Whale and wildlife holiday in Scotland

Environment

In Scotland (as with everywhere we go) we carefully choose accommodation, supplies and transportation that either minimises its effect on the environment or helps to contribute to its sustainable development. By choosing small, privately owned accommodation where possible as we are always looking at ways to lower our ecological footprint and smaller companies are usually much better at this than larger ones. Where possible, we make sure that the hotels, bed & breakfasts and inns that we use support local projects for the protection of the wildlife and local communities which rely on tourism as the principal source of income. We try and make sure that all the accommodation that we use is are ecologically responsible and use solar power electricity and water recycling pumps etc as well as making sure that all the food consumed is produced locally. It is also vitally important that when we use the boats for wildlife watching we a marine responsible. Such policies include that all rubbish created onboard is brought ashore and we have a strict recycling policy for all non-organic waste. Our skipper and other professionals discuss the local shore and marine environment, wildlife and ecosystems as part of our standard wildlife tour; making a point of highlighting the environmental problems that are associated with human impact on the UK marine ecosystems. We also contribute and participate in as many studies that the local researchers are conducting as possible. At the end of each we offset our carbon footprint (based on the number of tours we have completed and the number of passengers we have taken with us), with the Carbon Trust.

Wildlife Promise:

By bringing people here with a professional zoologist as well as professional local guides we aim to showcase the environment in full but also to allow you to learn about the problems facing the ecosystems here and highlight the ways that continued development and human exploitation are affecting the species and how cutting edge research is countering the problems as well as showing you examples of success stories. We also keep a record of all the great sightings we see on each tour and record the environmental factors, this data is used by ourselves but also given to the researchers who are working on many of these species. Research groups like CCRU (which our guide for these tours has worked for) collect data on marine mammals for their on going studies. Such as contributing our pictures and videos to the local and global humpback whale identification programs.

Community

As with any of our tours of UK tours or elsewhere in the world we always employ local guides and experts where ever possible. They have a much better local knowledge and also helps to bring in revenue sources to the local community. All of the accommodations that we stay in make sure that all their resources such as food, drink and equipment is locally sourced. Some of these towns and villages are remote and have a strong community spirit and local produce is at the very heart of life here. So by using locally owned business and sourcing as many things from the local area we contribute to the benefit of the local economy. We also encourage the purchasing of local handicrafts which are all created in a sustainable way and provide great unique souvenirs; as this part of Scotland is rich in arts, culture and tradition. So where requested we always work with local artists and experts to bring this local culture and tradition to life throughout our tours. You will have opportunities to visit the workshops of local artists and artists and craftspeople and buy souvenirs directly from them.