18 November 2025

ORCA 2025 end of year summary

ORCA Ocean Conservationists, have had a brilliant survey season travelling on our ferry network during 2025.

Summary of ORCA's 2025 Survey Season

Summary of the ORCA 2025 survey season and survey highlights:

1,589 individual animals recorded in 2025. This is almost double that of 2024, and could be reflective of more survey effort being conducted highlights the importance of the year on year, continued monitoring by ORCA across CalMac vessels, with trends and shifts in distribution being reported on in real-time which is critically important for cetacean conservation
10 different marine species seen, including whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sharks - this is 2 less than in 2024, highlighting the importance of the year on year, continued monitoring by ORCA across CalMac vessels, with trends and shifts in distribution being reported on in real-time which is critically important for cetacean conservation
A distance of 5,509 km was travelled whilst surveying
37 surveys were conducted between March and October across 7 different routes - unfortunately a few surveys were cancelled during the season due to the weather and no surveys could be conducted on the Ardrossan Campbeltown route in 2025 due to the ship being out of action, but despite this in 2025 we conducted the most surveys and highest number of different routes since our partnership commenced in 2017
139 ORCA volunteer Marine Mammal Surveyors, many of which were from the local area conducted these important surveys - the highest number of volunteers surveying on this route in a single year since our partnership commenced in 2017
Common dolphins were the species recorded most frequently with 1,147 individual animals seen throughout the year and they were recorded on every route. This is more than double the number recorded in 2024 (565 animals) and could suggest a northwards shift in distribution
There was an increase in sightings of minke whales - 73 in 2025, 20 in 2024. As common dolphin sightings also increased this year a possible explanation is that these two species have similar responses to environmental conditions and this year saw more favourable conditions around the Hebrides, but further analysis would be needed to confirm this. If this is true, this has implications for understanding how species might respond to climate change, a key challenge in cetacean conservation
Continuing the trend seen in 2024, the high density marine wildlife areas seem to have shifted north to the Uig-Lochmaddy-Tarbert and the Ullapool-Stornoway routes which saw the highest number of animals seen in 2025. However, the Oban-Castlebay route recorded the most species
Very excitingly a pod of 5 orcas/killer whales were seen on the Uig-Lochmaddy-Tarbert route
The most productive surveys were the July and October Ullapool-Stornoway surveys, where more than 100 animals were recorded on each survey!