FASCINATED by marine life in Scotland and want to learn more? Now is your chance to attend a day long event hearing from guest speakers about the variety of marine life which can be found around Scotland’s coasts. The workshop will take place at the Highlands and Islands University Campus on Saturday the 20th of January and is organised by the Scottish Marine Animal Standing Scheme (SMASS).

The event is set to be a fun educational day of talks and workshops centred around the activities of SMASS, who investigate stranding’s of marine mammals including the likes of dolphins, whales and porpoises on Scottish coasts. SMASS has been monitoring stranding’s in Scotland since 1992 and recent investigations have included whale stranding’s in Argyll and Skye and a blue shark found on a beach in Moray.

The event hopes not only to highlight the work of SMASS and inform the public on marine mammal science but to focus on science projects members of the public can get involved in.

Funded by Marine Scotland and Defra, SMASS has an extensive volunteer network to help them cover Scotland’s 10,000 miles of coastline and since 2014, nearly 200 people from all over Scotland have been trained to collect essential data. Volunteers - who have been named ‘whale detectives’ - learn how to collect standardised measurements and samples, which add to the number and geographical range of data collected by SMASS pathologists.

Dr Andrew Brownlow, who leads the team at SMASS, said: “This promises to be an educational and entertaining event for anyone with an interest in marine wildlife around Scotland. As well as presenting a host of fascinating speakers, we hope to show the fantastic number of ways people can become involved in marine conservation and help protect our country’s amazing ocean species”.