Sea Watch News Archive
News archived here are dated earlier than: 5 June 2010
26 May - Sea Watch on BBC Radio 4
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Sea Watch was reported on the Today show on BBC Radio 4 this morning. BBC correspondent Tom Feilden visited the Welsh office in New Quay to speak to staff and volunteers and joined us onboard Ermol V for a two hour survey. He was specifically interested in Photo a Fin, our new campaign appealing to the public to watch for cetaceans and send in their photos of fins that may be used for photo ID. If you missed the show you can listen to it here, starting the recording at 2:47:16.
Further information about this interview is reported here
14 May - Bottlenose dolphin attack on harbour porpoise witnessed in Cardigan Bay
On Thursday 13th May 2010, a group of five to ten bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) chased and attacked a harbour porpoise (Phoconea phoconea) approximately 600 metres off shore from New Quay Head, Ceredigion in Cardigan Bay. The attack was witnessed by volunteers of Sea Watch Foundation and PhD research assistants from Bangor University as they carried out monitoring of marine mammal populations from the cliff top.
At first the witnesses thought that the dolphins were feeding, chasing fish, but it soon became clear that they had a more sinister motive in mind when the harbour porpoise was seen being tossed between two dolphins. The attack is estimated to have lasted between ten and twenty minutes. Volunteers lost track of the porpoise, but it is unlikely that it survived such an attack. SWF travelled by boat to the attack site to recover the porpoise body for post mortem, but sadly the boat reached the site too late and the body could not be found.
A large proportion of harbour porpoise strandings in Cardigan Bay are due to bottlenose dolphin kills. Classic injuries include broken ribs, haemorrhaging and teeth marks on the skin. The first case of a bottlenose dolphin attack on a porpoise was confirmed in the early nineties in the Moray Firth, NE Scotland and these attacks are the cause of death for the majority of harbour porpoise strandings in the area today. It is unknown why dolphins attack their smaller cousins; some researchers believe it may be a result of competition for food resources in an area or sexual aggravation.
Despite the apparent high number of attacks, the event is rarely witnessed. The first eye-witness account of this violent dolphin-porpoise interaction in Wales occurred in 2004, ten years after these attacks were identified through pathology. There have been just two more confirmed observations in Wales, once from SWF Director Dr. Peter Evans in February 2008 and in May 2009 by a SWF volunteer whilst undertaking a survey on wildlife watching trip boat, Ermol V (see picture below).
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Hanna Nuuttila and Bangor University are currently undertaking a PhD project in collaboration with Sea Watch to further assess the effectiveness of passive acoustic click detectors (PODS) as a monitoring tool for cetaceans. These PODS record echo-location clicks produced by the dolphins and porpoises and Sea Watch has found using the PODS that habitat partitioning exists between bottlenose dolphins and porpoise in Cardigan Bay, i.e. the harbour porpoise may be avoiding the dolphins. For further information see Simon et al. 2010
.This new POD project has involved the placement of 42 acoustic C-PODS recording clicks in a 1km grid off shore from New Quay harbour. The attack occurred within this experimental grid and it is anticipated that the PODS will have recorded the clicks produced during the event. Hopefully valuable information will be gained to learn more about the social interactions of bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises.
11 May - Grey whale Eschrichtius robustus in the Eastern Mediterranean
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An unprecedented event occurred in Israel over the weekend. On Saturday May 8, 2010 a whale was spotted a mile and a half off Herzliya Marina. A team from the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Centre (IMMRAC) were called to investigate. They were able to follow the whale, which was approximately 13m in length, southward along the coast for two hours. While being tracked, the whale was observed making a series of short dives, 3-5 minutes in duration, occasionally displaying its flukes. Initially its size, coloration and dorsal hump lead to it being identified as a sperm whale. However, closer inspection of the photographs showed a lot of head in front of an elevated blowhole, unwrinkled flukes and white-patched skin leading to the conclusion that it could only be a grey whale, Eschrichtius robustus.
Sea Watch Monitoring Officer Daphna Feingold, a former researcher for IMMRAC, has spoken with colleagues in Israel who have confirmed continued sightings in the area by members of the public and local fishermen.
The grey whale currently comprises of two distinct populations: the Eastern North Pacific and the Western North Pacific. Once found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, gray whales became extinct in the Northern Atlantic sometime in the 17th-18th Century and no sightings of the Grey whale have been made in the Atlantic Ocean since. Whilst the world population of grey whales is estimated at 26,500, the Western North Pacific stock holds IUCN critically endangered status with numbers estimated at 130 individuals, with only 25-30 reproductive females. Almost all the population of Western Pacific Greys has been satellite tagged, so an absence of tag suggests it is likely to member of the Eastern Pacific population. Part of the Mysticeti sub-order, the grey whale is a bottom feeder, its primary prey being benthic amphipods. Whalers once called the grey whale the ‘devil fish’ because of its ferocity but today they are known for their inquisitive approach to boats.
The grey whale makes one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, travelling up to 5000 miles from its northern summer feeding grounds in the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas to its winter breeding grounds off the coast of Baja.
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For a whale to have ended up in the Eastern Mediterranean it must have travelled thousands of miles from its natural habitat. SWF Director, Dr Peter Evans suggests that the animal may have come into the North Atlantic via the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean which with global warming has become navigable now. It must have then entered the Mediterranean via the straits of Gilbraltar. Strangely the animal has not been spotted until now that it has reached the Eastern Mediterranean. There are fears that this animal will be unable to survive here as there are few food resources.
Thanks to Aviad Scheinin and Dan Kerem for information and images
10 May - 70+ LONG-FINNED PILOT WHALES HANG OUT IN THE CROMARTY FIRTH
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A sighting of 70 – 100 long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) was confirmed by the Aberdeen Lighthouse Field Station on Tuesday 4th May 2010 in the mouth of the Cromarty Firth, NE Scotland. The group consisting of adults and calves were reported to be behaving normally undertaking spy hopping, tail slapping, side breaching and logging activities. The same pod was sighted again off Latheron by Colin Carter in the morning of the 6th May, where they milled about until around 5pm when they started moving north and were photographed by SWF Regional Coordinator Colin Bird, passing Swiney Hill, Lybster at around 7pm.
Long-finned pilot whales are common and widely distributed in the deep waters of the north-eastern Atlantic and seasonally enter coastal waters around the Faroe Islands, north Scotland, and western Ireland. However, it is rare to see these animals travel so close inshore as we saw at Lybster. Male whales can grow to lengths over 6m and females to a maximum of 5.5m. Long-finned pilot whales are easily recognised by their dark grey or black bulbous head, low fin located far forward on their dark back, long pectoral fins and slow swimming pattern.
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It is estimated that there are only 10,000 Long-finned pilot whales left in the North Atlantic Ocean. Historically this whale species has been traditionally exploited in Newfoundland, the Shetland and Orkney Islands and Ireland. Present day hunting continues to some extent in the Faroe Islands where there is a long tradition of driving the whales ashore and killing them. These hunts are subject to much concern and controversy. This whale species is also under threat from entanglement in long-lines, trawls and gillnets.
So far this is a great start to the season!
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If you have any cetacean sightings please pass the information onto sightings@seawatchfoundation.org.uk or submit here.
4 May - Sea Watch appeals to public to 'Photo a Fin'
Sea Watch is urging members of the public - and particularly those on yachts and other boats - to help in its campaign to solve the mysteries of the UK’s dolphin population by taking photos of the fins of any they spot.
Sea Watch wants people to send in any photos of dolphins and whales that show details of nicks and markings on fins to photo@seawatchfoundation.org.uk. The pictures can then be compared to others held on national ID databases at the charity’s base in Wales, and with regional catalogues held by other organisations. Alongside the pictures Sea Watch will need to know where and when they were taken.
Since dolphins and whales are protected species, there are strict regulations preventing boats from intentionally disturbing them by sailing too close or from following them, and Sea Watch is emphasising that pictures should be from opportunistic encounters – either when dolphins are bow riding or when they approach a boat. Full details of the Marine Code of Conduct are available here.
“This is a very exciting project for us and we want to encourage as many people as possible to send us their photos. The more we receive, the more we should be able to uncover about dolphin movement patterns, habits and behaviour,” explains Dr Peter Evans, Sea Watch research director.
“We are already aware of some of the movements of certain groups. For example, known bottlenose dolphins on the west coast of Scotland have been spotted off the Irish and Cornish coasts. Scottish east coast bottlenose dolphins were photo-identified near Whitby last year, which is further south than has been recorded before. However, we have no evidence yet that the Cardigan Bay bottlenose dolphins in Wales ever go to the Irish coast or out of the Irish Sea or whether the Irish dolphins ever leave their coastal waters to come to Wales.
Photographing fins of other species will also help provide an insight into their movements. Individuals are recognised from nicks in their fin or unique markings on their back or flanks, as is the case for orca and minke whale, or particular patterns of markings on the underside of their tail flukes as in humpback whales.
“By analysing movements more through this ID project, we can learn a lot from the dolphins, whales and porpoises around the UK – about the way they live, where they range to, and the challenges they are likely to face during their journeys.
“We need to understand more about them to shape conservation policies and so enable them to thrive in UK waters.”
Sea Watch is organising the ID photo campaign as part of its annual National Whale and Dolphin Watch. Sponsored by BG Group, this year’s watch will run from 7 to 15 August and Sea Watch volunteers will be co-ordinating a series of events nationwide. The charity welcomes pictures of fins of dolphins, whales or porpoises at any time during the year, but particularly during the watch period
To take part in the fin ID project, all you have to do is send your photos to photo@seawatchfoundation.org.uk with the following information:
- Your name & contact info
- Date of sighting
- Location of sighting
- Estimation of the number of animals in the group
- Any other info you can provide i.e. time of sighting, sea state, behaviour & heading, etc.
OR fill out a SWF sightings form (click here) & send with the photos.
Top Tips for photo a fin
To take good photo ID shots always set your camera to take at the highest resolution and follow Sea Watch's three TOP TIPS:
- Focus directly on the animal
- Avoid distant shots, zoom in if necessary
- Take at a perpendicular angle (90°) (shots of bow riding dolphins from behind and above are not so useful)