We are delighted to announce that we have yet again won an award, this time in the Travel & Hospitality Awards 2024...... WILDLIFE TOUR OPERATOR OF THE YEAR - SCOTLAND 2024
We are delighted to announce that we have yet again won an award, this time in the Travel & Hospitality Awards 2024…… WILDLIFE TOUR OPERATOR OF THE YEAR – SCOTLAND 2024
"Not what we were expecting when we woke up yesterday morning......A BELUGA !!! a high Arctic marine mammal in the sub-zero winter wonderland Shetland is currently experiencing, to get to the site was hard enough, but worth every freezing moment for a once in a lifetime wildlife sighting" A stunning ivory white BELUGA whale was spotted off West Ayre in Hillswick yesterday morning by Margaret and Jeff Tungatt who contacted the admin of the local Cetacean WhatsApp page with the sighting, then made public mid-morning. Phil, Ayda (8) & I tried to head out north but the weather with pure arctic conditions, thick snow & drift made our plans impossible & we turned back. However around 1pm, the weather improved & we again set of north in our 4x4. We made a diversion to pick up good friend & ace cameraman & drone photographer Richard Shucksmith & made it to West Ayre, Hillswick about an hour before dark. The sea was very dark & skies ominous as we scanned the bay, & almost immediately picked up the incredible sight of a ghostly ivory white large BELUGA, regularly surfacing & clearly visible at distance contrasting against the dark water. The large, active animal appeared healthy, feeding & regularly diving for a few minutes at a time, we could even follow it's white shape below the surface. Beluga apparently feed on various fish species as well as crabs, octopus, squid & snails & this one could be seen up-ending to feed on a couple of occasions. Richard captured breath-taking drone footage of this rare Arctic & Sub-Arctic marine mammal (seriously doesn't get better than that please check it out!! LINK here: https://fb.watch/pEVp-PJU8G/ & it was hugely exciting for all four of us to not only watch the animal surfacing & see
“Not what we were expecting when we woke up yesterday morning……A BELUGA !!! a high Arctic marine mammal in the sub-zero winter wonderland Shetland is currently experiencing, to get to the site was hard enough, but worth every freezing moment for a once in a lifetime wildlife sighting”
A stunning ivory white BELUGA whale was spotted off West Ayre in Hillswick yesterday morning by Margaret and Jeff Tungatt who contacted the admin of the local Cetacean WhatsApp page with the sighting, then made public mid-morning. Phil, Ayda (8) & I tried to head out north but the weather with pure arctic conditions, thick snow & drift made our plans impossible & we turned back. However around 1pm, the weather improved & we again set of north in our 4×4. We made a diversion to pick up good friend & ace cameraman & drone photographer Richard Shucksmith & made it to West Ayre, Hillswick about an hour before dark. The sea was very dark & skies ominous as we scanned the bay, & almost immediately picked up the incredible sight of a ghostly ivory white large BELUGA, regularly surfacing & clearly visible at distance contrasting against the dark water. The large, active animal appeared healthy, feeding & regularly diving for a few minutes at a time, we could even follow it’s white shape below the surface. Beluga apparently feed on various fish species as well as crabs, octopus, squid & snails & this one could be seen up-ending to feed on a couple of occasions.
Richard captured breath-taking drone footage of this rare Arctic & Sub-Arctic marine mammal (seriously doesn’t get better than that please check it out!! LINK here: https://fb.watch/pEVp-PJU8G/ & it was hugely exciting for all four of us to not only watch the animal surfacing & see it’s iconic ‘melon-head’ shape & beautiful tail shape at distance, but also enjoy it ‘live’ via Richard’s drone camera. I got some distant record shots & a nice little video which serves as a perfect memory of Shetland’s 6th BELUGA. It was a very special moment for all of us at Shetland Seabird Tours – The Noss Boat, & one we will remember for years to come. Rebecca has previously seen Beluga in Spitsbergen whilst guiding there is 2012 but it was a world cetacean tick for everyone else. It is still present today 18th January 2024 & we hope if the weather improves many others will get to enjoy seeing they spectacular, iconic Arctic species as the weather improves. It is difficult to know exactly why the Beluga is here in Shetland waters, along with the 5 other Beluga records, we have also had Bearded Seals & Walrus on the Isles of the the last few years. These are all high arctic species & we must consider that these rare but increasing sightings are highly likely the result of climate change & the aptly named climate catastrophe we are faced with today. The strong northerly storms & arctic weather front we have been experiencing of late, may also have caused the Hillswick Beluga to have become disorientated & separated from it’s pod, & of course although it looks healthy, we never really know if there are more serious individual, internal health issues at play. We hope it will feed well whilst here & be able to make it’s way back further north as soon as possible.
ON THE BELOW LINK FOR OUR VIDEO OF THE BELUGA SURFACING OFF HILLSWICK.
Why not give you're loved ones a very special Christmas present this year, with a boat tour with seasoned professionals to enjoy one of Europe's finest wildlife spectacles - the sight, smell & sound of over 25,000 northern gannets & a wealth of other seabirds & marine life around the towering Noss cliffs & around Bressay. Whether you are already on Shetland or planning a holiday here - make sure you add this exciting, popular, top Shetland visitor attraction to your visit today ......... Merry Christmas!
Why not give you’re loved ones a very special Christmas present this year, with a boat tour with seasoned professionals to enjoy one of Europe’s finest wildlife spectacles – the sight, smell & sound of over 25,000 northern gannets & a wealth of other seabirds & marine life around the towering Noss cliffs & around Bressay. Whether you are already on Shetland or planning a holiday here – make sure you add this exciting, popular, top Shetland visitor attraction to your visit today ……… Merry Christmas!
Call – email or text us today to order a NOSS BOAT gift vouchers for Christmas!
Celebrating Shetland's Community "Our popular monthly magazine, i'i shetland, tells the stories of the people and happenings in the lively Shetland community. From local events to personal triumphs and the births of Shetland's newest residents, we tell the stories of the people that make Shetland the wonderful place it is. Our magazine is written, designed and published by Millgaet Media, centred around the stunning photography produced by our team of exceptional photographers" The Noss Boat co-owner, wildlife photographer & naturalist Rebecca Nason, writes a monthly article in Shetland's popular local magazine i'i Shetland. October's article was titled "OWLING OCTOBER" and contained beautiful images of Long-eared Owls together with an interesting insight into their lives and their migration through the Shetland Islands. All images taken on Shetland mainland and Fair Isle. November's article 'YELLOW FELLOW' is out now!
Celebrating Shetland’s Community
“Our popular monthly magazine, i’i shetland, tells the stories of the people and happenings in the lively Shetland community. From local events to personal triumphs and the births of Shetland’s newest residents, we tell the stories of the people that make Shetland the wonderful place it is.
Our magazine is written, designed and published by Millgaet Media, centred around the stunning photography produced by our team of exceptional photographers”
The Noss Boat co-owner, wildlife photographer & naturalist Rebecca Nason, writes a monthly article in Shetland’s popular local magazine i’i Shetland. October’s article was titled “OWLING OCTOBER” and contained beautiful images of Long-eared Owls together with an interesting insight into their lives and their migration through the Shetland Islands. All images taken on Shetland mainland and Fair Isle. November’s article ‘YELLOW FELLOW’ is out now!
Blog Post Extracts from Promote Shetland Shetland businesses win a brace of tourism awards Home Blog Shetland businesses win a brace of tourism awards By Promote Shetland November 7th 2022 Shetland enjoyed a highly successful night at the Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards as two isles businesses came out on top in their respective categories. Wild Skies Shetland, based in Unst, won an award in the ‘working together for tourism’ category at the HITA ceremony in Inverness. Shetland Seabird Tours – The Noss Boat, meanwhile, triumphed in the ‘best visitor attraction experience’ category. A total of four islands businesses were nominated for HITA awards: popular Lerwick restaurant No.88 Kitchen and Bar was highly commended in the ‘best eatery experience’ category, won by Coll Hotel, while Chris Dyer of Garths Croft in Bressay was nominated in the ‘food tourism award’ category, won by distillery Beinn an Tuirc. "It’s a great result for Shetland, wonderful to see the range of businesses highlighting the diversity and quality of Shetland’s tourism offering." Steve Mathieson of Visit Scotland. Phil Harris and Rebecca Nason of Shetland Seabird Tours - The Noss Boat claimed the prize for best visitor attraction. VisitScotland’s islands manager for Shetland, Steve Mathieson, said: “It’s a great result for Shetland, wonderful to see the range of businesses highlighting the diversity and quality of Shetland’s tourism offering. “Just making the shortlist for the final is a great feat in itself, considering the numbers competing in each category, and to have two winners out of our four finalists is something special. “Wild Skies and Shetland Seabird Tours now go on to the national final in February where we wish them every success.” Rebecca Nason and Phil Harris of Shetland Seabird Tours, which runs boat trips around the Noss National Nature Reserve and Bressay during the summer
Shetland enjoyed a highly successful night at the Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards as two isles businesses came out on top in their respective categories.
Wild Skies Shetland, based in Unst, won an award in the ‘working together for tourism’ category at the HITA ceremony in Inverness. Shetland Seabird Tours – The Noss Boat, meanwhile, triumphed in the ‘best visitor attraction experience’ category.
A total of four islands businesses were nominated for HITA awards: popular Lerwick restaurant No.88 Kitchen and Bar was highly commended in the ‘best eatery experience’ category, won by Coll Hotel, while Chris Dyer of Garths Croft in Bressay was nominated in the ‘food tourism award’ category, won by distillery Beinn an Tuirc.
“It’s a great result for Shetland, wonderful to see the range of businesses highlighting the diversity and quality of Shetland’s tourism offering.”
Phil Harris and Rebecca Nason of Shetland Seabird Tours – The Noss Boat claimed the prize for best visitor attraction.
VisitScotland’s islands manager for Shetland, Steve Mathieson, said: “It’s a great result for Shetland, wonderful to see the range of businesses highlighting the diversity and quality of Shetland’s tourism offering.
“Just making the shortlist for the final is a great feat in itself, considering the numbers competing in each category, and to have two winners out of our four finalists is something special.
“Wild Skies and Shetland Seabird Tours now go on to the national final in February where we wish them every success.”
“What an incredible accolade to have achieved and a massive thank you to #HITA2022 and everyone who helped make this happen for us, the support has been quite overwhelming.”
Meanwhile, journalist Simon Parker – who worked with Promote Shetland on a three-minute feature film on winter in the islands – scooped the Travel Writers’ travel broadcaster of the year award at a ceremony in London’s Hammersmith this weekend.
Shetland Seabird Tours - joins the team at i'i Shetland with a monthly double page Shetland Wildlife article. A wonderful opportunity for Rebecca to share some super local wildlife encounters and photography! First article out now in the JANUARY 2023 ISSUE. We hope you enjoy the forthcoming articles..... "Home of i'i shetland and Malcolm Younger Photography Here at Millgaet Media we have been creating exciting and cutting-edge media for our local community and beyond since 2004. Based in the beautiful surroundings of Shetland, we take our inspiration from the stunning landscapes and of course, the people who make our islands what they are. We are best known for our popular monthly magazine, i'i shetland telling the stories of the people and happenings in the lively Shetland community. Our office and studio is also the base of experienced Shetland photographer Malcolm Younger, capturing beautiful individual and family portraits for any occasion".
Shetland Seabird Tours – joins the team at i’i Shetland with a monthly double page Shetland Wildlife article. A wonderful opportunity for Rebecca to share some super local wildlife encounters and photography! First article out now in the JANUARY 2023 ISSUE. We hope you enjoy the forthcoming articles…..
“Home of i’i shetland and Malcolm Younger Photography
Here at Millgaet Media we have been creating exciting and cutting-edge media for our local community and beyond since 2004. Based in the beautiful surroundings of Shetland, we take our inspiration from the stunning landscapes and of course, the people who make our islands what they are.
We are best known for our popular monthly magazine, i’i shetland telling the stories of the people and happenings in the lively Shetland community. Our office and studio is also the base of experienced Shetland photographer Malcolm Younger, capturing beautiful individual and family portraits for any occasion”.
Passengers and staff were treated to the most spectacular marine mammal encounter imaginable on Saturday mornings Noss Boat tour when en-route to Noss, Shetland Seabird Tours bespoke wildlife boat found themselves surrounded on all sides by a fabulous group of over 70 White-beaked Dolphins, playing in the surf, riding the bow of the boat, and on occasion, leaping and breaching right out of the water in Noss Sound. "It was an unforgettable experience, having never seen such a large, playful, showy group of Dolphin, you just didn't know where to look or where to point the camera next!" SST Passenger After making sure delighted passengers, including the owners 7 year old daughter Ayda were getting super views & photo opportunities, Rebecca, who is a professional bird photographer & new OM SYSTEM Ambassador, took a series of shots of one mid-distance, boisterous animal which was surfacing regularly as if on a pogo stick! She says " I had taken numerous shots of dolphins as they surfaced in small groups all over the place, but find it a lot harder photographing cetaceans than birds and was struggling to connect with such brief surface encounters, which are all to often gone just after they are seen with no time to raise the camera, fully engage & press the shutter! I noticed a few animals leaping right out of the water a little further away and decided to concentrate on these as they were visible for a few seconds longer out of the water whilst fully breaching. I could hardly believe my eyes when I looked at the back of the camera & realised that I had caught this stunningly beautiful marine mammal in full breach & that it was sharp! These images were only possible due to the awesome mirrorless OM SYSTEM gear I
Passengers and staff were treated to the most spectacular marine mammal encounter imaginable on Saturday mornings Noss Boat tour when en-route to Noss, Shetland Seabird Tours bespoke wildlife boat found themselves surrounded on all sides by a fabulous group of over 70 White-beaked Dolphins, playing in the surf, riding the bow of the boat, and on occasion, leaping and breaching right out of the water in Noss Sound.
“It was an unforgettable experience, having never seen such a large, playful, showy group of Dolphin, you just didn’t know where to look or where to point the camera next!” SST Passenger
Free Willy moment aboard The Noss Boat on Saturday. @ Rebecca Nason/SST
After making sure delighted passengers, including the owners 7 year old daughter Ayda were getting super views & photo opportunities, Rebecca, who is a professional bird photographer & new OM SYSTEM Ambassador, took a series of shots of one mid-distance, boisterous animal which was surfacing regularly as if on a pogo stick!
Full belly view of a fabulous White-beaked Dolphin. In the 1970s White-beaked Dolphin was considered to be the most commonly encountered dolphin in Shetland waters. It was much scarcer in the mid 2000s, with just 13 reports between 2015 and 2018 and has now been replaced by Risso’s Dolphin as the most commonly encountered dolphin in Shetland waters. However 2022 has seen a surge in observations in Shetland waters again. @ Rebecca Nason/SST
She says ” I had taken numerous shots of dolphins as they surfaced in small groups all over the place, but find it a lot harder photographing cetaceans than birds and was struggling to connect with such brief surface encounters, which are all to often gone just after they are seen with no time to raise the camera, fully engage & press the shutter! I noticed a few animals leaping right out of the water a little further away and decided to concentrate on these as they were visible for a few seconds longer out of the water whilst fully breaching. I could hardly believe my eyes when I looked at the back of the camera & realised that I had caught this stunningly beautiful marine mammal in full breach & that it was sharp! These images were only possible due to the awesome mirrorless OM SYSTEM gear I converted to during lockdown, the autofocus is just super fast, so I didn’t miss the moment!
Full breach! Doing the twist with a quick side view profile showing the fabulous blunt white nose. @ Rebecca Nason/SST
Cetaceans are being observed from Shetland Seabird Tours – The Noss Boat with increasing regularity, and this year has been exceptional with numerous sightings including the biggest ever counts we’ve had of Minke Whale, Basking Shark & Rissos Dolphin, also magical Orca encounters & daily Harbour Porpoise observations. All this on top of the dramatic wildlife spectacles surrounding the seabird city of Noss, with it’s awe-inspiring cliffs heaving with birdlife, and over 25,000 northern gannets in full breeding mode, surely one of Europe’s finest wildlife encounters by boat.
Owners, Rebecca & Phil are still buzzing from their weekend boat experience, with tours soon winding down for another season. “It has been our best year to date in both numbers of passengers & wildlife encounters, & we are fired up to see what the 2023 season brings. We have several varied contracts now into late autumn including working with the National Oceanography Centre survey team’s Boaty McBoatface project off Bressay. And as finalists in this year’s coveted Highlands & Islands Tourism Awards, in the Best Visitor Attraction Experience” category, we are looking forward to joining the other Shetland category finalists for the awards ceremony in November in Inverness before we get back to finishing some new business developments in 2023″. Rebecca & Phil
All images taken using OM SYSTEM:
Reaching for the stars. White-beaked Dolphin at Noss Sound on Saturday. @ Rebecca Nason/SSTSurfacing White-beaked Dolphin: Other names include White-nosed Dolphin & Squidhound!Water streaming off the backs of two White-beaked Dolphins. @ Rebecca Nason/SSTWhite-beaked Dolphin, water cascading from its dorsal fin – Noss Sound. @ Rebecca Nason/SST
