Understanding the distribution of marine megafauna in the English channel region: identifying key habitats for conservation within the busiest seaway on earth.

Published onlineJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tThis is the final version of the article. Available from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this record.The temperate waters of the North-Eastern Atlantic have a long history of maritime resource richness and, as a result, the European Union is endeavouring to maintain regional productivity and biodiversity. At the intersection of these aims lies potential conflict, signalling the need for integrated, cross-border management approaches. This paper focuses on the marine megafauna of the region. This guild of consumers was formerly abundant, but is now depleted and protected under various national and international legislative structures. We present a meta-analysis of available megafauna datasets using presence-only distribution models to characterise suitable habitat and identify spatially-important regions within the English Channel and southern bight of the North Sea. The integration of studies from dedicated and opportunistic observer programmes in the United Kingdom and France provide a valuable perspective on the spatial and seasonal distribution of various taxonomic groups, including large pelagic fishes and sharks, marine mammals, seabirds and marine turtles. The Western English Channel emerged as a hotspot of biodiversity for megafauna, while species richness was low in the Eastern English Channel. Spatial conservation planning is complicated by the highly mobile nature of marine megafauna, however they are important components of the marine environment and understanding their distribution is a first crucial step toward their inclusion into marine ecosystem management.The INTERREG IV A France (Channel) – England cross-border European cooperation programme, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund as part of the CHannel integrated Approach for marine Resource Management (CHARM) Phase III project provided funding for the meta-analysis presented in this manuscript through EU postdoctoral fellowships to C. McClellan and S. Patrick. R. Deaville provided the UK cetacean strandings data, which together with the marine turtle data was co-funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and by the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales. G. Bradbury and J. Darke provided data from the UK's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, which was funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. T. Dunn provided the Joint Cetacean Database and the European Seabirds at Sea data. P.S. Hammond provided the SCANS and SCANS-II data funded by EU LIFE Nature projects LIFE 92-2/UK/027 and LIFE04NAT/GB/000245, respectively. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Understanding the Distribution of Marine Megafauna in the English Channel Region: Identifying Key Habitats for Conservation within the Busiest Seaway on Earth

The temperate waters of the North-Eastern Atlantic have a long history of maritime resource richness and, as a result, the European Union is endeavouring to maintain regional productivity and biodiversity. At the intersection of these aims lies potential conflict, signalling the need for integrated, cross-border management approaches. This paper focuses on the marine megafauna of the region. This guild of consumers was formerly abundant, but is now depleted and protected under various national and international legislative structures. We present a meta-analysis of available megafauna datasets using presence-only distribution models to characterise suitable habitat and identify spatially-important regions within the English Channel and southern bight of the North Sea. The integration of studies from dedicated and opportunistic observer programmes in the United Kingdom and France provide a valuable perspective on the spatial and seasonal distribution of various taxonomic groups, including large pelagic fishes and sharks, marine mammals, seabirds and marine turtles. The Western English Channel emerged as a hotspot of biodiversity for megafauna, while species richness was low in the Eastern English Channel. Spatial conservation planning is complicated by the highly mobile nature of marine megafauna, however they are important components of the marine environment and understanding their distribution is a first crucial step toward their inclusion into marine ecosystem management

Creatures Great and SMAL: Recovering the Shape and Motion of Animals from Video

We present a system to recover the 3D shape and motion of a wide variety of quadrupeds from video. The system comprises a machine learning front-end which predicts candidate 2D joint positions, a discrete optimization which finds kinematically plausible joint correspondences, and an energy minimization stage which fits a detailed 3D model to the image. In order to overcome the limited availability of motion capture training data from animals, and the difficulty of generating realistic synthetic training images, the system is designed to work on silhouette data. The joint candidate predictor is trained on synthetically generated silhouette images, and at test time, deep learning methods or standard video segmentation tools are used to extract silhouettes from real data. The system is tested on animal videos from several species, and shows accurate reconstructions of 3D shape and pose.GlaxoSmithKlin

Ecology and Conservation of River dolphins in Peru

Freshwater cetaceans are seven highly threatened species with restricted ranges that inhabit rivers in close proximity to human populations. Over the past two decades, it has become increasingly clear that the limited resources to monitor population trends and existing knowledge gaps have hampered the design of effective conservation actions, with one species of river cetacean, the baiji (Lipotes vexillifer), being declared extinct. In this dissertation, I review the current state of knowledge on river cetaceans and provide new insights into the ecology and distribution of two South American freshwater dolphins, the boto or Amazon River dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) and the tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis). In Chapter 1 I summarise what is currently known regarding their taxonomy, distribution, and ecology. Chapter 2 reviews the current global conservation status of river cetaceans through a combination of expert elicitation and a synthesis of literature on threats and management. I also identify knowledge gaps and use this data to inform subsequent chapters. To improve the management of these species, I recommend future conservation efforts that build local capacity in each range country, strive for regional cooperation, and increase knowledge and public awareness. In Chapter 3, I interview fishers from the Peruvian Amazon to better understand their perceptions and interactions with the Amazon River dolphin and the tucuxi. I report perception of competition and negative perceptions, the use of Amazon River dolphins as bait for the piracatinga catfish fishery, and bycatch of both species in purse seines and gillnets. The results allow prioritisation of which ports should be monitored in order to reduce bycatch and direct take. In Chapter 4, I use satellite transmitters to identify overlap between monitored Amazon River dolphins and key threats in their range. All dolphin home ranges overlap with areas of small-scale fishery catch. Existing dams are relatively far away from dolphin populations, but proposed dams are less than 200 kilometres upstream. Monitored animals are close to a proposed hydroway, which will result in an increase in vessel traffic and recurrent dredging. In Chapter 5, I estimate the density of both species in a previously unexplored area of the western Amazon of Peru while also testing the application of environmental-DNA (eDNA) for validating species presence. Sampling for eDNA is successful at detecting both species at 68% of the sampled locations. I discuss potential applications of this method for addressing knowledge gaps. In Chapter 6, I summarise the significance of the findings of my dissertation and suggest what should be done in the future to better conserve river dolphins. Using a variety of methods, including questionnaires, satellite transmitters, distance sampling, and eDNA, this dissertation provides baseline data for river dolphins in Peru. I propose that for the sustainability of their populations in Peru, research should concentrate on tracking population trends and estimating human-caused mortality. Participation of local communities in key conservation actions, such as the design and implementation of protected areas, research, and law enforcement, would increase the likelihood of conservation interventions being successful

Can baleen whales be safely live-captured for studies of their physiology?

Studying baleen whales is challenging and complex, where observation of their habitat, sensory modalities, behavior and physiology, are infrequent and brief. The biochemical and biophysical contribution of mysticetes serve a vital role in maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem, but they are facing anthropogenic threats. Before giving any indications of how these threats affect the baleen whales, it is essential to gain more knowledge of their sensory physiology, migration patterns, and energy expenditure. Previous research on mysticetes has been based on post-mortem investigation, modeling, behavioral analyses, and tagging which are advancing with time. However, some of these studies may need validation, which could be conducted with a mysticete live-capture methodology. This thesis describes an approach on how to possibly live-capture baleen whales to enable safe studies of their physiology. Therefore, my objectives aimed to 1) assess the methodology of live-capturing and restraining baleen whales by reviewing and evaluating documented attempts and those gained in own fieldwork, 2) discuss what sensory modalities baleen whales may use to navigate around nets in such settings. Furthermore, 3) I have reviewed potential studies that could be conducted on a restrained mysticete, and lastly 4) I discuss animal welfare considerations of mysticete live-capture and experimental studies. A large entrapment was created in Vestfjord, Norway, June 2021. Attempts were made to measure the distance of the baleen whales from the various nets that were designed to be better detected by different sensory methods, including recording hydrophones placed in the entrapment. These results did not give enough statistical power for concluding what sensory apparatus the cetaceans may use in detecting the entrapment set-up. We did succeed in leading baleen whales in between islets and trap them there with nets, but were unable to restrain any of them for direct measurements. The 4-year ongoing SOST minke hearing project has potential to succeed though, and may thereby represent a key to a more detailed insight into the physiology of these huge but vulnerable creatures

Soundings: the Newsletter of the Monterey Bay Chapter of the American Cetacean Society. 2013

Issues January - November/December 2013. (PDF contains 96 pages

The Victorian Naturalist

v.116 (1999