Many of us walk along Brighton seafront gazing out at the beautiful ocean, but what actually lives beneath the waves?
From the surface, the answer may appear to be ‘not much’ but as this video shows, looks can be deceiving…
This pod of bottlenose dolphins was seen just a mile off Shoreham Port by Brighton Fish Sales on 26/05/2020 (courtesy of Brighton Dolphin Project), and it’s not only bottlenose dolphins that visit Sussex seas…
We are lucky enough to have six species of marine mammal living in Sussex! They include: bottlenose, white-beaked and common dolphins, harbour porpoises, grey seals and harbour seals.
That’s where Brighton Dolphin Project come in. The Sussex coastline is the most poorly researched area for marine mammals. Their mission is to tell the world about the dolphins of Sussex, research these wonderful cetaceans and find out just how many are Brighton residents.
To find out where the dolphins are, and how they are behaving, Brighton Dolphin Project needs people to get involved and send in their sightings as part of a huge citizen science project.
“we ask people to report any sightings and tell us about their experience. To date we have over 200 sightings of marine mammals recorded and these are only the sightings that have been sent into us!”
The future for Brighton Dolphin Project
The future is looking bright for Brighton Dolphin Project. The project is growing larger and they are in the process of moving into exciting new premises at Shoreham Port. They are hoping to gather more data too – the more data they have, the more likely they are to be able to protect dolphins in Sussex.
Take action!
You can help Brighton Dolphin Project by…
- Keeping your eyes peeled for any marine mammals in Sussex. Use their Research Leaflet to help you collect data and aid your spotting
- Following them on Instagram @brightondolphinproject
- Making sure you take your litter with you when you visit beaches so our marine life doesn’t get tangled up
- Entering their drawing competition (closing 28/08/2020)
