On the 13th October, the final ferry survey of 2025 with our longstanding partner Caledonian MacBrayne departed from Ullapool for a return crossing to Stornoway - marking the end of a fantastic survey season on the west coast of Scotland! Here is a summary of our surveys undertaken by our dedicated Marine Mammal Surveyors on CalMac vessels in 2025:
- 1,589 individual animals were recorded from CalMac vessels during 2025. This is almost double that of 2024, and could be reflective of more survey effort being conducted
- 10 different marine species seen, including whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sharks - this is 2 less than in 2024. The number of individual animals and variety of species recorded highlights the importance of the year on year, continued monitoring by ORCA across CalMac vessels, with trends and shifts in distribution being reported on in real-time which is critically important for cetacean conservation
- A distance of 5,509 km was travelled whilst surveying
- 37 surveys were conducted between March and October across 7 different routes - unfortunately a few surveys were cancelled during the season due to the weather and no surveys could be conducted on the Ardrossan-Campbeltown route in 2025 due to the ship being out of action, but despite this in 2025 we conducted the most surveys and highest number of different routes since our partnership with CalMac commenced in 2017
- 139 ORCA volunteer Marine Mammal Surveyors took part in surveys on CalMac vessels in 2025, many of which were from the local area conducting these important surveys
- Common dolphins were the species recorded most frequently with 1,147 individual animals seen throughout the year and they were recorded on every route. This is more than double the number recorded in 2024 (565 animals) and could suggest a northwards shift in distribution
- There was an increase in sightings of minke whales to 73 in 2025, up from 20 in 2024. As common dolphin sightings also increased this year a possible explanation is that these two species have similar responses to environmental conditions and this year saw more favourable conditions around the Hebrides, but further analysis would be needed to confirm this. If this is true, this has implications for understanding how species might respond to climate change, a key challenge in cetacean conservation
- Continuing the trend seen in 2024, the high density marine wildlife areas seem to have shifted north to the Uig-Lochmaddy-Tarbert and the Ullapool-Stornoway routes which saw the highest number of animals seen in 2025. However, the Oban-Castlebay route recorded the most species
- Very excitingly a pod of five killer whales were seen on the Uig-Lochmaddy-Tarbert route!
- The most productive surveys were the July and October Ullapool-Stornoway surveys, where more than 100 animals were recorded on each survey!
A massive thank you all of our dedicated Marine Mammal Surveyors who took part in CalMac surveys during 2025!
We are busy planning for the 2026 survey season and applications for our ferry surveys will be open in the New Year. As always, we will continue to keep you updated on the progress of this via email and the Surveyor Network News Page.