Do you want to play a part in safeguarding whales and dolphins? Citizen science is the foundation that ORCA is built on. We understand that real change for whale and dolphin conservation cannot always be reliant on the science and policy community. Change needs an army of passionate, active individuals that really want to make a difference and get involved.
This is why we are so excited about the upcoming launch of our new e-learning platform via grant funding.
In the New Year, we will be announcing the start of a suite of new online courses that will appeal to a broad spectrum of people with interests in many different aspects of the world of whales and dolphins. The units are designed to accommodate differing levels of involvement and time, enabling us to grow the incredible army of ORCA citizen scientists around the world. This way, we can continue to bring about real change for whales and dolphin conservation.
- The Introduction to Whale and Dolphin Identification course will equip you with the skills and knowledge to confidently identify a wide range of whale, dolphin and porpoise species worldwide, and to learn more about their biology, ecology and behaviour. This introductory level course will be a foundation to the OceanWatchers course below.
- ORCA OceanWatchers is our citizen-science monitoring programme, centered around our whale and dolphin surveying app. We have designed OceanWatchers to enable everyone to collect data in a flexible way and contribute directly to our conservation efforts. The data can be collected at any time, anywhere that you can see the sea, no matter what the platform you are on, whether that’s from your local beach, on holiday at the coast, scanning the seas from a cruise ship, working on an offshore platform, traveling via ferry or from your own boat.
- Our Marine Mammal Surveyor course is where we translate complex science survey methodology into simpler bitesize units. Work that was once the preserve of dedicated scientists can be undertaken by individuals from any background - the only qualification you need is a passion for the oceans. Marine mammal surveyors are the backbone of ORCA’s research and they contribute directly to a growing number of important conservation initiatives.
Watch this space for the new ORCA e-learning platform which will be launched early next year with an ever-increasing number of more new and exciting modules coming online. The ORCA citizen science pathway will never stop growing!
The only way we can protect whales and dolphins is by understanding their distribution, and so monitoring is vital for effective conservation. Become a citizen scientist with ORCA to help us identify and study important whale hotspots around the world.