Orkney Science Festival to mark Heriot-Watt milestone

Heriot-Watt University is marking six decades protecting the ocean seabed with events in Orkney and Edinburgh, this September.

Since the mid-1960s the university, which has a campus in Stromness, has trained generations of scientific divers, with close to 1,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from around the world passing through its training and going on to careers in conservation, energy and renewables and much more.

To mark the 60th anniversary, the University’s diving team will host two events as part of the Orkney International Science Festival (OISF).

Taking place this Thursday, September 3, the first event will see the team share classic images of marine life and stories from six decades of underwater surveys in Scapa Flow and beyond, at Kirkwall Baptist Church.

The following day, a “deep dive” there will be a celebration at the Robert Rendall Building in Stromness, featuring talks on the team’s past and present work, reflections on diving safety from the Orkney Hyperbaric Trust, historic photos from local divers and the cutting of a 60th anniversary cake.

“This is a brilliant milestone for the University and for Orkney,” Professor Joanne Porter, deputy director and director of studies at Heriot-Watt’s International Centre for Island Technology in Stromness.

“For 60 years, Heriot-Watt has been training scientific divers who have gone on to a wide range of careers helping the environment, from restoring native oysters and monitoring marine habitats to shaping conservation around the world.

“Orkney has been at the heart of that story. These events are a chance for the whole community to come and celebrate with us, and hopefully to inspire the next generation of underwater scientists.”

The story of the university’s diving began in 1965, when Professor Cliff Johnston led a six-week research expedition to Lanzarote, a year before Heriot-Watt received its Royal Charter.

Professor Johnston went on to launch the University’s marine biology degree and, in 1989, to establish the Orkney campus in Stromness.

The team’s Orkney connection runs deeper still. Long-term environmental monitoring at the Flotta oil terminal began in 1976 and Heriot-Watt became the first institution in the UK registered to deliver HSE Part IV professional scientific diver training, much of it based in Orkney waters.

The diving schools’ work has helped shape marine protection at home and abroad. Nine marine protected areas have been designated on the back of the team’s surveys, while Heriot-Watt data underpinned the Orkney Blue Carbon Audit that informs the islands’ marine spatial plan.

Closer to home, the team holds an unbroken 30-year record of studying the globally significant fan-worm reefs of Loch Creran and has spent more than a decade restoring native oysters at sites from the Dornoch Firth, Firth of Forth and Malaysia.

Emeritus Professor Hamish Mair who taught at Heriot-Watt for almost 40 years and remains part of the diving team, said: “Reaching 60 years is a wonderful achievement and a credit to everyone who has been part of the team.

“Throughout that time, we have been training divers who go into so many different careers that help the environment, from marine conservation and habitat restoration to government science and research.

“Seeing where our former students have ended up is the greatest reward of all and we’re really looking forward to marking this occasion and celebrating this success.”

The Friday event will feature short talks from Professor Porter, Professor Bill Sanderson and Dr Siti NurTahirah Jaafar of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, alongside the story of Stromness-based Sula Diving and its hyperbaric chamber, which treats divers who fall ill in Orkney waters. Local divers will also share historic images of early diving in Scapa Flow.

“The presence of Heriot-Watt University in Orkney for most of the diving team’s six decades has been transformative,” said Dr Howie Firth, Orkney International Science Festival director.

“It has opened up a whole new area of opportunity and enterprise and adventure for young Orcadians, for underwater exploration and the study of marine resources, and it has brought so many able people to enrich the life of Orkney and of the town of Stromness where the university’s activity is based.

“This is indeed a family birthday which we are delighted to share in celebrating.”

Find out more about the two Orkney events on https://oisf.org/