The MSc research forms part of a wider project entitled “Combining environmental DNA sampling, whale watching & citizen science for stakeholder-driven marine biodiversity protection - NE Atlantic & Mediterranean”. The overall eWHALE project seeks to use environmental DNA (eDNA) from water samples to help in area-based conservation. This is a developing area that is moving away from presence/absence of a species to examining in more detail genetic diversity, but due to relatively small sample sizes has yet to determine population structure. To overcome this, in collaboration with industry, particularly whale watching companies, it is anticipated that over a number of spatial and temporal scales, we will be able to provide broader taxonomic resolution data for marine megafauna an