WDCS is currently collating field research data to be included in a project to determine suitable sites for UK Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for whales, dolphins and porpoises. This project is supported by Scottish Natural Heritage and the BBC Wildlife Fund.

We are busy gathering data from published sources. However, we’re aware that many valuable field reports and unpublished datasets exist for UK cetaceans that are not published in the peer-review literature and may be more difficult for us to access. If you are aware of any such literature, and would be interested to contribute it so that our project is as complete as possible, we would be very grateful to receive these from you. Appropriate acknowledgements will be made in our final report, which is due in December 2009 and will be available to all. Any datasets provided will only be used for this project.

Please send reports and datasets to: sarah.dolman@wdcs.org, (or sarah.dolman@hotmail.co.uk if over 5Mb). I’m happy to answer any questions or queries and provide more information about the project.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks,

Sarah

Sarah Dolman

WDCS Head of Policy for Scotland

Sarah.dolman@wdcs.org