A Keswick vet has just completed a never done before 1,000km stand up paddle board expedition around the Scottish coast.
During Cal Major’s two-and-a-half-month trip, she experienced Orca paddling under and around her board, huge tidal races around Cape Wrath and epic night crossings.
The world-record stand up paddleboarder and ocean advocate also came across a floating dead humpback whale calf, entangled in fishing gear, suspected to have drowned, and she also rescued a gannet with barbed hooks through its feet and body.
Cal was joined by partner, photographer/film maker and fellow ocean advocate, James Appleton, also of Keswick, in a kayak. He documented the entire journey.
In May, Cal set off from the River Clyde in Glasgow, outside the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) where in November the COP26 climate conference will take place.
Cal hopes for ocean health to be taken seriously during the conference.
She said: “Our ocean is essential for all of us; we need to urgently reconnect to its importance, and to properly protect its ecosystems from harmful human activity and pollution.
“The ocean is our planet’s life force, creating the oxygen in every second breath we breathe. In that regard we are all connected to it, and all have a stake in its health, which in turn is inextricably linked to our health.
“The ocean absorbs 25 per cent of our anthropogenic carbon emissions, and seagrass and kelp forests absorb many times more carbon than terrestrial forests. A healthy ocean relies on a healthy, balanced ecosystem, which supports everything from plankton to fish, seaweed to whales.
“And yet out of sight and out of mind, the importance of our ocean is often overlooked, and devastating harm is being done without us being able to see it. Industrial scale overfishing and destructive bottom-trawling and dredging in fragile in-shore nursery areas are amongst some of the more damaging practices.
“The good news is, ocean ecosystems have a phenomenal ability to regenerate, if we give them a chance to do so.
“To enable the ocean to continue its incredible role as the lungs of our planet, we desperately need to implement and enforce proper protection of our ocean, so that biodiversity can flourish once again, and all species within our seas, including us, can thrive.”
Cal also believes that reconnecting people to the seas is the first step in fostering communities that will be able and willing to stand up for their protection.
“People will protect what they love, but they can only love what they know,” she said.
“We’ve seen how beneficial time in and by water is for mental health and well-being, especially over the last 18 months, and creating these connections, spending time by the water, is so key for encouraging stewardship of our blue spaces.”
To this end, Cal has been fundraising for the charity she set up, Seaful, to help people who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to access and experience the ocean.
Seaful’s Vitamin Sea Project launched this summer, taking children who had never been paddleboarding before onto the water, and learning about its importance.
They have also taken people snorkelling in Scotland, experiencing the magic underwater world for themselves.
Cal was supported on this trip by Klean Kanteen, the company behind the original stainless steel water bottle in 2004.
