As we welcome 2026 and prepare for another amazing survey season, let’s take a moment to celebrate everything our Marine Mammal Surveyors achieved in 2025. During 2025, ORCA Marine Mammal Surveyors conducted an astonishing 53,527 kilometres of effort across ferry surveys and Saga cruises, recording 10,785 individual animals in 2,285 encounters from 28 marine species.
Ferry surveys
This year's surveys were carried out on a total of 17 different ferry routes around the UK, crossing five different sea regions: English Channel, Celtic Sea, Minches and West Scotland, North Sea and the Bay of Biscay. Survey teams of three or four trained Marine Mammal Surveyors conducted a total of 132 surveys, 21 more than in 2024. The first survey took place on the Dover-Calais route on the 8th March 2025, and the final survey took place on the 18th December 2025, on the Portsmouth-Caen route.
Once again, the Isles of Scilly route from Penzance-St Mary’s had the highest number of surveys conducted throughout the season, with a total of 14 surveys. This survey route topped the charts for the most animals seen on a UK ferry route in 2025 with a grand total of 599 individual animals from eight different marine species seen, including minke whales, three species of dolphin, harbour porpoise, seals and two species of fish: ocean sunfish and tuna. This route was tied for first place with the Aberdeen-Lerwick route in terms of diversity in 2025 with eight species also seen on this route, including orcas! The Plymouth-Santander route remains the most diverse route overall however, with 1,948 individuals from 11 species recorded across the season. Surveys on the Portsmouth-Santander route, which was a new route for 2025, were a close second in terms of sightings and species seen with 1,139 animals from 10 different species recorded.
In total, 28,919 km of survey effort was conducted by ORCA Marine Mammal Surveyor survey teams on board ferries in 2025, yielding 1,257 sightings of 5,856 individual animals from 19 species. Once again, the most commonly recorded species was the common dolphin, with 4,367 individual animals seen, over 650 more than in 2024. Common dolphins continued to be regularly spotted in the Celtic Sea and Western English Channel, but there were fewer sightings of this species further east in the English Channel compared to 2024. However, there was a small but noticeable increase in the North Sea on the Newcastle-Amsterdam route in 2025 (where they were not seen at all during ferry surveys in 2024) highlighting the importance of long-term monitoring.
Other highlights on our ferry surveys last year included further sightings of humpback whales and orcas on the Hebrides routes, continued regular sightings of Risso’s dolphins on the Penzance-St Mary’s surveys and sightings of fin whales just off Plymouth on the Plymouth-Santander route.
New routes
During the 2025 season, trial surveys were conducted on three new ferry routes. These routes were Kennacraig-Port Ellen (Islay) with Caledonian MacBrayne, Portsmouth-St Malo and Portsmouth-Santander, both with Brittany Ferries. These trial surveys were successful and we are thrilled to be offering a full compliment of survey dates on all three of these routes during the 2026 survey season. These new survey routes cover areas that are understudied and of importance to marine mammals, the data collected during surveys on these routes will also contribute to the UK, French, and Spanish governments' reporting obligations under various UK and EU environmental laws.
Saga cruises
During 2025, teams of Marine Mammal Surveyors were once again offered places on board the Saga ships Spirit of Discovery and the Spirit of Adventure. Teams of four Marine Mammal Surveyors were invited on board 13 itineraries, collecting vital data on the cetaceans seen but also enhancing the guest experience through lectures, wildlife watches, workshops and generally being on hand to talk about any wildlife seen.
Marine Mammal Surveyor teams spent a total of 232 nights at sea on Saga cruise ships, travelling to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Norway, Iceland, the Canaries, and around the UK. A total of 24,608 km of survey effort was conducted, with 1,028 sightings of 4,929 individual animals from 27 species. Once again, much of this data collection took place in data deficient offshore areas, increasing our long-term survey coverage in these remote places and highlighting the conservation value of these cruises.
In 2025, Saga cruise highlights included a sighting of bow riding false killer whales just off the southwest coast of Portugal, rough-toothed dolphins spotted southwest of the Azores and a 20 strong pod of pilot whales spotted on the Natural Wonders of Iceland cruise.
Marine Mammal Surveyors on seven Saga cruise surveys in 2025 carried out distance sampling surveys from the bridge of the Spirit of Discovery and Spirit of Adventure as part of their role on board. These surveys are the gold standard of ORCA’s data collection and allow us to report on population abundance, density and trends. Three of the team carried out these surveys from the bridge in key areas, whilst the fourth team member remained out on deck with guests to share their knowledge and help them spot wildlife. We are thrilled that these distance sampling surveys will be continued on 12 Saga cruise itineraries in 2026.
Southern Ocean distance sampling
ORCA is part of a Darwin Plus project to create a sustainable framework for monitoring whales at South Georgia in the Southern Ocean. ORCA is leading on the project outcome of gathering annual whale data from a ship to measure inter-annual whale density patterns in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey, HX, the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) and the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The project aims to better understand the abundance and distribution of recovering whale populations in the Southern Ocean (with a particular focus on South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula).
As experts in distance sampling, ORCA first devised and conducted a bespoke research project for the 2022/23 Antarctic season on board HX's Fram. This important research was continued the following year, and is now being conducted for a fourth year during the 2025/26 Antarctic season.
By identifying high density areas, ORCA hopes to enable mitigation measures to be implemented to protect these incredible animals in an area where shipping traffic is increasing. Data collected during the first, second and third years of the project has already been used to safeguard whales in these areas, contributing to seasonal protected areas for large whales around South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula – conservation in action! During the 2024/2025 Antarctic Season, 189 hours and 40 minutes of surveying was conducted from the bridge of MS Fram by ORCA Research Scientists, covering 4,122 km of survey effort and recording 998 sightings of 2,322 individual animals, from 12 different cetacean species.
Sightings highlights included numerous mother calf humpback whale pairs at Shag Rocks; multiple southern right whale sightings on the northwest approach to South Georgia, near Bird Island; 182 fin whales (including numerous calves) in 30 minutes when traversing the South Scotia Ridge; and orcas recorded in the Falklands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Sea Safaris
From June to October 2025 ORCA Wildlife Guides were on board the Brittany Ferries Pont-Aven and Santona for return sailings from Plymouth or Portsmouth to Santander, showing over 320 Sea Safari guests the incredible wildlife of the Bay of Biscay. ORCA has been surveying for whales and dolphins in these areas for decades, and the ORCA Wildlife Guides on board this year's Sea Safaris couldn’t wait to get out to sea to share their knowledge, and help guests spot and identify the wildlife they saw.
Eleven different species of whale, dolphin and porpoise were recorded during this year’s Sea Safaris, with common dolphins once again being the most frequently sighted species. A total of 2,626 individual animals were seen during the 13 trips.
Team Leaders
None of our surveys could go ahead without our incredible Team Leaders who help to ensure the high quality of our data and pass on their knowledge to newer surveyors. There were 50 Team Leaders carrying out ORCA surveys this season, with 11 of those being signed off as new Team Leaders in 2025.
If you are an Experienced Marine Mammal Surveyor, are interested in becoming an ORCA Team Leader and think you have what it takes, get in touch!
We hope you enjoyed the 2025 survey season and thank you as always for all of your support. We are hard at work putting your data from 2025 to use here at ORCA HQ, but in order to ensure all of your hard collected data is included in our 2026 State of Cetaceans report, please make sure that any app data you have collected this year has been submitted to us by the end of January 2026. If you run into any issues uploading your data, please contact [email protected] and we will do our best to assist you.
We hope your year is getting off to a good start and here is to another fantastic survey season in 2026!
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ORCA's vital conservation work is made possible by our incredible network of volunteer Marine Mammal Surveyors and OceanWatchers. Why not train to become an ORCA volunteer yourself?