Cetaceans with focus on killer whales encounters and entanglements Workshop programme ECS O Grove 16 April 2023

Workshop programme and abstracts

Cetaceans with focus on killer whales, encounters and entanglements: human-wildlife interactions in the Arctic and the Iberian Atlantic coast

European Cetacean Society conference in O Grove, Galicia, April 16th 2023

Time: 14.00-18.00

Location: Casa da Cultura - Meeting Room in O Grove

Rúa Monte da Vila, 11, 36980 O Grove, Galicia

 

Organizers: Marianne Rasmussen1 and Níels Einarsson2

1 The University of Iceland Research Center in Húsavík, Hafnarstétt 3, 640 Húsavík, Iceland

2 Stefansson Arctic Institute, Borgir, Nordursloð 4, 600 Akureyri, Iceland/CER-Arctic Research Centre, Autonomous University of Barcelona/SuMar – University of Coruña

 

14:00 Welcome and Introduction to Workshop (Marianne Rasmussen and Níels Einarsson)

14:10: Ruth Esteban (Title: A disruptive behaviour among the Iberian orcas)

14:30 Niels Einarsson and Duarte Vidal (Title: Animals out of control: An anthropological perspective on orcas and encounters with sailors in Iberian and nearby waters)

14:50: Hanne Strager (Title: The persecution of killer whales in Iceland in the 1950’s)

15:10 Charla Basran (Title: Monitoring and mitigating cetacean bycatch and entanglement in fishing gear, with a focus on humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Iceland)

15:30 Ellie MacLennan (Title: The Scottish Entanglement Alliance - A collaborative search for solutions)

15:50 – 16:20 Coffee break

16:20 Mónica González (Title: CONFI, solitary bottlenose dolphin in the Ría of Muros-Noia, Galicia (NW Spain))

16:40 Laetitia Nunny (Title: Human-wildlife interactions: solitary-sociable dolphins)

17:00-18:00 Panel Discussion with the presence of the presenters

 

Cetaceans with focus on killer whales, encounters and entanglements: human-wildlife interactions in the Arctic and the Iberian Atlantic coast.

Workshop abstract

This workshop will be an interdisciplinary event with presenters from various fields of research to highlight human-wildlife interactions and encounters seen from different perspectives within natural and human sciences including a discussion in the end of the workshop on policy options and problem solving. The presenters will provide case studies with a comparative approach from the Arctic and from the Iberian Atlantic coast and adjacent waters. One case study will centre on recent issues of orcas interacting with sailboats and other small vessels in the Iberian Atlantic coastal areas. Another presentation will be a historic insight into killer whales with focus on human interactions in the 1950’s in Iceland, where killer whales were destroying fishing nets and the Icelandic government’s solution was to ask the American Navy to bomb them. Other presentations will involve Cetacean entanglements in fishing gear and experiences with other species of marine mammals than killer whales. How can we integrate and reconcile knowledge on what we already know about cetacean intelligence and social behaviour with interests that include fisheries, marine wildlife watching and other ecosystem services? What governance alternatives are there for tackling human-wildlife conflicts in marine spaces occupied by marine mammals and used by humans for economic subsistence and marine tourism? The aim of the workshop is to contribute to an open discussion and informed dialogue including different stakeholders, sailors, fishers, tourism, government as well as international scientists.

 

Abstracts – ECS Workshop

Ruth Esteban (A disruptive behaviour among the Iberian orcas)

The Iberian subpopulation of orcas showed a disruptive behaviour since 2020, some specimens started interacting mainly with sailing boats. The animals touch, push and turn the boats, by means of pressure with their body and head, sometimes resulting in damages, mainly at the rudder. Almost 500 interactions were recorded along the coastal waters of the Strait of Gibraltar and Bay of Biscay. A continuous effort has been put into implement collaboration actions and protocols between marine stakeholders, administrations and scientists to minimize boats and people damages, maintain conservation actions for the animals, as well as their favourable projection at social level.

 

Niels Einarsson and Duarte Vidal Title: Animals out of control: An anthropological perspective on orcas and encounters with sailors in Iberian and nearby waters

This presentation discusses the case of disruptive encounters between orcas and small boats, mainly sailboats, in Spanish and Portuguese and adjacent waters, mostly off the Atlantic coast of Iberia. The incidents, now numbering some 500 reported ones, started in May 2020 and have left boats severely damaged, even leading to sinkings. How are these issues perceived by cruising sailors, what are the implications for safety and security of sea voyaging, for marine tourism in the region, and welfare and conservation of an endangered population of cetaceans? The approach to the problem is anthropological and interdisciplinary, looking for answers in governance to a complex and enigmatic situation in human-wildlife relations.

Hanne Strager (Title: The persecution of killer whales in Iceland in the 1950’s)

The persecution and slaughter of killer whales in Iceland aided by the US military in the 1950’s is relatively well known but little of these events and the background for them is described outside the popular literature. In this study we examined articles about killer whales in the newspaper database in the National Archive in Iceland from 1900-1960. We also examined the US military’s Newsletter The White Falcon for information of the military’s actions from 1950-1960. Prior to 1950 articles about killer whales in Icelandic newspapers were rare averaging 16 per decade, but in the 1950’s a total of 433 articles were recorded. Most of these described a conflict between herring fishermen and killer whales beginning in the early 1950’s. At that time the fishery for herring was done from small coastal fishing boats using driftnets. According to the newspaper articles the killer whales wrecked the nets by swimming trough them thereby releasing the herring, which had been caught in the meshes by their gills. The reporting of the killer whales’ wrecking of the nets increased since the first reports in the early 1950’s with more incidences being reported in the following years, more nets reported wrecked and a geographical spreading of the incidences from the first reports north of the Reykjanes Peninsula to include areas to the west and south of Reykjanes. The US military became involved in 1954 and participated in raids involving riflemen with automatic weapons and airplanes dropping depth charges and shooting with automatic weapons. The US military involvement stopped in 1958 and that year the newspapers also reported that the problem had disappeared. Our study shows that the killer whales were depredating on the driftnets by ramming them and that the behavior was a new phenomenon in the early 1950’s. It spread rapidly among the killer whales around the Reykjanes Peninsula, but not to other areas in Iceland with a similar fishery. We propose that the ending of the conflict is likely due to the switch from driftnets made of hemp or cotton to purse seine fishing with nylon nets which in Iceland took place in the latter part of the 1950’s.

 

Charla Basran (Monitoring and mitigating cetacean bycatch and entanglement in fishing gear, with a focus on humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Iceland)

Bycatch/entanglement in fishing gear is a serious threat to cetaceans, as well as a detriment to fisheries. I discovered that cetacean bycatch was significantly under-reported in fisher logbooks in nearly all fisheries examined in New Zealand, Iceland, and the USA when compared to observer data. Given this wide knowledge gap, my work primarily focused on monitoring and mitigating humpback whale entanglement in Iceland through anonymous questionnaires and interviews with fishers, scar-based analysis of humpback whale non-lethal entanglements, and testing of acoustic alarms for entanglement mitigation through individual experimental exposures and collaboration with a capelin purse seine vessel.

 

Mónica González (Title: CONFI, solitary bottlenose dolphin in the Ría of Muros-Noia, Galicia (NW Spain))

In Galicia (NW Spain) there is a long history of solitary bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Since 1970, 11 solitary dolphins have been recorded on the Galician coast, frequently males of advanced age or recently emancipated. In December 2019, a solitary dolphin, CONFI, was detected in the vicinity of the Ría de Muros-Noia, which began to accompany boats and divers. Initially CONFI kept his distance from people, but as people interacted with him, his degree of closeness and contact increased. This behavior is a risk for people because CONFI resolves his nervousness by biting or removing objects from the human body. There are other cases of solitary orcas, or even Iberian orcas that interact with boats, where they perform similar behaviours with different purpose.

 

Laetitia Nunny (Title: Human-wildlife interactions: solitary-sociable dolphins

Solitary-sociable dolphins live mainly apart from their conspecifics and, over time, come to socialise with humans. This phenomenon has been reported in many locations with most cases involving bottlenose dolphins. Dolphin welfare can be negatively impacted by their interactions with humans. There are cases of dolphins being accidentally injured or disturbed, but some incidents of harassment are deliberate and have caused injury or death. Management plans need to be developed on a case-by-case basis considering the characteristics of the individual dolphin and its locality. It is important that government officials and local stakeholders work together to develop and implement local management guidelines.

 

Ellie MacLennan (The Scottish Entanglement Alliance - A collaborative search for solutions)

Abstract: The Scottish entanglement Alliance (SEA) was established in 2018 to assess the distribution, scale and impacts of cetacean entanglements in the largely unregulated Scottish inshore creel fishery. In the initial stages of this project 159 fishers were interviewed to gather information regarding their experiences of entanglement and views on ways to reduce this threat. Twenty fishermen also participated in a two-day disentanglement training course where a range of possible mitigation strategies were debated. Underreporting of entanglement incidents remains a concern however the collaborative nature of the project has earned the respect of fishers, and moving forward continued engagement to improve reporting, and identify practical and effective mitigation strategies will be vital.