BDMLR Wester Ross

17/12/2024

Wow! Well done little pup!

10/12/2024

19/11/2024

On Sunday we had another multi-team relay to get this beautiful wee seal pup up to Clare at Caithness Seal Rehab.

A report came in of a small injured pup at Sallachy, on the shore of Loch Long. BDMLR Skye medic Declan attended; the pup appeared underweight, dehydrated, was bleeding from its mouth and had p***y discharge around its eyes… the poor wee soul clearly needed assistance.

Then came the task of getting him to Caithness! After getting the pup into a crate, Declan drove him to Achnasheen where he handed him over to Wester Ross medic Nic, Nic drove him to Dingwall to hand over to Inverness medic Janet who completed the trip! A total of 176 miles!!!

On arrival after weighing in at just 11kg and being hypothermic he was given rehydration fluids then assessed by the vet, he has a broken and severely infected incisor tooth and possible liver infection… He is now on antibiotics and lexicon for pain.

Well done to all medics, out of hours coordinators at BDMLR Head Office and of course to Caithness Seal Rehab who will continue his care, you are all amazing!!
📸 Declan, Nic & Janet

11/11/2024

Beautiful Peach was another Outer Hebrides pup that needed a lift up to Caithness Seal Rehab & Release last Thursday.
First reported to BDMLR by members of the public, Fiona, Tony and Kirsty, the pup was on the Crowlista salt marsh, Medic Jim arrived to assess only to find the pup had gone, she was eventually relocated by Fiona, Tony and Kirsty further in land and far from the place she had been first spotted, they informed Jim who returned.
Peach was clearly dehydrated and underweight with a small wound above her eye.
She was first taken to Stornoway vets for assessment and initial treatment before spending the night in the care of Lyndsey, Lily, Debra and Jim at Aroha where she received rehydration fluids.
Jim took her for the CalMac Ferry to Ullapool early next morning where Wester Ross Coordinator, Donna, collected her for the drive up to Clare in Caithness.
Another fabulous multi-team effort for a beautiful animal in need of our help!

05/11/2024

An amazing success story for the BDMLR Large Whale Disentanglement Team. Well done guys, you rock! 🐋🔪🪢

31/10/2024

Another Outer Hebrides Grey Seal pup, another epic journey and an amazing effort to get him to Clare at Caithness.
Mangetout had been on Mangestra beach for 4 days when local lady Meg thought he began to look unwell and called BDMLR.
Jim, Debra and Lyndsey from the BDMLR Outer Hebrides team went to assess and with the help of local man Iain Buchanan and his quad; collected the pup.
He had a nasty eye ulcer and a high temperature so they took him to Stornoway vets for assessment and treatment before heading to Aroha Wildlife Sanctuary for the night where he received rehydration fluids and cooling flipper baths to reduce his temperature from Jim, Debra, Lyndsey and Lily.

Onto this morning… Bright and early; Jim took him to Stornoway port and he was passed into the care of CalMac Ferries for his journey to Ullapool and then the rest of his journey was up to us!
Assistant Area Coordinator, Leigh, collected him from the ferry in Ullapool driving him to Ardvreck, then Jo took him from Ardvreck up to Durness and Emma drove him from Durness to D S McGregor & Partners Vets in Thurso where she met up with Clare; Mangetout’s treatment plan was decided and then it was on to Caithness Seal Rehab & Release.
Thank you to everyone involved in this pup’s journey not forgetting Molly and Sarah at British Divers Marine Life Rescue head office and out of hours

28/10/2024

It was a busy weekend for the BDMLR Outer Hebrides and Wester Ross team with two Grey seal pups to relay from the Islands to Caithness Seal Rehab & Release. Pumpkin (Tiadh) is only a few days old and had lost his mum and Pawpaw is approximately 3-4 weeks old, she is underweight and with small infected puncture wounds on her back and rear flippers.
Thank you to Stornoway Vets, Aroha Wildlife Sanctuary, CalMac Ferries and members of both BDMLR teams for their help in getting these two beautiful babies to the seal hospital where they will stay until they are big and strong enough for release back to the wild.
Medics involved in the relays were Máiri, Jim, Debra, Lily, Karen, Eimear and Wester Ross AC Donna.

28/09/2024

Grey seals are beginning to have their pups on the West Coast, please give seals space, do not approach them and if you are worried about a pup please call us on 01825765546 so we can send trained medics to assess and assist if necessary.

17/09/2024

Fabulous news! Well done to all involved in her rescue and rehabilitation 🩵💙

15/09/2024

And as usual after a training exercise all the kit and lifejackets have to be cleaned… and as is usually the case it was torrential rain…so thanks to Ian at Gairloch Marine Wildlife Centre for allowing our area coordinator, Donna, to turn her work place into the BDMLR Wester Ross Laundrette and to Wester Ross Medic Neil for assisting with the cleaning and hanging 😊

15/09/2024

Yesterday members from our Wester Ross team along with members of the BDMLR Skye team undertook Mass Stranding Event training on the beach at Ullapool.

Our whales were just inflatable models filled with water rather than real ones (the dolphin models represented calves as pilot whales have strong family bonds and will often all strand together. The strandings can occur for a whole host of different reasons)

We aim to make our training exercises as realistic as possible so members of the public who passed by helped our medics by letting them learn how to manage public relations! (As you can imagine, in a real scenario we need to do crowd control to clear the scene and make sure folk don’t come too close!)
We also had people acting as the Coastguard, media, vets and police.
As you may have seen on the news, mass strandings aren’t uncommon on Scottish shores so we need to be ready!
Thank you to all the medics that took part and to the Trainers for coming to teach us plus to Katie and the Skye team for travelling so far to join us ###

BDMLR are the people to call if you find any marine mammal, shark, turtle etc stranded on the shore or if you see an injured, entangled or distressed animal in the water. Our website is www.bdmlr.org.uk and our rescue hotline is open 24/7.
All of our work is voluntary so any support is always welcome if you want to donate to BDMLR Wester Ross our JustGiving link is in our page ‘about’ section above!
If you want to get involved yourself there are more details on the website above.

If you have any questions please ask away!

(📷’s Katie, Ciará, Fiona, Leigh, Dan & Donna)

09/09/2024

07/09/2024

Today our coordinator, Donna, is helping the BDMLR Skye team with a fundraising stall at the Kyle of Lochalsh Maritime Weekend. Lots of bones to look at and toys to buy plus some amazing artwork from the children of Broadford Primary School 🐬🐋🦭

29/08/2024

On Sunday we received notification of three Pilot Whales (two adults and one small calf) that had been in Loch a’ Chàirn Bhàin near the Kylesku bridge for over 24 hours. This is a narrow loch with a narrow entrance that forks beyond the bridge into three areas that would be dangerous for a Pelagic, deep water species to be; with shallow beaches, increasing the risk of stranding.

In addition to the less than ideal location there are also a number of boats in that area putting them at risk of disturbance and possible separation of the calf from its mother.

So at first light on Monday, our medics began shifts keeping a vigil over the animals, watching that they didn’t stray beyond the bridge, boats didn’t get too near to them and so we were close by with rescue kit in case they stranded.

We had two sleepless nights worrying about them and two very long days of watching over them during daylight hours, then after they hadn’t been seen for several hours, we checked all parts of the loch and beaches; determining they must finally have left for the safer, deeper water of the Minch and head office gave the all clear for us to end our watch.

The scenery was stunning, the weather very changeable, beautiful sunshine mixed with bitterly cold wind and rain, when it was calm the midgies were vicious and the spiders fed well! We were all very relieved for the happy ending!

Medics involved were Emma, Kris, Greg, Mathilde, Jo, Declan, Dan, Assistant Area Coordinator Leigh and Area Coordinator Donna, plus many more on standby in case of a stranding.

Thank you for all involved, including a special thank you to Declan who travelled up from Kyle of Lochalsh with the Skye rescue kit in case it was needed, to Kylesku Lodges who allowed us to park and watch on their land and the biggest thank you goes to Sara and her lovely husband for the initial report and for allowing us to invade their holiday and provide us with shelter from the worst of the weather.