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Nature Activities for Children on their holiday
A unique aspect of the holiday is that children on board (and adults too!) are encouraged to explore the marine environment.
Plankton Sampling
This is fascinating for children of all ages. Plankton is composed of a huge (often microscopic) variety of plants and animals that spend some or all of their life in water. Many of these organisms can swim and some show characteristics of both plants and animals. Almost every group of animals can be found in zooplankton from primitive viruses and bacteria to exquisitely delicate, tiny creatures that propel themselves with banks of beating cilia or one or two whip-like flagella. At the other end of the scale there are the huge jellyfish that drift over the oceans. The phytoplankton lives near the top of the sea (as they need light for photosynthesis) and are small and light, as they need to
float. On the St Hilda we are able to collect tiny planktonic creatures, some of which are just visible to the naked eye, by dragging a very fine-meshed plankton net (50 micron holes) behind the boat. We are equipped with a top of the range dissecting microscope and a light microscope that magnifies up to a 100 times and uses an oil immersion lens and we can capture microscopic images on a computer with a specially designed digital camera. We can even make our own nets and sample plankton from the dinghy. It is great fun collecting and examining these mysterious organisms of the sea which show such a huge variety of shapes and sizes, some are part plant some part animal and some so bizarre, with large eyes and pincers, that they were the inspiration for the creature in the sci-fi film "Alien".
Rock Pooling
We also go ashore to do rock pooling; there is lots to find on the pristine coastline of Argyll; the rock pools teem with a variety of species. Animals and plants are numerous on the rocky shores of our cruising area, which are nearly as rich as coral reefs if you know where to look. Children can learn about those organisms which live there temporarily, perhaps trapped by the tide or waiting for the time when they are big enough to venture out as adults and compare them to those which live there for most of their lives. Its great fun to poke about and see how all the plants and animals live together and are often specialised to live in different zones. Barnacles and limpets, anemones and hermit crabs can all carry on feeding while the tide is out. Gazing into a rock pool we see the beautiful tentacles of the red and green anemones as they photosynthesize and attack and kill the plankton with their microscopic harpoons. There are scuttling crabs, darting fish, shooting shrimps, lumbering hermit crabs, red, green and brown seaweeds all in a kaleidoscope of colour and movement. Exploring and discovering this fascinating mini oasis in a rocky coastal landscape is something children never forget.
Dropping Lobster Pots
On certain anchorages, we drop lobster pots and examine the creatures that are caught. The majority of creatures are put back to the wild but needless to say, a good sized lobster or crab will certainly be served up for dinner! We find all manner of fish, starfish and crabs and marine life in the lobster pots. Dogfish, tope, sand eels, codling, brittle stars, whelks, swimmer crabs to name but a fe.
Fishing
Even quite young children are fascinated by the idea of catching a fish, small ones are put back (the fish, not the children), but if you are lucky and have a little skill, mackerel are the most common and any big ones caught will end up on your plate.