This week the team onboard R/V Song of the Whale begin a project to survey the Dogger Bank, North Sea for cetaceans, particularly harbour porpoises. With core support from IFAW and additional funding from several partners including ASCOBANS (the Agreement for Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas), Wagningen IMARES (the Dutch Institute for Marine Resources and Ecology) and WWF UK, and in coordination with German and Belgian groups, the team will investigate the presence and distribution of harbour porpoises over the Dogger Bank and adjacent waters (UK, NL, German waters).
The team on SOTW’s A-frame; from left to right: Lisette, Tessa, Susie, Olly, Jim, Danielle, Brian, Anna C, Jack and Katrin
The area is a candidate marine protected area (EU Natura 2000 site) and further research effort is required to establish current trends in porpoise distribution in offshore waters of the North Sea and provide baseline data for mitigating activities that have the potential to disturb their natural behaviour and distribution (including fisheries and offshore renewable developments). As well as being a candidate special area of conservation in UK waters, the Dogger Bank is the potential site for a 9,000km square offshore wind farm.
A further aim of the project, for which funding from ASCOBANS is being given, is to provide an opportunity for individuals from across Europe to participate in a combined acoustic and visual survey. The project demonstrates close cooperation amongst governmental and non-governmental organisations working in partnership to improve knowledge and conservation of harbour porpoises within waters of the ASCOBANS agreement.
7th November – the project begins!
During preparations for beginning the project there is lots of media interest and regional news teams from BBC and Anglia visit Song of the Whale in Ipswich, and members of the team are interviewed on several radio programmes. The following is a link to the BBC’s web site, with a short news piece and video
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-15620472
During Sunday and Monday the various members of the team arrive on Song of the Whale; supplies are brought onboard and stowed, and the Song of the Whale team is ready for the winter 2011 Dogger Bank survey. There are 11 onboard for this first leg of the project, seven staff members including: Richard (skipper), Jim (relief skipper), Brian (1st Mate / Engineer), Jack (deckhand), Olly (senior scientist), Anna (research assistant) and Susannah (field assistant), and four visiting researchers from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands: Danielle and Katrin from Seawatch Foundation, and Tessa and Lisette, interns from IMARES.
Early on Tuesday SOTW heads north from the mouth of the river Orwell towards the first small survey block; visual and acoustic observations begin and before long we have our first harbour porpoise sighting, followed by several grey seals; this feels like a good omen for the survey ahead. In the next 20 or so days, we hope to cover three survey blocks, two small blocks which cover the waters south of the Dogger Bank and the UK portion of the Bank itself, and then one larger block covering the whole Dogger Bank, including the UK, Danish, Dutch and German sections as well as the surrounding waters. We reach the start of our first transect line early on Wednesday morning and pass the Sheringham Shoals windfarm as the sun rises.
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