National Whale and Dolphin Watch 2020

Sea Watch Foundation is a national UK charity, working to improve the conservation and protection of whales, dolphins and porpoises in British and Irish waters.

Their annual National Whale and Dolphin Watch is a 9-day event (25th July – 2nd August) in which they aim to obtain a general “snapshot” of what is in UK waters by involving the general public in the collection of records of whales, dolphins and porpoises around the country. This will be the nineteenth year that the event has taken place, making it an extremely important time series. To make it a real success as many eyes on the sea as possible are needed!

In order to ensure everyone follows UK-government Covid-19 restrictions and to comply with social distancing rules, the advice is to conduct watches by yourself or with a member of your household, unless government guidelines instruct otherwise by the time of the event. Bear in mind that by late July, regulations may differ between countries within the United Kingdom.

Details of watches organized across the UK will shortly be uploaded to the Sea Watch website, so if you would like to be involved in a watch, you can check to see if there are any in your area. If there is no watch close to you, how about setting up your own watch? All you need is an observation pack, a good vantage point to look out over the sea, and your eyes (plus binoculars if you have them). You can do this on land or boat, and at any point during the 9-day period.

If you are interested in organising a watch to collect data, please let Sea Watch know so that they can assist you and give you more information. This year’s watches will take place from 25th July – 2nd August so hopefully the weather will be on our side.

If you want to catch up with last year’s results, please click here. We hope to have you involved in the event this year, so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Image: Julia Grosse This is a pod of common dolphins was spotted in Cornwall on a boat trip during a family holiday a couple of years ago- so if you do manage to get away, or are near the coast anyway, do consider taking part- there are a lot of cetaceans out there! We’ve also seen fin whales, minke whales, bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoise.