Muc Mhara Ireland's Smallest Whale - Irish Whale and Dolphin Group

sizes that will allow robust and appropriate comparative analysis to be carried out. For
management, it is important for example, to determine ASM, pregnancy rates and how often
porpoises reproduce, to better ascertain how they would recover from a high mortality event and/or
whether high contaminant burden influences reproductive output. Continuous monitoring also can
show changes in contaminant levels, such as has been shown for toxic elements such as lead (which
has seen a decrease in levels detected in harbour porpoises, since the introduction of unleaded
petrol) and HBCDs, but also to look at more long term effects such as those resulting from climatic
changes (e.g. the decadal scale North Atlantic Oscillation and how this might be reflected in
changes in diet), changes in fishing practices and declining fish stocks.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the help of a large number of people who have helped over the years:
the members of the IWDG network, for reporting strandings, and in particular Mick O’Connell and
Pat Smiddy, Simon Berrow (who got me into all of this), Trish Clayton, Irene Gassner, Mick
Mackey, Sinéad Murphy, Evelyn Philpott, John Brophy, Eoin Browne, Dave O’Leary, Tina Rose,
Ailbhe Kavanagh, Luca Mirimin, John O’Brien for help with post-mortem examinations, sampling
and freezers!, the ever (odour) tolerant staff and students of the Dept. of Zoology, Ecology and
Plant Science, UCC, the by-catch observers on the pinger project (Sam Shephard, Peter Rendell),
James Fairley and Don Cotton, as meticulous editors of the INJ Cetacean Notes, and inter alia,
Thijs Kuiken, Paul Jepson, Christina Lockyer, Harry Ross, John Baker, Seamus Kennedy, Rod
Penrose, Bego Santos, Jen Learmonth, Graham Pierce, Sarah Duke, Thierry Jauniaux, Florence
Caurant, Virginie Lahaye, Marjan Addink, Bart Zegers, Jan Boon, Michaël Fontaine, Andrew
Kitchner and Jerry Herman. I would also like to acknowledge the various funding bodies
contributions over the years: Heritage Council, NPWS (Dúchas), INTERREG (Ireland – Wales),
DG Fish and EU 6 th framework. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.
References
Berrow, S.D. and Rogan, E. (1997) Review of Irish Cetacean records, 1901 - 1995. Mammal
Review. 27 (1), 51 – 76
Berrow, S.D., Long, S.C., McGarry, A.T., Pollard, D, Rogan, E. and Lockyer, C. (1998)
Radionuclides (Cs-137 and K-40) in Harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena from British and
Irish coastal waters. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 569 – 576.
Borjesson, P. and Berggren, P. 1996 Seasonal variation in diet of harbour porpoises (Phocoena
phocoena) from the Kattegat and Skagerrak Seas. European Research on Cetaceans 10:261.
Caurant, F., Aubail. A., Lahaye, V., VanCanneyt, O., Rogan, E., Lopez, A., Addink, M., Churlaud,
C., Robert, M., and Bustamante, P. (2006) Lead concentrations of small cetaceans in
European waters – The use of stable isotopes for identifying the sources of lead exposure.
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Rogan, E., Siebert, U., Vikingsson, G.A., Bouquegneau, J-M., and Michaux, J.R. 2007. Rise
in Oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the harbour porpoise in
old world waters. BMC Evolutionary Biology.
Kavanagh, A., Cronin, M., Walton, M. and Rogan, E. (in review) Diet of the harbour seal (Phoca
vitulina vitulina) on the west and south west of Ireland.
Lahaye V., Bustamante P., Law R.J., Learmonth J.A., Santos M.B., Boon J.P., Rogan E., Dabin W.,
Addink M.J., López A., Zuur A.F., Pierce G.J. and Caurant F. (2007) Biological and
ecological factors related to trace element levels in harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena)
from European waters. Marine Environmental Research 64(3), 247 – 266
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Proceedings of the 2 nd IWDG International Whale Conference: Muc Mhara - Ireland’s smallest whale
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