitor to these treeless islands, took off from some boulders and shot off out of sight.

 

I was loving being out on the boat this fine morning watching the wonders of nature. It had been a long time since I had felt such joy after struggling these last six  months through the terminal illness of my 10-year-old daughter Hazel and her death in early February. I tried not to think about it. I allowed myself the joy, and continued to soak up the tranquility and beauty all around.

 

These islands and surrounding waters are so rich in life, as are much of the Hebrides. Tens of thousands of sea birds will soon be laying their eggs here. Hundreds of Atlantic grey seals live and pup here.

 

The boys were catching a reasonable number of lobsters and velvet crabs, and countless other species were being hauled up in or on the creels, all of which were being released again apart from the odd fish that was kept for bait.

 

Families have lived off the sea on these islands for thousands of years. This kind of creel fishing by small family run boats is extremely sustainable. The fact that they are still doing so after so many years of weighing in their catch is proof enough of this. Now, many fishermen, including some good friends, are possibly facing the end of this practice.

 

The Scottish Government is proposing Highly Protected Marine Areas, which of course, to a passionate wildlife lover like myself, sounds perfect at first. But look a little deeper and one sees what damage this act will cause. How many hundreds of jobs and families will loose their livelihoods.

 

Of course we need to look after the environment, but the most important thing surely, is to learn how to live within it, not separate from it. Surely, it is this separation from nature that is the cause of massive problems around the world...and yet, here we are trying to cause more. Sustainability is the key surely, not throwing the baby out with the bath water.

 

Big love to all.