Annual Report 2018 1 January to 31 December 2018 for Marine Scotland, Scottish Government Andrew Brownlow, Nick Davison and Mariel ten Doeschate SRUC Wildlife Unit Drummondhill Inverness IV2 4JZ Tel 01463 246044 1 | P a g e Contents Contents ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Section 1: Executive Summary .......................................................................................... 7 1.1 Project overview .................................................................................................................. 8 1.2 Contract specification.......................................................................................................... 8 Section 2: Strandings........................................................................................................ 11 2.1 Strandings overview .......................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Spatial maps of strandings ................................................................................................ 14 2.3 Pinniped strandings ........................................................................................................... 17 2.3.1 ‘Corkscrew’ or spiral trauma cases ....................................................................... 18 2.4 Pinniped age structure ...................................................................................................... 18 2.5 Cetacean strandings .......................................................................................................... 21 2.6 Harbour porpoise strandings 2018 .................................................................................. 23 Section 3: Cause of death/findings summary tables ....................................................... 25 3.1 Cause of death; direct anthropogenic versus other causes of death. ............................ 27 Section 4: Mass stranding events (MSE’s) and Unusual mortality events (UME’s). .... 29 4.1.1 Mass stranding events (MSE’s) multiple strandings and unusual mortality events 29 4.2 M193.1- M193.2/18 harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) ........................................ 29 4.3 M245.1- M245.2/18 common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) ............................................. 31 4.4 M245.1- M245.2/18 common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) ............................................. 32 4.5 M769.1- M769.5/18 long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) ................................ 33 4.6 Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirorostris) and Northern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) UME (s) ................................................................................................ 35 Section 5: Entanglement cases......................................................................................... 39 5.1 Cetacean entanglement cases. ........................................................................................... 39 5.1.1 M592/18 – minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) ........................................ 39 5.2 Pinniped entanglement cases. ........................................................................................... 40 5.2.1 M364/18 – Grey seal (Halichoerus grypus)............................................................ 40 Section 6: Grey seal predation (cetaceans). ..................................................................... 41 6.1 Primary trauma cases suspected to be seal predation on harbour porpoise ................ 42 6.2 Secondary infection possibly due to seal bite lesions on harbour porpoise .................. 44 Section 7: Neurobrucellosis cases .................................................................................... 46 7.1 M129/18 – Atlantic white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus) ............................... 46 7.2 M391/18 – Sowerby’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens) ............................................. 47 7.3 M553/18– striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) .......................................................... 48 2 | P a g e Section 8: Other notable single strandings ...................................................................... 50 8.1 M59/18– Long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) ...................................... 50 8.2 M181/18 – Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) ........................................................ 51 8.3 M285/18 – harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) ....................................................... 52 8.4 M402/18– Sowerby’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens) .............................................. 53 8.5 M481/18 – Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus)................................................................. 54 8.6 M488/18 – white beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) .................................... 55 8.7 M586/18 – minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) .................................................. 56 8.8 M644 /18– sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) ......................................................... 57 8.9 M773/18 – short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) ..................................... 58 8.10 M919/18 – Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) ................................................. 59 Section 9: Spiral “corkscrew” trauma seal cases ............................................................ 61 Section 10: Other single pinniped strandings ................................................................... 65 10.1 M6/18– Harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) ............................................................................. 65 10.2 M27/18– Harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) ........................................................................... 65 10.3 M263/18– Harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) ......................................................................... 66 10.4 M296/18– harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) ............................................................. 67 10.5 M343/18– grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) ........................................................................ 68 10.6 M429/18– Harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) ......................................................................... 69 10.7 M523/18– Harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) ......................................................................... 71 Section 11: Basking sharks and marine turtles ................................................................. 72 11.1 Basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) ............................................................................. 72 11.2 Marine Turtles ................................................................................................................... 73 Section 12: Bacteriology ..................................................................................................... 73 12.1 Brucella sp. ......................................................................................................................... 73 12.2 Streptococcus sp. ................................................................................................................ 74 12.3 Pasteurella sp. ..................................................................................................................... 75 12.4 Vibrio sp. ............................................................................................................................. 75 12.5 Yersinia sp. .......................................................................................................................... 75 12.1 Bordetella bronchiseptica ................................................................................................... 75 12.1 Mycoplasma sp. ................................................................................................................... 75 12.2 Fungal isolates .................................................................................................................... 76 Section 13: Virology ........................................................................................................... 76 Section 14: Volunteer training courses ............................................................................. 76 14.1 Courses run 2018 ............................................................................................................... 76 Section 15: Necropsy demonstrations and outreach ......................................................... 79 15.1 SMASS Forum ................................................................................................................... 79 Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme 2018 Annual Report 3 | P a g e 15.2 Necropsy demonstrations .................................................................................................. 83 Section 16: Outputs ............................................................................................................ 83 16.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................. 83 16.2 Publications ........................................................................................................................ 83 16.3 Publications (Submitted) ................................................................................................... 84 16.4 Conference Presentations .................................................................................................