WDCS Fieldwork Blog

THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG: Unravelling the secrets of orcas and other whales in Russia

nospam@example.com (Administrator) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:00:43 +0100

The extraordinary beauty and charisma of an all-white mature bull orca, cracking the wild and windy waters of the Russian Far East, is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of appreciating the extraordinary diversity of life here.

The wonders abound: More volcanoes than anywhere on Earth; six different species of salmon; marine bird life in the tens to hundreds of thousands of pairs; multiple species of seals and sea lions and healthy numbers of walruses and sea otters; some 15 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, and a local population of orcas that has so far revealed three white orcas, including a rare all-white mature male, at least 16 years old. We’ve called him “Iceberg”.

© E Lazareva/FEROP

The explosion of life has allowed our small team of a dozen or so young Russian biologists to do a wide range of pioneer whale research in this area over the past decade — research sponsored by WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and co-funded by Humane Society International, Animal Welfare Institute, Rufford Foundation, among other groups. The orca work, under the banner of the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP) was begun in 1999 to learn more about and try to protect orca populations being targeted for aquarium captures. With the exception of two female orcas taken from one of our known pods in 2003, we have been successful. In 2009, we added the Russian Cetacean Habitat Project, with some overlap in team members, to include studies of other whales in the region and to aid efforts toward identifying and zoning critical habitat in the Commander Islands State Biosphere Reserve, the largest marine reserve in Russia. With Alexander M. Burdin from Russia and Hal Sato from Japan, I started the project and have stayed as it’s co-director with Dr. Burdin. I would like to summarize a few of the team’s accomplishments:

• We were the first researchers to photo-identify killer whales in Russian waters and today we have about 1500 individual orcas identified and catalogued, and counting.

• We have explored the social nature of Russian orcas with more than 20 pods in 3 clans in our main study area in Avacha Gulf alone. There are two ecotypes: fish eaters that concentrate on mackerel and salmon, and marine mammal eating transients that feed on minke whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions. 95% of these are the fish-eating resident-type orcas.

• We have photo-IDed more than 850 humpback whales on their summer feeding grounds around the Commander and Karaginsky Islands, where some of the same whales return year after year, showing site-fidelity. We have made nearly 30 links to their winter breeding grounds in Japanese waters off Okinawa and the Ogasawara islands.

• We have started the first photo-ID catalogue for the rarely studied Baird’s beaked whale and have had resightings from year to year. This species is hunted by Japanese whalers in Japan’s waters so our study may well prove to have future conservation value.

• Meanwhile, a satellite project by some members of our team has gathered and studied the bones of the Steller’s sea cow which went extinct in 1768, to try to gain more clues into why it went extinct just 27 years after it was found and named by scientist George Wilhelm Steller.

• We have recorded thousands of hours of underwater vocalizations, mainly of orcas. A key part of FEROP research focuses on the nature of the unique dialects of orcas. Moscow State University biologist Dr. Olga Filatova who gained her PhD through FEROP in 2005, is currently first author on an international paper published in March in Animal Behaviour on the evolution of the vocal repertoires, comparing the dialects of orca communities, or populations of the species, across the North Pacific. “Different kinds of sounds are used for different purposes,” says Filatova, “ranging from close-range communication to long-range calls that may function more to keep a pod together.”

The acoustics part of our team around Filatova is now looking for scientific proof that the resident fish-eating orca pods, such as Iceberg’s pod, and the transient marine-mammal-eating orcas, are separate species. “The conclusions will have strong implications for the conservation of the species,” says Filatova. “if they can be shown to be two species, which some scientists think they probably are, then each one will require a separate conservation plan with potentially greater concern and benefits for both species.”

With regard to Iceberg’s pod, we have no genetic data but we are hoping to meet them again in summer 2012 and learn more about the phenomenon of white whales, why they occur, what it means and whether Iceberg is a true albino — perhaps we can catch a glimpse of a pink eye — or “just” one of the most beautiful orcas anyone has ever seen.

© Erich Hoyt 2012, WDCS Senior Research Fellow.

Learn more about the Project and watch the field work of FEROP in 2 parts.

FEROP Part 1:

FEROP Part 2:

Bardsey, I salute you!

nospam@example.com (Pine Eisfeld) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:15:44 +0100

I can't believe it's already been two weeks that I've been back in the "normal" world with showers, round the clock electricity, running hot water and... (drumroll) flushing toilets! I've also quickly realised that everybody seems to be in a hurry going places, but there's only one place I want to go and that's back to my magic island!

Risso's dolphins with Bardsey Island in the distance. (c) Pine Eisfeld

Sunset mirrored in Hendy's window. (c) Pine Eisfeld

It's been an absolute fantastic experience! The island itself, like stepping back to the 1950s, but then somehow modern beyond my grasp; the Risso's dolphins and the porpoises - elusive like never before, but oh the joy when we did see them and got our hard-earned photo-ID shots of them. But it's not just about the cetaceans, there are the birds - Bardsey is on an internationally important migration route; the butterflies and moths - my two favourites being the hummingbird hawk moth that came to the fuchsia bushes at the Bird Obs regularly to feed and the crimson speckled moth found by the farmer's son, Ben, on the mountain. The haunting calls of the seals at night and seeing their newborn, megacute pups - all 11 of them that were born during our time there - will stay with me forever. For such a samll island (2.5 x 1 km), the range of habitats was amazing - from the heather-strewn mountain to the meadows and the rocky coves and beaches - stunning views all around! I have met some amazing and unique people and have come away with a real appreciation of the community spirit in this special place. I've had experiences on the island that I will forever hold dear - looking at the amazing night sky with its gazillion stars of the Milky Way clearly visible, going for a nightly stroll to find the Manx Shearwater burrows and their fluffy inhabitants, curry night at the Obs with songs and laughter, playing Bananagrams with Lis, the Obs' booking secretary, her husband, Bob, my colleague Rob and birder Simon (and me losing every game) or helping farmer Steve herding his ewes from one end of the island to the other. Rob and I have officially passed our sheepdog exam being sheepdogs that is, not actually controlling them!

View to the Southend from the mountain. (c) Pine Eisfeld

The fabulous hummingbird hawk moth. (c) Pine Eisfeld

A young seagull flying past. (c) Pine Eisfeld

Was it a good trip? Weatherwise - no! The seas were rough and the winds were high with a constant stream of hurricanes coming in from the Atlantic Ocean which made spotting our beloved cetaceans challenging. But the sun was shining a lot, giving us the opportunity to enjoy the island in all its splendour. As for the research, we did collect 24 hours of land-based data on 10 survey days and spent a total of 7.5 hours on farmer Steve's boat gathering photo-ID data of Risso's dolphins. From land, we saw a total of 25 harbour porpoise groups with 52 individuals and 14 groups of Risso's dolphins totalling 67 individuals, including five calves. From the boat, we encountered five groups of Risso's dolphins witha a total of 28 individuals, one of which was a very young calf. The valuable photo-ID pictures we collected wil enhance our current calalogue of known individuals and keep us busy during the dark winter months ahead.

Pine photographing a dorsal fin for later analysis. (c) Steve Stansfield

Mum and wee calf! (c) Pine Eisfeld

All that's left for me to do now is thank Defra and Elite Couriers for their generous funding of our fieldwork and much needed equipment, my fabulous colleagues and volunteers - Rob, Mark, Vicki, Roger, Harriet and Pete for all their help and all the laughs; the Bird Obs crew - Steve Obs, Emma, Rich B, Icky Steve, Giselle and Connor for their help, advice, patience and willing enthusiasm and all the wonderful guests who were staying at the Bird Obs and were great company at all times. From the Bardsey Island Trust, special mention must go to the resident warden, Emyr, who has the most amazing vegetable garden in the whole world and looked after us beyond measure while we were staying in the Trust cottages, Nant and Hendy. And last, but by no means least, a huge thanks to the Porter family, the island's resident farmers, Steve, Jo, Rachel and Ben. You are an inspiration and have provided us with lots of happy memeories! Your willingness to help us with our project and with all our weird and wonderful requests was hugely appreciated and will never be forgotten.

It's been a pleasure meeting you all and I hope to see you all again next year!

Bardsey, I salute you! Diolch yn fawr!

I love Bardsey! (c) Pine Eisfeld

Bardsey - View from a volunteer

nospam@example.com (Administrator) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:53:28 +0100

This blog instalment comes from Harriet Alvis - a 2nd year Marine Biology student at the University of Wales, Swansea and a WDCS volunteer.

I had been volunteering with WDCS at their Chippenham office for about three months and my job there was to assist with their scientific document library.

One day in mid-September I was sat at my desk watching enviously as the WDCS Science Team packed for their latest expedition to Bardsey Island, North Wales. After expressing my interest to the Volunteer Manager who coordinates my work, I was offered the chance of joining the expedition for a couple of weeks. The timing was perfect and I jumped at the opportunity as I had a few weeks free before continuing my university studies. As a Marine Biology student with an ambition to work with cetaceans, WDCS seems like a dream job - in fact, my plan was to refuse to leave until they give me one!

So off I set on a long train journey to North Wales passing several towns I couldn’t even begin to pronounce. My attempts to get across to Bardsey were thwarted on the first day due to bad weather so I had an unplanned overnight stay in Pwllheli. The next day dawned bright and, most importantly, calm so I set off on the final leg of my journey to the very tip of the Llyn peninsula and then across by boat to Ynys Enlli – Bardsey!

I was met on the island by the Pine, WDCS’ Conservation Officer and given a quick tour of the island which revealed several new born squeal – sorry, seal pups! They got the name squeal pups as that was most people’s reaction on seeing these super cute babies for the very first time!

Photo © Pine Eisfeld

I was trained up on collecting data and happily spent the next few days surveying the waters around Bardsey for signs of the elusive Risso’s dolphin. People on the island had been coming up to me with that age- old annoying statement – “You should have been here last week; we had dolphins practically every day”!!

The following few days went by with little more than a passing glimpse of their unmistakeable dorsal fins and I was beginning to feel a little disheartened. Indeed, sharing a house with several bird watchers I was close to considering a change of career choice (but not quite!).

However, all the waiting was to make the afternoon of September 29th all the more exciting. Whilst on the lookout an excited call came from the terrace of the Bardsey Bird Observatory - “Risso’s!” A few shrieks and dashes for the scope and binoculars later and in our sights we had at least 8 Risso’s, including one calf! It was an amazing sight to see and we were kept entertained for over an hour as they milled around the west coast of the island, coming to the surface regularly with some wonderful acrobatic behaviour.

Photo © Rich Brown

My experience that afternoon was definitely worth the wait and a highlight of my time on this wonderful island. A big thank you to WDCS.

Photo © Rob Lott

Meanwhile back on Bardsey Island

nospam@example.com (Administrator) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:55:28 +0100

The fieldwork is still ongoing - the sun has even been shining - and the team have managed to forward this image of their recent encounter with those illusive Risso's dolphins. Note the characteristic scaring, high dorsal fins and pale heads.

More blogs to follow.

Risso's dolphins off Bardsey Island

Bye-bye Beasties, Beasties bye-bye…

nospam@example.com (Sarah Dolman) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 14:46:55 +0100

We think our second summer here on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, Scotland has been a big success, but you can judge for yourself! Here’s a quick summary of everything we have seen in the last 7 weeks.

The first list shows all the animals that we recorded from our land-based watching site at Tiumpan Head. The second list shows all the animals that we recorded during the time we spent out on the boat… not bad for quite a wet and windy summer, eh..?

Our most frequently seen (and a favourite!) species..

Land-based sightings from Tiumpan Head
Species (Groups)
Fin or sei whale (1)
Minke whale (5)
Risso’s dolphin (4)
Common dolphin (2)
Bottlenose dolphin (1)
Harbour porpoise (7)
Unidentified dolphin (too far to identify) (7)
Grey seal (2)
Basking shark (2)

..

A watery welcome home after a day at sea!

Sightings during boat surveys
Species (Groups)
Minke whale (1)
Risso's dolphin (3)
Common dolphin (4)
Harbour porpoise (36)
Grey seal (15)
Seal (1)
Basking shark (2)
Sun fish (1)
Unidentified dolphins (2)

2010 was a bumper year for many species (as least when we were here in August and September), including basking sharks and Risso’s dolphins, so we are a little disappointed that we didn’t see more of these species in 2011. But we did encounter some of the same Risso’s dolphins as we saw last year. Excitingly, we also saw a female with a young calf who was seen here in 2004 by our colleague Dr Weir.

We had our first identifiable harbour porpoise, imaginatively (and affectionately) known as Scratchy.

We look forward to seeing Scratchy again in 2012...

We also had a mixed group of Risso’s dolphins and bottlenose dolphins, our first sun fish and more beautiful rainbows than is surely possible, due to the rain.. and more rain.. and more rain..!

"... Somewhere over the rainbow...."

Also, we have retrieved 3 of our 6 acoustic C-PODs and we have taken a sneaky peek and have GREAT porpoise and dolphin data on them!

And the most important thing we would like to do now that we have packed up our equipment and rushed off for the ferry back to the mainland at the crack of dawn... We’d like to say a BIG thank you to everyone on Lewis who made our surveys possible, and endlessly more enjoyable. Some of these folks include: Lewis at Hebrides Fish n’ Trips, Martin Scott at RSPB, Iain and Roddy at SNH, Tony Marr, Janet Marshall and a mighty shout out goes to Ruaraigh and the fishermen who helped us to deploy and retrieve our acoustic equipment.

We would also like to thank DEFRA and Elite Couriers for funding, as well as SNH and Fish n’ Trips for in-kind support of the project.
More from us in June 2012! Until then, we wish our colleagues on Bardsey Island in North Wales the best of weather for the rest of their survey! Please
keep an eye out for their next blog.. And in the mean time, some pretty pictures to end on..

The early bird catches the beautiful sun-rise!

Ahhhh, another beautiful early morning!

Canine Research Assistants when "off effort"

Another stunning beach that we will look forward to returning to in 2012..

And back to BardSey

nospam@example.com (Administrator) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:52:17 +0100

Here is the latest update from Bardsey Island. Project leader Pine Eisfeld reporting.

Being on Bardsey has the strangest effect, as time seems only to exist in terms of meal times, but events that people think have happened days ago, actually happened just that same morning or the day before.

I call this phenomenon BOT - Bardsey Other Time.

So, every day, lots of stuff happens here on this little island.

Last week, Wednesday, we suddenly had a spell of calm weather after all the ex-hurricanes and there was a quick changeover on the island. Mark, Vicki and Rob got off and Roger and a car load of food that could feed an army came on. I got moved with all the kit from the Bardsey Island Trust house, Nant, in to the Bird Observatory where Roger joined me.

I quickly trained him up in our protocol to spot whales and dolphins from our site on the North End, explaining why and how we do 10 min. scans with special binoculars, how to record the data, etc. We even saw a couple of Risso's in the distance!

On Thursday morning we rose bright and early to a flat sea and while we were just getting our gear ready, Steve, the Bird Obs warden, shouted "Rissos!". He had spotted them through his scope from the terrace in front of the Bird Obs. We radioed farmer Steve to see if he could take us out in his boat and about 1 hour later, myself, warden Steve and assistant warden Richard were on our way towards the dolphins guided by Roger and Giselle from the terrace.

The first group we met was made up of five adults and a tiny calf. They were very elusive and hard to photograph, but we tried our best and then moved on to another group of three juveniles who were frolicking around the boat. Looking around, there were more Risso's in in the distance leaping out of the water and when we got closer to them, we were met by a group of about ten older adults, all with really white heads surfacing in two by two in perfect synchronicity! This was a stunning sight and everyone on the boat was oohing and aahing and shooting lots of pictures.

The dolphins didn't seem to be going in a particular direction as we saw them constantly changing direction, doubling back on themselves, zig zaging back and forth between the horizon and our boat. We observed some surface rushes and breaching and fast swimming which indicates they were foraging and feeding. Following them, we were about half way to Anglesey and realised we would need to get back as otherwise we would run out of fuel. All in all, we met four subgroups of at least 25 Risso's, but the photo-identification pictures we have taken still need to be analysed to confirm this estimate.

I couldn't stop grinning for the rest of the day!

Roger got to see Risso's in the afternoon from our observation platform at North End. Again they were zig zaging back and forth, going off towards Ireland, then coming back in our direction, but always staying at least 500m off the coast of Bardsey. As we realised this, we stopped our scans, as we were recording the same animals over and over again and just kept watching them and directed the Pedryn, the Countryside Council for Wales' boat which was on the water to get some ID photographs, towards the dolphins.

What a fantastic day!

Pine Eisfeld.

Pine and colleagues scan the sea for Risso's

Who is watching who?

Another busy day in the Minch!

nospam@example.com (Sarah Dolman) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:14:06 +0100

This blog is reporting from the Isle of Lewis! In our efforts to find out where these pesky UK Risso’s dolphins are hanging out, we are currently running projects (and so blogging) simultaneously on Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland and Bardsey Island in North Wales...

It’s been a stormy field season with few opportunities to get out on the water. But when we have made it out in the boat, we have always been pleased with the variety of species that we’ve encountered in the Minch. And today was no exception!

The conditions were promising for a full day out and we were anxious to make the most of what currently seems like a rare opportunity! We’d seen Risso’s and common dolphins during our land-based surveys yesterday and the day before, and so we were doubly hopeful! Once out of the harbour, our survey began with the increasingly familiar groups of surface active porpoises racing and foraging in the mouth of Loch Erisort. Porpoises rock!

Breakfast time in Loch Erisort

A cheeky porpoise comes to check us out!

We ventured out into the north Minch, and into the long and lolloping swell - a remnant of the storms we’ve just experienced. It wasn’t long before we were joined by a pod of common dolphins. They always seem keen for a ride on the bow and in the wake, and this small family of six animals, including a mother and her calf, didn’t disappoint! Our only problem was photographing them as they were rushing through the waves so quickly!

Female common dolphin and her wee calf (with foetal folds) enjoying a free ride!

Motoring along in the Minch

They followed alongside us for quite a while, jumping and peering up at us (what are they thinking when they do that..?), before getting back to their usual business. We moved on and a basking grey seal looked up at us from his watery home (disapprovingly, I might add).

You lookin' at me? You lookin' at me?

And as we travelled on, it wasn’t too much longer before we came across two more common dolphins – big animals this time (or at least big for common dolphins!). They checked us out briefly before disappearing into the deep swell.

Suddenly there was a lot of disturbance and young and older gannet activity as we passed Tiumpan Head. So we turned in to more coastal waters and into the entrance of Broad Bay, where the swell was much gentler. Before long we were part of a mammoth feeding frenzy – with puffing harbour porpoises all around, a small (3 metre) basking shark heading our way and diving gannets all feasting on a shimmering shoal of herring sprats! The herring were like raindrops on the surface of the water, all around us.

A basking shark enjoying the feast

It was great to be a part of a feast that we have now seen several times in this part of Broad Bay whilst watching from our land-based observation site at Tiumpan Head! What a sight – which you can enjoy in the video – again, the wonky camera footage is due to the swell. I promise!

After collecting all the data we needed, we turned around. On our way home we collected one of our six acoustic devices (called a C-POD) - after a bit of a search! We can’t wait to download the data (ok, I’m a bit nervous…) to see whether we have lots of porpoise and dolphin recordings! No Risso’s but a great day out on the water..

We grabbed some mackerel (although it took a few dips of the fishing rod it has to be said!) and shared them with the last of the ‘bonxies’ or great skuas (it’s amazing to see them eat a fish of such a size!) - before they headed to Africa and we headed for home!!

A hungry 'bonxie' wanting a free fish supper

Outer Hebrides Wildlife Video

nospam@example.com (Administrator) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:37:13 +0100

The weather has allowed us out on the sea only briefly but there is plenty of wildlife around. These clips feature basking sharks, herring shoaling at the surface and harbour porpoises and gannets feeding on the herring.

Bardsey Island Blog 1

nospam@example.com (Administrator) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:04:02 +0100

Bardsey Blog 01 – 11 September 2011

Here starts the report from the other UK field work ongoing this year by the WDCS team – the study of cetaceans around Bardsey Island off the North Coast of Wales.

After a 24 hour delay due to stormy seas, the notorious Bardsey Sound fell calm for a few hours and allowed us to cross over to our home for the next month, Bardsey or Ynys Enlli - the Island of the Currents! We quickly settled into our cottage, Ty Nant, or Brook House amid reports that another storm was brewing out in the Atlantic. Ty Nant occupies a stunning position on the north of the island with views across the hay meadows and then west out across the Irish Sea.

There are about forty people on the island at the moment; WDCS Science Team, an environmental Christian group on a pilgrimage, the island’s resident farming family and the staff at the Bird Observatory.

Living on an island, especially one as sparsely populated and as small (just 3 km long) as Bardsey, comes with its own challenges. Our cottage has no electricity just gas to power the heating, stove, refrigerator and lighting. Luckily, our vast array of electronic equipment can be charged at the Observatory just down the track or by our latest very exciting piece of kit, the Power Gorilla!

Safety here is paramount as the island is regularly cut off from the rest of the world for days, sometimes weeks, when the weather turns in. If, however, you were injured and needed helicopter assistance, there’s a very good chance that the future King of England, aka HRH Prince William, would come to your rescue, as he’s stationed nearby on Anglesey.

The resident Bird Observatory warden gives all visitors a presentation early on during their stay highlighting the amazing variety of birds that come through Bardsey underlining its important location as a prime migration route. It’s not just the birds that the Observatory collects data on. It also records moths, butterflies and marine mammals – primarily the Grey seals and dolphins that frequent its waters. There are an estimated 400 Grey seals here at the moment and now, in early September, we are starting to see the first of the seal pups with a current count of four.
By the end of the season about 30 seal pups will have been born on the rocky beaches and sheltered coves of Bardsey. Link here to see what the WDCS Director of Science has to say about his encounter with the seals.

The weather is particularly challenging at the moment with wind speeds of 50+ mph screaming across the sea. The weather has no obvious effect on the reason we are here on this island paradise – the Risso’s dolphin. This mysterious and elusive dolphin is frequently encountered around the island and the neighbouring mainland peninsular. They are often spotted with young and Sunday was no exception, as we witnessed a group of six adults with two calves breaching and surfing in high seas just a hundred metres offshore at the north end of the island. This appears to be a typical travel pattern, as from our previous land-based surveys we observed the dolphins arriving from the north east coming very close along the north west shore before heading west back out to sea again. Even with hurricanes Jack, Irene and Katia turning the waters around Bardsey to a bubble bath of froth, the Risso’s have still been spotted frolicking in the waves on six out of the last eight days.

Hopefully, as this current weather systems blows through we’ll be able to establish our two land based viewing platforms and set a schedule for our boat surveys……..

A view of Bardsey Island from the South End

Porpoise Soup and Risso'to ... !!

nospam@example.com (Nicola Hodgins) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:47:09 +0100

Patience is proving to be our virtue out here on the Isle of Lewis. The old Scottish saying "if you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes" is proving to be very true and even looking ahead at the various forecasts doesn't really help as it's hardly ever what they say it's going to be, so we've got to be ready to go at a moments notice! And also be prepared to just sit and wait … for a weather window to appear! However … we can now report on 2 of the best days that we've had since coming to the "Rainbow Isle" - the almost constant mix of rain and sunshine delivers these colourful and magical sights on an almost daily basis.

Adding a kaleidoscope of colour to the sky ...!

Day 1; from our land-based watching site at Tiumpan Head.
Over a few hours we were treated to sightings of harbour porpoises foraging close to shore, a minke whale slicing through the calm waters, a basking shark "basking" in the sunshine and two Risso's dolphins patrolling the northern half of our survey area. Again, it was the dreaded midge that eventually drove us off the cliff. There's a very fine balance to be found when it comes to marine wildlife watching in these parts - when the wind is too strong the white-caps on the water prevent us seeing anything, and when the wind drops too much, the midges appear on mass and make a beeline for any exposed piece of skin!

When they're biting you, they feel this big!!

Day 2; from the relative safety (from midges that is) of our research vessel.
We started early, shortly after sun-up, and were hoping for a long-awaited great day at sea! And we were not to be disappointed. A mere 15 minutes from harbour, and not even out the Loch, we came across more porpoises than you could shake a stick at! Everywhere you looked there were little black bodies surfacing - behind, in front, to the right, to the left - it was a virtual porpoise soup! Cutting the engine we sat and listened, and counted, and tried to photograph the normally shy and elusive little porpoises. In stark contrast to their "usual" behaviour, these little guys (and girls) were actively interested in us and made several close swim-by's (cetacean equivalent of a fly-by), surfacing sideways to eyeball us and then diving under the boat at the last minute, only to surface on the other side with their characteristic little "pfff's". One individual appeared to be particularly interested in us and spent most of his/her time just doing circuits around the boat; from a very distinctive scar behind its blow-hole we recognised it as the same individual that we'd seen on 3 previous occasions in the same general vicinity - seems like this is an important or at least favoured, habitat for this chap!

Scratch, with his/her distinguishable scratch!

How's this '4' starters ... ?

After determining that we had approximately 35 porpoises within 500m of the boat, we decided to move on towards the mouth of the loch, however we didn't get very far before we came across yet another group of porpoises, this time actively engaged in foraging and not the least bit interested in what we were up to. This pod of 15 animals, including a young calf or two, were likely chasing mackerel and indulging in some fishy treats. There was a lot of activity (and lots of white water in their wake), with some animals "racing" at the surface and coming completely out the water as they hunted down their breakfast. Another stark contrast to what the porpoises we'd encountered only 15 minutes earlier were up to!

Porpoise mum and porpoise calf ... !!

Racing porpoise ... in search of food!

Soon we were leaving the porpoises behind and heading out into the oily calm waters of the Minch. In parts, not even the slightest gust of wind was present with hardly a ripple in sight - not a day to have been on land - but certainly one to have been on the water! It wasn't long before the cry of "Risso's" went up and the excitement was palpable … this was the first time in our 4 weeks here that we'd come across Risso's when out on the boat! One animal became two, two soon became five and the challenge was on to get shots of all the various dorsal fins before we left them in peace. They headed south, we headed north! But not too far north as we soon spied a wall of rain slowly approaching over land from the north-west, threatening to call an early end to our watery adventure and to avoid finding ourselves in the middle of it, turned tail and headed south, in the direction of home!

And what did we find? More Risso's … this time approaching us from the south. Some of the animals were the same as the ones we'd seen earlier but some of them were "newbies" … including a mother, whom we quickly nicknamed "Stumpy" due to the distinct lack of a dorsal fin (she'd obviously previously suffered at the wrong end of a propellor) and her calf - whose dorsal fin was bigger than hers! The calf was very young, between 1 and 3 months old, which we were able to determine because of the presence of foetal folds - a result of the calf spending its months in the womb, curled up, nose to tail. These folds disappear at different rates in different species; bottlenose dolphins can keep them for 1+ year, while southern right whales lose them within 2 weeks.

Stumpy and calf ...!!

One of the most exciting things to come of the day, and our encounter with the Risso's, was that we recognised a few individuals as animals we'd identified last year - showing beyond reasonable doubt that this is an area to which animals are returning year on year … therefore it's important to them, or at least favoured!

LW0020 first seen in 2010 - the small nick at the base of the dorsal fin is new but the scars are the same!

As the rain chased us home, to top off a magical day, we spotted a sunfish - the first in our 3 years of surveying the Minch! There is some evidence that these giant circular fish (with elongated fins) are becoming a more regular visitor to Scottish waters - a sign of warming seas?

Scottish wildlife video clips

nospam@example.com (Administrator) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:13:06 +0100

We've managed to capture some of our marine friends on film this time. Here's a small taster of what we have been seeing:

A couple of harbour porpoises from a big pod of 12 foraging in Loch Erisort.
A basking shark feeding.
Bottlenose dolphins off Tiumpan Head.
Common dolphins from the research boat, outside Stornoway Harbour.
A mixed group of Risso’s and bottlenose dolphins off Tiumpan Head near Stornoway.

Back by Popular Demand - The "Dog Blog"

nospam@example.com (Nicola Hodgins) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 18:53:22 +0100

Written on behalf of Kila, WDCS Canine Research Assistant.

I heard the words "bird blog" being uttered by the humans and decided it was time to step in and take matters (blog matters that is) into my own paws. Those flying things are all very well, and it has to be said, quite attractive at times, but … i thought perhaps you'd rather hear from me (and my trusty assistant) and what we've been up to since our last post! (If the weather stays as rubbish as it has been, there will be plenty of time for those feathered critters to make an appearance!)

There was one condition to me being allowed to write the next blog, i have to mention the humans last expedition out on the water where they had a rather spectacular encounter with some 20+ harbour porpoises. Apparently they're usually very skittish and camera shy (unlike us!) and getting up close and personal with them is a rare event. So … humans went out on the boat, saw some porpoises, took some pictures, and were very happy! (That enough? Shall we move on? Oh ok … here's some photos for you!)

A porpoise ...

Yet another porpoise ...

Anyway, back to the things that really matter to us canines!! Beaches - and the hunt for driftwood, although it has to be said that we've both become rather fond of seaweed of late, there is after all an abundance of it, as opposed to sticks, of which there are few

"Island sticks - cleverly disguised as seaweed!"

We've decided to rename this island the "Land of the disappearing beaches" … it's all rather confusing if truth be known. Let me explain - on one of our favourite beaches we're used to having a vast expanse of sand to play on and a very long run down to the water (which does somedays seem to get longer and longer?), then, all of a sudden, we turned up for our usual "walk" only to find the beach had gone! Completely! Not a bit of sand in sight!! As you can imagine we were quite perturbed. The humans tried to explain to us … apparently it's something to do with "Spring" tides, which confuses us even more because we were of the opinion that it was autumn?? But "Spring" tides are the opposite of "Neap" tides … although again i'm confused because i'm not entirely sure what turnips have to do with anything, and i've certainly not found any tatties (potatoes to the non-Scot!) on the beach … all of which reminds me, where's our Haggis?!?

"Sand, sand and even more sand ... !!"

"What happened to the sand?!"

We've been assured that things will get back to normal soon, and in the meantime we've been venturing further afield to visit some of the islands other beaches which don't appear to be affected quite as much!

"I think it's a bit ruff to be watching today!"

"A proper beach!"

On one such visit to a "new" beach we were in for a bit of a surprise (well the humans weren't because they'd already been pre-warned by their friend Martin who works for the RSPB but no-one told us)! Harvey and i have become quite the "sniffer-dog" team and have a good track record of finding unusual things on our expeditions (to date we've found a basking shark, Risso's dolphin, white-beaked dolphin, a huge jellyfish and lots of rubbish) but this one took the biscuit - although i do hope he gives it back, we like our biscuits! - and had some really sharp teeth (guess that's how he got the biscuit then?) so although it was sad to find out that he was dead … we possibly wouldn't have ever seen one of his kind alive!! He was … a blue shark! Quite a find i'm told, and rather unusual to have one washed ashore … poor thing. It does make me think twice about skipping into the water but i'm told that his kind don't usually venture into shallow waters so technically we should be safe! And anyway … one must accept that when one dips one's paw into the sea, one has entered an alien environment and is at the mercy of all the creatures that live there!!

"Have you seen the teeth on this thing?"

"CSI (Canine Shark Investigation) Lewis are on the case."

The humans continue to hope for good "spotting" weather and today was looking promising so we headed off to the "Head" to see if there were any critters about. Unfortunately those "monster midges" were out in force and Harvey and i thought (and hoped) that our time there was to be short-lived … how wrong were we? A lone Risso's dolphin was spotted swimming back and forth, and every now and then throwing itself clear of the water (perhaps they have marine midgies that it was trying to escape?) and despite being bitten almost constantly (it's like having someone throw pins at you!) the humans decided that they (and us!) had to grin and bear it, at least until the pain became unbearable!!

"Do you think they know we're being eaten alive by these midgies?"

A breaching Risso's seen through the fog of monster midgies ... !!

Right, now my blog is written and i've updated you on the goings on out here on the Western Isles, i'm off to see if they fancy getting out and about for some more fresh air as you never know what our next walk will bring!!

Until the next time … woof!

Voices of the Sea

nospam@example.com (Sarah Dolman) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:17:23 +0100

Sometimes I think we are mad, studying dolphins in the windy blowy gusty west coast of Scotland. But we’ve not completely lost our marbles! Yes, we spend countless hours sitting on headlands waiting for the sea mist to burn off, for the rain to stop, for the white caps to subside as the wind drops OR for a bit more wind to get rid of the midgies (!), but we also have a Plan B…

.. And as we’ve had a few windy days, we’re going to tell you about it!

With the assistance of a few helpful fishermen and the Stornoway Scottish Natural Heritage office, we have deployed a number of acoustic devices off the coast from the most northerly tip of Lewis at the Butt down to Kebbock Head just south of Stornoway (the capital of the Western Isles). These ingenious light-weight devices are called PODs (originally designed as POrpoise Detectors, but now very capable of detecting dolphins too). PODs are better than field researchers in that they are not weather dependent and they can collect data for 24 hours a day (unlike us!) Luckily they can’t take photo-identifications, and our batteries don’t run out, so we still have a role!

Acoustic PODs awaiting deployment

PODs are fully automated, static, passive acoustic monitoring systems that detect porpoises and dolphins by recognising the echo-location clicks the animals make to detect their dinner, find their way around and interact with each other (www.chelonia.co.uk). The PODs can tell us which areas porpoises and dolphins favour.

POD collecting data off Kebbock Head - a porpoise hot spot

A POD with a porpoise!

Harbour porpoises vocalise at very high frequencies and their foraging clicks are easy to understand on our PODs. Whilst dolphins are also typically vocal animals, the different species are very difficult to distinguish – and so far since we arrived here on the Isle of Lewis we have seen common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins and Risso’s. There have also been sightings of orcas in the Minch, but not in our patch - yet!

Collecting acoustic data on Risso's would be a good Riss-olt!

Minke whales are a different kettle of fish – so to speak! Their vocalisations remain little understood. It’s most likely that they are communicating when they are mating elsewhere over the winter, but we don’t know if or how much they communicate when foraging in Scottish waters over the summer months. So we remain dependent on our eyes (and sometimes ears - pphff!) to find Scotland’s most coastal visitors.

Before we leave, we will retrieve our PODs and hope that, after a summer spent bobbing beneath the waves recording the vocalisations of the dolphins, they will help us to unravel which are the favoured habitats of the dolphins and porpoises – which can ultimately lead to better protection.

Bottlenose dolphin bonanza!

nospam@example.com (Sarah Dolman) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:38:58 +0100

It’s been a mixed week as far as the weather has been concerned. We’ve been putting our wet weather gear on and packing our sun cream (and ginger nuts), only to be stopped in our tracks by increasing wind or rain or both. But there have been less windy moments, and we’re getting better at judging when to barricade ourselves into the field bothy so as to avoid the midgies!

Our focus is on demonstrating that the Western Isles of Scotland is important habitat that Risso’s dolphins return to year on year. More background information can be found in last years blog. However we also collect data for all other marine species we encounter and where others are working on conservation projects, we will forward this on. A friend up in Ness in the far north of the island sent us photos of a pod of bottlenose dolphins seen there last Friday. This is a species that we encountered off Gairloch off the north-west mainland of Scotland in previous years but not yet here off Lewis…

From our land-based site at Tiumpan Head yesterday we enjoyed our second sighting of Risso’s dolphins since we arrived. We first noticed them because of the breaching animals in front of the lighthouse. We saw fins that were big and typically distinctive and we could see blunt white heads below the surface of the water as they came up to breathe, and so we had no doubt about their identification. But who were those little fellows mixed in with the group? Were they common dolphins – we thought they surely must be as they looked so small when side by side with the Risso’s and their fins were wee in comparison. But closer attention with the binoculars and some expertly taken photographs (!) confirmed that two cheeky bottlenose dolphins (with very white sides) had joined together with the five Risso’s - and they were having a very fun time jumping and splashing about in the shallow water just off the rocks below us!

Dolphins giving us a chance to test out our identification skills!

Big fins and little fins!

Nicola made a quick call and soon after, Lewis our skipper brought his boat, RV ‘Fish n’ Trips’ to our slipway and we set off in search of the dolphins that we’d been watching just an hour before.

Our dolphin Research Vessel Fish n' Trips

It was uncharacteristically glassy calm in the Minch, something we were becoming accustomed to on our jaunts out to sea! We came across a few harbour porpoises, which are always a joy to see and the west coast of Scotland is home to the highest densities of this species in the whole of Europe! A close encounter with a foraging minke whale at the entrance of Broad Bay, just past our land-based watching post, was very welcome too. Eventually we pootled along the coast on our way back to base and sighted our first boat-based basking shark since we arrived.

A 6m gentle giant - a basking shark

We hung back to give him some space and he followed his plankton dinner in our direction and circled around the boat, giving us incredible views of his enormous size (about 6 metres – longer than our research boat!), his shiny black dorsal and tail fins and his gigantic open mouth. We have heard that the basking sharks have not been seen in good numbers this year, so we were especially pleased to come across this gentle giant.

Just like whales and dolphins, this photgraph may help to identify this shark

We then caught a few mackerel for our tea as the Calmac ferry passed ahead of us into Stornoway harbour and we arrived back at the slip way to fading light, tired and happy.

Today we were hoping for a full day out on the boat, but the winds tricked us again, blowing up earlier in the day than we’d anticipated. Plan B was to drive up to Tiumpan Head and this was not in vain. We watched masses of gannets feeding with two distant minke whales and then, a tail fluke came out of the water … a pod of 10 bottlenose dolphins were right in front of us where we had seen the mixed group of dolphins yesterday!

Do these bottlenose dolphins belong to the 'west coast' population of around 40 individuals?

They were clearly feeding, surfacing periodically and often showing their tailstocks before diving down to the depths. They were very difficult to follow, but soon we could see that the pod contained a new calf (with foetal folds!) and a juvenile.

A white-side bottlenose dolphin!

We were enjoying the spectacle and trying to get photo-identification shots for colleagues at SAMS (Scottish Association for Marine Science) and Aberdeen University and wondering if these were the same animals that had been photographed off Ness last week when we received a text that another 75+ bottlenoses were being simultaneously watched up there!

This certainly seems like the place to be if you are a flippered friend. We hope the dolphins stick around as the weather man tells us that we might need to baton down the hatches again, another low is approaching….. Let’s hope the weather holds out for one more day so we can get out on the water and continue our work towards photographing the Risso’s dolphins to see if the same animals return each year…

Return of the "DOG BLOG" ... !!!

nospam@example.com (Nicola Hodgins) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:40:10 +0100

Posted on behalf of Kila - WDCS Canine Research Assistant

Introducing us "salty sea dogs" ... !!

We're back … and yes, it's taken a while for the "humans" to let me put paw to paper but as you'll have seen in previous postings, they've had a few flippered critters that they wanted to tell you about. So in the meantime, my assistant (Harvey, or "the Harvester" as he's otherwise known) and i have been out and about scouring the beaches (to see if we could find any driftwood; these being the "stickless isles" and all), dipping all 8 paws in the surf and generally checking out what else there is on offer to keep us canines occupied - and believe me, there's loads!

4-Paws in the surf ....

"Oi ... come back with that stick!!"

Although we've had our fair share of windy days since we've been here, and the humans have been complaining about not being able to get out and "watch", we on the other hand delight in these weather conditions as for us it means more time spent on a variety of beaches - and the beaches here just seem to go on and on and on and on …

"Anyone coming to play? Got a whole beach to ourselves!"

I think Harvey thinks he's a show-jumping dog ... !!

Although he quickly learned how to conserve his energy ... !!

Still waiting for someone to come and play ... please!!

Sadly today, the weather was favouring the humans - 1 went out on a boat, whilst the other took us up to their land-based watching site (otherwise known as the "head")! By all accounts, the boat-bound human had a bit of a bumpy time of it but spotted a few wee harbour porpoises (and checked out one of the underwater listening devices that they put into the water a while back), whilst on land we had our first sighting of a basking shark (apparently none too many in these waters of late so this was good news!) and a sighting of the boat-bound human … although i couldn't quite see that far so it could have been any old human, but i did hear them on the radio so i guess i believe them!

Later in the day, once the wind and sea-state (see … I'm even learning the lingo!) had dropped, all 4 of us returned back up to the "head" to see what we could see see see! Not long after our arrival there followed much excitement as the shout of "minke" went up a few times, followed by "Risso's" and then "more Risso's" … which for the humans i'm told is fabulous news, but for us canines means possibly less beach time … but being the loyal creatures that we are, we shall join them and rejoice in their happiness - for now anyway!!

The downside to our time on the "head" however, was that the wind dropped a wee bit too much for our liking and the dreaded midgies made their very unwelcome appearance, en masse!!!! If you've never experienced the infamous "Highland Midge" then count yourself lucky … no-one is immune to their fervent biting behaviour - up your nose, in your ears, your eyes, and generally just everywhere! The rumours are that they prefer dark colours so i tried to stand by my dark-coloured assistant as much as possible (is that not the meaning of the word "assistant" after all?) but to no avail, there were obviously way too many of them to make that tactic an effective one!! Talking of midgies - Harvey and i were just discussing how friendly all the Lewis'ians seemed to be as they kept waving at us all the time, but we then realised that it was them who thought that our humans were the friendly ones, waving at them, when in fact they were just trying to swat the biting beasties and keep their faces midgie-free!

So back to our bothy we came - stopping at the beach on the way of course - and settled in for an evening of dreams full of sheep and rabbits …. oh, have i not mentioned them yet? … ahhhh … of them there are plenty, and for that we are happy dogs!

Trying to blend in ... does it work? Do we look like sheep?