While Brighton becomes a hotspot for sun and fun seekers from all across England in the summer months, the beloved seaside resort is not really known as a marine wildlife haven.

But, according to the local Sussex Dolphin Project, the area is teeming with life, from seals and cat sharks to dolphins and whales.

To challenge the view that the waters off Brighton are lifeless, the not-for-profit is currently educating and inspiring locals and visitors alike about the many species, including cetaceans, that call the English Channel and the Sussex coastline home.

Thea Taylor, the director of Sussex Dolphin Project (SDP) told Oceanographic: “While we don’t have a resident population within Sussex, dolphins and porpoises are recorded off the coast all year round.

“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,” Taylor adds.

While bottlenose dolphins make up the largest proportion of cetaceans seen off Brighton, sightings of common dolphins, white-beaked dolphins and the elusive harbour porpoise have also been recorded.

Additionally, in the past few months, visitors to the region have been surprised by an increasing number of humpback whale sightings off Brighton. A total of 56 sightings have been made in the 2024/2025 winter season off the Sussex coastline at the time of writing, according to the Sussex Dolphin Project.

To help educate the public and generate widespread interest in the topic, the Sussex Dolphin Project seeks to collect as much data on the whale and dolphin 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, who 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 and collect data on the seen individuals. 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.

Besides the data gathering efforts, the Sussex Dolphin Project tries to inspire the local community about conservation issues along the Sussex coast, encouraging human behaviour change that will lead to increasingly sustainable practices and inspiring future generations of ocean conservationists.

Like in other regions of the world, the cetaceans off Sussex are impacted by various threats. As the Eastern English Channel sees a significant amount of industrial, large-scale fishing activities, the local biodiversity as well as local small-scale fishing communities that rely on local fish stocks for income are severely impacted.

During the winter period, Gosney points out, supertrawlers – industrial fishing vessels that scoop up and process large amounts of fish directly on board – take thousands of tonnes of fish from the Sussex area.

“The impact this has on non-target species caught as bycatch is unknown due to the poor reporting processes,” adds Taylor. Other issues that Sussex’s dolphin populations are facing are habitat degradation, noise pollution in the English Channel, and PFAS (per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances), also known as ‘Forever Chemicals’, which impact cetaceans globally.

To collect more dolphin sighting data, find out more about the threats that dolphin species face in the region and, ultimately, to protect them better, the Sussex Dolphin Project has now launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund a research vessel.

“A key priority must be getting out on the water more frequently to allow us to research cetaceans on the water,” explains Taylor. 

“Right now, whenever we need to head out to sea to monitor dolphins, we have to charter a boat by the hour. This limits how often, and how long we can be on the water, and how far out we can go.

“We are seeing more dolphins, porpoises and whales than ever before. That means we need to be there to monitor and protect them, reducing the risk of boat strikes, disturbance and displacement, while researching the impacts of other human threats. Above all, the growing climate and nature emergency is making us all aware that we need to step up and protect local species – now. With a boat of our own we could do so much more – at a time when nature needs us most.”

To find out more about the Sussex Dolphin Project, click here. And you can support their crowdfunding campaign here. 

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