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Narwhal with beluga whales

Unusual Whale Adoptions

Kidzone - quick links Fun Facts Curious kids Blogs Fantastic fundraisers Gallery Splish and Splash...
Irrawaddy dolphin

Helping fishers protect dolphins in Sarawak, Borneo

Fishing nets are bad news for dolphins and porpoises, so we're working with local fishers...
Dolphin watching from Chanonry Point, Scotland. Image: WDC/Charlie Phillips

Discovering inner peace – whale and dolphin watching and mental wellbeing

Guest blog If you've ever seen whales or dolphins in the wild, you'll know that...
Whale tail

An ocean of hope

In a monumental, jaw-dropping demonstration of global community, the nations of the world made history...
North Atlantic right whale Porcia and her calf.

Critically Endangered Right Whale Babies Spotted

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The infamous killing cove at Taiji, Japan

Why the Taiji dolphin hunt can never be justified

Supporters of the dolphin slaughter in Japan argue that killing a few hundred dolphins every...
Image: Peter Linforth

Tracking whales from space will help us save them

Satellite technology holds one of the keys to 21st century whale conservation, so we're exploring...
Dolphin in Brazil helping with fishing illustration

Dolphins and fishers working together

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A gentle start to the dolphin season…

Looking back on the start of my previous dolphin seasons it looks like we are not too far short of “normal” as far as dolphin numbers that have been seen goes. It has been a bit patchy though, with four or five of the very local dolphins being seen sometimes during rising tides and sometimes only one or two – but further out towards Cromarty and beyond, things are livening up nicely with our friend Sarah at Ecoventures in Cromarty seeing not only adoption dolphins Moonlight and Mischief but also a few days ago young “Spirtle” who stranded herself on a beach a few years ago and was badly sunburned.
 
April into May is when we expect to encounter more and more dolphins that we know well as the migratory salmon run picks up a bit of pace and the dolphins arrange themselves around the area at specific places like Chanonry Point, the Kessock Channel and Spey Bay to get the maximum chance of catching fish. Getting the photographs of the dolphins dorsal fins (like Kesslet below) and checking them off one by one against Aberdeen University’s Photo Identification catalogue has been compared to train spotting by some people – but as far as I’m concerned it is part and parcel of my working year and a fundamental part of the studies done with this population of wild, free dolphins…the way they all should be. 
 

About Charlie Phillips

Field officer - Adopt a Dolphin