WDCS Fieldwork Blog

Courtney Vail, WDCS Caribbean program lead recently traveled to Saint Lucia as part of our "Live Free in the Sea" Caribbean education program. This year "Live Free in the Sea" focuses on Tobago, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent. In partnership with the Eastern Caribbean Cetacean Network (ECCN), the "Live Free in the Sea" 2008 program will educate young people on these islands about how their actions on land affect beaches, reefs and marine life. The program on each island consists of environmental education and action with an artistic component. On Tobago, children took part in a beach clean up on Turtle Beach; the trash collected was then recycled to make functional art. On Saint Lucia, Courtney took children from the Laborie Boys School whale and dolphin watching with Caroline Aimable, who runs Mystic Man Tours on Saint Lucia and coordinates "Live Free in the Sea" on Saint Lucia. On their whale watch they saw Fraser's and spotted dolphins, pilot whales and pygmy and dwarf sperm whales. "It was amazing the see the excitement from the children," Courtney said. "They live so close to the sea, but so many of them had never been out on the water, or seen a whale or dolphin.


While Courtney was visiting she gave the children educational talks, and Year of the Dolphin Diplomas after beach clean ups. They also made origami whales to add to Peggy Oki's Origami Whales Project (http://www.peggy-oki.com/cu_origami.html), which is a curtain of over 30,000 origami whales ­ each signifying one of the whales taken by whaling since the 1986 international moratorium on whaling. Courtney was most excited about encouraging children that their voices are important. She said, "One of the sweetest replies that was offered by a 2nd grader when I asked 'why should we care about whales', was 'because they care about us"

Courtney Vail, WDCS Caribbean program lead recently traveled to Saint Lucia as part of our "Live Free in the Sea" Caribbean education program. This year "Live Free in the Sea" focuses on Tobago, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent. In partnership with the Eastern Caribbean Cetacean Network (ECCN), the "Live Free in the Sea" 2008 program will educate young people on these islands about how their actions on land affect beaches, reefs and marine life. The program on each island consists of environmental education and action with an artistic component. On Tobago, children took part in a beach clean up on Turtle Beach; the trash collected was then recycled to make functional art. On Saint Lucia, Courtney took children from the Laborie Boys School whale and dolphin watching with Caroline Aimable, who runs Mystic Man Tours on Saint Lucia and coordinates "Live Free in the Sea" on Saint Lucia. On their whale watch they saw Fraser's and spotted dolphins, pilot whales and pygmy and dwarf sperm whales. "It was amazing the see the excitement from the children," Courtney said. "They live so close to the sea, but so many of them had never been out on the water, or seen a whale or dolphin.


While Courtney was visiting she gave the children educational talks, and Year of the Dolphin Diplomas after beach clean ups. They also made origami whales to add to Peggy Oki's Origami Whales Project (http://www.peggy-oki.com/cu_origami.html), which is a curtain of over 30,000 origami whales ­ each signifying one of the whales taken by whaling since the 1986 international moratorium on whaling. Courtney was most excited about encouraging children that their voices are important. She said, "One of the sweetest replies that was offered by a 2nd grader when I asked 'why should we care about whales', was 'because they care about us"

For days while Hurricane Ike ravaged the Turks and Caicos, and for days after, no one was able to contact the 66 people who weathered the storm on Salt Cay. The majority of Salt Cay was evacuated, but these 66 people decided to stay and after days of uncertainty and concern for the people, property and animals of Salt Cay - communication was established, others have returned and the island is on the mend.

At first, there was no air service, the airstrip was unusable; and there was no ferry capabilities, the larger boats (the Buccaneer and Salt Cay Divers' Big Boat) were sent to Grand Turks' North Creek to hide from Ike. However, reports say those boats disappeared without a trace during the storm.

Just like on Grand Turk, there was massive damage on Salt Cay, but the residents of Salt Cay not only survived Ike's 135 mph winds and storm surges, they came through with tenacity and determination. A shelter was set up at the school. Jim and Sharon Shafer of Windmills and Porter Williams of Island Thymes donated food from their freezers.

The Green Flash Café, one of our favorite places was wiped out, fortunately the memories were not.
Teams of workers arrived to restore electricity and re-roof more than 30 Belonger homes in need roof replacement. Tents are set up in the yards so homeowners would have a place to live while their roof was repaired. Once the roofs are repaired, the focus will go to the churches and common buildings in need of repair. There is still much work to do: ceilings collapsed, walls crumbled and there is much interior damage. There are a few organizations collecting donations to help residents in need of financial support.

Immediately after the storm, rescue workers were collecting bottled water, work gloves, non-perishable food items, roofing materials, tarps, treated lumber, diesel generators for refrigerator and these things are still necessary. However, currently the biggest problem is the electric company won't reconnect homes with power until they have been inspected, which is very expensive and there are many elderly in need of help.

Friends of Salt Cay began raising money specifically for Salt Cay's rebuilding efforts. Relief efforts were targeted specifically for Salt Cay; to help the local residents, including the elderly whose homes were affected. These efforts have been taken over by Salt Cay Hurricane Relief Trust. To make a donation: visit www.saltcay.org

At the end of two blustery weeks of field work, we packed our survey gear into the car. We’d heard reports of a northern bottlenose whale that had found itself way up in Loch Eil, past Loch Linnhe at Fort William, on the west coast of Scotland. It had been ‘behaving normally’ and swimming the length of Loch Eil for several weeks and had last been seen on Wednesday. We planned to head back to Edinburgh, via the scenic west coast route and Fort William, hoping for a glimpse this intriguing whale so that we might assess its condition. It was a long shot, and we got more than we bargained for.

Northern bottlenose whales are not usually found in rivers and lochs. They are a deep water oceanic species normally found in the waters out to the north and west of Scotland where squid are abundant prey and hunting forays to 1,500 metres are not uncommon.

After a three hour drive through the mountains in the rain we arrived at Loch Eil with the backdrop of the impressive Ben Nevis. Methodically, we set about searching the Loch from the shore, starting at the far end and working our way back. After 30 or so minutes of watching we found an unusual looking floating object, not shaped like a buoy or a piece of wood, but sticking out of the water all the same. Through the ‘Big Eye’ binoculars we could just make out that it was a long, slender beak pointing up to the sky and we could occasionally make out the bulbous forehead (which bottlenose whales are known for) as the small waves lapped over her. She was dead, her body vertical in the water and drifting with the falling tide, back out to sea. We were devastated. We barely believed that we might find the oceanic whale, and certainly not like this.

We alerted the local SSPCA officer, Donna, and assembled with the Coastguards, Phil, Darryl and Calum, and Outward Bound Co-ordinator, Dennis, who kindly took us out onto the Loch in a RIB to confirm and collect the whale. We located the whale and towed her back to the shore. In the drizzling rain and cold, driving wind, a full double rainbow straddled the Loch. With some assistance from a tractor, she was pulled out of the water and above the high tide line so that the post-mortem could be undertaken by the Scottish Agricultural College.



It was a sad end for the whale, for the residents of Loch Eil who had got used to her presence in the Loch and become fascinated with her over the last month, and for us. The best we can hope for is that the post-mortem can identify was caused this beautiful and incredible animal to end up in a Loch a long way from home and, ultimately, her demise.



We are very grateful to the SSPCA, Coastguard and Outward Bound for making the retrieval of the whale happen so quickly and so efficiently.

This northern bottlenose whale in Scotland is not the only individual to meet such an unfortunate end this year. A few bottlenose whales strand each year in Iceland, but at least 11 have already died this year. In addition, several pairs of bottlenose whales arrived in very shallow waters immediately after these strandings – some in Eyjafjörður and some in Skjálfandaflói. They were joined by two others in the harbor, one of which became entangled in a buoy and washed up dead over the following weekend. These strandings are currently being investigated in Iceland and WDCS is very interested to learn the results of these investigations.

All photographs in this blog were taken by Nicola Hodgins, WDCS.

Written on Saturday morning but due to translation efforts (and lost whale rescue efforts – see next blog entry), not posted until Sunday – apologies!

Apparently we’re on the move again, at least all the bags have been packed and there’s talk of going to look for a “lost whale” in a Loch near Fort William. Someone said it might have got lost after being preoccupied chasing some fish, I know that feeling, I’ve nearly got lost a few times when those pesky squirrels (and occasionally the odd rabbit) decide not to stay still…and although the run is fun, it can be quite scary not knowing where everyone has gone….although they’re usually where I left them and shouting my name!! I do hope the whale has someone shouting for him…

(However I must say, after listening to all the talk about these “highly intelligent” animals, I do have to wonder how clever they really are – should have got one of those map or GPS things that the humans I’m with have!)

I’ll be sad to leave this rather pleasant home away from home…although I don’t think I’ll be missing those dastardly sheep any! I nearly got one the other day when we stopped the moving box to let a whole lot of them past but however hard I tried I just couldn’t squeeze out the window….and my cries went unattended so getting out the door wasn’t going to be an option either! It was so unfair…..there were two other of my kind out there with them (I think they were from the border collie side of the family) and they were allowed to chase them – who makes up these rules?!?



I’ll miss my daily dose of seaweed too! I didn’t like it to begin with (just thought it was a mouldy stick) but it’s grown on me and apparently now I’m not only eating healthy but I’m trendy too!

And the temporary office has been fun, although getting there can be quite time-consuming – I’ve had as many pork scratchings as I could poke a stick at and lots of tummy rubs from unsuspecting office workers – they weren’t always too happy when they realised I’d just been for a swim!



So until the next time, it’s a big woof from me….and hopefully I’ll be back in May when the big birds and boats will also be back and perhaps by then I’ll have improved on my Houdini technique and managed to work a way out of both the garden and the car…and finally get to those dastardly sheep!!