Wildlife guide/RIB crew required

[Tony Hill]

Tour guide – 28th January 2010 to 16 Nov 2010 inclusive

Sea.fari Adventures are Scotland’s Foremost Sealife Adventure Boating Specialists. Easdale, is 16 miles south of Oban. We operate a fleet of modern RIBs. You will be responsible for
1.Acting as tour guide delivering talks to customers on the wildlife and natural history of the area A degree in a related field and/or the ability to speak a foreign language would be an advantage but not essential.
2.The collection and recording of cetacean and other wildlife sightings. Cetacean sightings are relayed to Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust and other scientific bodies.
3.Helping to maintain our leading position in the marine wildlife tourism market.
4. Any other duties deemed suitable.
The crew team has to cover both popular and less popular aspects within the business. We re-mphasise the importance of the primary responsibility of providing our customers with an exceptional and well managed wildlife experience. Excellent people and communication skills are essential. You must be capable of crewing our boats. Full instruction is given. A willingness to learn to adapt to differing situations on board and gaining the confidence of our skippers is essential. This is an outdoor job in conditions which can, at times, be quite demanding. Our trip numbers are governed by many variables including the weather so it is not possible to give an exact account of a normal week. For all posts low season is 5 days per week, high season up to 6 days per week
Full details of our tours see www.seafari.co.uk/oban

Wildlife tour guide with strong small boat handling skills
Low season Trips 3 days per week. Possibly ashore 2 days per week. We canot fix a schedule. We have a contract to provide boating services to Northern Lighthouse Board. You will act as crew during the majority of days when this work is undertaken You will require proven skills in boat (inflatable/small RIB) handling and be capable of landing engineers on rocks, lighthouses and beacons in remote locations. Sometimes great skill is required to ensure a safe landing. We have customer landing trips to other islands and you may be required to take either a large inflatable or small RIB to assist. You should be happy to work on and in the water. You will be required to assist with launching and recovery of boats and help with servicing and repairs. You will need to be practical and capable of using tools. We cannot control tides and repairs. A background in diving/surfing/canoeing is likely. As you will need to go in the water to clear moorings, clean hulls, and harbour entrances. You will not necessarily have to dive, most of this work can be undertaken with a snorkel at low water. A drysuit would be a great advantage, Scottish seas are cold. You will also help with the community harbour.
High season 5 days a week on the boat 1 day ashore

Free single person accommodation in crew house (own room, common areas etc) plus wage

Further information e mail seafari_oban@yahoo.co.uk

Application CV and covering letter

[HUMBER P4VWL]

God i wish i was 10 years younger.

Been on ribs for years and did an environmental science degree, then found all the park rangers used volunteers. This would have been great.

Im now married and a move from cheshire to there would have to pay enough to warrant it.

what an awesome couple of jobs.

What are the salary brackets?

[Tony Hill]

The job advertised is for a crew with the ability to drive a tender. I advertised the job on RIBNET for this reason although it is advertised elsewhere. There are 4 crew positions for 10 months (all slightly different) and we bring in 2 further crew for the height of the summer. The crew package includes free accommodation with heating costs, internet, a lot of free food, and more than sufficient money to survive and spend in the island pub which is 15 steps from the crew house back door. They have something left over to do the usual 'go abroad for the winter' We need to attract good staff. It is however not really a career move. I am well aware that within conservation and tourism many businesses go down the volunteer route but just as I expect to earn a living from my boats then I think so can the people who work with us. Wildlife tourism can be its own worst enemy sometimes.
We also employ skippers who have the opportunity to earn more than the national average wage here in Argyll throughout 12 months but as with everything nowadays a flexible approach is required. During the quieter boating months we fit out RIBs as Quinquari Marine North which is where we are today. It may be raining and windy but the mountains of Glencoe are far more inspiring than a view from any city office block.

[Shaz]

It sounds like an amazing job. I'm not sure I'm quite experienced enough at either whale-spotting or rough weather boat handling yet but maybe next year, if you have different crew annually.

I will probably regret trying to be sensible when I'm spending the summer stuck in the world's most boring office!

[GaryC]

Originally Posted by Tony Hill

Tour guide – 28th January 2010 to 16 Nov 2010 inclusive


1.Acting as tour guide delivering talks to customers on the wildlife and natural history of the area A degree in a related field and/or the ability to speak a foreign language would be an advantage but not essential.
in the marine wildlife tourism market.

What are the qualifications for tour guide if you don't have a degree?
Can you tell me where else you advertise these jobs?
What is the qualification for the boat skippers?

What happens when the weather is rough.

Thanks

Gary

[alt]

Is an in-depth knowledge of marine life essential? May seem like a stupid question, I would have thought that there'd be 2 crew on-board: Person in charge of the boat, and the other a tour guide.

Would appreciate an answer to this, sound like a good oppertunity

[Shaz]

There's a bit more info on the website that's mentioned in the initial post. To provide the best possible trip for their guests it sounds like they need one person who's a wildlife expert with a reasonable grasp of boats, and a second person who's a boat expert with some idea about wildlife so they can cover for each other in case of illness etc., is that about right ?

Perfect gap year job for a lucky someone.

[Tony Hill]

Thank you Gary/Alt for your interest and I will attempt to answer your questions. A fuller job spec is available from me to your individual e mail addresses if you request further information from seafari_oban@yahoo.co.uk

Every boat we operate has both a skipper and crew aboard. It is company policy that we do not send out boats with passengers as single man operations. The skipper's qualifications are Advenaced Powerboat Commerically endorsed however we also require considerable experience due to our location the waters we negotiate, the passage that may be required and of course the northern weather. Skippers are normally WiSe accredited to ensure a well managed wildlife experience.
Crew - the role of the crew is to deliver wildlife information to customers as well as support the skipper with general duties aboard. The initial talks for crew are well scripted but as the season progresses a crew will be expected to produce a commentary relative to the group aboard the boat. Family groups - mam/dad 2 kids relatively easy, specific groups from birdwatchers to undergratuate marine students from the local university, a group of foreign tourists more demanding. Our crew do not know everything, some are environmentalists, marine biologists, we have had conservationists, zoologists, geographers, physicists, even a town planner but they all have a great enthusiam for wildlife and natural history. You have the opportunity to present your case via your CV and covering letter.
Bad weather days the day tends to start circa 0915 then peter out depending on the actual weather. The boats and our equipment is a priority, clean and service boats, you may be surprised how much time is spent just ensuring the boats remain in top condition. Hulls need cleaning, moorings need attention, we have a pontoon to locate in our local harbour, our ticket office needs painting. Seafari crew live on an island, there are all the shuttle boats to keep on top of, we cut grass in communal areas like the chldren's play park, help the local harbour moorings all owned by the community. If we see a consectutive number of poor days coming we may head to our workshops - we have a RIB to build for ourselves to be ready for the summer.
There is an initial job advert on www.countryside-jobs.com but it is more of a general advert as we require other crew (3 from Jan, a fourth joins in April with 2 more for July/August) The advert directs to the e mail address for further information

Tony

[Knot Yet]

Amazing opportunity- very envious of all those who end up in the roles available

J

[Tony Hill]

We have closed the application process and are now interviewing. For feedback the forum did produce some of the applications who had not seen the job posted elsewhere.

Tony