Mull whale charity needs your votes

A whale watch charity founded in Mull is appealing for votes to help it win a National Lottery award.

Whale Track, developed by Isle of Mull-based charity Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, is a finalist in the 2018 National Lottery Awards. The project beat off competition from more than 700 organisations to reach the public voting stage.

Whale Track is a firstof-its-kind smartphone app that allows anyone to submit marine mammal sightings off the west coast of Scotland, and is competing in the Best Environment project category.

The app actively involves people in tracking the movements of coastal species such as bottlenose dolphins and unravelling the mysteries of more elusive species such as killer whales, helping everyone become ‘citizen scientists’.

Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust science manager, Dr Lauren Hartny-Mills, says winning a prestigious National Lottery Award and having their work showcased on national television would be an honour.

The app is free to download and uses GPS to accurately track excursions at sea and record locations of sightings. Crucially, the app works without phone signal or wifi, meaning sightings can be recorded in the most remote areas. Whale Track now has more than 500 users with 15,000 animals recorded so far, including common dolphin super pods recorded from aircraft.

Dr Hartny-Mills continued: ‘National Lottery funding was crucial to the development of Whale Track, so we are absolutely over the moon to be in the finals of the National Lottery Awards.

‘Every sighting recorded helps us to better understand the movements of the marine mammals in our waters, their behaviours, and measures we can take to protect them. If you share our love of these amazing animals, please vote for Whale Track to win Best Environment Project 2018!’

To vote go to lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/ awards.

You can also follow the campaign onthe Twitter: hashtag #NLAwards. Voting runs until midnight on July 27.