The journal
Editorial policy
How this journal is written: what counts as a sighting worth recording, how notes are checked, and how a mistake is corrected in the open.
This journal reports what the published record says about the cetaceans of the north Minch and what that record means for a watcher on the shore. It does not report the desk’s own sightings, because it does not claim any. That single choice shapes every rule below.
Where the facts come from
Sizes, group sizes, months, behaviour, status and threats come from the species profiles and factfiles of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust. Seasonal peaks come from the Shorewatch analyses published by Whale and Dolphin Conservation. The sea state, swell, visibility and glare scales come from the Sea Watch Foundation land based recording form. Site descriptions, access notes and species lists come from the pages of the Hebridean Whale Trail. Protected areas come from the Scottish Government and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Each page lists the sources it used and the date they were consulted.
What the journal will not do
It will not invent a sighting, a figure, a date, a person or an experience. Where the record is silent, the entry says so rather than filling the gap: the page on wind, tide and light, for example, declines to give a rule about tide races because its sources do not support one. It will not name an operator, a boat, a fare, a departure time or a harbour timetable, because this journal is kept from land and sells nothing. It will not present a synthetic illustration as a photograph; every image carries a line under it saying what it is.
What counts as a sighting worth recording
The standard is the one the Sea Watch Foundation applies on its form: date, start and end time, position, sea state, swell, visibility and glare, species or the honest entry dolphin sp. when the species cannot be told, and a minimum and maximum group size. A watch in which nothing was seen is recorded with the same care, because the Foundation is clear that effort matters: without the hours watched, an absence means nothing. The journal uses this standard to describe how a record should be kept, and it directs readers to the organisations that collect such records.
How the journal is paid for
Nothing on this site is paid placement. The pages carry no advertising, no sponsored entry and no affiliate link, and none of the organisations named on them reviews an entry before it is published or has any say in what it says. The running costs are the domain, the hosting and the illustrations, and they are met by the people who keep the journal. If that ever changes, the arrangement will be named on the page it affects and on this one, with the date it began, because a reader cannot weigh a recommendation without knowing who paid for it.
How entries are checked
Before an entry is published, each figure and each quoted statement in it is read back against the source page it cites, on the date given. Entries are revised when a source changes, and the date on the entry is the date of the version in force. The %% is the page most often revised, because the seasonal record grows every year.
How a mistake is corrected
When a reader or a source shows that an entry is wrong, the entry is changed and the change is noted on the page with the date. When the desk disagrees, it replies with its reason and its source. Nothing is corrected silently and nothing is deleted to hide an error. The way to report one is on the page for %%, and the page about %% explains who reads it.