The first ever West Coast Whale Festival was hailed a resounding success by visitors who travelled to Tobermory on the Isle of Mull for the weekend event (18th-19th Sept).

The festival was organised to celebrate the 10th birthday of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT), and the 20th anniversary of the longest established whale-watch operator Sea Life Surveys. 

The festival was funded under the NADAIR programme, which looks after nature and sustainable development in the Argyll Islands region and is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), Argyll and the Islands Enterprise (AIE) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

More than 150 people attended and heard from some of the world's experts in whale and dolphin conservation.

Starting trips over 20 years ago, Richard Fairbairns of Sea Life Surveys was one of the few to believe there were whales off the North West Coast of Mull, much to the ridicule of academic and tourism authorities at the time.

A report undertaken by HWDT for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has since shown that whale related tourism was worth £7.8 million in 2000 and has been found to contribute up to 12 per cent of rural west coast economies.

Whale watching now supports more jobs in Tobermory than fishing, with marine wildlife tourism being one of the fastest growing industries on the West of Scotland. The number of boat operators taking visitors out to see marine wildlife has increased by 79 per cent since 1997.