The Big Green Give Match Fund is live!  Donate now to ensure our Whale Track community can continue to protect whales and dolphins in Scottish seas.  Whale Track is a 5,000 strong network of volunteers, or citizen scientists, who monitor and record marine wildlife. The data gathered by the Whale Track community contributes to important scientific discoveries and generates the knowledge and evidence to protect whales and dolphins, restore our marine environment, and tackle the impacts of climate change.  Donate today and invest in the people working to protect Scotland’s marine ..read more

Twice a year, HWDT’s flagship research vessel, Silurian, transforms into our popular floating classroom. Sailing to schools across the west coast, the crew welcomes pupils aboard to experience life on board a Scottish whale research yacht. This April, thanks to support from The Waterfall Fund and Baillie Gifford, we will be setting sail around Mull to welcome schools aboard Silurian, some for the first time in 10 years. Pupils will take part in inspirational outdoor experiences designed to spark an interest in the marine environment and inspire the decision makers of the future. While aboa ..read more

Today, HWDT Trustees announce that Helen Stace has stepped into the role as Chair, succeeding Juliana Butler (Jay). Helen Stace stepped into the role of Chair at a gathering in Tobermory on 16 March 2024. Helen and Jay have been working closely together over the past few months during the transition period. The core of this work has been handing over the development of the draft 5-year strategic plan. It seems that ocean currents bought Helen to this role at HWDT; she has a depth of experience as CEO of two conservation charities and 30 years at Natural England and its predecessors.  More ..read more

Zoe Stevenson, a member of the Whale Track community who reports sightings whilst working with Hebrides Cruises, shares some highlight minke sightings, including one thanks to a rather unusual tip off. Despite the fact that minke whales are one of the most common cetaceans recorded off the west coast, they’re often elusive animals, surfacing for just a few breaths before disappearing off into the watery depths. One of the best times to get a look at these incredible animals is when they are feeding. Then, they are usually hanging around one patch of water for a while and coming to the surface ..read more

©Western Isles Cruises As signs of spring are beginning to appear and everyone looks forward to the season ahead, we take a look back at what was a wonderful winter for watching. This winter we set the #EmbraceYourWhaledSide challenge to encourage more people to embrace the crispness of winter and spend some time outside watching from land, collecting vital effort-based data, to help deepen our understanding of the presence and absence of species in our seas year-round. Well, our amazing Whale Track community didn’t disappoint. Thanks to 105 people reporting their sightings through land-based ..read more

Sixteen operators attend the first Whale Track Boat Operator Event We welcomed a number of wildlife tour providers and boat operators to our first ever Whale Track Boat Operator Event, sharing good practice and celebrating the contributions these companies make to marine science. Our Whale Track community of citizen scientists has grown immensely since 2017 when the Whale Track app was launched. The number of sightings reports each year increases, along with the number of photographs submitted for Photo-ID analysis. Whale Track would not be the effective conservation tool that it is without t ..read more

Last week, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force announced 33 new Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) within the Northeast Atlantic and Baltic Sea.  6 IMMAs have been designated in Scottish seas and cover much of our inshore waters and large sections offshore to the west.  We welcome the identification and designation of such large areas of Scotland’s seas as crucial for marine mammals.  The orange highlighted areas have been designated as IMMAs in Scottish waters The Minches and Sea of the Hebrides, and the Mo ..read more

OUR WINTER SURVEY PROGRAMME ON BOARD SILURIAN HAS BEEN RUNNING SINCE 2019, trying to understand MORE ABOUT THE YEAR-ROUND PRESENCE OF MARINE vertebrates within the Hebridean seas. THESE SURVEYS ARE IMPORTANT GIVEN THAT BEFORE THE START OF THE PROGRAMME, LITTLE WINTER DATA EXISTED FOR THE REGION. BELOW, THE TEAM ONBOARD THE FIRST WINTER SURVEY OF THIS YEAR, GIVE AN UPDATE… DAY 1 A team of local volunteers comprised of Pam, Lorraine, Jimmy, Gordie, Katie, and Louise were ready to meet the crew of the Silurian; Emma (Skipper), Sian (First Mate), Hannah (Science Officer) and Craig (Fourth Crew) fo ..read more

Many of us have little comprehension of how noisy the aquatic world is, you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s a peaceful environment…it’s anything but! Our seas and oceans are a cacophony of sound and getting increasingly noisier, as human activity intensifies the soundscape.  Before the Industrial Revolution, sound waves in the marine environment would have been naturally produced; by living creatures and through environmental and geological processes.  Fast forward a couple hundred years and the seas are full of man-made, or anthropogenic, noise.  From the hum of a boat’s engine ..read more

Following a public consultation in 2023, the Scottish Government have announced a ban on industrial sandeel fishing in Scottish waters ahead of the 2024 fishery season in March. This is an important action to protect vulnerable populations of seabirds and cetaceans which environmental groups have been calling for over many years. HWDT welcomes the move and fed into the government consultation to highlight the impacts on minke whales, harbour porpoise and other cetacean species in Scottish waters. 97% of the respondents to the consultation were in favour of a full ban. Sandeels have huge ecolog ..read more