Hello, I’m Helen Mitcheson, from Whitley Bay in the North East of England. I’ve been involved with ORCA since 2006, when I trained as a survey observer at one of their workshops and since then have also attended the next stage workshop to be a team leader. I’ve travelled to Norway as an ORCA survey team member on the DFDS Seaways ferry route from North Shields to Bergen. It was a wonderful experience and I can’t wait to get out there on survey again as soon as I can.

Heading to Norway with the ORCA team of volunteers in June 2007.

I’m currently out here in the field working with Dr. Kevin Robinson at the Cetacean Research and Rescue Unit on the Moray Firth in the north east of Scotland. My role here is to work with groups of volunteers who travel with Earthwatch to take part in our research on bottlenose dolphins, minke whales and other cetaceans which are present in the Moray Firth.

Having fun with the teacher team of volunteers after performing a ‘whale rescue’ for a documentary for secondary schools, August 2007.

The programme running up here is educational to help raise awareness of the cetaceans present in the North Sea. We do this through a series of lectures, presentations, discussions and surveys on the research ribs to collect data for use in the photo-ID of the animals. Using the data collected over the years allows studies to be made of group composition, interactions and associations, behaviours, habitat uses, breeding areas, feeding areas, individual recognition and who is present and when. All this is vital in raising awareness, and subsequently promotes the conservation and protection of the animals.

A few weeks ago I was involved in the successful release of the minke whale from Fraserburgh harbour. This was very rewarding and an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of the variety and abundance of cetacean species in the North Sea. We’ve also had many amazing encounters with dolphins and porpoises, each individual and memorable in their own way. One that I will especially remember… Our last group of volunteers were a team of teachers working together to make a documentary for secondary schools about conservation in the North East Scotland. On the farewell night with this group, we had an unbelievable dolphin encounter. The animals were displaying all sorts of behaviour with the sunset glow as a background and a big moon in the sky. Our filmmaker got some good footage, but having the two boats alongside each other and working together, seeing the excitement and enthusiasm of everyone was something I will never forget.

Helping with the successful release of the Fraserburgh minke whale in early August 2007. The CRRU (Nina Baumgartner, Gary Haskins and myself) helped co-ordinate and run the operation, using a flotilla of boats kindly donated by locals from Fraserburgh.

Recently in August, Kevin, Gary and I were lucky enough to have a close encounter with a 3m basking shark. This really was an eye opener as not only was the basking shark just metres from our own coastline, but it was feeding and not at all stressed or bothered by our presence. It’s fantastic to get the opportunity to witness such an animal and the sheer size of it, especially when you only see a tiny fraction of it at the surface….. I could go on and on!!

In the Autumn of 2007 I will be starting the MRes in Marine Mammal Science at St. Andrew’s University. This is the first year the course will be running and I am very excited as to where the course will lead, what I can learn and meeting all the other people involved. There are students of all ages from all over the world taking their places on the course and I feel it will be an amazing opportunity to learn from others and hear about their own experiences.

I won’t be able to travel on an ORCA survey during my term time but as soon as the summer comes and I’m free from my studies I’ll be back to join another ORCA team heading for Bergen.

Helen Mitcheson