Tuesday 26th July 2011

Yesterday saw the fantastic Tall Ships depart Shetland on their next leg of The Tall Ships Race 2011. Their departure was a day later than expected due to the strong winds experienced on Sunday.

The NAFC Marine Centre stand located on Victoria Pier was a great success with excellent feedback from both locals and visitors alike. The stand was centred around a display of "The Seas around us" which included a collection of many of the creatures found in our local waters.

Thanks must go to all of the staff involved in organising the stand and also manning it over the 4 day period.

Wednesday 20th July 2011

This friendly otter attracted a small crowd of admirers this morning when he paid a visit to the Scalloway fish market. Somebody threw him a mackerel and he set about his feast with relish.

Monday 18th July 2011

Well here I am, back from 2 weeks leave, batteries fully charged and ready to go!!!

We had some excitment last week in Lerwick when The Steve Irwin and its sister vessel The Brigitte Bardot visited Shetland on their way up to Faroe. Anyone who is a fan of Discovery Channel's series "Whale Wars" will recognise these two ships as being part of "Sea Shepherds" conservation fleet which spends a lot of its time in the Southern Ocean causing no end of problems for the Japanese whaling vessels.

The presence of the two vessels certainly caused a stir with many locals coming down to the dock to chat to the crew about their exploits.

Shetland is also now firmly in the grip of "tallshipitis" with The Tall Ships Race visiting Lerwick from the 21st to 24th July. The whole place is a buzz with excitment as the final preparations are made. Fingers crossed its going to be an amazing few days.

The NAFC Marine Centre have a stand for the 4 days on Victoria Pier so if you have 5 minutes then pop along and say "Hi", we'll be pleased to see you!