Cal Major (Veterinary Medicine, 2012) is a vet surgeon turned ocean advocate and world record holding stand up paddleboarder. She talks to Enlightened about her new TV series Scotland: Ocean Nation and her mission to re-connect people with blue spaces.
When we meet on Zoom, Cal is the midst of moving house. I ask where she’s off to and the Warrington-born adventurer instantly lights up with excitement.
“I’m moving to Scotland to start a new chapter on the shore of Loch Broom with my partner James. We’ve been spending more and more time in Ullapool over the last few years and are now moving up.”
I’m curious to know what prompted her change of heart and made her part with South West England where she’s been based for the past few years.
“Scotland is my absolute favourite country in the world. There’s something about it that feels like home. I think it’s a mixture of unbelievably beautiful scenery, the world class wildlife and the wonderful people I have the great privilege to call friends whom I met during my university years and through exploring the country afterwards.”
Given how our conversation has kicked off I assume Cal’s passion for the ocean started in Scotland but it turns out it was a trip to Australia that set her on her current path.
“Before I went to Edinburgh to do my degree in 2007, I took a year out. I went to Australia and I learned to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef. I knew then that I wanted to dedicate my life to ocean protection. I did scuba diving quite a bit in the following years. When I graduated in 2012, I spent a couple of months in the Philippines to train to be a divemaster, and all these experiences of immersing myself into the water, and seeing for myself what’s there, have influenced my need to stand up for the ocean.”
At that point ‘standing up’ didn’t carry the literal meaning it does for Cal today.
"When I wasn’t working, I was on the water and my paddleboard became my escape into nature."
“In 2014 I moved down to the south west for a job as a small animal vet. I was injured at the time and stand up paddleboarding (SUP) was one of the water sports I was able to do. When I wasn’t working, I was on the water and my paddleboard became my escape into nature. SUP is also the closest thing we have to walking on water!”
Fast-forward three years, she became the first woman to circumnavigate the Isle of Skye in a solo, unsupported SUP expedition. A year later in 2018, she set off on a 1000-mile adventure and travelled the length of the UK, from Land’s End to John O’Groats. The route has been completed on almost every mode of transport imaginable but never on a stand up paddleboard, earning Cal a Guinness World Record. But the titles weren’t the key drive behind Cal’s SUP expeditions.
“When paddleboarding along the south west coast, I was starting to notice the sheer amount of plastic on beaches. I was going to really remote places and coves that you couldn’t get to by land that were just covered in plastic. I just wanted to talk to people about it. I got into stand up paddleboarding in a big way and decided to use adventure as an engaging vehicle to deliver my message and to help people see what they could do to change things.”
In 2021, Cal set off on what she calls ‘the biggest adventure to date’, an 800-mile SUP expedition around Scotland. I was curious to know what it was about this journey that topped her previous experiences.
“Firstly, there was a really important set of messages that I wanted to get across and it felt very urgent. Secondly, it’s the seas around Scotland, especially the more remote parts of the Highlands and the north coast that are technically incredibly challenging. I was paddling around places like Cape Wrath with sheer cliffs that you can’t get out from. Then it’s the man-eating midges as well; there are so many reasons why the conditions in Scotland were more extreme than anywhere else I paddled before. There was also a massive amount of learning for me on the expedition and not just from the technical paddleboarding point of view but in terms of what I was learning about Scotland’s seas and its coastal communities.”
"One of the main things I wanted to get across with the series was to show to people what’s out of sight, out of mind in our ocean; what’s happening to it that we don’t see."
Her 10-week journey around the Scottish coastline was documented in Scotland: Ocean Nation, a new three-part STV series. This incredibly emotional yet inspiring adventure offers a unique perspective on Scotland’s coast, the wildlife and ecosystem within in and what people can do to safeguard it.
“My partner James and I are filmmakers. We wanted to make a series for broadcast, rather than a YouTube video, to reach the audience outside of our existing networks. The series delves into our human connection to the sea, into how individually and as communities we’re all connected to the ocean, and the important role that the ocean plays in all of our lives. One of the main things I wanted to get across with the series was to show to people what’s out of sight, out of mind in our ocean; what’s happening to it that we don’t see.”
Along the way, Cal experienced spectacular wildlife and ecosystems and I was intrigued to know what encounters got ingrained in her mind.
“One of the best experiences was snorkeling in some of the most amazing biodiverse hotspots around the Scottish coast. It was wonderful to see just how much life is underwater, the same amount and diversity of life as somewhere like the Great Barrier Reef, which sparked this passion in me so long ago. It all looks a bit different, the water a bit colder but it’s still so beautiful and mesmerising. From seeing the really tiny intricate reefs to being joined by a pod of orca, these wildlife experiences made me feel even more passionately about protecting our seas.”
But during the expedition, Cal was also confronted with a heart-breaking experience.
“I came across a dead baby humpback whale, which was entangled in ropes and creel pots. Despite having known all the stats about marine mammal entanglement, and talking about it for several years in my advocacy work, actually seeing it for myself was a very different experience, and it really hit home.”
"People will protect what they love, but they can only love what they know."
Seeing the good and bad first-hand helped Cal better understand why ocean conservation topics are so hard for people to grasp.
“On land, we can see destruction, we can see degrading activities, and we can see biodiversity loss much more readily than we can underwater. Marine conservation 28 is therefore very different to terrestrial conservation. For several years now, I’ve had a passion in connecting people to the sea in this appreciation that people will protect what they love, but they can only love what they know.”
To help people build their own relationship with the ocean, she set up a charity called Seaful.
“The whole point of the charity is to help people find a connection to the ocean, and I think the best way we can do that is to help them experience it for themselves so they can figure out what the ocean means to them personally. We help people connect to the water both for the mental health benefits, and also so that they might find a connection to the water and understand it a bit more and want to care for it. We also do this through film.”
But how we can generate a wave of excitement towards protecting our ocean in landlocked communities, I ask Cal.
“If there’s a place in nature, that really means something to you - it doesn’t have to be the sea, it could be a lake, or just somewhere in nature that really sings to you - and there’s someone in your community that hasn’t ever had the chance to go there, share the experience with them and help them fall in love with it too. Aside from that I think film and media have a really big role to play.”
Now the Scotland: Ocean Nation series is out, I wondered what’s next for Cal Major.
“I feel like now and going forward my responsibility is to the wildlife and the animals in the ocean, rather than the individual animals that are treated in the clinic. I was recently asked to be an ambassador for the National Trust for Scotland, which is a huge honour. I’d also love to learn to sail and when I mentioned this to a friend I met when paddling around Scotland, he and his wife very kindly donated their sailing boat to my partner James and I. The boat had been on a mooring for a couple of years in Ullapool which is another reason why we’re so excited to be up there. So what’s next is learning to sail and then getting out to further afield places, telling the stories that need to be told from there, and helping other people experience them as well. I’m excited about this new adventure.”
All photos by James Appleton.