SCARF - Shetland Community Acoustic Research Forum (SCARF) project

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Shetland’s aquaculture companies help to monitor underwater Mussel farms, salmon farms and creel fishers across Shetland are helping to trial small acoustic recorders to understand underwater sound and the movement of whales and dolphins around Shetland. Although Shetland has many active sea watchers who have helped to understand how these animals use Shetland’s coastal waters, many questions are still unanswered, for example if behaviour changes at night compared to the day, and how they use less watched areas such as the west coast of Shetland. The devices also continue to collect data when sea conditions mean that watching from land is difficult.

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A female member of the Shetland Inshore group of killer whales and her calf surfacing off the South Shetland Mainland. Killer whales produce characteristic underwater calls that can be picked up by the acoustic monitoring devices (photo credit: Volker Deecke).

The project is led by the University of Cumbria in partnership with UHI Shetland, local musician Jenny Sturgeon and Seafood Shetland. Other partners include the Universities of St Andrews and  Aberdeen and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as well as Shetland community groups and businesses. The project, the  ‘Shetland Community Acoustic Research Forum’ (SCARF) will be collecting data for 12 months and includes a number of engagement events over the winter in schools in Yell and the Shetland mainland, as well as public workshops for members of the community which will be led by Jenny Sturgeon and modern composer Emily Doolittle.

SCARF’s Principal Investigator Professor Volker Deecke, who is a professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Cumbria said: “Shetland is as beautiful and wild below the sea’s surface as it is above the waves. SCARF provides a valuable opportunity for artists, researchers, marine workers and members of the wider community to come together to co-create knowledge about Shetland’s underwater world through the medium of sound.”

Marine Spatial Planning Manager Associate Professor Rachel Shucksmith, from UHI Shetland, is a co-investigator on the project.

She said: “SCARF provides an opportunity to deepen our understanding of Shetland’s marine mammals and underwater soundscapes by working with the seafood sector to collect data on Shetland’s important marine environment. This work will link to other community initiatives led by the UHI, including the Blue Connect project and Shetland Community Wildlife group.”

Ruth Henderson, chief executive of Seafood Shetland, said: “Depending on, and caring for, Shetland's coastal areas, the members of Seafood Shetland hold much valuable knowledge in respect of this environment. We believe that the association with SCARF can provide valuable opportunities to share this knowledge, as well as working closely alongside scientists and members of the wider Shetland community to support this endeavour.”

This work is funded by the Ecological Citizen(s) Network+. SCARF is one of the 15 initiatives supported by the second round of grants awarded by the ECN+, with the project receiving £47,976.

ECN+ is funded with £3.4m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI). Launched in 2023, the ECN+ at the Royal College of Art is a research project empowering communities to use digital tools and fostering collaboration across the arts, social sciences and natural sciences for sustainable change.