British Divers Marine Life Rescue

British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) is a British charity established in 1988 and is the United Kingdoms leading marine mammal rescue organisation. The organisation's main areas of operation are within the United Kingdom and its territorial waters, however are often requested by international governments and charitable organisations to provide assistance and training in marine mammal rescue 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 5000 medics worldwide. To complement the Marine Mammal Medic training program BDMLR has also produced a Marine Mammal Medic handbook (currently on its 7th edition), that is used globally by various GO’s and NGO’s to deal with stranded cetaceans.

The organisation specialises primarily in pinniped (seals) and cetacean (porpoises, dolphins and whales) rescue, however will responded 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 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 January 21 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 Hebridies of Scotland in 2010, once again at Loch Carnan in South Uist on the Outer Hebridies 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 and at Portmahomack and Dornoch Point on the East Coast of the Highlands of Scotland in 2013.

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