Scottishboating is
taking a boatman’s holiday at the skiffieworlds in Ullapool, where the lovely Highland
port has been transformed into a world class, world-beating venue for the first
ever St Ayles skiff world championships. More about this will be posted in due
course, but right now there’s an urgent call for help that won’t wait beyond
Saturday.
Among the thirty or
so skiffs that are here is Sephira the The Musical Ark, brought here by her inspirational builder
and designer Michael Brolly. Sephira needs to be metaphorically bailed out to the tune of $3,000 via Kickstarter, for reasons I'll try to explain briefly.
When I first heard
about the Musical Ark I thought it was pretty daft, but after listening to Michael’s talk
last night I realised that there’s a very serious side to his madness. We have
to do something to raise awareness of the damage that underwater noise can and
is doing to our marine mammals, who navigate by sonar. Art can be a political tool and Sephira does this in a lovely ethical way.
It is already proven
that noise travels huge distances underwater. It not only disorientates
creatures such as porpoises, dolphins and whales; it can actually destroy their
hearing. Doing this deliberately is akin to blinding a human being and just as illegal under the Habitats Directive.
Of course we’re told
it’s essential for naval ships and submarines to pollute the sea with noise in
the interests of the various nations whose politicians’ egos have reached a
certain size. What is totally unacceptable is for noise to be used for the
express purpose of scaring and damaging marine mammals purely for commercial purposes, such as keeping seals from fish farms, when other non-damaging (but more expensive) remedies are available.
Michael’s project
has the capacity to add to our knowledge of how far different sounds travel
underwater, as it seems likely that it will be combined with other research currently
going on around the west coast of Scotland.
