Ellyn is one of our amazing long-term volunteers on Skokholm Island. For National Marine Week, we asked Ellyn about her experience volunteering on Skokholm, her journey into marine conservation and why she is passionate about protecting marine life.
"I've had a great affinity for the sea ever since I can remember, and always loved turning over rocks on the beach in search of crabs and fish and other marine creatures! At university I tried to pick as many modules as possible that were to do with marine biology, and even ended up going on a field trip to the Bahamas to undertake coral reef research, which was definitely the highlight of my degree! I was lucky enough to have spent a week volunteering on Skokholm Island last summer, helping to move building materials for the new puffin hide, and despite a week of hard labour I couldn’t wait to get back! So when the opportunity arose to spend three months on the island, being surrounded by the ocean and doing all sorts of seabird monitoring and surveying it was a bit of a no-brainer to apply! And now here I am, getting covered in bird poo, bitten by feisty puffins and talking to storm petrels - I couldn’t imagine anything better!"
"My volunteer duties so far have been very varied, with no two days the same and being highly governed by the weather. The highlight has definitely been hearing the gentle “trrrchick” of the storm petrels from within their burrows, and more recently even hearing some quiet “tweep tweeps” from the chicks that have hatched! The only way to determine whether potential burrows are occupied is to play recordings of a storm petrel calling, and see whether we get a response from within the burrow - this has to be repeated 10 times at each site to get a good idea of whether a burrow is occupied or not, as frustratingly they don’t always reply! Hence, many of my days so far have been spent scrambling over rocks and reaching down crevices, straining to hear over the sound of the crashing waves. It’s worth it though when you hear a response, and knowing that there’s a storm petrel hiding in there somewhere!"
"My favourite marine species has to be the fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), as it’s the first seabird that I remember learning the name for. I was intrigued after seeing one swoop down close to me while I was out on my kayak – my family had gone on ahead a bit, so it was just me and this amazingly graceful seabird who seemed to be eyeing me up and was just as intrigued by me as I was by it. I later looked it up in my bird ID book and learned about its tube nose and the foul-smelling oil it uses to repel predators, which is pretty cool! The fulmar remains my favourite seabird to this day as I am always in awe of the way they glide and bank effortlessly alongside sea cliffs, looking like mini-albatross! Another of my duties has been checking on the fulmar productivity sites to see how many chicks there are and fledging success - the fluffy chicks look so cute, but look so vulnerable by themselves on the cliff faces. Not to worry though - no predators will go near them for fear of their projectile vomiting!"
Fulmar - Ellyn Baker.
"Like many people, I have a great affinity for the ocean and am often saddened when hearing of the degradation of marine habitats. The ocean is so vast and powerful that it’s sometimes hard to comprehend how our actions are having such a massive impact. But the ocean and the species that live in or depend on the seas are super vulnerable to so many stressors. I’d like to help in any way I can to the fight against biodiversity loss across the globe, and so am very passionate about protecting our seas and the wildlife that lives there."
Inspired by Ellyn's Skokholm experience? Find out more about our volunteer opportunities!
