From Small Cetaceans to the Great Whales of the East

 

DMAD (Marine Mammals Research Association) is launching an intense set of research expeditions, utilising advanced acoustic and visual survey techniques to research cetaceans in the three seas of Turkey; starting from the city of Istanbul(1), where ancient and contemporary culture collide, moving to one of the oldest protected areas of Turkey- the Dilek Peninsula(2) followed by offshore surveys encompassing the first High Sea Marine Protected Area and unique habitats -Finike and Fethiye Canyon (3) and on to our final location, Antalya(4).

 

Overall there will be four different research expeditions in the month of January 2020.

We are looking for passionate, hardworking, enthusiastic individuals who have the desire to learn and support the project to have a positive impact on marine wildlife protection and conservation!

The project has been constructed to collect missing scientific data, which has been deemed to be one of the most important barriers in the way of effective conservation strategies. Whilst 60% of  cetacean species are globally threatened, the situation is more critical for the Mediterranean subpopulations which have all been defined as “threatened” or “data deficient”. Despite the goal of protecting 10% of marine areas by 2020, the existing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) do not exceed 7% of the Mediterranean Sea and only 0.04 MPAs’ are fully protected with the majority of them being coastal in European waters, leaving the southern and eastern Mediterranean Sea vulnerable to uncontrolled and unregulated human impacts. Regarding cetacean research effort, the same vulnerable habitats have been studied only a handful of times. All of these were opportunistic studies and all of which have were conducted in single summer survey efforts.

Therefore, the upcoming winter survey effort is going to collect critical but missing information on species abundance, distribution, behavioural and acoustic patterns whilst identifying major threats within the Turkish waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The project focuses on all cetacean and turtle species, including but not limited to bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins, Black sea harbour porpoises, striped dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, Cuvier’s beaked whales, sperm whales, green turtles and loggerhead turtle.

 

1.Istanbul Strait:

There will be a day of photo-identification survey effort, covering the entire strait. The survey is planned to take approximately 10 hours. The survey is focused on the Black Sea subspecies of bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins and harbour porpoises and collected photographs will be added and compared to a photo identification catalogue which has been collected over 10 years.

2. Aegean Dolphins (Dilek Peninsula):

Acoustic and visual data will be collected on common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. The survey will be for 1 day, lasting approximately 6 hours. Photo-identification data will be added to an existing catalogue.

3. Deep Sea Canyons

The survey will take minimum of 6 days, following pre-determined transects between Göcek and Antalya. The survey will continue 24 hours a day, with night survey efforts. Acoustic, visual and photo-identification data will be collected for the deep sea cetacean species.

4. Dolphins of the Bay (Antalya)

Both land and boat surveys will be conducted for 10 days. The majority of the training on GIS, photo-ID, scientific report writing and data interpretation will take place in Antalya.

Before the surveys, the team will be trained in and practice;

·         Theodolite setup  and Pythagoras software

·         Photo-ID and Discovery software

·         Logger 2010 software

·         Detecting, localising and logging cetacean calls with PamGuard software

·         Behavioural and acoustical patterns

·         Data interpretation

·         GIS mapping

·         Scientific article and report writing

The responsibilities include but are not limited to;

·         Performing land and boat surveys

·         Collecting spatial-temporal, behavioural and acoustic data

·         Operating theodolite and related softwares

·         Data entry

·         Photo-identification and related softwares

 

The participation fee is 1000Euro for the entire course and it covers all the training, accommodations, equipment, boat surveys and transportation between the project sites. The research fee does not cover: Travel Insurance (Highly Recommended), Meals (other than whilst on-board the Deep Seas Canyon expedition), Personal Expenses and Transportation

 

If you are interested or looking for further information, do not hesitate to email us at info@dmad.org.tr or tim.awbery91@gmail.com