The value of historic archives for research

By Titus Shaanika - University of Namibia 

Newspapers are an invaluable source of information, they keep with them information that many consider useless  over years, but if newspapers are revisited even after decades information in newspapers can be quite useful, with that in mind the Namibian dolphin project decided to go through the Namib times newspaper(largest daily coastal newspaper ) archives at the Walvis bay municipality library, in search of records(pictures, articles and adverts) about dolphins, whales, sharks, turtles and fishing or anything of interest to a marine conservation organization like Namibian dolphin project. Archives under study are from 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1971

 Pilchard fishing was the talk most of the articles during the studied years, the pilchard industry was by the most productive fishery, an article on 21 May 1965 reported that “1964 was the most successful pilchard fishing season ever at Walvis Bay”. 650 000 tons of pilchards were caught off Walvis Bay", a different article on 3rd September 1965 reads “four pilchard factories have completed their quota of 90 000 tons each" there are several other article about the pilchard galore that was off the Namibian coast. On 6 august 1965 a certain Mr. I J Kuen wrote a letter to the Namib sun expressing his worry about the mismanagement of marine resources and the large number of foreign fleet of trawlers in South West African (Namibian) waters. This article shows that there were concerns of the way of marine resources off the Namibian coast were managed and if such a letter was taken serious maybe pilchards fishing would still be productive and profitable off the Namibian coast and we would still be spotting whales, dolphins and turtles frequently off our beautiful coast.

The invasive Jellyfishes that are of serious concern nowadays, started causing problem problems in 1960s, on 3 March 1967 an article titled “tons of jellyfishes caught up in nets with pilchards” reads “one load of 50 tons of fish the night before last had at least 30 tons of jellyfish amongst it”, this delinquent is still causing headaches today. 30 tons is too big a number for something that has little to no economic significance of the Namibian people, jellyfishes are a delicacy in some Asian countries, perhaps construction of jellyfish processing and exporting factories should be looked into, this an opportunity for local businessman and women. 

The recent stranding of sharks due to sulphur bloom in the lagoon is not something new to the bay, a cases far worse than the one on 17 January 2014,occurred on 29 December  1967 were over 10 tons of fish died and where wash up into the lagoon, the 10 tens included Beast such as sharks, skates and soles.

The low number of articles about cetaceans (collective name of whale and dolphins) in the newspapers perhaps might be because their populations have been exhausted by whaling activity already an article on 19 January 1971 about sperm whale being caught off S.W.A coast, reported “… whales are seldom seen in the bay nowadays…”, many article on cetaceans were mostly about sperm whales.

CLICK ON IMAGES BELOW TO SEE LARGER FORMAT

   

 

      

Sharks stranding in the lagoon

by Tess Gridley

Friday 17th January.  Today we were alerted to the presence of several sharks at the Walvis Bay lagoon early in the morning.  The first call was from Bex Russell, who saw a 1.7 meter bronze whaler shark (Carcharhinus brachyurus) stranded on the mudflats near Millionaire's mile.  The animal was calm and sedate, probably suffering from lack of oxygen and exposure. It was refloated by Simon Elwen of the Namibian Dolphin Project and within a few minutes swam away into deeper water. Just over an hour later, there was a report of another shark stranded in a similar position. This animal was slightly smaller, and again calm and re-floated easily. Within the next hour, 2 more sharks (one more bronze whaler and one smooth hound shark) were found by local residents, all successfully re-floated and we are hopeful that they made it back out into open water.

We are not sure why they stranded, but it most likely due to the warm temperatures and a lack of oxygen in the water associated with the current sulphur bloom. While the sharks we have encountered so far are quite placid, bronze whaler sharks can and do bite and wild animals are unpredictable and potentially dangerous especially when stressed. Therefore we would encourage members of the public to phone the Namibian Dolphin Project on 081 421 4968 or the WB Strandings Network through: 081 602 1355 or 081 149 7377 for further assistance if they encounter any stranded sharks, or other creatures such as whales, dolphins or turtles. 

Opportunity - Volunteer office manager and admin assistant needed

We are currently seeking an independent, outgoing and trustworthy volunteer to manage the Namibian Dolphin Project office while the team undertakes fieldwork in Lüderitz . We are seeking someone from March to May, which will include one month working with us in Walvis Bay and 2 months working independently as the responsible office manager. Core working hours are 7:30-1pm.


The role will include: 
* Engaging with the public
* Administration
* Desk top research work on dolphins, for example photo-identification, data organisation
* Production of education and outreach materials relating to marine life
* Fundraising

During April-May you will be expected to represent the Namibian Dolphin Project in Walvis Bay and attend to strandings and public concerns, as and when they arise.

This volunteer position is well suited to someone with an interest in the environment who can work independently. It would suit a post graduate seeking extra work experience or (as the hours are mainly in the morning) a scientist looking for a quite place to gain inspiration while writing papers/grant applications etc. If interested, please contact Dr Tess Gridley on: nam.dolphin.project@gmail.com. For more information about the project please refer to the website:www.namibiandolphinproject.com or blog. 

Additional bonuses:
- Sea view from your desk
- A Ramsar protected wetland on your doorstep means flamingos, pelicans, ruddy turnstones, whimbrels, curlews, chestnut banded plovers etc etc pass the office everyday

- Bottlenose dolphins swim past the office regularly

- A very nice restaurant next door!

Our Office:

Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) stranding near Swakopmund

By Henri Raaitjies - Sept 2013

Reported on Sunday October 27 by Francois Busch as a possible stranded, the stranding team headed out to inspect the turtle. The animal was at first sight an old individual covered in lots of seaweed growth, but still alive. It didn’t respond much and didn’t appear capable to return to sea on its own strength. The turtle was measured and a skin sample was taken.

The sex of sea turtles can be determined by the tail length. Females have short tails, while male turtles have a larger and more muscular tail, which extends well out the carapace. As can be seen in the photos, we concluded our individual to be female.

After the measurements it was time for action. Actions that were considered include:

-       returning the animal to sea, but he would probably not have enough energy to survive. Rehab is not really an option in Namibia with only the very small Swakopmund aquarium available.

-        ‘least action is least harm’ approach; the animal was right on the edge of the tide line, so close enough to get back into the sea under its own power if if it could. A return the next day to check up on it (and perform a more detailed necropsy if it had died).

The latter option was chosen, and the turtle was left on the beach. Two days later, on Wednesday October 30, the animal had disappeared, leaving the question on its cause of stranding unanswered – we hope it managed to return to the sea under it’s own strength, but it may have died and been washed away.

Sperm whale stranding - Jakkalsputs

The basics:  
Sperm whale - 16m long - male (based on length) - reported at ~09:00 on 13th Nov 2013 - died ~19:00 on 13th Nov 2013 - cause of death unknown - detailed necropsy not possible due to sea conditions.

On Wednesday the 13th, we had a report from several different people of a live stranded whale up in the Jakkalsputs area (just south of Henties Bay).  The NDP team headed up as fast as we could to assess the situation and see what we could to assist, co-ordinate and collect data.

We arrived to find several people clustered around an adult male sperm whale (which we later measured at 16m long) which was being bashed about by a fairly big surf. Some people had already attempted a rescue before we got there. Not unexpectedly, their attempt was unsuccessful and people had risked their lives and health for what was at best a long shot.  Luckily the EMED team were on hand and no mishaps occurred.  

Although we are very grateful for the support and interest of the community in the welfare of this animal and other cetaceans - we strongly recommend that if you find a stranded whale, dolphin or turtle, you contact someone with experience and training before attempting any rescue. 
PLEASE SEE CONTACT DETAILS AT THE END OF THIS POST


Some important things to bear in mind with stranded whales and dolphins:

- Most of the time, animals strand due to natural causes such as disease, injury or old age (which aren't always obvious) and refloating them isn't likely to prolong their lives anyway.  

- These animals can (and increasingly do) carry diseases that can infect people. People also can transfer diseases to animals.

- Cetaceans are large and extremely strong, even the smallest local animal (the Heaviside's dolphin) weighs about 50-60kg and and adult humpback or right whale weighs 10s of tons. Throw in some heavy seas and big swells and you have a recipe for disaster. Sixty kg's being thrown into you by the force of some pounding swells will knock over at the very least, or a larger animal could very easily roll onto your foot and trap you underneath it. Don't forget that a whale's tail can push it's entire body out of the water when breaching - if it hits a person with that tail while on the beach...

- With respect to the situation of a large animal such as this in big surf - refloated animals often just turn immediately once in the water and swim along shore and then straight back on too land. Bear in mind that these animals have likely never lain on the ground before (and thus experienced gravity as us land mammals do) and this can result in squashed or even crushed internal organs in larger animals (especially their lungs), upset balance and one would image, just general disorientation. Sperm whales are fairly tall and narrow in shape, so tend to lie on their side when stranded, which makes it even harder to move them and probably disorients them even more than other animals. To reduce this disorientation and reduce the risk of restranding, the approach advised by experienced people is to, once back in the water, hold the animal upright at the surface for several minutes up to half an hour to allow it to reorient itself and get its breathing back to normal. Unfortunately, there is no logistical way that a handful of people could get an adult sperm whale 16m long, which weighs in the range of 20-30 TONS and has been lying on it's side on the beach for at least 5 or 6 hours, out through that surf zone and then hold it upright in the water while it gets used to floating again. The best equivalent I can think of is if someone held you upside down by your ankles for 6 hours then turned you upright and told you to immediately run across a busy highway in a straight line, you'd need a little help and time to get used to being upright again.

Great big thanks to everyone who let us know about the animal and helped out with the stranding - especially Martinette Fourie who stayed on until sunset on Wednesday to monitor the whale.

 SPERM WHALE FROM THE FRONT - BLOW HOLE TO THE LEFT, JAW UNDER WATER TO THE RIGHT

 MEASURING THE WHALE IN THE SMALLER SURF ON FRIDAY - EVEN KNOWING ALL THE RISKS, I STILL MANAGED TO GET HIT RATHER HARD BY THE TAIL WHEN A WAVE PUSHED IT INTO MY KNEE!

PARALLEL TOOTH RAKE SCARS ON THE NOSE  - FROM FIGHTS WITH OTHER SPERM WHALES

MEASURING THE TOOTH RAKES ON THE BODY - 13-16 CM APART!

MORE PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK HERE

STRANDINGS NETWORK CONTACT DETAILS:

Simon Elwen - Namibian Dolphin Project:                081 421 4968

Naude Dreyer - Sandwich Harbour Tours:                 081 149 7377

Marinette Fourie - Ocean Adventures:                      081 602 1355

Ministry of Fisheries Swakopmund (NatMIRC):           064 410 1000

                 - Contact Ipeinge Mundjula / Chris Bartholomae / Hannes Holtzhausen

If you're in the south of the country - 

Ministry of Fisheries - Luderitz Marine Research:      063 202 415

Dr Jean Paul Roux                                                  081 308 3949

Heiko Metzger - Zeepard Tours:                               081 604 2805

September - busy but boring

by Simon Elwen

Since our trip to the UK where Tess and I had some very productive meetings with colleagues at St Andrews University, it's been a busy few weeks back home.  Not much exciting happening in the way of strandings or sea days in the last month - pretty much just office work, which is good in its way.

Hannah and Tess and making good progress on their analysis of signature whistles in bottlenose dolphins and are close to a first publication draft. I managed to do some work on our humpback whale paper (that went to the IWC earlier this year, to better prepare it for publication and sent it off to co-authors. Sara is going square eyed from looking at hundreds and hundreds of Heaviside's dorsal fins and still has a long way to go.  Two volunteers from Germany and Holland are going to be joining us this week to help Sara with her data processing - we'll introduce them later.

We've also been trying to do a little more public awareness this month while we could: Tess and Sara gave a talk at the Dolphin School, we've had a few more people popping in our our Environmental Office, I gave a talk at the Gobabeb Open day on Walvis Bay's bottlenose dolphin population and also at the BCC (Benguela Current Commission) conference in Windhoek last week. Both of these talks highlighted some of the conservation concerns that cetaceans are facing here in Namibia.  A lot of other interesting talks at both events!

There is a lot of development happening in the marine environment over the next few years including the phosphate mining (even though there is currently a moratorium on it, it's likely to go ahead at some point), a few seismic surveys planned and the massive harbour expansion project taking place in Walvis Bay. Any construction projects or survey activities which potentially impact on the environment must go through an Environmental Impact Assessment process. This almost always involves at least one public meeting to allow for anyone who is interested to attend and get more information on the projects and air their concerns. We do our best to go to any that are relevant to the marine environment along with colleagues from the Conservation and Environment Trust of Namibia (CETN), but these meetings are often not well attended and we strongly encourage everyone who can to take an interest in their environment and go to the meetings!

A lot of people aren't aware of these meetings, so we're going to try advertise the ones we're aware of either here or on Facebook (Namibian Dolphin Project) and also on the window and chalk board at the office.

 JOHN PATERSON OF THE ALBATROSS TASK FORCE NAMIBIA AT GOBABEB

PETER BRIDGEFORD OF VULTURES NAMIBIA AT GOBABEB

First ever sei whale stranding in Namibia

A little later, but better than never :

By Sara Golaski

An estimated 15 ton whale, later identified as a sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) was reported to the Namibian Dolphin Project (NDP) on July 19th by local windsurfers. It had beached itself along the speed strip next to the Walvis Bay Lagoon and rested in shallow water.  Before anything could be done by the Walvis Bay Strandings Network, a group of quick thinking kiteboarders and windsurfers had already managed to urged back into deeper waters, where it was lost into the choppy seas. They reported the valuable details to the NDP but were unable to identify the species as whales in this family can be difficult to tell apart. The whale was not found again that day, but was discovered the next morning by marine tour operators who reported that it was swimming in extremely shallow water near the salt works pump station, an area of frequent whale strandings.

The whale re-stranded there, and was afterwards attended by researchers from the Namibian Dolphin Project and volunteers from the Walvis Bay Strandings Network. The animal, very unresponsive though still breathing at this point was identified as an adult sei whale, an elusive offshore species of baleen whale. Sei whales occur in all oceans, but are rarely seen as they do not normally venture inshore. Unfortunately this one was far too large and too shallow for a rescue to be possible, though researchers were able to collect photographs and a skin sample for later analysis. The animal had passed away by the next morning without having moved from where it stranded. Basic measurements of the female sei whale taken at the scene put it at 15 meters long. Its dorsal fin alone was half a meter high and its tail flukes were 3 meters wide.

Although sei whales were historically caught in Namibia and west South Africa by commercial whalers, this is the first record of one stranding on the beach, highlighting the importance of these events for researchers to understand more about these animals. Nothing is known about the current population size or habits of sei whales in Namibia. They live offshore where they are difficult to study, but simultaneously exposed to several potential human threats including phosphate mining and seismic exploration for oil and gas.

A big thank you to Sara Golaski, John Paterson, Sue Roux and Margot Jefferson for getting out to the animal to assess it and collect data. Also to Willi Deetleefs for passing on the info to us on Saturday morning and most of all to Des and Miguel, for reporting the stranding to us in the first place.