WDCS Fieldwork Blog

The intrepid field team of Sarah, Nicola and Kila are dusting off our field equipment in preparation for Joint Warrior 101. WDCS have renewed their call for a full and transparent Environmental Impact Assessment to be conducted by the Ministry of Defence for the exercise.

Joint Warrior, set to start on April 12th, is a major exercise led by the UK and involving up to 12 NATO and Allied Nations. At-sea operations are conducted for two weeks and occur twice every year. Up to 85 aircraft, 22 ships and 3 submarines operate during this massive international exercise. Military sonar, used during the exercises, emits intense loud noise that can disturb and harm whales and dolphins, which rely on their sensitive hearing to navigate, find food and communicate. Naval sonar, more commonly linked to mass strandings events of deep diving whales, has also been associated with minke whale strandings in the Bahamas and in North Carolina. On the west coast of US, close to Seattle, similar rapid fleeing behaviour has been observed from killer whales and dolphins in response to sonar.

The west coast of Scotland is well-known for its populations of minke whales which migrate to the area in the summer months to feed in the rich and productive waters. Decreases in sightings of minke whales have already been reported off the west coast of Scotland during naval activities. It is not known how any disruption in the whales’ feeding behaviours will affect populations in the long term.

HWDT and WDCS have joined forces to monitor important whale habitat in the Minch, western Scotland, during the Joint Warrior exercise as a result of ongoing environmental concerns. WDCS has been conducting land-based whale and dolphin observations in northwest Scotland, whilst HWDT has been surveying from its dedicated research vessel, Silurian, using visual and acoustic techniques.

Western Scotland is one of the most important marine habitats in Europe. We are concerned about the potential impacts that these massive and regular exercises, including Exercise Joint Warrior, are having on our marine wildlife. The UK Ministry of Defence should conduct a full and transparent Environmental Impact Assessment – like those currently being undertaken by the US Navy – as a matter of urgency.

Watch this space! We will begin blogging proper on Saturday 10th April.

The intrepid field team of Sarah, Nicola and Kila are dusting off our field equipment in preparation for Joint Warrior 101. WDCS have renewed their call for a full and transparent Environmental Impact Assessment to be conducted by the Ministry of Defence for the exercise.

Joint Warrior, set to start on April 12th, is a major exercise led by the UK and involving up to 12 NATO and Allied Nations. At-sea operations are conducted for two weeks and occur twice every year. Up to 85 aircraft, 22 ships and 3 submarines operate during this massive international exercise. Military sonar, used during the exercises, emits intense loud noise that can disturb and harm whales and dolphins, which rely on their sensitive hearing to navigate, find food and communicate. Naval sonar, more commonly linked to mass strandings events of deep diving whales, has also been associated with minke whale strandings in the Bahamas and in North Carolina. On the west coast of US, close to Seattle, similar rapid fleeing behaviour has been observed from killer whales and dolphins in response to sonar.

The west coast of Scotland is well-known for its populations of minke whales which migrate to the area in the summer months to feed in the rich and productive waters. Decreases in sightings of minke whales have already been reported off the west coast of Scotland during naval activities. It is not known how any disruption in the whales’ feeding behaviours will affect populations in the long term.

HWDT and WDCS have joined forces to monitor important whale habitat in the Minch, western Scotland, during the Joint Warrior exercise as a result of ongoing environmental concerns. WDCS has been conducting land-based whale and dolphin observations in northwest Scotland, whilst HWDT has been surveying from its dedicated research vessel, Silurian, using visual and acoustic techniques.

Western Scotland is one of the most important marine habitats in Europe. We are concerned about the potential impacts that these massive and regular exercises, including Exercise Joint Warrior, are having on our marine wildlife. The UK Ministry of Defence should conduct a full and transparent Environmental Impact Assessment – like those currently being undertaken by the US Navy – as a matter of urgency.

Watch this space! We will begin blogging proper on Saturday 10th April.

My first field trip of the year for the Moon Reef spinner dolphin project took place in late February. The study site is about a 3-hour ride from Suva and we were fortunate to have some great weather conditions during our trip. I took two assistants with me on this trip: Neema Nand, a Fisheries Officer for the Fiji Department of Fisheries (in the marine research division) and Waisea Naisilisili who is a long-term field technician for the Fiji office of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

I’ve managed to secure funding for six bi-monthly research survey trips for this project this year. On each I’ll be taking two local assistants (university staff or students, government officers, local ngo’s etc) to assist in building awareness on this work and to deliver training in cetacean research methods. We’ll be conducting standard photo-identification and behavioural observations during these surveys to address questions related to population size estimation, site-fidelity, calving patterns, population ‘closure’, annual and seasonal trends in the use of the reef, and quantification (and daily cycle) of resting behaviour. My new hydrophone should arrive in the next couple of weeks so we’ll also be adding acoustic recordings to this work soon. In addition, there will be two complimentary projects (on habitat assessment and group surfacing behaviour) that will be undertaken later in the year.






We’re also hopeful to conduct some focal follows in the late afternoon as the dolphins depart the reef so that we can try and learn more about the location of the night-time foraging grounds of this pod. We did one such follow this trip. We followed the pod south from Moon Reef and watched them playfully surf the waves for quite a while before they disappeared in the blink of an eye to their evening destination. Perhaps the new hydrophone will help us next time?

Lastly, the February trip was also particularly noteworthy as I saw the smallest spinner dolphin calf I’ve ever seen. I’d guess it to be only a month old.