The Scottish Dolphin Centre at Spey Bay has been awarded a certificate of excellence by the world’s biggest travel website.
TripAdvisor handed the accolade to the Moray tourist attraction as a reward for achieving consistently good reviews from visitors.
The centre’s manager Alison Jordan said: “We are delighted to win this award and thank all of our past visitors who took the time to complete a review on the site.
“We take a lot of pride in trying to provide a great experience for all who come here.
“A lot of our staff are volunteers who are here because they want to be – that passion really communicates itself to visitors.
“We provide a place to see dolphins in the wild, but the centre also does a lot of work to try and interest people in the wider issues to do with conservation.”
The Moray Firth has a permanent population of 190 bottlenose dolphins and offers a relatively sheltered home, compared to the open sea, with access to salmon and trout rivers nearby.
However, as only five or six calves are born every year it is potentially a fragile existence.
Ms Jordan said the centre’s aim was to make sure the dolphins can continue to flourish, despite the many obstacles they face.
“Dolphins use echo location to navigate and also find food, so they can have problems with noise pollution that comes from shipping and also the oil industry,” she said.
“In addition, the are also issues with chemicals in the water and bycatch, which is where they are caught up in fishermen’s nets.”
The centre recently unveiled a new 12-mintute film, the Dry Dive, which features the region’s wildlife both above and below the water.
Directed by one of Britain’s top wildlife filmmakers, Andrew Sutton, it reveals scenes never before captured on camera, such as a pod of porpoises in the Moray Firth