Blog

Shaping up to be a fantastic #marineforum2025

Blog 01 March 2025

Shaping up to be a fantastic #marineforum2025 !

— feeling excited with Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme and

2 others

at National Museum of Scotland (official).

Mada-Chuain helps not just see and survey wildlife but rescue too

Blog 27 February 2025

On The Sea

Sometimes Mada-Chuain helps not just see and survey wildlife but rescue too. Today it helped bring in a drowning gull at Ullapool Harbour.

Scottish Invasive Species Initiative

Blog 26 February 2025

On The Sea

So - how do you trap mink on an uninhabited island?

Isle Martin is a remote and uninhabited island in Wester Ross, about 3 miles north of Ullapool. It is a recognised bird sanctuary but unfortunately, although people don't live there anymore, American mink have been known to make it their home...

Mink Control Officer Greg has been monitoring live capture traps with the help of the local community - and earlier this year caught two mink on the island. Our first captures of the year!

More species champion work on Thursday evening!

Blog 22 February 2025

USS has a very strong ethos of teamwork and peer support, so the species champion element of what we do provides an important opportunity and outlet for individual interests and expression.

Great to see them offering to support each other’s research as well - building each other up to become ambassadors for their species and getting a personal understanding of the importance of every species in our incredible marine ecosystem.

Amazing response we've had to our post about collaborating with Green Hive in Nairn!

Blog 21 February 2025

collaboration

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to message, comment and reach out about it. Here's a great wee film from the team themselves explaining a bit more about what they do, how they do it and why.

Really looking forward to being a part of this brilliant process.

Dealing with all the marine plastic we bring in from remote beaches

Blog 20 February 2025

collaboration

Dealing with all the marine plastic we bring in from remote beaches has always been a challenge for USS. Obviously, we get what we can back into use and we do find ways to re-purpose some items....but there's a lot that we'd love to get recycled.

Rubbish puzzle!

Blog 18 February 2025

(UPDATE: had some messages about thus and it might not be so old after all as these signs are used on fish farm barges still so is another example of fish farm rubbish. This would make sense as there were also feed pipes and other pieces of broken equipment from them present too sadly.)

As part of our remote beach clean on Friday, we got 3 bits of an old sign that put together made this. We think this was from the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 and shows how plastics last so long even when in the sea. Almost quarter of a century old but largely still as it was, just broken into 3 bits. This was on the coigach coast so quite remote and we're not sure where it started life. Anyone have other ideas?