It’s time to put the ‘P’ back in MPA: Marine Protected Areas in Scotland (and around the world) exist on paper but not always in practice.

Here's what our #OceanWitnessReport uncovered ⬇️🧵🌊

Stories from the team: learn about life at Cetacean Research & Rescue Unit (CRRU) from Dr. Kevin Robinson, Director and Lead Researcher, and others from the CRRU team.

Part of a series of four short films of stories from different team members and their lives at CRRU. 💙🧪

youtu.be/Kc6dpeam318

This summer has been a poor time for minke whales in the Southern Trench Moray Firth MPA. There has been a notable lack of available sandeels for the whales, and until last week, we had absolutely zero encounters with the whales inshore. 🧪

Introducing our 2nd newborn bottlenose calf of the 2025 season with her proud mum "Barbi" (ID#253)! 🐬

This new youngster (5th known calf for Barbi), was probably only hours old when we met her yesterday, as evidenced from its bent-over dorsal fin and uncoordinated surfacing behaviour. 🧪

Some lovely news to start your week! 💙

Meet "Splatch", our first recorded newborn bottlenose calf (neonate) for 2025, born at the very end of July! 🐬

"Splatch" is the 6th known calf of ID#035 "Blotchy", who we first recorded back in 1997 when she was just a juvenile herself. 🧪

The team have all been working very hard with our beloved minke whales these past few weeks, and after long hours going through all the accumulated photo-identification shots, we have been finding some super recaptures of whales that have been in our long-term ID catalogue for many years now. 🧪

Emaciation in baleen whales can be a serious issue. However, it is not unusual to see this in these animals upon returning to their high latitude feeding grounds from their low latitude breeding grounds - especially in females, post-calving, visibly exhibiting their low energy reserves. 🧪

A follow up on our recent emergency call-out to a group of sperm whales sighted in dangerously shallow waters within the inner Moray Firth.

Yesterday (Thursday 19th Jun 2025) afternoon the CRRU team was alerted by the public to a group of sperm whales in the inner Moray Firth sighted in dangerously shallow waters.

Training: Cetacean Research & Rescue Unit @crru.org.uk: CRRU Residential Summer Training Placements
c-js.uk/417IAaV

Training: @crru.org.uk: several JNCC Marine Mammal Observer Training Courses
c-js.uk/417IAaV

Porpoises (collectively known as Phocoenids) are a reverse sexually dimorphic group of odontocetes, where, unlike the majority of other toothed whale species, mature females are considerably larger than mature males.

Hear from our CEO, Harry Huyton, about the importance of Scotland's spectacular seabird colonies and what must be done to protect them in this new piece published in @scotsman.com ⬇️

www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...

📷©️Nicol Nicolson

Come and join the CRRU webinar talk this week (presented by Dr. Kev Robinson) hosted by @rspb.bsky.social Aberdeen and North East Scotland

The webinar will be presented via Microsoft Teams and is free to attend – to book simply email nesevents@rspb.org.uk

Thank you! 💙

FREED! A humpback whale entangled in ropes off Scotland has been freed thanks to BDMLR & local heroes. The whale is exhausted but safe. This is a stark reminder of the dangers marine life faces, let’s protect our #ocean! 🌊💙
www.expressandstar.com/uk-news/2025...

Today we headed to Holyrood to meet our friends at
@rspbscotland.bsky.social and give a voice to Scottish seabirds📢

[Thread]

Lots of hard work behind the scenes here at CRRU in the new year, in preparation for the upcoming research season ☀️

Hello! 👋 We are a marine conservation charity dedicated to the study, conservation and understanding of whales, dolphins and porpoises in Scotland through scientific research, environmental education, and the provision of a voluntary veterinary rescue service for marine wildlife in distress! 💙