Our surveyors and scientists work on multiple projects concurrently, with a range of partners and sponsors.
Our current projects are shown below.
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Monthly ferry surveys (ShOp surveys)
MARINElife has been conducting monthly year-round whale, dolphin and seabird surveys using industry standard line transect methods from ferries in European Atlantic waters since 1995, using volunteer citizen scientists. The first of the Ship of Opportunity (ShOp) surveys was made in June 1995 on the now-defunct P&O Portsmouth-to-Bilbao ferry. The number of ferry routes surveyed grew…
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North-East Cetacean Project (NECP)
The NECP is a programme of small boat surveys led by Dr Martin Kitching, which aims to generate up-to-date information on the status of White-beaked Dolphin, other cetaceans off the Northumberland coastline, including Bottlenose Dolphin, Harbour porpoise and Minke Whale. The project has extended into Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Suffolk, and expanded to include the whole North Sea and its…
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Peltic survey (CEFAS Peltic)
The Peltic survey is led by the Government’s Fisheries research Institute (CEFAS) and is a flagship multidisciplinary survey of the Western Channel and Celtic Sea waters which runs for several weeks each autumn and is focussed on providing evidence for sustainable fisheries management and marine conservation. There are also surveys of plankton communities, jellyfish and environmental…
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Small Boat Surveys off South-West England (SBS-SW)
A programme of small boat surveys has been carried out off south-west England, especially in Lyme Bay since 2006 targeted at understanding the distribution, population size, movements and habitat requirements of three threatened and protected species – Bottlenose Dolphin, White-beaked Dolphin and Balearic Shearwater. More recently, Great Northern Dover has been added to the list of…
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Volunteers Seabirds at Sea in England (VSAS-England)
IN 2022, MARINElife established a project to gradually introduce ‘gold standard’ European Seabird at Sea (ESAS) seabird recording on MARINElife ferry routes in England. The project is a partnership with the UK Governments conservation advisory body, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), who previously developed a successful pilot project in Scotland with assistance from MARINELife. The…