Galway scientist leads whale and dolphin research expedition

A team of twenty scientists and students have set sail from Galway onboard the Marine Institute’s RV Celtic Explorer to carry out a multidisciplinary study of cetaceans, megafauna and birdlife around the areas of the Goban Spur and Porucpine seabight in the Atlantic Ocean.

The survey team, led by Dr. Joanne O‘Brien from the Marine Biodiversity Research Group of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology will be at sea for just under two weeks and also includes participants from Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as the Republic.

“This is a unique opportunity to explore offshore waters across a range of disciplines, and gather data from many previously un-surveyed areas of Ireland’s marine territory. It also provides an excellent training ground for marine undergraduate and post graduate students out at sea,” explained Dr. O’Brien.

Also participating in this survey are members from Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, University College Cork, Queens University, Belfast; University of Aberdeen, National University of Ireland Galway, Birdwatch Ireland, Sligo Institute of Technology and MEER Consultancy.

The Cetacean team are researching key habitats and activity of baleen whales and offshore bottlenose dolphins.

“Visual and acoustic surveys are being carried out, in which the team have successfully taken a skin sample from an offshore group of bottlenose dolphins for DNA analysis as well as adding a number of individually recognisable animals to the photo-id catalogue,” said Conor Ryan from GMIT.

The images will be compared with existing photo-identification catalogues held both nationally and internationally. This helps scientists to understand the extensive migration patterns of the whales and dolphins in the Northeast Atlantic and their seasonal visits to the Irish and UK coastlines.

Follow the expedition on www.cetaceansonthefrontier3.blogspot.com

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.