Nearly there...

Tomorrow is the day I have been waiting for the past 4 months! I am finally flying to Iceland!!

Flight is leaving at 2.20 pm from Glasgow and that will mean I will be off in a cloud of volcanic ash, flying away for 2 1/2 hours after which I will land in Reykjavik, with hopefully an expectant Fredrik at the gate!

For those who do not quite know what the heck I am doing in Iceland, a country that really has not gotten the best press lately and some people seem to be slightly annoyed with:

I am sailing away on a whale-watching boat, watching whales every day! Jealous yet?!

Well to be absolutely honest that is only half the job!

This is my Honour's Project, as I am coming into my 4th/last/Honour's year and all science students have to do a project. And what better project could I be doing than going off with my flatmate (Fredrik, who is a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen, studying Minke whales and the effect of whaling an whale-watching) and about 5 other volunteers and trying to figure out what affects the distribution of Minke whales.

To be exact, I am looking at how other cetaceans (Humpback whales, Killer whales, etc) influence where Minke's are found during the feeding season. Fishermen have for years been talking about the strange phenomenon that a large proportion of the Minke whale population that usually feeds in the south of Iceland, seem to vanish to the north when other cetaceans come along. But really, there is no reason at all for them to move away, seeing they don't have the same prey as other cetaceans, other whales do not predate them..

so they might not be one happy family, but they are not screaming and fighting relations!

So by computerizing the data of the log books of the whale-watching company Elding (situated in the habour of Reykjavik) that reach as far back as 1995, I will be having a good look at their cetacean sightings and how the distribution may have changed throughout the seasons/years.

So yes, researching on a whale-watching boat may seem glamorous, but believe me, to me it sounds like a lot of hard work! But hey, what you put up with to work with those amazing and beautiful creatures of the ocean!

But to make you all jealous again, yes, a lot of my time I will actually be standing at the rail of the boat, watching whales passing and leaping by and recording a bit of data for Fredrik!

So as I like to say: good times!

I hope this gave you a slight insight into my future at sea and I will keep you updated on my way to becoming a marine mammal specialist!

Cheers until the waves splash against my new bedroom!