Two Years Later: The End of Fieldwork… and the Start of the Next Thesis Chapter

 

If you've been following the Aberdeen Marine Mammal Project over the last two years, you'll know that there's rarely been a dull moment. From mystery seal movements and unexpected drone challenges to battling and enjoying the weather, every season has brought something new.

Now there's one more milestone to add to the list: after two years, fieldwork is officially complete.

I'd hoped to celebrate the occasion in style. Instead, I celebrated by catching a bug and spending most of the week in bed! Not quite what I'd planned, but reaching the end of data collection still feels like an incredible achievement.

Breakfast with the seals before a survey. great way to start the day!

Looking back, it's hard to believe everything that's happened over the past two years. There have been presidential visits that disrupted drone surveys, BBC new coverage, some spectacular sunrises over Newburgh Beach, and countless conversations with people asking, "What are you doing?" Every survey day seemed to bring a new story. Although data collection has now finished, the project certainly hasn't.

Having a bit of geek out on seals and tech!

What's next? you might ask...

Although I've finished collecting data in Aberdeen, I've still been learning. One of the highlights of the past few weeks was visiting Loch Fleet and the team at the Lighthouse Field Station, run by the University of Aberdeen, to learn about their long-term harbour seal monitoring programme.

Their work uses drones alongside photo identification to recognise individual harbour seals and follow them over many years. It was fascinating to see another long-running study in action and to hear how their dataset has grown over time. Spending time with researchers who have been asking similar questions for many years was both inspiring and a reminder that long-term monitoring is invaluable if we want to understand these animals and how their populations change.

Returning from Loch Fleet has made the next stage of my own project feel even more exciting.

Finishing fieldwork doesn't mean the project is over—if anything, it's entering its most exciting phase.

The early mornings on the beach have been replaced by a computer screen, spreadsheets, maps, and statistical analyses. The next challenge is turning two years of observations into a PhD thesis and, hopefully, new insights into how grey seals use Newburgh's beach and how we can better understand and protect this important population.

It's a different kind of work. There are fewer sunrises over the beach, fewer sandy covered shoes, and considerably more sitting and focused brain-power required! But this is where all those survey days become something bigger than individual counts. This is where patterns emerge, questions are answered, and new ones inevitably appear.

New desktop background updated....

I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the project over the last two years. Whether you've stopped to chat during a survey, shared one of our blog posts, submitted your GPS tracks, attended a talk, or simply followed the journey online, you've all been part of this project. Research like this is never carried out in isolation, and your enthusiasm has made the difficult days in the field all the more worthwhile.

All my mini-cake celebrations along the way!

While you may see fewer updates from the beach over the coming months, I hope you'll stay with me for the next chapter. There's still plenty of work ahead, and I'm looking forward to sharing what two years of watching Aberdeenshire's seals can tell us.