Protect Whales and Dolphins

Whale Track

Whale Track, developed by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, is a way that you can join a community of citizen scientists monitoring whales and dolphins on the west coast of Scotland.
Download the free app to report your sightings to help track the movements of coastal species such as bottlenose dolphins and uncover the mysteries of rare visitors including humpback and killer whales.

Take part

  • Skills required

    The free Whale Track App is packed with richly illustrated guides to cetacean species identification

  • Project Type

    Download the app and use it whenever you are on the west coast of Scotland.

  • The Why

    Our seas are under huge pressure; increasingly busy, noisy and polluted. Scotland’s whales and dolphins exist in a fragile state, threatened by a range of environmental, climatic and man-made stresses

  • Key achievements

    HWDT’s research has identified that the consequences of human activities on whales and dolphins are already apparent. They have also helped in increased protections.

Seawatcher

Sea Watch, Bangor University and Nova Innovation have launched a brand-new recording app, “Sea Watcher”. The free app can be downloaded on Apple and Android. You can record opportunistic sightings as well as dedicated surveys either for land based or paddle based surveys.

Take part

  • Skills required

    The app includes instructions for submitting your sightings, a code of conduct for water users, photography advice, and what to do if you find a stranded animal, either live or dead.

  • Project Type

    Any one can take part. Download the app and record your sightings whenever you are on the water around the coast of the UK.

  • The Why

    Sea Watch Foundation, through its continuous programme of research and monitoring, provides invaluable information on changes to the status and distribution of cetacean populations and the condition of their habitats.

  • Key achievements

    The Sea Watch Foundation has won many awards for it’s work in cetacean conservation. It’s data set is used to inform government policy decisions.

Happywhale

Happywhale engages citizen scientists to identify individual marine mammals, for fun and for science. It is a whale sighting app with a focus on identifying individual whales from photos. You submit your sightings and photos and Happywhale will deploy it’s advanced image processing algorithm to ID your individual whale for you. Global sightings are logged around the world. Create an account on the website to start submitting your sightings.

Take part

  • Skills required

    Resources are provided on the project website on how to take a good photo ID image without disturbing the animal

  • Project Type

    Join over 11,000 like meinded citizen scientists around the globe.

  • The Why

    Each and every marine mammal is an individual with a compelling story to tell such as ‘where will this humpback whale migrate to this winter to give birth?’ ‘What happened to the entangled whale I saw in the news?’ You can help answer these questions

  • Key achievements

    43,000 individual whales have been identified globally. Understanding where these individuals move is critical in determining how best to protect them