7-8 Jun 2021 (2 evenings x 2 hours) Minimising Disturbance to Marine Wildlife (by Adventure WiSe)

The online Adventure WiSe course Wales is a new course presented as part of the WiSe Scheme suite of professional practitioner courses. The aim of the WiSe Scheme has always been to promote responsible wildlife-watching, through training, accreditation and raising awareness amongst boat operators, adventure/wildlife guides, dive boat operators, etc.

The new Adventure WiSe course has been developed to be the WiSe Scheme professional standard for:

• Sea kayakers
• Wild swimmers
• Coasteering practitioners
• Stand-up paddle boarders
• Snorkellers
• Coastal rock climbers
• Coastal walkers
• Coastal Foragers

to help them minimise disturbance to marine and coastal wildlife.

There will be four-modules delivered in two-hour sessions over two consecutive evenings and will be run by our highly experienced instructors. Course content will focus on interacting safely with cetaceans, basking sharks, seals, otters and seabirds, and specifically how to minimise disturbance on these species, as well as rocky shore and foraging good practice.

The course will be structured around five key messages relating to the following topics:

• Seasonality & Location
• Group size
• Distance
• Time
• Safety

Timetable:

Each of the four sessions will be a mixture of presentational material followed by an opportunity for questions and a short quiz on the material just presented. During the presentations you will be muted, but able to put thoughts and questions into the chat window. There will be another WiSe trainer answering questions as they appear in the chat who will bring key questions to the attention of the presenter in the Q&A session at the end. The course schedule is:

Mon 7th June 19.00 – 21.00

• Welcome & introduction to WiSe
• The five key messages
• Marine wildlife legislation
• Seals & otters
• Basking shark

Tues 8th June 19.00 – 21.00

• Cetaceans
• Shoreline – focus on rocky shore + Biosecurity and invasive non-native species
• Seabirds
• Blue Health
• Assessment based on the five key messages
• Feedback

The final session will involve a slightly longer set of assessment questions based around the five key messages and the material presented throughout the two evening sessions.

WiSe recognises attending two sessions on back to back nights may be tricky. However, this is a certified training course, so attendance is required at both sessions in order to receive the Adventure WiSe accreditation.

Attendees who pay the single attendance fee and attend both sessions will:

1. Become Adventure WiSe accredited.
2. Commit to abide by not only national and local laws on wildlife conservation and disturbance avoidance, but also the WiSe codes of conduct, in addition to any local wildlife-watching codes.
3. Receive digital versions of the WiSe Codes of Conduct, a certificate of attendance PDF, a waterproof WiSe Adventure sticker for their boat/craft, and electronic versions of the Adventure logo for promotional materials if required.
4. Be listed in our accredited WiSe operator pages (if you provide your details during registration).

WiSe recommends that after three years, all accredited individuals at the Adventure WiSe level then undertake a Master WiSe course to upgrade their level of membership.

Book via the ‘Event Website’ link which you’ll find at the bottom of our event listing.

Also, see www.wisescheme.org for further information on levels, and to access the contact form for any follow up queries.