THE Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust has announced details of its 2018 surveys, in which volunteers and marine scientists will carry out pioneering research into the health of whales, dolphins and porpoises off Scotland’s west coast.
The surveys will be done using photogrammetry – the science of making measurements from photographs.
The trust has been collecting data on cetaceans – the collective name for whales, dolphins and porpoises – from its specialised research yacht Silurian for 15 years. Photo-identification research over this time has catalogued 230 minke whales, some of which have returned to the same feeding grounds every year for more than a decade.