A Year in Review 2013
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A year in review 2013 As 2013 draws to a close, we reflect on another year of the IWDG, its 22 nd year. Each year I worry about how are we going to run the group, where is the funding coming from, will the IWDG achieve some of its potential? Well financially we are very strong and we have had plenty of stories to tell from the Bunratty dolphins to offshore beaked whales. We have had a large turnover due to our success in winning tenders, environmental impact assessments and surveys as well from membership, fundraising and courses. As ever, the stranding and sighting schemes remain at the core of the IWDG, providing essential information on the distribution and abundance of cetaceans in Irish waters as well as identifying threats and conservation issues. This year's record number of strandings is of concern but whether this reflects increased recording, mortality or even abundance is unclear. The recovery of some common dolphins from Co. Mayo in March for post- mortem by specialist vets was welcome. This established fishing bycatch as the cause of death but the number of common dolphin stranding remained high through the year and cannot be attributed to fisheries interactions. IWDG will continue to identify unusual stranding events and lobby for a cetacean post- mortem programme in Ireland. This year marks the first year's commitment to Celtic Mist. On receiving Celtic Mist the IWDG said it would give it three years, after which the group will critically review whether we can afford to run the vessel and if it is providing a useful service. The first year has been very successful with Celtic Mist circumnavigating the island of Ireland, over 250 members have sailed on her and she has broken even financially. Please do try and get out on Celtic Mist in 2014, she is a very stable and comfortable vessel and is great fun to be on, amongst whales and dolphins. IWDG priorities next year are to continue to find ways of using the flow of information from the recording schemes to support conservation actions and raise awareness of the wealth of cetacean life in our seas. We hope the website upgrade will soon be complete and we can start to provide a more regular e-zine and other resources to members. We still have plenty of opportunities to become involved in different aspects of the IWDG so if interested please do get in touch. So thank you for your support, we are a membership based organisation and value your support. We wish to increase membership and strive to provide more benefits to members. Many thanks to the IWDG Board and to my fellow officers for their commitment and contribution to maintaining IWDG on course and under full sail. Dr Simon Berrow IWDG Executive Officer Sightings Review by Pádraig Whooley Analysis of November 2013 sightings records November is always an important month for cetacean recording in Ireland because statistically, in most years anyway, it is the month which produces the highest species diversity. It also often coincides with reasonable weather as high pressure can often become established after the Atlantics hurricane season (October) has blown itself out. So November can give us a good snap shot of activity around the country. We had a sense that this November was a busy month for cetacean sighting records, and now that the dust has settled we have time to review them. At a glance, this November 2013 has been the busiest on record with 166 validated sightings thus far. It’s important to bear in mind that this number is likely to increase as retrospective sightings and reports can be sent to us in the months/years ahead. The graph shows the trend in number of sighting reports during all Novembers in the past decade. The ecological factors underpinning this increase are likely to be complex and varied, but given that >78% of these sightings are from the Southwest and Celtic Sea area, it’s hard to imagine that this boom in cetacean sightings isn’t somehow related to the increased availability of what they are feeding on; namely sprats and herring. So who was seeing what around the country? Of the 166 records, 150 records were allocated to species level, with just 16 records (9.6%) downgraded to non-species category. As always, it’s important to remember that a % of those allocated to species category will have been upgraded, i.e. the recorder may not have known what species they were reporting, but still provided sufficient detail to satisfy IWDG on the thorny issue of “species identification”. As with November 2012, fin whales were the most frequently observed species with 38 sightings representing 23% of all sightings during the month. In second place was their smaller cousin the minke whale with 36 sightings (21.7%). Perhaps not surprisingly the common dolphin, which are often in association with fin whales, were the 3 rd most frequently reported species with 30 sightings (18.1%). All six species confirmed are ranked on Table 1 below. Table 1. Species No. Sightings % Fin whale 38 23 Minke whale 36 21.7 Common dolphin 30 18.1 Harbour porpoise 24 14.5 Humpback whale 11 6.6 Bottlenose dolphin 11 6.6 So that’s what’s been seen in summary during November…but where have they been seen? Well perhaps no great surprise that the majority of this November activity (78%) has been recorded along the Irish Southwest and south coast counties of Kerry, Cork and Waterford. One can argue that we just got lucky as the well-documented Cork peak in large whale sightings coincided nicely with an established “high pressure” weather system over the country, which brought very favourable whale watching conditions. But this is clearly not the full picture. Two stand-out episodes in fact are from the opposite end of the country. On Nov 28 th Anne Kelly forwarded IWDG an increasingly common sighting record of a pod of 3-5 bottlenose dolphins off Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, with a short video clip. What she didn’t realise was that the footage contained compelling evidence that in among the bottlenose was a harbour porpoise, which was clearly having a rough time of it. You can guess the rest. But this is the first video evidence from Northern Ireland confirming this aggressive inter-species interaction. NIEA field-staff will likely have one less harbour porpoise to monitor during their monthly land-based watches! The other episode was from the Northwest. Commencing on 16 th November there has been almost daily sighting of minke whales off the Bloody Foreland area of Co. Donegal, th courtesy of Gareth Doherty. This activity was recorded on 18 of 24 days between 16 Nov. to Dec. 9 th and on Nov 25 th seems to have peaked with a best estimate of 10 minke whales c300m south of Bloody Foreland Point. The mean group size recorded was 4-5 animals each day, with occasional bottlenose dolphin cameos thrown in for good measure. Interestingly, on some days Gareth watched from >1 site and he can confirm for instance that on Nov 26th there were 6 minkes at Curransport West of Magheraroarty, and at least 3 more off Brinlack Pt, south of Bloody Foreland. Clearly these couldn’t have been the same animals, suggesting that this run of minke whales was not confined to one location. But how widespread was it? In common with other prolonged episodes of rorqual activity, it seems the driver for this Donegal whale fest has been the presence of large herring aggregations. This is now the 2 nd consecutive year that minke whales have been recorded in this location and at this time of year. There is always the possibility that if this becomes something of an annual fixture in the area, that fin and/or humpback whales may want a piece of this northwest action. Let’s hope so. Weather has completely broken down now with a remarkable temperature of 15 degrees Celsius recorded at Malin Head, Co. Donegal on Dec 12 th ….afraid such balmy weather at this time of year is invariably a bit of a poisoned chalice, as it can only get here when driven by moisture laden tropical winds. Not the sort of weather you’d be out whale watching in, and as a result December is unlikely to be as busy as November. But just because we can’t see them, doesn’t mean they’re not out there. IWDG wish to thank all those “casual” recorders who are the back bone of the Irish cetacean recording scheme, for sending in your online records on www.iwdg.ie . And to the often unsung heroes who maintain regular, local effort watches, our knowledge and understanding of these magnificent animals would be greatly diminished, if it were not for your dedication and enthusiasm. Thank you from all of us in IWDG. Strandings Review by Mick O'Connell As you may remember, cetacean strandings (and especially those of common dolphins) were up significantly in January/February 2013 and due to the unusual number of strandings, the National Parks and Wildlife Service arranged for five common dolphins to be removed to Athlone for post mortem examination with a view to establishing cause of death. Findings of the post mortems were released and showed beyond doubt that all of the examined animals had died as a result of drowning having been bycaught in trawl-type fishing nets. The big question at the time was whether the numbers of cetaceans stranded in Ireland would return to a more normal level after this apparently exceptional ‘blip’.