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Cetacean Stranding Investigation and Co-Ordinating in the UK

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Cetacean Stranding Investigation and Co-Ordinating in the UK Cetaceans Strandings Investigation and Co-ordination in the UK Report to Defra for the period 1st January 2000 - 31st December 2004 Consultancy Report Client: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) ___________________________________________________________________ _______ TRENDS IN CETACEAN STRANDINGS AROUND THE UK COASTLINE AND CETACEAN AND MARINE TURTLE POST-MORTEM INVESTIGATIONS, 2000 to 2004 INCLUSIVE (CONTRACT CRO 238) ___________________________________________________________________ _______ Edited by Paul D. Jepson Contributing Authors R. C. Sabin, C. J. H. Spurrier, P. D. J., Chimonides (NHM) P. D. Jepson, R. Deaville, M. Perkins and A.A. Cunningham (ZSL) R. J. Reid, I.A.P. Patterson, G. Foster and J. Barley (SAC) R. Penrose (MEM) R.J. Law (CEFAS) December 2005 Report No. ECM 516T/05 NHM Consulting Environment: Coastal & Marine Sector Tel: +44 (0) 207 942 5636 The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 5BD, U.K. CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 1.0 BACKGROUND 8 1.1 Project Background 8 1.2 Aims and Policy Background 8 1.3 Project Outputs 10 1.4 Key events and milestones 10 2.0 CETACEAN STRANDINGS AND POST-MORTEM FINDINGS 12 2.1 Collection, analysis and reporting protocols 12 • Materials and Methods 12 • Tissue archive and Poseidon central database 14 • Reporting of data 14 2.2 General observations of trends in UK cetacean strandings 14 2.3 Trends in Cetacean Strandings 2000-2004 16 • Balaenoptera acutorostrata (Minke whale) 16 • Balaenoptera borealis (Sei whale) 16 • Balaenoptera physalus (Fin whale) 16 • Megaptera novaeangliae (Humpback whale) 17 • Delphinus delphis (Short-beaked common dolphin) 17 • Globicephala melas (Long-finned pilot whale) 18 • Grampus griseus (Risso's dolphin) 18 • Orcinus orca (Killer whale) 19 • Lagenorhynchus acutus (Atlantic white-sided dolphin) 19 • Lagenorhynchus albirostris (White beaked dolphin) 19 • Stenella coeruleoalba (Striped dolphin) 20 • Tursiops truncatus (Bottlenose dolphin) 20 • Phocoena phocoena (Harbour porpoise) 21 • Kogia breviceps (Pygmy sperm whale) 21 • Physeter catodon (Sperm whale) 22 • Hyperoodon ampullatus (Northern bottlenose whale) 22 • Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby's beaked whale) 22 • Ziphius cavirostris (Cuvier's beaked whale) 22 2.4 Causes of Mortality in Cetaceans and Marine Turtles 2000-2004 22 • Entanglement in fishing gear (Bycatch) 24 • Physical trauma (including fatal attack from bottlenose dolphins) 25 • Infectious disease mortality 26 • Starvation 27 • Live stranding 28 • Neoplasia 29 • Gas embolism 29 • Other causes of mortality 29 2.5 Trends in Cetacean Mortality (1990-2004) 32 • Trends in bycatch in UK stranded cetaceans (1990-2004) 32 • Trends in UK stranded harbour porpoises fatally attacked by bottlenose dolphins (1990-2004) 35 2 • Trends in infectious disease mortality in UK-stranded harbour porpoises (1990-2004) 37 • Trends in starvation in UK stranded cetaceans (1990-2004) 37 3.0 SPECIFIC RESEARCH ACTIVITY 39 3.1 Gas Embolism 39 3.2 Relationships between Environmental Contaminant Exposure and Health 43 Status in UK-stranded Harbour Porpoises • (a) Trends in contaminant exposure in UK-stranded harbour porpoises 1989-2001 43 • (b) Relationships between PCB exposure and health status in UK stranded porpoises 45 • (c) Relationships between trace metals and health status in UK stranded porpoises 55 • (d) Relationships between polybrominated flame retardants (PBDEs), butyltins (BTs) and health status in UK stranded porpoises 61 3.3 Summary of Additional (Peer-Reviewed) Research Activity 68 4.0 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 71 5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 76 Acknowledgements 78 ANNEXES A: References Cited B: Protocol Details C: Details of Strandings (by species) C-1 (Baleen whales) C-2 (Dolphins) C-3 (Porpoises) C-4 (Sperm whales) C-5 (Beaked whales) D: Project Communication Outputs E: Additional Research Activities 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report outlines the research conducted on UK cetacean strandings between 2000 and 2004 under contract to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) (Contract no: CR0238). The main aims and objectives of the research are to monitor trends in UK cetacean strandings and to conduct standardised post- mortem investigations on stranded and by-caught cetacean and marine turtle carcasses in order to monitor the incidence of disease; determine causes of mortality; investigate potential relationships between health status and pollutant exposure; maintain a database of pooled data derived from these investigations; and maintain a national tissue archive for current and future scientific research purposes. The research contributes to the UK Government’s commitment to a number of national and international conservation agreements including the EU Habitats Directive, ASCOBANS (Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas) and UK Biodiversity Action Plans for cetaceans and marine turtles. The research also informs Ministers and the public on issues relating to cetacean mortality. Trends in Cetacean Strandings 2000-2004. There were no unusual cetacean or marine turtle mass-mortality events identified in UK waters between 2000 and 2004. Data compiled by The Natural History Museum show that 3197 cetaceans of 18 species were reported stranded between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2004. Consistent with previous years, the most common UK-stranded cetacean species in 2000-2004 was the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) of which 1596 were recorded. The last five years (2000-2004) have seen progressively increasing annual numbers of UK-stranded cetaceans reported, reaching a peak in 2004 when 799 individuals were recorded. The annual increase in UK cetacean strandings was predominantly due to increasing numbers of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) and harbour porpoises recorded in south-west England between January and April and a lesser increase in reported harbour porpoise strandings in Wales. Analyses of age and body-length data suggest that harbour porpoises stranding in south-west England (presumably from the Celtic Sea stock) have significantly greater body lengths compared to harbour porpoises from other UK regions, suggesting there are at least two separate stocks in UK waters. Investigations of Disease and Mortality. The most common causes of mortality of 563 UK-stranded harbour porpoises examined at post mortem between 2000-2004 were attack from bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) (n=128), pneumonias due to combinations of parasitic, bacterial and fungal infections (n=102), entanglement in fishing gear (bycatch) (n=93) and starvation (n=74). All cases of fatal attack from bottlenose dolphins occurred in north- east Scotland, west Wales or south-west England, where porpoises share coastal habitats with resident or transient bottlenose dolphin populations. In Scotland, the distribution of both bottlenose dolphin live-sightings and stranded harbour porpoises fatally attacked by bottlenose dolphins has occurred with increasing frequency outside the Moray Firth area, suggesting that the Moray Firth bottlenose dolphin population has expanded outside of the designated Moray Firth bottlenose dolphin Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive. The number and proportion of stranded harbour porpoises killed by bottlenose dolphins has increased annually in west Wales between 1999 and 2004. The primary cause(s) of 4 these violent interactions, or why they are becoming more prevalent in West Wales, are not known. As in the 1990s, bycatch was the most common cause of death in UK-stranded common dolphins accounting for 116 of the 190 (61.1%) examined between 2000 and 2004. The majority of both common dolphin and harbour porpoise bycatches typically stranded in south-west England (Cornwall and Devon) between December and April. The increasing number of harbour porpoise and common dolphin strandings (predominantly bycatches) recorded in south-west England in recent years could reflect a genuine increase in (predominantly bycatch-related) mortality of these two species, although closer analysis of the strandings data suggests that other factors such as changes in abundance and distribution of these species and particularly increased coastal vigilance for stranded carcasses in Cornwall and Devon probably play a considerable role. Studies on harbour porpoises also identified a range of fatal (mainly parasitic and bacterial) infectious diseases that occurred in an increasing proportion in winter strandings. Infectious diseases were much less frequent causes of death in other species. A novel and potentially fatal pathological entity characterized by acute and chronic systemic gas and fat embolism was first described in UK-stranded cetaceans during this project. These new findings, characterized by acute and chronic cavitary lesions in a range of tissues including liver, kidneys, lymph nodes and spleen, were identified in five common dolphins, four Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus), two harbour porpoises, a Blainville’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) and a Sowerby’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens) that stranded in the UK between 1992 and 2004. They provide some of the first pathological evidence that cetaceans can suffer in vivo gas bubble formation, gas and fat embolism and associated tissue injury and that in some circumstances these bubbles can persist through time. Theoretical mechanisms proposed for bubble formation involve behaviourally altered dive profiles (possibly in response to loud underwater
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