The technology has been created by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust
A new app has been launched to allow people to report whale sightings.
Whale Track provides an easy and quick way for anyone to submit their sightings of marine species from across the Hebrides.
The launch of the app has been made possible by a grant of more than £79,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
The initiative has been backed by television presenter, wild animal biologist and biochemist Liz Bonnin, patron of creators the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.
“Encouraging the public to play a very real part in the protection of their local wildlife is essential if we are going to have any chance of safeguarding it for the future,” she said.
“Thanks to great advances in technology, the Whale Track app will allow everyone to contribute to research, no matter how remote their location – even if they are out of network or wi-fi coverage. It’s an exciting prospect, and a very positive step towards protecting this magnificent part of the planet.”
Whale Track is designed to work at sea and in remote coastal communities where there is often no cellular coverage – allowing boat operators, fishermen and other seafarers to get involved, while coastal communities can report their sightings from land.
All data collected by the app feeds into a web portal, allowing anyone to interact with this information – including by exploring recent sightings, generating sightings maps and discovering top-reported species. Registered users can keep a record of what they have seen and when, and add photographs. The app also includes a species identification guide.
Dr. Lauren Hartny-Mills, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s science officer, said: “Whale Track is an exciting innovation that will help gather crucial data to improve our understanding of local species of cetaceans – especially coastal species such as bottlenose dolphins and rarer ones including killer whales and humpback whales – and to inform policies to safeguard them.”
The app can be downloaded for the Whale Track website.
