NIOZ, 23 February 2019
Chair: Geert Hoogerduijn – Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality
09:30 Arrival and registration
visit ‘Zeezoogdiermarkt’ (Marine mammal market).
10:30 Opening by Henk van der Veer – NIOZ
10:45 Anne-Marie Svoboda – Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality
Working on cetacean issues at the Ministry.
11:15 Anja Reckendorf – Tierärtzliche Hochschule, Hannover
Marine debris and plastic pollution – an emerging threat to aquatic wildlife and human health.
11:45 Fleur Visser – NIOZ / University of Amsterdam
Foraging in a noisy world.
12:15 Lunch break, visit ‘Zeezoogdiermarkt’
13:45 Eleonora Panella – IFAW
Whales and ship strikes. A case study in the Mediterranean.
14:15 Meike Scheidat – Wageningen Marine Research
The International Whaling Committee (IWC) – defining a new role in global whale conservation and management.
14:45 Nathalie Houtman – World Wide Fund for Nature
International Cetacean Conservation by WWF.
15:15 Break, visit ‘Zeezoogdiermarkt’
15:45 Geert Aarts & Sophie Brasseur – Wageningen Marine Research / NIOZ
Opportunistic sound exposure experiments: behavioural reactions of wild grey seals to pile-driving.
16:15 Kees Camphuysen – NIOZ
Cetaceans as an integral part of marine ecosystems: towards a better understanding of distribution patterns and temporal trends within the North Sea basin.
16:45 Workgroup Marine Mammals – Dutch Mammal Association
How can we as a workgroup contribute to marine mammal issues?
16:55 Closing remarks by chair.
17:00 ‘Zeezoogdiermarkt’
17:30 End of lecture program.
Geert Aarts & Sophie Brasseur (Wageningen Marine Research / NIOZ)
Opportunistic sound exposure experiments: Behavioural reactions of wild grey seals to pile-driving.
Many human activities at sea lead to the emission of anthropogenic noise in the marine environment. This includes sound from shipping, seismic surveys, underwater explosions and recently also pile-driving for the construction of offshore windfarms. How do free-living marine mammals respond to the exposure of such sounds? Here we use detailed movement and diving data from free-living grey seals to study how they respond to sound from pile-driving. Do they indeed respond to pile-driving, how and at what distance?
Kees Camphuysen (NIOZ)
Cetaceans as an integral part of marine ecosystems: towards a better understanding of distribution patterns and temporal trends within the North Sea basin.
More and more information is available on species composition and overall abundance of cetaceans in the North Sea, which makes it possible to consider them as an integral part of the marine ecosystem. In this presentation, Kees will give an overview of research possibilities about expected interactions of cetacean species and other species of the so-called ‘charismatic megafauna’, in relation to different habitat types and potential prey availability.
Additional info: Camphuysen C.J. et al. 2006. Distribution and foraging interactions of seabirds and marine mammals in the North sea.
Nathalie Houtman (WWF-NL, Zeist)
International Cetacean Conservation by WWF
Cetacean conservation has been part of the World Wide Fund for Nature since its foundation in 1961. The world has changed tremendously since then and cetaceans are now facing many complex threats. WWF’s recent efforts to protect these animals are focused on local priorities and globally on three issues: bycatch, shipping and critical habitat. This presentation will take you through a number of WWF projects that deal with these issues. Embark on a journey around the world, with examples from the Arctic to the Antarctic and from the smallest to the largest cetaceans, and find out how you can help protect cetaceans.
Eleonora Panella (IFAW, Brussels)
Whales and ship strikes. A case study in the Mediterranean.
Collisions with ships (or ship strikes) are recognized as a serious conservation and welfare problem for many whale populations globally. A recent IFAW investigation looked at the voluntary speed limit implemented in the Strait of Gibraltar in 2007 as a measure to prevent ship strikes with sperm whale.
Additional info: Factsheet Ships strikes IFAW
Anja Reckendorf (Tierärtzliche Hochschule, Hannover)
Marine debris and plastic pollution – an emerging threat to aquatic wildlife and human health
Ocean plastic pollution is a widely recognised problem of increasing environmental and public health concern. According to recent studies, between 4.8 – 12.7 million metric tonnes of plastic leak into the world’s oceans every year. About 56% of all cetaceans have been recorded to ingest marine debris, which they have most likely mistaken for prey. Entanglements can cause severe physical trauma and are of major animal welfare concern, while ingestion can lead to death through internal injuries or have long-term ecological effects. Results from marine mammal necropsy studies in Germany will be presented.
Additional info: Marine litter in the Waddensea and Plastic in Sperm whale stomachs.
Meike Scheidat (Wageningen Marine Research)
The International Whaling Committee (IWC) – defining a new role in global whale conservation and management.
The IWC was founded in 1946 because commercial whaling had led whale stocks close to extinction. In 1982 member states voted for a moratorium of commercial whaling so stocks could have a chance to recover. Since then whaling activities continued, exploiting a number of loopholes in the IWC such as the use of “special permit whaling”. How will the recent announcement of Japan to leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC) impact the balance of power within the IWC between pro-whaling and anti-whaling members? What will the future role of the IWC be for whale conservation?
Additional info: Japan’s whaling is unscientific or IWC homepage
(Scientific Whaling) of the IWC in Antarctic waters. (c) Meike Scheidat
Anne-Marie Svoboda (Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality)
Working on cetacean issues at the Ministry
At the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality many issues regarding cetaceans are dealt with, such as how to deal with stranding events, which research priorities should be set and how best to protect different species in the North Sea. This is also where policies are developed, which are always based on a combination of best available knowledge, media attention and, yes, politics. This presentation gives a brief introduction into working as a policy maker on cetacean issues, from arguing with the Japanese about resuming commercial whaling to how to deal with a possible sperm whale euthanasia to updating the harbour porpoise conservation plan with new knowledge about underwater noise amongst others.
Fleur Visser (NIOZ / University of Amsterdam)
Foraging in a noisy world
Man-made noise in the world’s ocean is strongly increasing. This increasingly impacts whales and dolphins, with effects ranging from hearing damage to changes in foraging behaviour and -in some cases- lethal strandings. Whale prey – fish, squid and zooplankton – is also sensitive to noise. It may change their behaviour or induce mortality. Thereby, noise has the potential to alter prey abundance and availability for whale predators. Can whales catch prey less easily than they used to? Does this impact their health and the health of their population? These are the questions we are trying to answer using a combination of state-of-the-art technologies that allow us to observe the behaviour of whales and their prey under water. This way, we aim to contribute to the protection of whale populations and our marine ecosystems.
Additional info (in Dutch): Stress door onderwaterlawaai, Dolfijnenonderzoek in Azoren bij Vroege Vogels