EXCLUSIVE: Our UK marine life is diverse and enthralling – we must ensure it is protected
By Ruth Williams, head of marine conservation at The Wildlife Trusts
Here in the UK we are incredibly lucky to have a wide range of different whales, dolphins and porpoise, collectively known as cetaceans, in our waters. Spotting any one of these incredible animals in the wild from UK shores is unrivalled – I still remember the immense awe I felt when spotting my first bottlenose dolphin jumping through the waves in the early 2000s. Just last month, many others felt the same elation as orcas were spotted off the coast of Cornwall.
Despite these incredible animals being widely loved, a new report from The Wildlife Trusts has found that protections for these species - and action to recover their rapidly declining populations - aren’t going far enough in UK waters. As our new report, Priority Actions for North Sea Cetaceans 2026, finds, cetaceans are under complex and often interacting threats, particularly in important areas such as the North Sea. Existing legal safeguards are too weak, poorly enforced, or fail to keep pace with growing pressures on marine wildlife, especially in our increasingly busy seas.
The report makes clear that the biggest threats—including entanglement in fishing gear and disturbance from noisy human activity—are still not being addressed fast enough. And it is not a lack of policy that is hampering their chances of success in our seas, but a lack of effective action. As a result, whales, dolphins, and porpoises continue to be disturbed, injured or killed in significant—and largely avoidable—numbers.
The pressures are especially serious in important feeding areas such as Dogger Bank, a large sandbank in the North Sea off England’s east coast, and the waters off Flamborough Head, an 8-mile-long chalk headland on the Yorkshire coast. These areas of upwelling are critical to the food chain – they bring nutrients to the surface, increasing plankton and feed-fish that ultimately whales, dolphins, porpoise, and other species like seabirds rely on. They are some of the most important habitats in the North Sea, yet they are also heavily used for fishing, shipping, and offshore development.
At least eight different species of whales, dolphins and porpoises are supported by the greater North Sea marine region alone, with a further seven recorded on an occasional basis. The most commonly recorded species in this area include the smallest of our cetaceans, the elusive harbour porpoise, acrobatic white-beaked dolphins and the much larger ‘gulp-feeders’, minke whales. Together, they play a vital role in maintaining the healthy marine ecosystems that benefit wildlife, climate, and people too.
Sadly though, the status of several species, including harbour porpoise and minke whale is currently ‘unfavourable’ under UK conservation assessments, meaning populations are not in a healthy or sustainable condition. Despite their critical ecosystem function, and the UK Government’s December 2025 Cetacean Conservation Strategy which recognised and committed to protecting the 28 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises found in UK seas - there are no clear targets or deadlines for Government action to reverse these trends.
As our report sets out, turning the tide on marine wildlife loss is possible, but only if we act fast. Priority Actions for North Sea Cetaceans 2026 includes a series of practical solutions that, if implemented, would strengthen protections in the North Sea and wider UK waters. They include:
Marine Protected Areas must be actively managed, not just designated, if they are to deliver real protection. That means restricting the most damaging human activities, including fishing, in areas where whales and dolphins are known to gather, particularly during key feeding seasons. In some cases, temporary seasonal closures or tighter restrictions would be more effective than static, year-round measures. Lines on a map are not protection. In many cases, damaging activities are still allowed to continue within these sites.
Accidental capture in fishing gear – bycatch - needs faster and more decisive action. This means phasing out the most harmful types of nets and scaling up trials of safer alternatives. It also requires wider use of deterrent devices and fishing methods that reduce the chance of entanglement. Existing solutions are not being deployed widely or quickly enough to deliver meaningful protection.
We must see a UK plan to reduce underwater noise from both shipping and marine development, with clear noise threshold limits to protect sea wildlife. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) must lead the development of a clear national plan to reduce underwater noise. This includes setting clearer limits, changing shipping routes where possible, and limiting particularly noisy activities in sensitive areas.
Protection is needed for key feeding areas that support whales, dolphins and porpoises. Some of the most important habitats for whales, dolphins and porpoises are feeding grounds and areas that fall outside formal protected sites. What is needed is effective marine spatial planning and adaptive management that will provide more flexible, evidence-based protection that can respond to where animals are at different times of year.
Monitoring must be strengthened. There are still significant gaps in knowledge about the seasonal distribution of cetaceans and the full impact of threats to their populations. More regular surveys, better use of technology, and stronger support for citizen science would help close these gaps and improve decision-making.
It’s clear that for cetaceans to thrive alongside sustainable fishing, shipping and development, we must get it right in the North Sea. This is an area that is both one of the busiest seas in the world and an important wildlife feeding and breeding zone, and there is no time to lose if we are to put an end to the decades of avoidable deaths of these much-loved creatures at sea.
The message is simple: governments and industries must act on the evidence already available and adopt solutions that work for people and wildlife, quickly reducing harm and charting a new course for cetaceans in our seas. Without faster, clearer action, whales, dolphins, and porpoises will continue to decline in waters where they should be thriving, and the UK risks falling further behind in protecting some of its best-loved marine species.
