Facts, Friends and Fun at the 2020 Marine Forum

Looking at whale bones at the 2019 Marine Forum workshop.

The 2020 SMASS & WDC Marine Forum was held on the 29th February in Inverness and we were happy to send two members of our team, myself as lead guide, and my business development and marketing colleague Paul Sharman, to attend this conference.

For me, the Marine Forum was a great opportunity to meet new people and to see what’s being done in the UK to help the marine environment. For someone like me that just came back from working the winter season on a whale watching boat in Norway, it was actually a nice break and refreshing to see how much is going into the right direction in this country!

We learned of so many different attempts to help our marine wildlife. The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) and Whale & Dolphin Conservation UK (WDC) who held this Forum, invited a lot of interesting speakers and scientists who showed us either Whale Trails, environmentally friendly Re-Stores, the necropsies of stranded whales and whale entanglements, speeches about pollution and many, many more. It was fascinating how many different organisations, specialists, WDC shorewatch volunteers and other interested parties like ourselves came together on one day, and especially for the afternoon program which was very nice! 

We had different workshops we could attend including one where we had to come up with what we think should happen to help alleviate marine conservation problems. There were a lot of different answers and possible solutions. The one that came out the most is “We are all in this together” and over all that is such a powerful message, because it means that we all can do something for the common good as individuals!

From the day I was able to take some new information and input away with me that will be useful on the boat and that I will be able to share with our guests. 

Thank you WDC and SMASS and everyone that showed up for this great day!