Conservation Plan for Cetaceans in Irish waters Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government December 2009 Conservation Plan for Cetaceans in Irish waters Cover image: Bottlenose dolphins in the Lower River Shannon candidate SAC (© Simon Berrow/SDWF) 1 Conservation Plan for Cetaceans in Irish waters Conservation Plan for Cetaceans in Irish waters Page No. Preface 3 1.0 Introduction 4 2.0 Current Knowledge 2.1 Distribution in Ireland 6 2.2 Habitat 7 2.3 Abundance 8 2.4 Migration and Movements 10 2.5 Life-history 11 2.6 Current status 15 2.7 Legal Provisions 16 3.0 Monitoring 3.1 Description 17 3.2 Actions taken to date 18 3.3 Threats to their Protection 20 3.4 Future Actions 22 4.0 Fisheries 4.1 Description 23 4.2 Actions taken to date 25 4.3 Threats to their Protection 28 4.4 Future Actions 30 5.0 Pollution 5.1 Description 32 5.2 Actions taken to date 36 5.3 Threats to their Protection 37 5.4 Future Actions 39 6.0 Vessel Use 6.1 Description 41 6.2 Actions taken to date 42 6.3 Threats to their Protection 43 6.4 Future Actions 43 7.0 Conservation Plan 45 References 50 Appendix I: Species profiles 62 Appendix II: List of Acronyms used in the Conservation Plan 97 2 Conservation Plan for Cetaceans in Irish waters Preface In Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (i.e. the EU Habitats Directive), Article 12 requires: 1. Member States shall take the requisite measures to establish a system of strict protection for the animal species listed in Annex IV (a) in their natural range, prohibiting: (a) all forms of deliberate capture or killing of specimens of these species in the wild; (b) deliberate disturbance of these species, particularly during the period of breeding, rearing, hibernation and migration; (c) deliberate destruction or taking of eggs from the wild; (d) deterioration or destruction of breeding sites or resting places. 2. For these species, Member States shall prohibit the keeping, transport and sale or exchange, and offering for sale or exchange, of specimens taken from the wild, except for those taken legally before this Directive is implemented. 3. The prohibition referred to in paragraph 1 (a) and (b) and paragraph 2 shall apply to all stages of life of the animals to which this Article applies. 4. Member States shall establish a system to monitor the incidental capture and killing of the animal species listed in Annex IV (a). In the light of the information gathered, Member States shall take further research or conservation measures as required to ensure that incidental capture and killing does not have a significant negative impact on the species concerned. On 11 January 2007 the European Court of Justice ruled that Ireland had failed to fulfil its obligations in relation to inter alia Article 12 of the Habitats Directive (Case C-183/05). This plan was prepared as part of Ireland‟s response to this judgement. Its primary purpose is to identify the principal scientific, administrative and regulatory provisions that must be established in a coherent and integrated manner to ensure that strict protection is provided to all cetaceans occurring within the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone. This plan will be further reviewed in 2013 with a view to refining a monitoring programme (including clear scientific and/or species-specific objectives where necessary) for the period 2013-2018. 3 Conservation Plan for Cetaceans in Irish waters 1.0 Introduction According to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), an estimated 86 cetacean (whales, dolphins and porpoises) species are recognised worldwide. These include 14 species of Mysticete or baleen whale and 72 Odontocete or toothed whale and dolphin species, among which there are six species of Phocoenidae (porpoises), 36 species of Delphinidae (dolphins) and 21 species of Ziphiidae (beaked whales). Cetaceans account for 48% of all the native species of mammals, both marine and terrestrial, recorded in Ireland and Irish waters are thought to contain important habitats for cetaceans within the northeast Atlantic (Berrow, 2001). To date, 24 species of cetacean, or 28% of species described worldwide, have been recorded in Ireland. Irish cetaceans include six species of baleen whale and eighteen species of toothed whale, including five species of beaked whale. Twenty-two of these have been reported stranded ashore and 20 species observed at sea. Two species (Pygmy sperm whale and Gervais‟ beaked whale) are only known from stranded individuals and two species (Northern right whale and White whale/beluga) have only been recorded historically, with neither species occurring in the stranding record so far. A systematic list of all species recorded in Ireland to date is shown in Table 1 together with their conservation status as determined in 2006-07 (NPWS, 2008). Individual species profiles are provided in Appendix 1. Rockall Bank Rockall Trough Irish Sea Porcupine Bank Celtic Sea Figure 1. Map of Ireland‟s maritime area, including the 12 nm Territorial Sea limit (blue line), the 200 nm Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) limit (red line), the outer limits of the Continental Shelf (black solid line) and bathymetric features (in 500m depth contours). 4 Conservation Plan for Cetaceans in Irish waters Table 1. Cetacean species recorded in Irish waters listed by grouping/family and general size (Classification follows Rice, 1998). Conservation status derived from the Irish report to the EU under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive (NPWS, 2008). Species Latin name and Authority Conservation Status [NPWS, 2008] Baleen whales Blue whale Balaenoptera musculus (Linnaeus, 1758) Unknown Fin whale Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758) Good Sei whale Balaenoptera borealis (Lesson, 1828) Unknown Common minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata (Lacépède, 1804) Good Humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781) Unknown Northern right whale Eubalaena glacialis (Müller, 1776) Vagrant Toothed whales and dolphins Sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus (Linnaeus, 1758) Unknown Northern bottlenose whale Hyperoodon ampullatus (Forster, 1770) Unknown Sowerby‟s beaked whale Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby, 1904) Unknown Gervais‟ beaked whale Mesoplodon europaeus (Gervais, 1855) Vagrant True‟s beaked whale Mesoplodon mirus (True, 1913) Vagrant Cuvier‟s beaked whale Ziphius cavirostris (G. Cuvier, 1823) Unknown White whale Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas, 1776) Vagrant Long-finned pilot whale Globicephala melas (Traill, 1809) Unknown Pygmy sperm whale Kogia breviceps (Blainville, 1838) Vagrant Killer whale Orcinus orca (Linnaeus, 1758) Unknown False killer whale Pseudorca crassidens (Owen, 1846) Vagrant Risso‟s dolphin Grampus griseus (G. Cuvier, 1812) Unknown Common bottlenose dolphin* Tursiops truncatus (Montagu, 1821) Good Atlantic white-sided dolphin Lagenorhynchus acutus (Gray, 1828) Good White-beaked dolphin Lagenorhynchus albirostris (Gray, 1846) Unknown Common dolphin Delphinus delphis (Linnaeus, 1758) Good Striped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba (Meyen, 1833) Unknown Harbour porpoise* Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus, 1758) Good * Included on Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive; all species are on Annex IV of the Directive 5 Conservation Plan for Cetaceans in Irish waters 2.0 Current Knowledge 2.1 Distribution in Ireland Of the 24 species reported in Ireland, ten species (Harbour porpoise, Atlantic white-sided dolphin, White-beaked dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin, Common dolphin, Risso‟s dolphin, Killer whale, Northern bottlenose whale, Long- finned pilot whale and Sperm whale) are thought to be present year-round while it is possible that Cuvier‟s beaked whale and Sowerby‟s beaked whale are also resident in deep-water gullies off the western seaboard (Berrow, 2001). Six species (Minke whale, Blue whale, Fin whale, Sei whale, Humpback whale and Striped dolphin) are thought to be seasonally present and six species (Northern right whale, White whale or beluga, False killer whale, Gervais‟ beaked whale, True‟s beaked whale and Pygmy sperm whale) are thus far classified as rarely occurring or vagrant (NPWS, 2008). The Common dolphin and Harbour porpoise are consistently the most frequently reported species stranded on the Irish coast with Minke whale the most frequently reported stranded baleen whale species (Berrow and Rogan, 1997; O‟Connell and Berrow, 2007; 2008). This pattern in stranding occurrence is relatively consistent with sighting records with Harbour porpoise, Common dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin, Minke whale and Fin whale the most frequently sighted species in Ireland (Pollock et al., 1997; Berrow et al., 2002a). The Harbour porpoise is the most widespread and frequently sighted species in Ireland, occurring in continental shelf waters and around the Irish coast. It appears to be more abundant off the southwest coast and in the Irish Sea and less abundant off the northwest but this could be due to reduced recording effort (Reid et al., 2003). Harbour porpoises rarely occur over deep water but have been observed over relatively shallow (<200m) offshore banks. Common dolphins are the second most frequently sighted species in Ireland and appear to be most abundant off the southwest and west coasts and in the Celtic Sea (Reid et al., 2003). They are less commonly sighted in the Irish Sea and there is some evidence of movement into the southern Irish Sea in the autumn (Brereton et al., 2007). They are also observed in deep offshore waters, including those overlying the continental slope and nearby basins (e.g., Rockall Trough)