FAQs

Our rescue hotline is open 24/7, even on weekends and Bank Holidays. If you find a seal, whale or dolphin in distress, please call the rescue line ASAP on 01825 765546 (option 1). For any admin/course queries, Head Office is open 9-5pm, Monday-Friday (excluding Bank Holidays).

Yes, we offer Marine Mammal Medic courses that train individuals in whale, seal, and dolphin rescue techniques. Once you have completed our course, you will become a volunteer Marine Mammal Medic with us! The main aim of becoming a BDMLR Marine Mammal Medic is for us to provide you with the basic knowledge, skills, and expertise to enable our volunteer teams to respond to a callout and act on behalf of that animal’s best welfare interests.

Our courses consist of online lectures and a practical day. The lectures will be emailed out a week before the practical session and must be watched before the practical session to build some prior knowledge. 

The majority of our courses are wet courses (the practical element is at the water’s edge) and these require a wetsuit/drysuit and suitable footwear to be worn. We do also run some dry courses which cover the same practical elements as the wet courses but are not near the water. 

Yes. BDMLR is currently working on a new regular giving scheme designed specifically for people who wish to help BDMLR, but either do not want to be a Marine Mammal Medic. Details will be posted on the website and social media channels soon.

Unfortunately we are not in a position to offer any work experience or work placements due to our limited facilities. If you are looking for experience within the marine conservation sector, we recommend completing our Marine Mammal Medic course where you will receive one year’s membership (with the option to renew afterward the year is up) where you will gain hands-on experience with marine mammals. Please note, some areas of the country receive more callouts than others, so the amount of experience you gain will vary depending on where you are located.

The support of vets and veterinary nurses is greatly appreciated by BDMLR. If you’d like to volunteer with us, you will first need to complete a ‘BDMLR Marine Mammal Medic’ course, this will teach you the basics of marine mammal assessment and first aid, as well as other vital information about how the charity operates and health and safety aspects of the work. 

After successfully completing a Marine Mammal Medic course, you will be added to the list for call-outs happening in your local area. Veterinary assistance at call-outs (particularly when a vet is required on-scene at events such as adult seals or cetacean strandings) is essential, and having a BDMLR-trained vet with knowledge of marine mammals available to help is always a great asset. 

A range of learning resources specifically aimed at veterinary professionals are also in development, and will be made available to BDMLR-trained vets and nurses in the near future.

Due to the unpredictable and widely dispersed nature of our work, opportunities for EMS with BDMLR are extremely limited at the moment. Our new ‘Veterinary Student Externships’ (more information here: https://bdmlr.org.uk/veterinary-student-externship) will be held at the BDMLR Cornwall Seal Hospital in December and January each year, but places are very limited.  

Please note: the places for the December 2026 and January 2027 externships have been delayed due to staff changes. An announcement will be made in July about this coming pup season externships.

No qualifications or experience is required to become a Marine Mammal Medic with us, just a love and passion for marine life!

We do not run courses specifically for vets however, once you have completed our Marine Mammal Medic course, our vet consultant has further resources and support available for vets and RVN’s.

No, as courses are run all over the UK and our head office is in Sussex, it is not feasible to rent these out unfortunately. We advise that you either borrow or hire a wet/drysuit from a friend or local diving shop or purchase a second hand one. 

We aim to run at least one course a year in each area although this is depends on demand. If there is currently no course in your area or a course date that suits you, please check back on our website later.

If a course is showing as available to book on the website, there is still space left and it should display as a blue pinpoint on our course map here. If the pinpoint displayed is purple, this means spaces are limited, but still possible to book via Head Office, so you will need to call us on 01825 765546 to see if you are able to book on. If the pinpoint displayed is red, the course is full and no further places are available – it will also state this on the right-hand side of the course event page itself.

Absolutely – course vouchers can be purchased as a gift at the standard course price of £150 and can be either emailed or posted to you/the recipient. To purchase a voucher, please call us on 01825 765546 (option 2 – and during office hours 9am – 5pm Mon-Fri) to give details and make your payment. 

As a small charity that receives no central government funding, we are reliant on our course income to be able to continue as a rescue organisation, so we regret that we cannot offer any course discounts at this stage.

We send the online materials via email about seven to ten days before the course date. This will usually be the penultimate Friday before the course. If you haven’t received your materials within five days of the course, please first check your junk/spam folder, then if you are certain you haven’t received them, please contact us either by email info@bdmlr.org.uk or phone 01825 765546 (option 2 – and during office hours 9am – 5pm Mon-Fri).

Once you have completed our Marine Mammal Medic course, you will be added to our call out list based on your postcode. If a marine mammal is in distress or requires a check in your area, then you will receive an alert via our Cardskipper app and you only respond if you are available.

This structure is fantastic as it suits most people whether you work full time and only have time to volunteer at weekends or whether you work shifts or have lots of free time!

The first year’s subscription and insurance for Marine Mammal Medics is included in the course fee. After the first year, the fee is £50 (incl. VAT) per year to keep your subscription and insurance up to date with us. 

You should receive a renewal reminder about a month or so before your subscription is due to expire (a year after your course date) via the email address you gave us when you registered with all the details of how to renew. If you haven’t received this, please email us at info@bdmlr.org.uk and we will look into this for you as we may have your details stored incorrectly.

The easiest way to renew is online using the link you will be sent when your renewal is due. We will be setting up Direct Debit payments very soon so that your payment is taken from your account automatically every year and you don’t need to worry about forgetting.

Yes! If it’s been three years since your last rescue or you completed your last course, you will need to refresh your skills. You’re welcome to attend any MMM course as a refresher for free, providing you’re still an up-to-date Marine Mammal Medic. Plus, there are also specially organised Marine Mammal Medic refresher courses. To book on as a refresher, please contact Head Office via phone or email about 10 days before the course date to make sure there is space on the course for you to attend.

Once you have been a Marine Mammal Medic for over two years, you’re also eligible to apply as an Advanced Marine Mammal Medic. To achieve this, you will be given an AMMM logbook detailing practical elements that will need to be signed off by a BDMLR Instructor. Once the logbook has been completed, you will then sit and pass an online exam in order to receive your Advanced Medic status.

Refresher training is compulsory every three years to stay up to date with rescue techniques and welfare practices – perhaps sooner if you haven’t been on many rescues. You will need to be a current Marine Mammal Medic to attend these sessions for free. Our aim is to provide you as a Marine Mammal Medic with the basic knowledge, skills, and expertise to enable our volunteer teams to respond to a callout and act on behalf of that animal’s best welfare interests.

Your Marine Mammal Medic ID number will have been emailed to you in the week following completion of your MMM course, and will appear on your digital Marine Mammal Medic ID card through the Cardskipper app, which you can download for free to your phone, tablet, or PC.

Seal bags can be purchased from Head Office at £75 (incl VAT) plus P&P. Please contact us to enquire about purchasing one privately or for your area kit. Other rescue equipment, such as vari-kennels/crates, scales, gloves, masks, thermometer, etc. will need to be sourced yourself, although we do occasionally have vari-kennels donated to us. Your area coordinator will be able to notify you of any donations and also may be able to advise you on where to buy equipment for your kit locally. 

If any of your contact details have changed, please contact us at Head Office either by phone or email to update your details on our database. We will notify you if your new address puts you in a different callout group.

Size charts are available for most items on the website, if in doubt as to what size you should order, please call head office and we will be happy to advise.

We ship orders from the office every Tuesday and Thursday via Royal Mail 2^nd class. So if you order items on a Friday, your order won’t be shipped until the following Tuesday. You will receive a confirmation email when your order has been processed and posted. On Royal Mail’s website, it states 2^nd class items should be delivered in two to three working days (including Saturdays), however we’d recommend allowing about a week for your order to arrive as there are often delays. And during periods (such as Christmas) when postage times become unpredictable, please make sure you allow much more time for delivery.

We do accept returns as long as they are in the same condition in which we sent them to you. You will be responsible for any shipping costs for returns. If the item was damaged or faulty in the first instance, then we will be able to reimburse your shipping fee.  

Yes, but please note, we may request further shipping costs depending on where it is being sent to. We advise contacting Head Office before placing your order to enquire how much extra this may cost.

We recommend allowing at least a week for your items to arrive after ordering. Orders are shipped every Tuesday and Thursday via Royal Mail 2^nd class, e.g., if you order items from our shop on a Friday, your order won’t be shipped until the following Tuesday. You will receive a confirmation email when your order has been processed and posted. On Royal Mail’s website, it states that 2^nd class items should be delivered in 2-3 working days (including Saturdays), however we’d recommend allowing about a week for your order to arrive as there are often delays. If you think we may have missed your order, please contact us at Head office via email or phone. Please note, any Bank holidays or national holidays may cause further delays in the post.