Alba na Mara

We don't see many ships in the Moray Firth but we found this one on Saturday afternoon when we were walking below Dunrobin Castle. The Alba na Mara looked like a fishing boat but she's a research vessel operated by Marine Science Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, with eight crew and five scientists. Her main work is on fish and shellfish stock assessment and environmental monitoring in the North Sea and off the west coast of Scotland. She was built in Fraserburgh and launched in 2008.

This isn't the first time we've seen her. She was a not infrequent visitor to the Sound of Mull, and the last time I reported seeing her in one of the Kilchoan Diary's 'Ships in the Sound' entries was in May 2017 - link here.

I just hope she finds something in the Moray Firth on which to carry out her research. That fishing boats, other than the two small inshore creel boats, are virtually absent from these waters is hardly a good sign!