Issue 19 Spring 2015 Shorewatch Shorewatch News...Issue 19 Spring 2015 Dr Conor Ryan talks Humpbacks Late February Shorewatch volunteers were offered the opportunity to log in and

Issue 18: Autumn 2014

ShorewatchShorewatch News

A world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free

Supported by:

©WDC/ Fiona Hill

Hello Shorewatchers,

Spring is now here, the evenings are getting lighter, the birds are singing and the sea is getting calmer - this makes for perfect Shorewatch weather.

The spring issue of the Shorewatch newsletter includes: interesting updates on what’s new from Shorewatch and new to the world of cetacean science. You can also find answers to some of those questions that are regularly asked in regards to the Shorewatch protocol.

Happy watching! Katie

©W

DC/

Lei

gh S

edgl

ey

Issue 19 Spring 2015

t: 01343 820 339e: [email protected]/shorewatch



Shorewatch NewsShorewatch updates

The population that use Cape Verde as a breeding ground have not recovered from whaling as successfully as the population in the West Indies; with only 2% of the population breeding in Cape Verde. Females and their calves arrive to the area from February – May and shelter in bays where they mate, give birth and suckle their young. To date the population in the Cape Verde is estimated at 200, pre whaling the population stood at 5000, did whaling really reduce the population by 95% or is this population suffering from other stresses?

Cape Verde is becoming increasingly busy with a booming tourist trade. Mitigation that is set in place in Europe to protect these amazing creatures like Environmental Impact Assessments, do not exist in Cape Verde; so non regulated development can go ahead. What can be done to protect this fragile population? A good start would be to recognise the cape verde population as a separate population so under ICUN their status can be deemed more fragile than the ICUN ‘least concern’ west coast population. By defining breeding areas and designating them as Marine Protected Areas we can provide a safe haven for essentialbehaviours. Regulation needs to be put in place to ensure for a responsible whale watching industry, if left unregulated the industry can be very disruptive to breeding creatures.It has been documented that Cape Verde is visited by both the Northern and Southern Atlantic populations so could in fact support different populations at all times of the year. Cape Verde is clearly an important area that needs to be preserved fo the use of Humpback Whales..Webinars are a great way for us as a team to all be a part of the same event, despite being based in several remote locations. A number of Shorewatchers logged into the disscussion and could view Conor, his presentation and take part in the Q&A session. Some Shorewatchers took the opportunity to meet up with fellow Shorewatchers and take part together..Viewing the Webinar is simple, and if you do not have an internet connection you can use a land line to call into the discussion.

Keep an eye out for our next interestin Webinar

HUMPIES | Katie DykeThe Shorewatch site at Tiumpan head, Isle of Lewis, is the cause of much envy in the office, due to the number of sightings recorded from the site. In November the envy became too great and following several posts on Facebook of Humpback sight-ings, myself and a team of east coast Shorewatchers hit the road and headed to the Isle of Lewis. We were wrapped up ready for the freezing temperatures, armed with thermoses of hot tea, cameras, scopes and binoculars. Within 30 minutes at the site we spotted the first Humpback, high pitched ohhs and ahhs came from everyone, the ohhs and ahhs got louder as we noticed that the humpback was not alone, but with another humpback and about 60 white beaked dolphins and a few Risso’s Dolphins, we had hit the jack pot! We stood on the isolated cliff for 3 hours watching the feed-ing frenzy until the sun when down and we could see no more, but by night fall the humpies had got so close we could hear their blows.


Dr Conor Ryan talks Humpbacks Late February Shorewatch volunteers were offered the opportunity to log in and view a Webinar given by Dr Conor Ryan.

At a glance the life of a humpback is quite predicable. They are either eating at their feeding grounds,mating at their breeding grounds, or travelling between the two. There are two genetically distinct populations of the North Atlantic Humpback, the North West Humpback (east coast of the USA and Canada) and the North East Humpback (Greenland, Iceland, Norway, UK, and Ireland). Both populations move to the same breeding grounds, the main breeding ground being the West Indies with a secondary breeding ground being Cape Verde. It has been a recent discovery that humpbacks are still using Cape Verde as area to breed. Both populations often meet on their journey back to their feeding grounds.

Humpback whales have been regularly spotted in UK and Irish waters, however it is still unknown if they are using the area as an important feeding ground or just using the area as a quick last minute feeding station before making their journey to their breeding grounds. It is unknown where exactly the humpbacks we see head to breed.

Humpbacks in the UK and Ireland arrive in June and stay until January with a peak in sightings early winter (November/December). Research suggests that some individuals over winter in the Celtic Sea. This could be young males avoiding hassle from bigger males, non-breeding females or could be aresult of climate change; due to changing temperatures the herring are spawning later and later every year. Some Humpbacks may be staying behind to make the most of the abundance of food, but will this have a knock on effect to birth rates? Further research and protection at feeding grounds is the only way to find out. Photo identification and other long term acoustic monitoring programmes can provide the missing link in humpback distribution and behaviour. Understanding their movements and behaviours is important so we can better protect the species. A productive way to protect species is by putting protection in the key areas in which they use. Humpbacks clearly travel from feeding to breeding ground, and have clear preferences, so it could be simple to protect thespecies if we protect these important areas, the difficulty comes when trying to locate where these areas are and how they are used.





On Monday 16th February, we, Lorna (education officer) and Katie (conservation officer), along with our Edinburgh based colleague Sarah Dolman, took a little trip to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh to take part in the Scottish Environment Festival 2015 run by Scottish Environment LINK, the forum for Scotland’svoluntary environment organisations, of which WDC is a member.The theme for Scottish Environment Week 2015 was Sharing Scotland, highlighting all the resident and visiting species with which we share our environment and the human duty to share the space fairly and responsibly.Our presence at the festival was sponsored by David Stewart MSP, allowing us to take part to highlight the amazing species of whales, dolphins and porpoises that inhabit our seas and showcase our education programme and Shorewatch, With a stall alongside the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust and the Marine Conservation Society as part of a drop-in session for MSPs and public visitors alike, we also ran the day’s seminar. This gave us the chance to really show off our work and the amazing commitment shown by our Shorewatch volunteers! Using skulls, baleen and life size cut outs we introduced MSPs to some of the whales and dolphins found in Scottish waters and we even got them to conduct a mock Shorewatch, giving them an excellent idea of the work we and Shorewatchers carry out.To find out more about how the entire week went check out this video;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIvRVMOU43w&feature=youtu.be

Shorewatch at Parliment

Say Hello to our new recruitsHello Shorewatchers, my name is Andrew, I’m one of the new residential conservation volunteers based in Spey Bay. This is my first visit to Scotland. I’m looking forwarded to visiting as many of the watch sites as I can and meeting up with you all.I’m an orcaholic; it’s been a little over a year since my last fix in Iceland and it’s about time I saw some more. I’ve never seen orca in the UK and I’m on a mission to track them downHello everyone!! My name is Matt, I’m the other Shorewatch volunteer with Andrew. I’m looking forward to exploring Scotland and travelling to meet all you lovely people around the place! I hope you are all well and enjoying the winter watching

Weekly ORCA updates, sign up to recieve Orca facts every friday https://confirmsubscription.com/h/ j/7C4CC94C3B926848


©W

DC

©W

DC

Matt Andrew




Shorewatch NewsShorewatch updatesShorewatch FAQGetting confused with Shorewatch protocol? These FAQ will help, find more Q&As on the Shorewatch website; www.whales.org/shorewatch

1. Do I count boats that I can see with my eyes only?You look for the boats with your naked eye but feel free to use your binoculars to identify them. The idea is that the noise from larger boats (like tankers) travels further so it makes sense to record them at greater distances where you might not see, for example, a small motor with the naked eye. 2. What do I do if I spot cetaceans? Do I stop the watch and then restart after I have identified the cetacean? Do I carry on with the watch from the point I stopped at or do I jump to the next quarter?The most important thing is to note down the details of the sighting that you have made. Take a bearing, reticule and distance estimate and watch for long enough that you are fairly confident about species-ID, number of animals and behaviour. If this sighting happened early in the watch, you may have time to continue your Shorewatch within the 10-minute watch period. Prioritise quadrants which have not yet had any watch effort (if you saw the animals in the first scan of quadrant 2, you might want to scan quadrants 3 and 4 in the remaining minutes). It is always good to use your naked eyes at the end of a watch since you can cover the entire area so if you only have one minute left, this might be your best choice.3. What do I do if someone I am with spots a cetacean in a different quarter to the one I am on?Cross your fingers and hope that it is still there when you get back around to that quadrant! You should not change the Shorewatch protocol in order to look at that section immediately as we need all watches to be comparable and you might miss a sighting in the quadrant where you are watching. 4.How do I tell if I have two separate groups or one widely spread group?This is a tricky one. Different species can always be considered different groups and please note in the comments if they are mixing together. Within a sighting of a single dolphin species, however, particularly if they are near the coast and feeding, it is more likely to see a single group which has spread out over the area. This is even more likely to be true if they are exhibiting the same behaviour. Reasons to consider a group to be two (or more) groups coming together can be seen in the following example: an initial group is exhibiting ‘stay’ behaviour in your field of view and has been there from the beginning of your watch. In minute 7, another group is seen in the distance and travelling toward the group in front of you. In this example, the groups are exhibiting different behaviours (initially); seen independently at distance from each other; sighted at different times; and you have clear counts of each group so that you know the first group has not diminished when you see the second group.5.How do I count reticules if there is haar covering the horizon?The only answer is to do your best! You can scan around the horizon to see if there is a place clear of haar to give you a reference. Make a note of any issues like this in the comments. As always, please remember to give a distance estimate as well. If you feel that it is impossible to gauge the reticules, we can still use the distance estimate to mark your sighting on a map.6.If the cetacean travels before I have an accurate bearing what do I do? Can I record the bearing once I’ve identified the cetacean?It is best to record the bearing where you first saw the cetacean and then note the direction of travel in the sighting comments. This is not an exact science, however, and if you get the bearing at a later point, that still marks the sighting within your Shorewatch site. Please still put the notes about movement in the comments. Also, remember that you might be able to note that the initial sighting was ‘over that fence post’ and then come back to take a bearing after you have done your ID.






©W

alte

r Inn

es

©W

alte

r Inn

es

©Le

igh

Sedg

ley

©En

ivro

nmen

tLIN

K

©H

olly

Pea

k©

Hol

ly P

eak

Meet the gang......Hear what Walter Innes, a Shorewatcher at Torry Battery Aberdeen has to say about Shorewatch I seemed to be spending a lot of my time, down at the harbour mouth, pointing a camera at our gang. One of the RSBP girls said I should go along to the training. I met a good bunch of people, and a wave of enthusiasm from the WDC folk. Watching Dolphins is very addictive So, being a Shorewatcher is a very twofold thing - 1. The buzz when the dolphins turn up - and OMG if they start breaching!2. Passing all our sightings, along with every other site, to find out more about our critters. I have a feeling of almost 'ownership' with ours - and like to share that with othersOur site Torry Battery? It's windy, cold, even on a sunny day! The dolphins....when they go up the river, chasing the salmon, you can hear them.. when they pop up for a breath your heart melts..Just like when we heard the humpy at Tiumpan, the sound hits you and that to me is as good as a full breach. A perfect moment.

Wildlife spotted by Walter at Torry Battery

Do you have a story to tell? If so contact katie and get your story

in the next newsletter


©W

alte

r Inn

es©

Katie

dyke

©W

DC

©D

avid

Hai

nes




Shorewatch News Interesting Updates

Bowhead whale facts

• Life span of up to 100-200 years

•Longest baleen of any whale - 14ft

•thickest blubber of any whales

A first for the UKArctic bowhead whale seen off Isles of ScillyBowhead whales are rarely spotted south of the Arctic but this spring an individual has been seen off the Isles of Scilly.Unlike other whales that migrate to low latitude waters, the Bow head whale, lives entirely in Artic waters and are never too far from an icely ridge, so it is quite unusual to see an individual so far south. The bowhead whale, has the largest mouth of any animal, it is a robust and dark coloured whale, without a dorsal fin and can grow up to 20 metres.

It was a diffucult task to ID the whale, with a number of experts involved in the process. The shape of the head and jaw-line ruled out sperm whale and confirmed that it was a baleen whale but still one couldn’t be certain of the species. The pyramidal shape of the head with what looked like a line of callosities along the top led scientists to think it might be a young grey whale. However grey whales went extinct in the North Atlantic in the eighteenth century, but in May 2010 and 2013 a couple of individuals were spotted in Europe and were expected to have travelled from pacific populations. But with closer inspection it was decided that the animal was a juvenile Bowhead whale. Dark spotting was noticed on the animal, the head shape and jaw-line also fitted the species, as did the light patch under the chin, and of course, the lack of a dorsal fin. Heavily exploited by whalers in the Arctic Ocean, in Greenland, and the Barents Sea north of Norway, the population seriously declined during the early twentieth century from numbers historically estimated to be around 30,000-50,000, reaching a low in the 1920s of 3,000. With the reduction of commercial whaling in the latter half of the last century, numbers globally have increased to somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000, mainly in the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean, other populations are increasing at a slower rate.

It has been suggested that the whale may have come from around Greenland, where numbers have been increasing slowly. This bizarre behaviour may be a result of ice frag- mentation, leading to animals straying further south.

PROTECTING THE LAST OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALESJust 500 survive in a reduced habitat range along the East Coast of the United States and CanadaHunted from the 11th century, right whales were nearly extinct when they finally received protection from whaling in 1935.Modern day threats include vessel strikes, fishing gear entanglements, habitat loss and pollutionWDC is on the spot fighting to protect these remarkable creatures.Over 5 years ago, WDC, in partnership with The Humane Society and U.S. Government began work to increase federally designated critical habitat for the 500 remaining critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. These whales needed more than 8.5% of their U.S. “home” area protected.

©W

DC



Shorewatch News

Watch out for whales and dolphins from your local shoreline



Where does all our litter go...

Disposing of our litter appropriately is so important

Last summer a 45-foot-long young female sei whale was spot-ted swimming up the Elizabeth river in Virginia, far from the deep waters of the Atlantic where the species, listed as endangered, is normally found.

The whale seemed disoriented and two days later was found dead.

A necropsy revealed the animal had swallowed a shard of rigid, black plastic that lacerated its stomach, preventing it from feed-ing. The shard that caused the whale’s demise was identified as a broken piece of DVD case. Most likely the marine mammal had swallowed the debris while feeding at the surface.

Plastic ingestion is a widespread problem for marine animals, particularly seabirds and turtles, which can easily confuse the debris for food. The indigestible material can obstruct the stomach or intestine, leading to starvation and death. As the amount of sea litter increases, so do the risks to marine life; with ingestion of debris being documented in 56 percent of cetacean species, with rates of ingestion as high as 31 percent in some populations.

Solutions; Reuse, Recycle, why not organise a beach clean.

Shorewatch goes global| Katie Dyke

I escaped for the sun for most of January and February, to attend my friend, Divya’s wedding in Kerela India. Divya is a previous volunteer of WDC and when she returned home to Cochin, India, she decided to carry out research on the resident Humpback Dolphins to better understand their use of the estuary and effects of local development activi-ties. She turned to her local community in search of willing volunteers that would carry out regular Shorewatches along the coastline. Hopefully Divya will be offering us a Webinar talk this year, and she is still looking for volunteers, so if any of you are seeking warmer waters, watch this space.

Rare albino dolphin spotted in Indian River Lagoon, Florida, in DecemberOnly 14 reported sightings since records began in 1962.Researchers think there could be as few as 20 albino dolphins world-wide.

A solitary dolphin Clet loved by fishermen in France and spotted in Ireland and Cornwall has turned up in Scottish waters. Clet’s journey through European waters and his 372-mile (600km) swim from Galway to Mull has been described as “remarkable”.

Interesting updates Issue 19 Spring 2015




Shorewatch News

Hi ShorewatchersMy name is Sophie Mills, a student studying Marine

Biology and Oceanography at Plymouth University. As I was born and bred near Inverness I decided to bring my studies home and do my student placement with

WDC Shorewatch during summer 2014.

I have been collecting and analysing data for Shorewatch with the specific goal of looking into the impact of boat traffic on cetaceans with particular focus on the bottlenose dolphins.You will all know that the inner Moray Firth is an impor-tant hotspot for Scotland’s east coast bottlenose dolphins, particularly in summer, and is also very busy with boats. If faced with disturbance I wanted to find out if dolphins would flee this area or endure the boat traffic to stay in their desirable habitat. They may choose to stay for reasons such as a favourable mate, social context or foraging quality. Some toothed whales have been shown to stay; whereas Harbour Porpoises have been shown to flee, would dolphins do the same? There is a large scale Marine Wind Farm project proposed within the Moray Firth, which will increase boat traffic using to the area. I hope to use the Shorewatch data to make predictions on the impacts of this project towards cetaceans. For my reseach I am observting the populations of the Inner Moray Firth from the Shorewatch site of Fort George at two locations; Site 1 observing the area between Rosemarkie and the outer firth and Site 2 observing the area overlooking Chanonry Point from Fort George Duke of Marlborough semi-bastion. Boat traffic in this area is high despite it being onevof the largest Special Areas of Conservation (SAC).

The Firth is also an important oil field and fishing area, which has raised concerns about levels of boat traffic and noise levels in the area.Using Shorewatch data allows my analysis to compare all factors using only one data source. I have taken into consideration all of weather conditions we Shorewatchers collect including sea state, visibility and tidal state, so that I could ensure these aren’t impacting changes in sightings. I am also combining data from several other sites including North Kessock and Chanonry Point. By combining the data from more than one site a clearer picture can be made on boat traffic, due to the sites varied positioning around the firth. I am currently in the middle of analysing the data collected over summer 2014, but if anyone is interested in more information, or the final paper (hopefully availa-ble towards winter this year) then please either contact WDC or [email protected].

Shorewatch Science

©W

DC





Shorewatch News

Last summer I was lucky enough to work with Sarah Dolman WDC’s north atlantic programme manager, to analyse harbour porpoise datarecorded as an additional bonus while WDC conducted research on the Risso’s population in the waters surrounding the Isle of Lewis. The aim was to reinforce the Isle of Lewis as a key habitat for harbour porpoise which is the most common cetacean around the UK.

The data was obtained from passive acoustic monitoring C-PODs, which were deployed across five sites on the east coast of Lewis and recorded the clicks of harbour porpoise and other cetacean. Unfortunately the data recorded from the C-PODs can only determine harbour porpoise at species level so other cetaceans could not be identified. (The data was collected from 2011 to 2014 and in order to make the data ready for analysis I had to get to grips with the C-POD software – which was no small feat! The data recorded from the C-PODs allowed me to search for patterns in Harbour porpoise’s presence.

I was interested in looking at patterns in harbour porpoise presence in relations to time of day, month, and yearly variations across the study area.

I found that harbour porpoises off the east coast of Lewis exhibited increased nocturnal activity, which correlates with studies at different locations. There were also monthly variations in activity, with peaks from May-September, and another from December-January. This shows that harbour porpoises

are likely to be reproducing in the study area, as breeding and calving occurs during summer months. As there is increased activity during winter months and activity was detected in every month of the year, the harbour porpoise population is likely a resident one, indicating that the area is important habitat as it can support harbour porpoise populations year-round.

In addition to this, I used the “other cetacean” data to study whether the harbour porpoises in the area were potentially avoiding bottlenose dolphins, which has been recorded in areas where aggression from bottlenose dolphins towards harbour porpoises occurs. As I could not identify individual species from the other cetacean data, I used Shorewatch data to further investigate the likelihood that the “other cetaceans” recorded were in fact bottlenose dolphins. From the visual data, it was clear that the species is comparatively rare in the study area hence harbour porpoises are likely to not be coming into regular contact with the species, rather than co-existing and avoiding bottlenose dolphins.

Without the use of the WDC Shorewatch data, the findings from the C-PODs with regards to harbour porpoise presence in the context of other cetacean species would have been less clear. There is a huge amount being done with Shorewatch data and it all adds to increased protection and legislation to conserve habitats for marine mammals.

Shorewatch Science

Fig 1:Sightings data was used to show the proprtion of marine mamals recoreded which were bottlenose dolphins

Photo of Alex

By Alex Brown

©A

lex

Brow

n


©Ch

arlie

Phili

ps




Shorewatch News

Thank you so much for committing your time to Shorewatch, especially over the winter months, we appreciate that some sites do not get a huge number of sightings, but the data we are collecting will provide historical information about the marine wildlife found along our coastline and all the data collected whether showing an absence or presence will give us a idea of how these creatures use our waters so we can clearly see what areas are important for their survival, so we can better protect whales, dolphins and ensure healthy seas. Having eyes on the sea is so important for conservation, we cannot protect what we do not understand. It is re-markable but there is still alot unknown about whales and dolphins and a long term base line data research programme like Shorewatch is so important. Thank you again for all your hard work!

Shorewatch Calandar Issue 19 Spring 2015

The Dolphins have arrived at the bay

When there is nothing to be seen in the sea you can always draw them

Keep an eye out for all the other wildlife returning to your Shorewatch site

Spring has arrived and there will be lots of wildlife returning to your Shorewatch site, to keep you entertained between watches, why not start a personal diary of all the wildlife you can see at your site,

do you have returning Fulmars, Ganets, wildflowers? Let us know if you want further help IDing other wildlife at your site!

©A

imee

Bur

row

s©

Hol

loy

Peek

We have been busy planning Shorewatch events for 20152015 will be full of cetecean sightings, fun socials and deepening our knowledge in everything whale and dolphin.We will be offering workshops, field trips, site swaps, training and talks from local experts at all our Shorewatch sites.This year we will be launching regular Webinars from experts in the fields...... Keep an eye out on facebook, the web site - www.whales.org/shorewatch and your inbox or regular updates on the exciting opportunities WDC Shorewatch will be offering this year.

Documents

Issue 19 Spring 2015 Shorewatch Shorewatch News...Issue 19 Spring 2015 Dr Conor Ryan talks Humpbacks Late February Shorewatch volunteers were offered the opportunity to log in and