Scotland has some of the best cetacean watching opportunities. Cetaceans (marine mammals) include our whales, dolphins and porpoises, and we have over 20 species of them in Scottish waters.

Marine mammals are the ocean’s giants, with the largest, the blue whale, reaching over 33 metres in length! We can even spot the second largest mammal, the fin whale, from Scotland – which reaches around 27 metres!

Click on the marine mammals below to find out more about them on our YouTube channel!

Try this game with your group to find out how big some of our Scottish ocean giants really are!

What you will need:

• An open space (this could be by the coast, a grassy area in your local park, or an indoor space)
• Measuring tape
• Printed ocean giants cards (digital or printed copy)
• Printed dolphin colouring in sheet and pens (optional)

How to play:

1. Depending on your group size, you can split young people into pairs, small groups or do it all together.
2. Introduce the first ocean giant card to your group. If you show the group the image on the card, make sure to cover the length displayed underneath (no cheating!).
3. Ask the group to guess how big the marine mammal is (in metres) – you can use your measuring tape here to show the group how long one metre is for reference.
4. In pairs or as a group, have one person stand at one end whilst the other(s) walks to create the length they think the marine mammal is between them. This can be done by a rough guess here.
5. Now reveal the average size of the mammal to the group (this is displayed on the card). Using a measuring tape, mark out the length of the species. Was anyone close? Is anyone surprised? There is the option to make it game, allocating points to the group that came closest. You can repeat this for all five species cards.
6. You can print off the UK Dolphins colouring sheet for your group to colour in if you have time during your session too.