The team was up bright and early this morning. With it being out last day of collecting data, we had to get organised. The weather was bleak, mist and full on rain met Lois, Dylan, and Jennifer as they set out on the boat in the morning but it didn't deter them. We had so many camera drops to do that the weather was the least of our concerns. They saw brittle stars, common starfish, sea urchins, common octopus, langoustines, brown carbs, and velvet crabs! At the house, Lewis was working hard, analysing his samples under the microscope as he hunted for bivalve larvae. Kerry was also busy working on her laptop while Mike serenaded them both as he learnt Somewhere Over The Rainbow on a ukulele.
The team returned for a quick lunch of left-over risotto before Lois returned to the boat with Kerry and Mike to finish her camera drops. Lewis went with them to collect five more sets of samples, just to ensure that he had enough. The rain had ceased a little in the afternoon so they got significantly less wet than the morning team. While they were on the water, Marnik collected up some langoustines to take back to the estate and the team had a good look at them. While they were scouring the pots, they found a small lobster with a bright blue tail! They are quite rare, according to Marnik, so the team was very excited to see it.
Lewis, Mike, Kerry, and some Langoustines
When they returned to the house, Jennifer and Dylan had made shortbread, the team began to sort through the data, and Lewis continued to analyse his samples. It was a very calm afternoon at the house, as the team slept, or went swimming, or just generally chilled, and Jennifer finally had the chance to braid Mike's hair and he looked amazing! After a long two weeks of data collection, the team had a very relaxed evening. We ate pizza and curly fries for dinner, and settled down in front of the TV to watch Crocodile Dundee.
Although we have officially finished the data collection part of our expedition, we are not done yet! We have two days left a Kilchoan Estate before we head back to Glasgow, and we intend to use them well. Not only do we still have samples to sort through (our fridge is getting a little full) and data to upload, but we want to go for a few walks, maybe swim in the freshwater Lochs, perhaps go for a day out in Oban...the world is our oyster!
But for now, we rest, relax, and gear ourselves up for our final two days of adventuring.
The Seaweed Team
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