British Divers Marine Life Rescue

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British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) is a British charity established in 1988 and is the United Kingdom's leading marine mammal rescue organisation. The organisation's main areas of operation are within the United Kingdom and its territorial waters; however, the organisation is often requested to provide assistance and training in marine mammal rescue by international governments and charitable organisations due to their vast wealth of knowledge, experience and available equipment.

BDMLR has developed an internationally renowned Marine Mammal Medic training program and has trained over 17,000 medics worldwide. To complement the Marine Mammal Medic training program, BDMLR has also produced a Marine Mammal Medic handbook (currently on its 8th edition), that is used globally by various governmental and non-governmental organisations to deal with stranded cetaceans.

The organisation specialises primarily in pinniped (seals) and cetacean (porpoises, dolphins and whales) rescue, however will respond to stranded sea turtles, basking sharks, otters, injured or oiled sea birds and entangled marine mammals.

In 2008 BDMLR received specialised training from the Provincetown Centre for Coastal Studies (PCCS) in Maine in the United States of America, on how to rescue entangled large free swimming whales, and in 2013 after developing these techniques specifically for British waters formed the British Divers Marine Life Rescue - Large Whale Disentanglement Team (BDMLR – LWDT) made up entirely of trained volunteers ready to respond to entangled cetaceans in British and European waters.

BDMLR volunteers lead the attempted rescue of a Northern bottle-nosed whale in London in January 2006

The organisation was the subject of widespread media coverage in January 2006 due to its efforts in leading the attempted rescue of Willy, a northern bottle-nosed whale (the "River Thames whale") which became disorientated and distressed after swimming up the River Thames into central London. A large rescue operation began on the morning of Saturday 21 January and lasted until the evening when the whale died.

In more recent years, amongst the hundreds of call out each year attended by BDMLR, the organisation spearheaded the major rescue efforts that were launched to save either mass stranded Pilot whales or pilot whales in danger of mass stranding at Loch Carnan in South Uist on the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 2010, once again at Loch Carnan in South Uist on the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 2011, at the Kyle of Durness on the North West Corner of the Highlands of Scotland in 2011, at Pittenweem in Fife on the East Coast of Scotland in 2012, at Portmahomack and Dornoch Point on the East Coast of the Highlands of Scotland in 2013 and Staffin Island on the West Coast of Scotland in 2015. In 2018, the BDMLR also took part in sighting Benny, a Beluga whale who had been sighted foraging in the Thames Estuary.

Operation Nettie[]

In August 2015 BDMLR was contact by the Centre for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Maine to assist as part of the global response network for large whale disentanglement as member of the Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network (ALWDN) to a Humpback whale in Iceland (nicknamed "Nettie") that was entangled in fisheries debris (at the time suspected, and later confirmed to be monofilament netting panels and lead weighted line from a Gill net array). This was following requests from local whale watching companies and NGOs following failed attempts by local Coast Guard personnel to free the whale. BDMLR, through the International Whaling Commission (IWC), sought permission from the pro-whaling Icelandic government to allow an international rescue team to come to the aid of the whale on welfare grounds. After about a week, permission was granted from the Icelandic government to attempt a rescue of the whale.

The ALWDN decided to form an international response utilising BDMLR manpower and resources backed up by a team member from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Cape Cod near Boston in the US. The following day, the team consisting of 1 member from IFAW and 3 from BDMLR laden with over 150 kg of rescue equipment met up in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik in preparation for the following days rescue attempt, but due to the complexity of the entanglement, the size of the search area (Faxa Bay) where the whale was last spotted, and the unpredictable weather in the area the team had allowed a minimum of a week to conduct the rescue.

This operation first involved "Nantucket sleigh rides", which proved to be inefficient as a means of facilitating rescue. The team came up with a new method of attaching a buoy just behind the tail to stop the animal from diving, and bring it to the surface for longer periods, giving the team more opportunities to cut the line when the whale presented its tail. Eventually the team managed to attach the rig to within a metre of the whale's tail and the buoy was quickly pulled into position using a pulley arrangement they had constructed.

The new rig worked and also provided a new separate control line which the team could utilise. The team were now able to pull themselves up to within a metre of the thrashing tail, and each time the whale's tail would breach the surface, careful cuts would be made using the equipment. Eventually the team managed to cut the lines on both sides of the tail stock, and the trailing line from underneath, and the whale was freed.

External links[]

• BDMLR homepage
• BDMLR Facebook fan page
• BBC News (21 January 2006) Lost whale dies after rescue bid Retrieved 21 January 2006
• "British Divers Marine Life Rescue, registered charity no. 803438". Charity Commission for England and Wales.