Locally-born Sarah Pern is the owner of EcoVentures. She skippers the 9.5m RIB (rigid inflatable boat) Saorsa (Gaelic for ‘Freedom’) offering boat trips from Cromarty out into the Firth so that visitors can experience the wildlife, scenery and history of this Special Area of Conservation.

I’ve always had a passion for the sea, or more specifically boats.  I’ve been fascinated by them my whole life and my most special times, memories, places and people usually involve a boat of some description! It began when aged two I was old enough to accompany my Dad out in the Firth in his old fishing boat Choice. He spent many years as a lobster fisherman but unusually is a keen sailor too and this he also passed on to me.

I think anyone who spends a lot of time on the water and loves the sea soon develops an interest in the wildlife that you encounter along the way. That interest for me was ultimately to develop into a business. My interest in cetaceans and wildlife tourism really began when I worked for Dolphin Ecosse in Cromarty whilst at home from University. I had studied Naval Architecture and Small Craft Engineering but on finishing decided that for the time being I was actually happier on the sea rather than in an office.

For me the other huge attraction of the sea is that it allows you privileged access to some of the last few wild places left in the world. There are so few places and experiences left that are not altered or made easy by human interference. I spent a few winters crewing yachts to places such as Antarctica, South Georgia, the Falklands, Brazil and Tierra del Fuego. These were incredible experiences and I will always feel very lucky to have been able to do it and to see some of these special places before they change or disappear completely.

After doing some skippering around Skye I returned to Cromarty. I suppose I had always wanted to establish a business close to home, a business that combined my love of boats and my interest in wildlife and in 2005 that opportunity presented itself and EcoVentures was launched.

We always tell people on our trips that there are no guaranteed wildlife sightings, but that we hope to see the resident colony of bottlenose dolphins, harbour porpoise, common & grey seals and even the occasional minke whale.

Heading out to the Sutors © EcoVentures

If conditions allow, we use a hydrophone to listen in underwater. Last summer (2006) with the calmer weather, there were some great opportunities for listening into the dolphins - we picked up a variety of vocalisations which added a whole new dimension to the trips.

We also saw large numbers of harbour porpoise, often known as ‘puffing pigs’ on account of the noise they make as they exhale. Unlike the dolphins they tend to keep themselves to themselves – they’re shy wee things and I think often tend to get a bit overlooked. It’s quite usual to get a few glimpses of minkes throughout the summer, but we saw over twelve in one day last year  - more than we sometimes see in a whole year and they could be seen lunge feeding in as far as the harbour in Cromarty. We are also starting to see more unusual visitors such as sunfish and basking sharks.

It is very important to me that we run our trips in a responsible, sustainable way. I feel it is an enormous privilege to have what we do have on our doorstep here. We follow a voluntary code of conduct designed to safeguard the welfare of all the cetaceans in the Moray Firth. Accredited operators like us follow strict guidelines when approaching the animals and this ensures that any disturbance is reduced to a minimum. The dolphins become used to the regular pattern of our boat and approach only if they choose and are never pursued or harried in any way. In other words, we visit the wildlife on its own terms. Sometimes we must be content with just a glimpse or simply be happy with the knowledge that they are not there purely for our pleasure but are free to go about their business as they please.

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