We are excited to announce that the new Marine Mammal Surveyor Refresher Course is now live on ORCA’s e-learning platform!
The course is aimed at those that have not taken part in an ORCA Survey or Marine Mammal Surveyor course within the last 3 to 5 years, or for anyone that would like a bit of a refresher!
During the course, the following topics will be covered:
- ORCA's impact
- The role of a Marine Mammal Surveyor
- Your understanding of ORCA’s distance sampling survey protocol and how to accurately collect effort-based data on whales, dolphins and porpoises
- Volunteering as part of a Marine Mammal Surveyor team
- The steps to take to ensure you are fully prepared for volunteering on board a ship-based survey
- You will be able to apply this knowledge to conduct a range of assessments and skills checks throughout the training course
The course does not replace our full day Marine Mammal Surveyor course, and species identification is not covered in the course so if you want to refresh your identification skills, please book on to our ‘Introduction to Whale and Dolphin Identification' e-learning course here or have a look at our refresher resources on the Surveyor Network Documents Page.

To keep all of our Marine Mammal Surveyor’s skills up-to-date, we now operate on the following timescales for course refreshers:
- If it has been 3 to 5 years since a Marine Mammal Surveyor has completed their training or participated in a survey they will need to complete this e-learning refresher training before applying for surveys
- If it has been over 5 years since a Marine Mammal Surveyor has completed their training or done a survey, they will need to complete the full one-day Marine Mammal Surveyor Course. This is to ensure that all Marine Mammal Surveyors are upskilled to the same level, and to ensure everyone is trained for any updates to the survey protocol – ultimately ensuring the data collected is the best it can be! The full Marine Mammal Surveyor course can be booked here.
- If a Marine Mammal Surveyor has been on a survey, and/or completed their Marine Mammal Surveyor course within the last 3 years, they are eligible to apply for surveys
The Marine Mammal Surveyor Refresher course costs £50 and is only available to book via the Surveyor Network, here.