Ireland's Cetacean Survey Specialists
The IWDG has been successful in winning another Harbour Porpoise Survey from the NPWS for 2018. This is the seventh porpoise survey contract IWDG have won from the NPWS and the third time we will survey the Blasket Islands SAC for this qualifying interest.
These surveys are required to meet state obligations for Habitats Directive reporting.
Image Credit: © Calvin Jones/Ireland’s Wildlife, all rights reserved.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) have been working in collaboration with the Regional Veterinary Laboratories of the Department of Agriculture (RVL) and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) to carry out a cetacean post-mortem scheme on behalf of the Marine Institute and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Utilising the IWDG’s well established strandings scheme which began in 1991, submitted stranding records of animals which fit the project criteria (i.e. good-moderate condition, target species) are collected and brought to the RVL in Cork City for examination by a qualified veterinarian in order to determine cause of death. The aim of the project is to conduct standardized laboratory necropsies of a targeted number of common and striped dolphins, as well as harbour porpoises. From these necropsy examinations, veterinarians from the RVL with the aid of biologists from GMIT and the IWDG generate detailed case history reports for each animal documenting details of the animals initial examination, as well as the results of any tests such as bacteriology and histology and any other significant findings. The UK CSIP at the IoZ, London has provided the team with expert training and technical guidance, and is also providing independent oversight on the case histories generated from all necropsies. Samples collected during the necropsies will be stored and may be used to facilitate a variety of future investigations of marine mammal ecology. This is Ireland’s first post-mortem scheme which aims to establish cause of death, and has the potential to greatly increase our understanding of the cause of strandings, as well as provide samples to explore the health and ecology of cetaceans in Ireland.
Stephanie Levesque, Cetacean Necropsy Scheme Project Coordinator
IWDG in collaboration with Dublin Port staff deployed four moorings with CPODs attached and an AMAR last week as part of the marine mammal acoustic monitoring programme associated with the Alexandra Basin Re-developement. CPODs are click detectors, logging the echolocation clicks of porpoise and dolphins while the AMAR, supplied by JASCO Applied Sciences in Canada, will record a broad band sound from low frequency (ship traffic) to high frequency (harbour porpoise).
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IWDG Consultants were onsite to implement the mitigation plan for the maintenance dredging campaign. For the duration of the project (6 weeks), two of our consultants were based on-board the source vessel as well as another being land based and implemented the NPWS “Guidance to Manage the Risk to Marine Mammals from Man Made Sound Sources in Irish Waters.” The maintenance dredging campaign was completed in late July but our consultants are in place for the upcoming Alexandra Basin Re-Development project there.
IWDG Consulting provided an experienced Marine Mammal Observer during dredging operations in the Shannon Estuary. The estuary is home to the only resident population of resident Bottlenose dolphins in Ireland and is a designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC). As such it is essential that the effects of any proposed works be mitigated against. Our consultant was onsite for the duration of the project implementing the NPWS “Guidance to Manage the Risk to Marine Mammals from Man Made Sound Sources in Irish Waters.”