Europe: Close Dolphinaira Demo

Having spent some time watching wild whales and dolphins in Iceland, our little Morgan headed to Brussels to meet up with World Cetacean Alliance partner The Dolphin’s Voice and to attend the ‘Europe: Close Dolphinaria’ demonstration in Brussels. Held on 28^th June 2014 the event was attended by around 400 people from France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Brazil, Germany, UK, Ireland, Greece, Czech Republic to name a few. All coming together to unite for a world free of captive whales and dolphins, and our little Morgan was there. The event was also attended by Ric O’Barry who set up The Dolphin Project and who has been actively educating the public and raising awareness about the captivity issue, and was featured in the award winning film The Cove which exposed the yearly dolphin drive in Taji, Japan.

Currently there are 34 dolphinairums in 15 European Union counties with more than 300 small cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) on display, from Belugas to Orca like Morgan. Everyone at the event, including our little Morgan hoped it would help urge the European Union to ban the import of whales and dolphins and ultimately end captivity.

This years event included lots of motivational speeches, but our little Morgan particularly liked the formation of the words FREE by the crowd and the team from Bite Back.

© Valeria Machado

Annelies Mullens, one of the events organisers, said to Morgan ‘These photos say it all: alone we are small, but together we will make a difference –FREE dolphins! Every single person who came to the demo today helped make this happen. We made a huge and powerful statement to the dolphinaria industry. Working together in a team with people from so many countries will help to end dolphin captivity. Thank you!"

Our little Morgan certainly felt proud to be amongst people who are as passionate as she is about ending captivity of whales and dolphins, and hopes to attend the event next year… and if enough people do you never know we may be able to make the words FREEDOM!

© Sasha Abdolmajid

A huge thank you to Richard O’Barry, Annelies Mullens, Yvon Godefroid, Bite Back and everyone who contributed to the development of this event. A special thank you to The Dolphin’s Voice for taking our little Morgan along!

More Pembrokeshire Porpoises

After the excitement of Strumble Head and breaching Risso’s dolphin during the Sea Trust watch Morgan headed off around the Pembrokeshire area with a company called Pembrokeshire Marine Environmental, and found that it is not just volunteers who spend their time searching for the smallest of the UK’s cetaceans. As Morgan learned last time the waters around Strumble Head and Ramsey Island off Pembrokeshire, West Wales provide really good feeding habitat for harbour porpoise. The strong tidal currents and trenches within the channel of Ramsey Sound means there is a lot of food for porpoise to eat. Harbour porpoise eat a wide range fish, cephalopods like squid, and crustaceans like crabs.

The harbour porpoise 

The problem, Morgan has learnt, is that strong tides are also a great source of energy, which people are looking to harness in order to provide electricity to power our modern lives. Renewable energy from wind, sunshine (solar) and tides is an important development in the way we create electricity as they are a lot ‘greener’ and kinder to our environment since they do not release gases like carbon dioxide that are contributing to global warming and changes in the world’s climate.  

Tidal turbines are a comparatively new way of harnessing energy from a renewable resource, taking advance of the high energy and predictability of tides. Tidal turbines are like the wind turbines we see on land or out at sea, windmills that in this case are driven round by the currents.

While renewable energy is a wonderful, clean alternative to coal, oil and gas, there are still some concerns for marine wildlife. Morgan learnt that there are concerns over the impacts of installing such equipment, with the noise produced, as well as concerns over changes to the flow of water and whether that could disrupt fish movements, plus whether birds or fish could be trapped and hurt by devices.

Environmental Impact Assessments are a process which developers need to undertake in order to understand the effect of a development on the natural environment. This includes understanding what animals use and area and how they might be affected by a development and that means getting out there are finding them. Once again the coastal nature of the harbour porpoise and the location of strong tidal areas near to shore, means that many of these surveys can be done from the land.

So Morgan joined Malcolm from Pembrokeshire Marine Environmental and WCA partner, who has been studying the harbour porpoise here for almost 8 years, for another day of searching and recording, this time overlooking Ramsey Sound. Here there are plans to install a prototype tidal turbine, but not before the impacts on porpoises have been assessed. With colleague Nick and his superduper binoculars and with weather conditions so calm it was not long before the small, dark triangular shaped fins of harbour porpoise were being counted all over the Sound. 

Counting harbour porpoise with Nick and Malcolm

Strumble Head Survey

Easter weekend, the sun was out (well mostly) and Morgan was off on a new adventure in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, joining WCA partner Malcolm Barradell and the charity Sea Trust for a harbour porpoise survey at Strumble Head. Sea Trust is a community interest company based in Fishguard surveying whales and dolphins in the seas off Pembrokeshire. The company runs boat based surveys, as well as conducted surveys from the ferry between Fishguard and Ireland, in addition to conducting land based surveys from Strumble Head.

Morgan at Strumble Head

Beyond the surveys and research Sea Trust run regular activities with local school children and events to raise awareness of local issues affecting marine life within Welsh coastal waters. In addition Sea Trust, in association with Pembrokeshire College runs Wildlife Observer Wales training courses, ranging from Seabird Observing for Beginners, Whale and Dolphin Observing for Beginners to Seabird and Cetacean Monitoring courses. A fantastic way for people of all ages and interest to get involved.

Bank Holiday Monday and our little Morgan was taking part in an organised land based survey mainly for harbour porpoise, the smallest species of cetacean (whales, dolphins and porpoises) inhabiting European waters. Harbour porpoise are widely distributed around the UK coast, with their near shore distribution bringing them into close contact with human activities, in particular high numbers of harbour porpoise are caught each year in fishing nets as bycatch, levels that are not sustainable at a population level. Strumble Head attracts large numbers of harbour porpoise in part due to the strong tides providing super feeding habitat. Sea Trust continues to work in order to establish the area as a marine protected area. 

Scanning for cetaceans

Today for Morgan and all the others busily scanning the racing water off the headland it was not just the harbour porpoises that turned up, but a group of very active Risso’s dolphin! With their blunt, rounded heads, tall sickle shaped dorsal fin and their bodies heavily scarred with white scratches the Risso’s were unmistakable. Pembrokeshire forms one hotspot for Risso’s dolphin around the UK and the species is regularly seen during such watches especially during winter periods. Just another indication of the importance of this beautiful little corner of Wales. 

Breaching Risso's Dolphin!

Find out more about Sea Trust at www.seatrust.org.uk and find out more about the WCA at www.worldcetaceanalliance.org.