Seabirds-and-Seals is an award-winning business and goes from strength to strength, leading the way as a top Wildlife Boat Tour Attraction.  We are delighted to be working in collaboration with local businesses as well as some fabulous names in the photography/film sector from all over the globe.  We are a ‘Natural’ born and bred Shetland couple….our experience and knowledge of boats, the sea, nature, and local heritage around us is extensive.  Our passengers tell us that our fun, personal and engaging style appeals to all ages and varying interests – always a crew member available on deck delivering a professional service and answering any questions.  What better boat to showcase this all on than ‘The Noss Boat – Seabird’, which hosts a huge viewing platform all on one level – allowing everyone to enjoy fabulous 360° panoramic viewing.  This is an ideal boat for everyone to move around comfortably to get the best action shots – free as a bird.  Plus the comfort of the inside heated cabin, should anyone need to shelter from the elements.

Simon King is a world renowned Naturalist and wildlife film maker – we loved watching his ‘Shetland Diaries’ series and other productions.  He has worked on countless productions as presenter, producer, director and cameraman.  Productions include Big Cat Diary, Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, Countryfile, Blue Planet, Planet Earth and much more.  

Simon has been coming to Shetland for years now and his films have put Shetland on the bucket lists of ecotourists all over the world – it is so great to have him back on the Island and working in collaboration with Seabirds-and-Seals for the 2022 season to offer bespoke tours to his many fabulous guests.  We look forward to working with him for many years to come.  

Quoted by Simon King following a bespoke tour with partner Kim and guests on Monday 20th June:
“Thank you so much for two super runs to Noss over the past couple of weeks. All guests were thrilled by the trips and very impressed by you and Brian’s geniality, knowledge and humour”. 

To learn more about Simon’s early life, his many awards and much visit: https://www.simonkingwildlife.com/about-simon-2/

Sharing some photos taken by Bob Kerr who assists Lerwick Lifeboat Station with their social media listings and news.  We were invited to assist Lerwick Lifeboat with a towing exercise on the evening of Thursday 14^th April and it was our pleasure as always.  This training exercise provided valuable experience for all crew, allowing them to practice important skills such as safely attaching tow lines, taking a boat under tow and manoeuvring a boat without power alongside a safe berth in the harbour . 

Come July it will be two years since Lerwick lifeboat crew members celebrated the 90^th anniversary of the station’s first lifeboat ‘The Lady Jane & Martha Ryland’.  The 51ft ‘Barnett-class’ lifeboat was named by the Duchess of Montrose in June 1932 as a crowd of over 2,000 people looked on.  With two 60-horsepower petrol engines, and a top-speed of just under nine knots, the Barnett-class was the most powerful RNLI lifeboat in production at the time.

The above named lifeboat was then replaced with another Barnett-class lifeboat (Mk II) – ‘The Claude Cecil Staniforth’, which arrived in Lerwick in 1958 and remained in service for 20 years until 1978.  This was then replaced with Arun-class lifeboat ‘Soldian’ which serviced from 1978 until 1997, when the current Severn-class ‘Michael and Jane Vernon’ took up service.

The current 17-metre (56 feet) all-weather lifeboat is the largest and most powerful in the RNLI’s fleet, with two “MTU” engines that produce up to 1600 horsepower, a top speed of 25 knots and a range of 250 nautical miles.

Over the years, the many coxwain’s and volunteer crews of Lerwick Lifeboat have been decorated for several extraordinary rescue operations, they have won many awards for their outstanding bravery, saving over 800 lives.  Their service has been recognised with 62 RNLI Gallantry Awards.    

The RNLI is a charitable organisation and with water all around our islands, they need all the support they can get.  The Lerwick Lifeboat Station has a shop which can be accessed via Commercial Street.  You can pick up the perfect gift or souvenir, they have homewares, clothing, tasty treats, toys, greeting cards and much much more.  The shop is run by volunteers, and all profits help save lives at sea.

#RNLI #savinglivesatsea #respectthewater #lerwicklifeboat

Seabirds and Seals believe that EVERYONE should have the opportunity to experience the joy of wildlife in their daily lives – but we know that not everyone has equal access to nature. For that reason, we have made travel on our boat ‘Seabird’ as accessible and inclusive as we possibly can – from design stage to the moment you come aboard. ‘Seabird’ is the only Noss tour boat that is wheelchair-accessible and to ensure opportunities remain as equal for visitors as they do for locals, we have teamed up with the amazing local charity Ability Shetland who said:

“Ability Shetland are delighted to be working together with Seabirds and Seals to ensure less able people have access to their award-winning boat trips around Bressay and Noss.

We are supporting the company by providing wheelchairs to ensure passengers that require them, can get aboard safely and be comfortable during their trip.

We are so pleased that Seabirds and Seals approached us to see where we could help to ensure that less able people are included in all activities, including those available to visitors to our islands – and also people within our own community too”.

Our guests are the most important aspect of our business and we want to ensure differences are valued and that everyone can be themselves and flourish. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with any questions you might have.

Tuesday night with a difference a couple of weeks ago, but one we were proud to be part of. We were approached early October by Lerwick Lifeboat’s Coxwain to see if we would be willing to assist them with a night-time exercise and of course we were happy to assist. The exercise involved us going out the North exit of the harbour, then East to the Gunnista Holm to allow the Lifeboat to attach a tow line and take us safely back in alongside Mair’s Pier in Lerwick harbour. The lifeboat certainly does an outstanding service for everybody and good to see them out training. It’s exercises like this that helps to develop the crews skills and only too happy to assist with any required exercises with such fine friendly crew.  They all do us very proud with their outstanding bravery .

The Lerwick branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has provided four lifeboats over the last 90 years. The first one arrived in July 1930 and was called the Lady Jane and Martha Ryland and now we have the beautiful Michael and Jane Vernon 17-10. The current lifeboat is a 1997 severn-class-all-weather vessel (56 feet) and the most powerful in the RNLI’s fleet, with two “MTU’ engines that produce up to 1600 horsepower, a top speed of 25 knots and a range of 250 nautical miles.

The costs for all 4 lifeboats have been entirely met by donations. The team are grateful to all those in Shetland & elsewhere who have helped funding.

The work the RNLI does is incredible and over the years the coxswain and crew have been decorated for several extraordinary rescue operations, they certainly do us very proud and over the years they have received many well deserved awards for their outstanding bravery. Their service has been recognized with 62 RNLI Gallantry Awards. The most recent being the RNLI gold medal award to Coxswain/Mechanic Hewitt Clark, for the incredible rescue operation that took place off Bressay in November 1997. That day they had to battle through storm force winds and enormous waves to save lives from a ship called the Green Lily – date never to be forgotten here in Shetland.

Last photo taken by Dennis Coutts – a well-known local photographer, which shows you Lerwick’s first lifeboat mentioned in our story above and I am sure you will all agree that our crew members definitely deserve a big shout of many many thanks for all the amazing work they do.

If you’re visiting Shetland, be sure to give @rnlilerwick1710 a donation when passing their HQ in the waterfront’s Tollbooth building, which also has a lovely gift shop. You will also find charity boxes in local shops and we have one onboard Seabird. If you can’t wait, you can donate online via RNLI.org – thank you!

We were delighted to be part of the recent Taste of Shetland Festival 2021 festival. We were approached by Shetland Tourism Association asking if we would be willing to appear in their short video which was showcased on a big screen for all festival attendees and for those at home to watch. We of course happily accepted and loved attending in person on the day.

It was a great festival celebrating Shetland food & drink, but also everything else amazing that Shetland has to offer.

There is just so much to see and do in Shetland, this lovely short video gives you some very fine suggestions, including our Seabirds-and-Seals Noss Boat Tours.

Enjoy this short video which is copyright of ‘Shetland Tourism Assoicaiton’ – with permission to share further afield.

On Saturday 16th October we had our last scheduled Noss Boat Tour of the 2021 season and what a cracking day we had for it. Beautiful sunshine, calm seas, plenty of wildlife opportunities and 12 delighted passengers enjoying their time on our very comfortable Catamaran Seabird. 

This second photo below was taken at the end of the tour as we berthed at the Small Boat Harbour. Everyone gave fabulous feedback and thumbs up, including the 3 missing but they couldn’t stay for the end of season photograph as they had another appointment that they had to rush off to.

This season has been absolutely incredible, we would like to thank everyone who has joined our Seabirds-and-Seals Noss Boat Tours and to everyone who has supported us in any way at all, very much appreciated by us both.

Thank you to everyone who has left us so many fantastic reviews/recommendations and for all the photographs shared on our social media sites, absolutely amazing. Our customer experience & feedback is most important to us, thank you. Feel free to keep sharing your amazing tour photographs on any of our social media sites, we absolutely love them and so too do our followers – please do keep them coming. Still time to leave us a review if not done already – you can review us here on FB/TripAdvisor & Google – thank you.

Thank you to our relief crew members over the season – you know who you are.

We are making exciting plans for our 2022 season with lots of bookings already – just watch this space for further updates.

We are excited about the future and look forward to welcoming many more passengers onboard Seabird. Shetland is very special in our hearts  and we love showcasing all it has to offer with great passion and enthusiasm.

A lot of people ask us what we do in the Winter months, well we are still involved with Seabird assisting various companies with seabird and seal counts. We are involved with the Lerwick lifeboat who hire us to do practice exercises. We have some exciting private charters ahead. We work on new promotional materials/marketing for the following season. We love the outdoors so make sure to get out for walks, like to take in plenty of exercise to keep us fit. Marie has her relief carework and Brian gets stuck into any project he can, currently doing maintenance on an old ambulance we purchased and been converted into a campervan. We like to try and get a wee break away when the time is right, be great to get away on a road trip with our camper to see family members not seen in a while.

Enjoy the rest of 2021, take care, stay safe and please keep following us on our social media sites. We will keep our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages active from now until start of next season and of course our blog here on our website.

Thanks You once again and from the bottom of our hearts .

Over & Out
Marie & Brian

P.S – photos taken with my new Lumix camera which I am still getting to know, but my good friend Richard Ashbee is going to teach me a thing or two on photography – I wil be a pro before long