NEW LOCAL BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP – SUPPORT AND SHOP LOCAL
WHERE YOU CAN

We are committed to becoming more sustainable as we know this is the future, with increasing numbers of visitors looking for businesses that are playing their part in sustainability practices.  Our good practices, which we have in place both at home and in the business, gained us our Green Tourism ‘Gold’ award this year.   We have our published ‘Environmental & Sustainability’ policy available on the dedicated ‘Green Tourism’ page on our website.  We created this page and the policy to give viewers insight to our sustainability practices. 

We always try to support local where we can and for years now we have worked in partnership with many local businesses, organisations, charities and fundraising events which we speak about regularly here on social media.  We are great believers in sourcing everything we need for the business locally where we can.  Let us tell you more about one of two new partnerships assisting us on our green journey to become a more sustainable business.  Our second new partnership will follow in the days ahead as well as another new addition to the business.

As our business involves the great Shetland outdoors, we need to keep warm and cozy during our busy season and as part of our green journey to becoming a more sustainable business, we have ensured that our full crew kit clothing range for the 2024 season and beyond is as sustainable as possible.  Our online shop clothing products and 2023 crew hoodies are 100% organic cotton but this year we wanted to  the full crew attire to be more sustainable, also very smart too as appearance is very important.

Our mission over the Winter months was to find a clothing range that is more sustainable and can stand all weathers.  We wanted to stay local to buy our new look as this is more sustainable and with the help of our local company called ‘LHD Ltd’, we have successfully started a new partnership with them.  All the products we have ordered to fully kit us out for the season are made from a mix of organic cotton & recycled materials.  All products are also PFC-FREE, meaning they have no release of chemical compound that is harmful to our environment or health when worn or washed.  The company works with a particular supplier who has a mission to make their clothing products as sustainable as possible. We look forward to trialling their products and putting them to the test in our mix of Shetland weather. 

Any of our previous crew clothing will go to local clothing recycling bins and is collected by The Salvation Army for sorting and recycling, this in return supports a local charity. 

We are currently in the process of getting our logo applied by the LHD custom clothing shop, who do a fantastic job, and once our tours start into April, we will be able to do a little promotion for them with us wearing our new range and the stunning Noss cliffs as a backdrop.  Until such time, here’s the 100% organic cotton range we have for sale on our online shop which is beautifully modelled by Laurie Goodlad Pottinger who runs her own business called ‘Shetland With Laurie’.  Also modelling is her cute wee Daughter.  Laurie is also one of our relief crew members and will be standing in for Marie when we head to Blackpool in May to attend the UK finals of the Small Business Federation Awards.    

When coming to Shetland do plan ahead, we all hope this is going to be a good Summer after it being such a bad Winter.  For anyone that has been on holiday to Shetland in the past, you will know that we can get very mixed weather…sometimes 4 seasons within the space of an hour.  Our advice is to pack a good mix and do bring a warm jacket along with a lighter one, we always recommend waterproof clothing for our tours.  If you do forget to pack anything then worry not as we can 100% recommend LHD Ltd located on Commercial Street in Lerwick, just a short walk from where our tours depart from on Victoria Pier.  They provide everything from waterproof trousers, jackets, hats, hoodies/jumpers, gloves, scarfs,warm cozy socks, footwear and much more.       

Even if you have plenty of layers on and are still not warm enough…fear not as we have the added convenience of our indoor, heated cabin.  There you will find further seating, enough for all 12 passengers with viewing windows all around so that you don’t miss a thing.  Our friendly skipper will keep you entertained and as another added bonus, if our dedicated guide, Marie, is out on deck doing her ‘live’ commentary, you will still hear everything being said as you have your own individual headset, and of course the warmth inside the cabin.

Shop Local where you can – we have provided a link to the LHD Ltd online shop which advertises some of the clothing you will find but not their full range.  Their shop on Commercial Street is extremely well stocked for all your outdoor clothing needs and reasonably priced:   https://shop.lhdlimited.co.uk/

DA VOAR REDD UP…YEARLY BEACH CLEAN UP
From Saturday 30th April – Friday 26th April 2024

Da Voar Redd Up is one of Shetland’s award winning clean ups, the UK’s most successful community litter-picking event, with around 4,500 (20% of Shetland’s population) volunteering each year.  The Redd up is organized by ‘Shetland Amenity Trust’ and the event makes a huge contribution to the protection of Shetland’s natural environment and wildlife, clearing Shetland’s beaches, coastlines and roadsides of litter and the debris washed up by winter storms.

Shetland born and bred, we are passionate about protecting our natural environment and wildlife and have been contributing to this annual beach clean up from a very young age.  As a business, we sign up for this event every year as team, below is a photo from last year when Marvyn & Marie took part with Brian (behind the camera).  The local saying for not to throw rubbish is “dunna chuck bruck”.  

It’s very easy to get involved, you can sign up by clicking on the link below.

When you register, you will be provided with Redd Up bags. These identify Redd Up rubbish, making it easier for the trust to record it.

Registering allows you to choose a Redd Up location and allows the trust to make sure that different groups are not cleaning the same places. This not only means that more of Shetland gets cleaned, but also gives them a more accurate record the amount of litter that has been collected.

During registration, you will be able to specify a roadside collection point for all of your bags. Redd Up rubbish can only be picked up from these locations

What happens after registration?

After you have registered, Shetland Amenity Trust will prepare your bags for you and let you know when and where they can be picked up. Unfortunately, they are not able to provide gloves. If your chosen location is unavailable, they will get in touch to discuss alternative options.

If you do take part, be sure to share your Redd Up photos on instagram and facebook using #dunnachuckbruck and #dvru2024, or email any Redd Up photos you’d be willing for the trust to share to rory.tallack@shetlandamenity.org with your group name, location and any other details or interesting finds! 

Federation Of Small Business Scotland
Small Business Focus
Published By Press & Journal: Highlands & Islands
18.03.2024

Shines Spotlight On

Seabirds-and-Seals – The Original Noss Boat Tours

Every Monday Federation Small Business Scotland, ask small businesses key questions.  This week they gave us the spotlight to shine in the Press & Journal for the Highlands & Islands region.  You can read more on the article here but if for any reason you cannot gain access, we have shared a jpg version below which you can hopefully zoom into.    

We are very grateful for the advice and support we receive from Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).  We were delighted to hear at end of February 2024 that we have been awarded ‘Service Excellence’ Winners for Scotland by FSB Scotland, Celebrating Small Business Awards.  We now go onto the UK National finals to be held in Blackpool in May.

Later on in March, we have been invited to Bute House in Edinburgh to collect our fabulous award – leading the way into 2024.  

PROUDLY SUPPORTING OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY EVENTS

SEABIRDS-AND-SEALS SPONSORS SHETLAND FOLK FESTIVAL 2024

We are delighted once again this year to be supporting our local Shetland Folk Festival which is into it’s 42nd year.  The festival this year takes place from 2nd to 5th May.  This is a big event on the Shetland calendar of events bringing artists and visitors to the island from all over the world.  We also have many local artists participating and it is an event very well supported by all communities throughout Shetland.

As sponsors we have our business logo advertised on publications and we are listed as a business collaboration on their website.

For any visitors planning to visit Shetland for the Folk Festival or happen to be here on holiday at the same time, we thought we would do this blog to share details on how you can obtain tickets and tell you more about the event.  Also if you are looking for inspiration on things to do, we will be running our Noss Boat Tours – just click on ‘Book Now’ to check availability and you can book/pay online.  

If you would like to find out more about our fabulous Shetland Folk Festival, just click here.  

EARLY MEMBERS TICKETS

Early members ticket sales go live at 6pm on Monday 18th March – see details below.  

When you visit the site to buy your tickets at 6pm on Monday 18th, you’ll automatically be placed in the queue. To keep you entertained while you are waiting, they have added some videos from their visiting artistes to the queue page.  This year’s concert programme summary will also be available to view. You don’t need to do anything else – when it is your turn to access the booking system, you’ll be automatically redirected to the booking page, and will be able to purchase your tickets.

To manage website traffic they will also be opening the “pre-queue” 15 minutes before the ticket sales open. This means you can visit the link below after 5:45pm on Monday to automatically join the “pre-queue”:

JOIN THE QUEUE

Joining the pre-queue before ticket sales open at 6pm doesn’t guarantee a position in the queue – all users in the pre-queue at 6pm will be placed in the queue at random. This means that there’s no difference between joining at 5:45pm or joining at 5:59pm.

Ticket sales then open again on Monday 25th March for members and non-members. 

If you are attending – we hope you have a fabulous festival.  

THE NOSS BOAT

Winner Of
‘Service Excellence’ Award 2024 in Scotland
by the FSB – Federation Of Small Business

We are delighted to add another award to our growing list of accolades, we are going to need a bigger cabinet.  Towards the end of February we received the news that we had been named winners of the ‘Service Excellence’ 2024 for Scotland by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Scotland. 

As stated by FSB “This award is in recognition of Seabirds-and-Seals ongoing commitment to going above and beyond, plus their fantastic dedication in putting their customers first – very well deserved”.

We are delighted also to hear that as winners for Scotland wide, we now to forward to the UK finals, to be held on 9th May at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.  

Upon taking the business over seven years ago, we focused very much on making the business as accessible & inclusive as possible.

A qualified senior level social care worker, Marie is very much committed to inclusion and that tours should be for everyone.

Amongst many other things, we have invested in making our boat wheelchair accessible by adding a flat, obstruction-free boarding platform to accommodate all levels and abilities, and we have also given their crew additional training.  Our team is made up of enthusiasts passionate about local wildlife, geology, history and heritage, we love sharing it all with our customers, ensuring they leave Shetland happy, relaxed and committed to returning.

We believe that having improved accessibility appeals to a wide range of visitors and we want to make our customers tour a ‘holiday highlight’ by making it accessible and enjoyable throughout.  By listening to our customers and having more awareness about the inclusive tourism market, we have worked hard and implemented changes to make our tours open and enjoyable for all.  It’s not only about being ‘wheelchair accessible’ – we have implemented many other changes which you can view by clicking on the link below.  We believe all that we offers makes us accessible & inclusive for all as we respect ‘inclusion for all’.  

This recent accolade is not the only award we have won in recognition of our very high standard of customer care and inclusiveness.  In 2023 we had a double win at the Highlands and Islands Thistle Awards for ‘Inclusive Tourism’ and ‘Best Visitor Attraction’.  We are both absolutely delighted to be recognised by both FSB and HITA in this way as well as our other fabulous accolades to make us Shetland’s NO.1 boat tour/wildlife experience.   

FSB Highlands & Islands development manager David Richardson said: “I met Brian and Marie in Lerwick in November and was instantly drawn to their warm and welcoming natures and their passion for their business.

“I’m absolutely delighted – but not surprised – to see them win our service excellence award.”

Thank you to our many customers – both local and visitors alike, local community, our various partnership networks, social media followers, family and friends for making us a top Shetland visitor attraction and for all your continued support.

We are looking forward to our 2024 season and shaping up to be a very busy one – thanks again.

Marie, Brian & From All The Noss Boat Team.

The Noss Boat

Shetland Unesco
Global Geopark Partner
2022-2024

We are proud to continue as partners of Geopark Shetland which is managed by Shetland Amenity Trust and we look forward to our journey with them for many more years to come.  We 100% respect the landscape and nature of Shetland, carrying out activities on a yearly basis which protect, improve and promote our environment.  

We show our commitment by providing engaging ‘live’ commentary on the striking geology as we navigate around the island of Bressay & Noss National Nature Reserve, as well as geological points of interest to be found around Lerwick’s beautiful harbour.  We share our knowledge with great passion and enthusiasm which is always commented on as a fabulous touch to our tours, at end of tour feedback and from our many fantastic Trip Advisor reviews.  We also share our geology knowledge further afield as we host a display of geology leaflets in our expertly curated library which can be found inside our saloon area and always well stocked, so please do help yourself.  As always we are happy to point you in the right direction to further explore Shetland’s diverse geology.  

The islands of Shetland have been on an incredible geological journey. This land has travelled from near the South Pole, across the equator, to its current spot at the crossroads of the North Atlantic and the North Sea.

Due to the lack of trees and the abundance of stone, Shetland has some of the best-preserved archaeology in Europe.

The geology of the islands influences every part of life – they provide a home for unique biodiversity and they influence human settlements, their activities, and their industries.

GOING FOR ‘GOLD’ & WE DID IT…

A GREEN TOURISM ‘GOLD’ AWARD

LEADING THE WAY INTO 2024

The 2024 season is getting off to a fantastic start…from ‘Service Excellence’ to Green Tourism ‘Gold Awards’.  We are over the moon to receive such awards alongside our Visit Scotland Prestigious 5-Star Accolade as well as our double Highlands and Islands Thistle Awards  2023 for ‘Best Visitor Attraction’ & ‘Inclusive Tourism’.  We are proud to be promoting Shetland’s Tourism sector and will continue to keep doing what we do best.  We are currently working on another new addition to the business which we hope to announce soon. 

We were last assessed by Green Tourism in early 2023 when we were delighted to be awarded ‘Silver’.  We have worked hard over this past year on our sustainability practices with an aim to achieve ‘Gold’ and delighted to say we have achieved the highest standard of sustainability.  This award is in recognition of our solid commitment to sustainability, we have evidenced that we have a strong and broad environmental ethos by providing excellent examples of best practices.  This is a very important journey for us on becoming a more sustainable tourism business. 

Green Tourism is a world-leading sustainability accreditation partner, they recognise and support eco-friendly achievements of tourism businesses with their internationally respected accreditation programme.   Achieving a Green Tourism award means that our sustainability practices have been assessed and verified by a credible partner.  Green Tourism has assessed our business against 15 sustainability criteria grouped under the pillars of People, Places and Planet.

Green Tourism Bronze/Silver/Gold awards are acknowledge worldwide as an indicator of good environmentally-friendly practice, and are a great way of progressing on a green journey as well as acting as a hallmark of ‘green quality’, attracting custom from increasing numbers of eco-minded visitors.

Overall Feedback From Green Tourism

“Seabirds and Seals have done an excellent job in achieving Gold following on from their Second GreenCheck assessment. They have displayed excellent understanding of sustainability and awareness of opportunities and challenges associated with running a responsible business. The team have shown great commitment and are embracing sustainability throughout the business, as evidenced by the several examples of green best practice within the business. The areas they are strong in are Community, Health and Wellbeing, and Destination. The key are of focus going forward should be on Carbon. I have added some applicable actions to the action plan. Overall, Seabirds and Seals have shown an amazing commitment to green issues and are obviously eager to do as much as possible to be sustainable and not only reduce their impact on but also improve the environment around them”.

Moving forward, Marie Leask, our Sustainable Tourism Advocate, will monitor our sustainable performance and advise the business on how we can implement further improvements.    

Thank you so much to all at Green Tourism – we really value your input and all the support given by the extremely friendly team to help us through the assessment process. 

We are supported in our sustainability practices, and in our improvement journey by the world-leading sustainability accreditation partner, Green Tourism. Achieving a Green Tourism award means that our sustainability practices have been assessed and verified by a credible partner. It shows that we have an ongoing commitment:

• to sustainability standards and practices
• to work responsibly, ethically, and sustainably
• to contribute to our community
• to reduce our impact on the environment, and
• to be accessible and inclusive to all visitors and staff.

Green Tourism has assessed our business against 15 sustainability criteria grouped under the pillars of People, Places and Planet. These consider the social, economic, and environmental actions we undertake, providing a holistic assessment of our sustainability performance.

Our Main highlights

We were assessed and rated by Green Tourism’s Technical Team, who are trained to IMEA standards.  Green Tourism also helped us to highlight our areas of sustainability strength.

At our last assessment our sustainability highlights included: a 97% score in Community for our strong commitment to support vibrant local communities. 

Our second highlight was to achieve 97% in Health & Well-being for our very strong performance in all areas of protecting and supporting staff and customer health and wellbeing. 

Our third highlight was to achieve 95% in Destination for excellent promotion of our destination area and how to enjoy it. 

Other highlights include:

Experiences  for our outstanding knowledge of local area and how to enjoy it responsibly.

Equality, Diversity, & Inclusivity  for our excellent commitment to ensuring we are welcoming and accessible to all.

Communication – for great examples of how to use our green story and policies along with social media to highlight our commitment to sustainability.

We’re so proud to have achieved these excellent scores under the Green Tourism pillar of People / Places / Planet which are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

What Do The Green Tourism Gradings Mean?

Green Tourism provides an overall grading of Gold, Silver, or Bronze depending on the overall score achieved across the comprehensive criteria.

Bronze

Typically, an entry-level business, who are in the early stages of its green journey but has shown great commitment to making its business work more sustainably and is currently implementing a range of measures related to the 15 goals across all three pillars of People, Places and Planet.

Silver

Typically, a business that falls under this category can demonstrate good practice across our three pillars of People, Places and Planet, but has an action plan of best practice improvements that will enhance the sustainability practices within the business. 

Gold

A business that achieves the highest standards of sustainability has a strong and broad environmental ethos and can provide excellent examples of best practice throughout the majority of the three pillars of People, Places and Planet. It has made significant changes to its working practices and continues to review and maintain them.

Of those businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry that put themselves forward for Green Tourism’s third-party verification, around one-third achieve bronze, one-third silver, and one-third bronze. Our grading at the last assessment early 2023 was Silver.

Our Next Assessment

Our next assessment will take place early 2025 when we aim to achieve a Green Tourism Gold award again.

We are over the moon with news delivered earlier this week announcing that we are winners at the Travel & Hospitality Awards for ‘Boat Tour Of The Year – Scotland’.  We were chuffed to hear earlier on in the year that we had been nominated for this awards and now found out that we have won.

We would like to thank everyone who nominated us, our many passengers, social media followers and friends from all over the world for all your support.

We are super excited about our 2024 season starting on 7^th April.  We are delighted this year to see so many new collaborations.  We are busy working behind the scenes getting the boat ready and all our advertising up to date.  We have loads of bookings already so do book your tour early to avoid disappointment as our 5-Star tours are extremely popular.

We would like to share a press release in bold below from The Travel & Hospitality Awards Team:

United Kingdom, 24/01/2024: The Travel & Hospitality Awards is delighted to announce that Seabirds-and-Seals – The Original Noss Boat Tours has been honored in the prestigious 2024 European Awards program. This recognition exemplifies Seabirds-and-Seals – The Original Noss Boat Tours’s unwavering commitment to excellence and exceptional service in the travel and hospitality industry.

The recipients of the Travel & Hospitality Awards in 2024 were meticulously chosen based on a comprehensive analysis of reviews from various independent sources. A panel of experts meticulously evaluated submission materials, reviewed customer feedback, and compared the facilities of each participant. Our esteemed winners are those who have showcased their exceptional qualities, outstanding services and facilities, and unparalleled commitment to customer satisfaction across numerous categories.

This year’s awards received an overwhelming response, and the caliber of entries was remarkably high. The judging panel faced the challenging task of selecting the winners, and those chosen truly represent the epitome of excellence in the travel and hospitality industry. The Travel & Hospitality Awards team stated, “We were astounded by the exceptional quality of entries this year. We trust that this guide will serve as a valuable resource for discerning travelers as they plan their next luxurious getaway. Congratulations once again to all our deserving winners.” 

 THE TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY AWARDS celebrate the remarkable achievements of companies in the travel and hospitality industry worldwide. These awards recognize organizations that have gone above and beyond in providing exceptional experiences to their customers. With a meticulous selection process and a panel of expert judges, the Travel & Hospitality Awards serve as a trusted resource for discerning travelers seeking the finest establishments and services in the industry.