Where there's a whale there's a way! Join Tim, piecing together minke whale movements and threats on the West Coast of Scotland.

 Tim Awbery is a PhD Researcher, whose work focuses on the distribution, acoustics and foraging of minke whales in order to contribute to their conservation within MPAs. Join Tim as he connects the dots on these mysterious minke whales to try and shed some light on unanswered questions like how they travel through Scottish waters? And where the greatest overlaps are with anthropogenic threats. 

 Did you know that minke whales are the smallest of the whales seen in UK waters? Measuring in at 7-10m long, Minkes are frequently seen in coastal and inshore waters around the Hebrides from April to October. Their bodies are slender and streamlined, and the head is narrow and pointed. The dorsal fin and back are dark grey or black, the underside is bright white and there is a distinctive white band on the upper side of each pectoral fin known as 'minke mittens'! 

North Atlantic minke whales are one of the most commonly seen cetacean species in Hebridean waters, yet we know very little about their lives, including, knowing where they go once they have left UK and Irish waters each year. What we do know is that they face a range of anthropogenic threats, including entanglement in fishing gear, noise pollutions, collision risk with vessels and offshore devices. In addition to this, on a broader scale there are also concerns that minke whales are at risk from climate change. 

 Tim’s project aims to develop existing projects held in partnership between the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, Marine Science Scotland and Heriot Watt University. It will use existing visual and acoustic datasets to analyse whether the distribution of minke whales has changed over the last couple of decades. 

We want our talks to be accessible for everyone so optional subtitles will be generated during the webinar, and we are asking you to pay what you can. Your donation will support marine conservation in Scotland. Thank you.