I work on aquaculture sites

Whale Track is the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s community sightings network, which includes a free smartphone app and website. Anyone can download the app and report casual sightings (for example, if you see whales whilst working on site) or to log an at sea survey using ‘excursion mode’ which records the length of time and distance travelled. The App uses your phones GPS location to accurately track your trip at sea, without the need for WiFi or phone signal, and allows you to record the locations of sightings, (for example when you're travelling to and from your aquaculture site). Even recording no sightings during an excursion is valuable data, understanding where animals aren’t throughout the year helps build a more accurate idea of how these creatures are using our seas.  Identifying hotspots is important but so is noting where species are seen less often.

As part of the BLUE CONNECT project, we are interested in analysing photos of marine mammals taken around Shetland for a number of reasons, including to contribute to photo-identification projects, and to look at scarring to understand past entanglements and interactions. If you capture any images or videos of marine mammals whilst out at sea, please consider contributing them to us, by emailing shetlandmarinemammals@outlook.com.