Who is the Seawatch Foundation?

Sea Watch Foundation is a national marine environmental charity working to improve the conservation of whales, dolphins and porpoises in the seas around Britain and Ireland.

We are the only recommended boat operator for the Seawatch foundation. We work closely with Seawatch and often have them carrying out surveys on our boats to gather important data to help towards the conservation of our marine wildlife.

Sea watch Foundation aims:

• Involve the public in scientific monitoring
• Raise awareness and understanding of marine mammals and the threats they face
• Educate, inform and advise for better environmental protection

By monitoring the numbers and locations of whales and dolphins we can gain valuable knowledge of the health of our marine environment and insight into the effects of chemical pollution, noise disturbance, over-fishing, accidental capture in fishing gear, and climate change.

Sea Watch can help you to find about:

• the marine mammal species that live in the seas around the British Isles
• where and how to look out for them
• activities and research programmes
• how you can team up with scientists to improve our knowledge and help conserve them

                 Achivements:

• Sea Watch Director, Peter Evans, received the European Cetacean Society Conservation Award, 2012, and in 2015 was voted one of the top 50 most influential conservationists in Britain by a team of experts for BBC Wildlife
• Sea Watch Foundation was recipient of the UNEP/ASCOBANS “Outreach and Education Award”, 2009
• Sea Watch Foundation was voted best UK animal adoption scheme by BBC Wildlife, December 2008
• A Status Review, commissioned to Sea Watch Foundation by the UK Nature Conservancy in 1986, provided the harbour porpoise and bottlenose dolphin with special status under the Wildlife and Countryside Act
• Submissions by Sea Watch Foundation to the North Sea Conference and UK North Sea Forum contributed directly to a new international Agreement for the Conservation of Small Cetaceans in the Baltic and North Seas (ASCOBANS)
• A collaborative effort between the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Sea Mammal Research Unit and Sea Watch Foundation led to the production of the only existing Distribution Atlas for cetaceans in NW Europe. This has served as the major reference for environmental impact assessments of human activities throughout the region for two decades
• Sea Watch Foundation research studies of bottlenose dolphins helped lead to two areas in Cardigan Bay being recommended as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) for the species. Since 2001, the organisation has monitored the bottlenose dolphin population, providing data for the Welsh Government through Natural Resources Wales
• Sea Watch Foundation was commissioned in 2015-16 by the Joint Nature Conservation Committe to identify areas of high concentration of harbour porpoise and bottlenose dolphin for designation of Natura 2000 sites in UK waters under the EU Habitats and Species Directive
• Sea Watch Foundation, in collaboration with Bangor University, as part of the five-year Marine Ecosystems Research Project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has collated survey data from across NW European shelf seas to produce new distribution maps in 2019 for all the major cetacean and seabird species
• Sea Watch Foundation has produced reports and specialist advice for the European Commission, European Cetacean Society, UK Department of the Environment, UK International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, OSPAR, and ASCOBANS, assessing the threats to cetaceans from particular human activities, and the role that protected areas can play in conservation.

                Become a Sea Watch member:

Join here!

If you are already a Member, click here to head directly to My Sea Watch

As a Member you will receive a Welcome email from our Director, Dr Peter Evans, and access to the  private My Sea Watch area of the website. Benefits include our quarterly electronic magazine Sea Watcher, monthly Sightings Reports and News Bulletins. In addition My Sea Watch will be regularly updated with additional news and information about the work of Sea Watch and already includes detailed information about some of the 30 species of cetaceans found in the UK and where you could see them. Become a Member for £3.50/month or £42/year.

Please consider becoming a Family Member. The additional funding will be extremely valuable and as a thank-you, in addition to all the Member benefits we will also send you Newsplash, our Adopt-a-Dolphin Newsletter, currently monthly, with up to date news about the Bottlenose Dolphins of Cardigan Bay and other interesting information. This is aimed primarily at a younger audience but is still of great interest to our many adult adopters, especially those with families! Watch out for occasional additional benefits too including discounted boat trips! Become a Family Member for £5.00/month. or £60/year.

For those able to become a Premium Member, we offer a number of additional benefits in addition to those of the Family Member. The My Sea Watch Premium area gives access to downloadable high quality digital images, an electronic copy of the Sea Watch Marine Mammal Observers’ Handbook and an enhanced monthly Sightings Report with additional detail and analysis. Become a Premium Member for £7.50/month or £90/year.

Give the gift of membership. Do you have friends or family who are interested in helping the protect cetaceans in UK waters? Why not gift membership to them? To give membership as a surprise gift, complete the membership form in your friend’s name, but using your email address. You can then announce their gift as a surprise and forward the Welcome email, User Name and Password to them at a convenient time. You can help them log in, using your email and the User Name and Password you created, and they will be able to change the Password and Email Address as they wish. They have a great gift you know they will love and UK whales, dolphins and porpoises have someone else and learning and caring about them! Give the gift of membership – starting from £3.50/month or £42/year.

Please note that whilst we will of course be very happy if you choose to pay monthly we will be even happier if you can afford to pay annually as we will receive more of your contribution due to lower processing fees!