A long stretch of pebbly beach lines the coastline as loud music blasts from the nearby pier and the piercing calls from humongous seagulls ring through the air as they circle overhead, greedily pecking at the chip cartons and ice cream cones in visitors’ hands. A normal summer’s day on Brighton Beach. But, just off the busy beach, in calmer realms under the green waves, lies an underwater world that is seldom explored.

Just metres from the busy roads, an enigmatic chalk seabed in the English Channel is home to starfish, catsharks, anemones, crabs, lobsters, sea snails, seals, seahorses, oysters, rays and many other species… including some much larger ones.

Over the past few winter months, visitors to the Sussex coastline have been surprised by an increasing number of humpback whale sightings. According to the Sussex Dolphin Project, a local not-for-profit organisation, 56 sightings have been made in the 2024/2025 winter at the time of writing. In previous years, only one or two sightings were recorded.

“We don’t have photo ID from the public sightings, so unfortunately we cannot be certain whether it is the same animal, or multiple, but it has certainly been an unusual year,” said Thea Taylor, director of the Sussex Dolphin Project. “It will take a few more years of data on humpbacks in the Eastern English Channel for us to be able to ascertain if this is likely to be a continuing trend, or a one-off event.”

While sightings of humpback whales are rare off Sussex, they are not entirely unexpected as the whales sometimes pass through the English Channel on their migrations throughout winter. The species is known to spend their winters feeding in the Arctic circle, before they make their way down south towards the warmer waters of the tropics to breed and rest at the beginning of the year. Usually, they move along the western coastline of Britain, but some opt to swim down the east coast and through the English Channel instead.

Researchers believe that the increase in sightings could be directly linked to a recovering global population of humpback whales since the commercial whaling ban of 1986. But, they warn, the increase could also be an indication of changing food availability due to a warming ocean.

“Currently, we are just monitoring the situation and hoping that all whales in our waters leave healthy and safe,” Taylor added. “The whale that we observed at sea in January has now been added to the relevant identification databases, so it will be interesting to monitor this individual over the years to come.”

While the humpbacks off Sussex certainly received the most media attention this winter, there are other charismatic species that call the same waters home and deserve just as much attention. Bottlenose dolphins are frequently spotted off Brighton and other sightings of common dolphins, white-beaked dolphins and the elusive harbour porpoise have also been recorded in the past.

“While we don’t have a resident population within Sussex, dolphins and porpoises are recorded off the coast all year round,” explains Taylor. “Over the winter period, sightings tend to be further offshore as cetaceans head out to more stable conditions in deeper water, and head inshore over the summer, sometimes as little as 20m from the beach.”

Despite the many species visiting Sussex waters, many residents and visitors aren’t aware that dolphins, porpoises, sharks and whales can be found off their coastline. To change this, the Sussex Dolphin Project seeks to collect as much data on the sightings as possible. “Our data drives everything else that happens in our organisation,” says Taylor. “We currently rely predominantly on opportunistic sightings from members of the public and the local fishing and leisure boat community. They are our eyes and ears on the water.”

To harness the power of citizen science and gather more data on the species, the Project established a land watch volunteer scheme which trains members of the public to spot dolphins from land, while collecting data on the spotted dolphins. The sightings to date, in combination with efforts from other organisations in the region to create a sightings network, have allowed the Project to build up an understanding of key areas for the cetaceans in the English Channel.

Besides the data gathering efforts, the Sussex Dolphin Project tries to inspire the local community about conservation issues along the Sussex coast by holding talks in schools, leading ecotourism boat trips to educate the public, and planning beach cleans, amongst other awareness projects and education campaigns. In essence, they seek to encourage human behaviour change that will lead to increasingly sustainable practices and inspiring future generations of ocean conservationists.

Taylor says: “Social media has been an incredible tool in our awareness campaigns too. Our social profiles allow us to share some of our sighting’s footage and engages the public with the wonder of the cetaceans we see in Sussex waters. Additionally, many people who come out on our trips know very little about our dolphins, and simply want a fun experience, but leave with a far deeper understanding of the amazing environment around them.”

As in other regions of the world, the cetaceans and the wider marine ecosystem are impacted by various threats. With over 500 vessels passing through it every day, the English Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world, and it sees a significant amount of industrial, large-scale fishing activities. During the winter period, according to the Sussex Dolphin Project, supertrawlers – industrial fishing vessels that quickly scoop up and process large amounts of fish directly on board and are often responsible for great amounts of bycatch – take thousands of tonnes of fish from the small Sussex area, threatening the dolphins’ food security, impacting the local biodiversity and taking fish from local small-scale fishing communities that rely on local fish stocks for income.

“The impact [of supertrawlers] on non-target species caught as bycatch is unknown due to the poor reporting processes,” explains Taylor.

Other issues in the Channel that the Project is just beginning to understand are habitat degradation, noise and sewage pollution as well as PFAS (Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances), also known as Forever Chemicals, which impact cetaceans in the region.

A major ocean conservation issue that has plagued the local coastline is the widespread loss of its kelp forests. Once so prevalent that fishermen had difficulty steering their boats through them without tangling their propellors, over 96% of Sussex’s kelp have been lost since 1987 due to destructive trawling and other human pressures. Kelp forests are major allies in battling the impacts of climate change as they can capture and sequester carbon at a much faster rate than land forests. They also support a variety of marine life and protect the coastline from flooding and erosion.

The many conservation issues threatening Sussex’s coastline are in line with what’s happening around the world. But, not all is doomed. Brighton has a long-standing history of voting green. In fact, since the 2017 elections, the Green Party hasn’t wavered below 50% of the constituency vote, making it – arguably – one of Britain’s most environmentally conscious cities.

And it’s this green mindset that runs through the many grassroots projects brought to life by its citizens, in collaboration with the local university and larger organisations.

Take Steve Allnutt, for example. In recent years, the NHS worker and Shoreham local has taken it upon himself to test the best methods to effectively restore and replant kelp plants by testing how kelp spores would best attach to different substrates in over 20 tanks in his garden shed. Later, he launched the Sussex Seabed Restoration Project crowdfunding scheme which got support from the University of Brighton and even local restaurants which donated oyster shells for the kelp to grow on. Since discontinued, the scheme has significantly helped educating the public and other organisations in effective kelp restoration techniques.

On a larger scale, the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project now aims to restore kelp forests along the Sussex Coast by running several public outreach campaigns, collecting data for crucial scientific reports, and looking into how best to restore the once abundant sea forests through collaborative action.

The project was founded in March 2021, following a crucial conservation win: the implementation of the SxIFCA Nearshore Trawling Byelaw. The crucial legislation created one of the UK’s largest areas in which destructive trawling with bottom-towed fishing gear is now illegal within a specified area along the Sussex coastline to give kelp a better chance to recover.  In response to the Sussex Nearshore Trawling Byelaw, Sir David Attenborough commented: “This large-scale protection of over 300 kilometres of seabed is a vital win in the fight against the biodiversity and climate crises.”

The Sussex Dolphin Project hopes that the ban will now help to increase important nursery grounds which should help to bolster the marine food web and, in turn, help to provide a stronger marine ecosystem for all marine predators. “However, as dolphins cover a vast area along the south coast, and the ban covers an area just 0.75 – 1km (0.4 – 0.54 nautical miles) from shore along the Sussex coastline, apart from the area between Selsey Bill to Shoreham Harbour, where the ban stretches further to 4km (2.16 nautical miles), the vast majority of the dolphin’s habitat is unaffected, and more protection is needed,” Taylor pointed out. As there are no designated protections in place for cetaceans around the South Coast of England, more information needs to be collected to “truly understand the distribution and abundance of dolphins and porpoises to enable meaningful protection”.

However, the Trawling Byelaw, combined with the already existing nice Marine Conservation Zones which cover 22% of the Sussex seas, as well as the relatively new ‘Dolphin Head’ Highly Protected Marine Area, provide a good legal framework for conservation efforts to be effective, while the Sussex community vividly shows what can be achieved when different stakeholders, communities and organisations work hand in hand.

Just a few weeks ago, local wildlife enthusiast Ruby Stothard who monitors the coastline for Sussex Underwater, a group of locals seeking to spread the word about the region’s marine treasures, discovered an attached kelp plant on a beach in Rottingdean, near the city centre of Brighton – the first reported kelp sighting in the area. Ruby shared her find on Instagram with the words ‘our coast is alive’.

She told Oceanographic: “Finding kelp in Rottingdean is significant because it’s a sign of ecosystem recovery. The Sussex coast used to have dense kelp forests supporting an abundance of life, but since the mid 1980s, we have lost over 96% of this vital habitat. In 2021, a pioneering legislation was passed, protecting 300km2 of Sussex seabed from trawling, the destructive fishing practice that significantly contributed towards the dramatic loss of kelp forests in the area. Whenever we find kelp, we are finding evidence of kelp forest recovery, which is very exciting.

She added: “Sussex Underwater are advocating for change by gathering these wonderful signs of ecosystem recovery. New kelp plants, alongside sightings of dolphins, smooth-hounds, stingrays and even humpback wales in our waters – these all provide evidence that removing the pressures of overfishing allows habitats to flourish. We want to influence further trawling bans across the UK and worldwide.

“If you live in Sussex, report your kelp sightings via the Sussex Kelp Recording Scheme. This helps scientists build a picture of where kelp is returning. Elsewhere in the UK, there are many citizen science projects that you can contribute to, with data collected by volunteers contributing towards campaigns for marine protections. Use your voice to advocate for protecting our precious seas!”

Just as this single kelp plant has become a beacon of hope for the Sussex coastline, the many tireless people and organisations fighting for a better future have become a shining example of collaborative action. For now, it’s all hands on deck to restore the Sussex coastline to its original abundance.