Forth Marine Mammals

Who are Forth Marine Mammals?

The Forth Marine Mammal Project are a group of people with a keen interest in marine mammals in the Forth. Together, we want to build our understanding of the marine mammals that visit the Forth and help raise public awareness about the fantastic wildlife that occurs in this area. To do this, we ask anyone who has seen a marine mammal (whale, dolphin, porpoise or seal) in the Firth of Forth to report their sighting to the ' Forth Marine Mammals ' Facebook page. We encourage anyone interested to join the page, report their sightings (even if you're unsure of species!) and to use it to help enjoy and learn more about the wonderful nature our local area.


What have we seen in the Firth of Forth?

To demonstrate sightings hotspots, the species you can see in the Forth, and to showcase the volume of data we've gathered, we have mapped out all the sightings reported to the Forth Marine Mammal page over the past 2 years (April 2021 to April 2023). Scroll down to see the maps!

Things to remember when interpreting the sightings maps:

  • Exact locations are estimated - we estimate where the animal(s) were based on the information posted with the sighting.
  • There are points on the map for every sighting, which means that if a group of dolphins, or a humpback whale, are reported multiple times per day as they move around the Forth, there will be multiple points.
  • If no time is reported with the sighting, we use mid-day (12:00) as the sighting time.

Thank you

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has taken the time to post their sightings to the page. Please continue to do so and help us learn more about the wonderful wildlife within the Firth of Forth.