Aerial Survey of the Namibian coast

by Ruth Leeney:
from:

The aim of this mission was to fly the entire Namibian coastline over two days, in order to provide a snapshot of the whales, dolphins and other large marine species using Namibia’s coastal waters. We flew along a line parallel to the coast, approximately 150-200 m from the surf zone. On the first day, the sea conditions were reasonably calm and the mist had cleared as we flew towards the town of Walvis Bay and turned northwards. We covered the entire coastline from Walvis Bay to the Kunene River mouth, stopping at Palmweg to refuel. By the end of the day we had recorded 64 sightings of Heaviside’s dolphins, one ocean sunfish and one bottlenose dolphin.

The following day, we set out to cover the southern part of the coast. As we flew over the salt pans and the Walvis Bay lagoon, flamingos flying far below us, the sea ahead was calm and turquoise. This section of the coast was covered in a previous survey, also supported by the Bataleurs, flown in November 2010, where we gained the first insight into the large numbers of Heaviside’s dolphins found south of Walvis Bay. We again sighted an abundance of these small dolphins, found only in the Benguela ecosystem, during our recent survey, with an apparent hotspot just south of Sandwich Harbour. The waters south of Lüderitz proved surprising, not for any of the focal species such as dolphins but for another ocean giant – Mola mola, the ocean sunfish. This is the heaviest bony fish in the sea (sharks can weigh more, but they are cartilaginous fish), with the heaviest individual on record as weighing 2235 kg! Their Latin name ‘mola’ means millstone, and refers to their round shape. In total we sighted 25 sunfish, and no doubt there were many more further offshore. Along the southern section of coast we had 69 sighting events; as well as the sunfish we saw 88 Heaviside’s dolphins and one bottlenose dolphin.

The data collected provide a unique and novel picture of nearshore marine vertebrate distribution, and especially provide insight into the way in which Heaviside’s dolphins use almost the entire Namibian coastline. A more complete picture of Namibia’s coastal marine life allows managers and conservators to better predict the effects of human activities on our unique and vulnerable marine life. The results of these aerial surveys, along with ongoing research by the NDP in the Namibian Islands Marine Protected Areas, thus forms the first step towards a more comprehensive picture of the key marine species present and important areas for them in Namibian waters.

Many thanks to our pilot Nico Louw, volunteer observers Naude Dreyer and Francois du Toit, and photographer Karl Terblanche. These surveys were supported by the Bataleurs (www.bataleurs.co.za) and the Rufford Small Grants Foundation.

NIMPA Surveys III

by Luis Goncalves.  Luis is a Portuguese MMO (marine mammal observer) who has been working in Angola on some of the seismic ships up there. He decided to come join our team for a month and help us observer marine mammals in Namibia. You've got to love people who take a break from whale watching to come watch whales :)


---

The next few lines tell my experience while volunteering with the Namibian Dolphin Project.

Going there was something that was in my head for a few years now. More or less the same amount of time that I’ve been following the project and the things that they’ve been doing through their blog. I always found Namibia a very interesting country to visit and joining that with the opportunity of doing some work with marine mammals was the perfect combination.

The two project head persons (Simon and Tess) are both very nice and they make every effort possible to put you at ease and to let you try a little bit of everything from what composes their work and research. During my time with them we were based in a small coastal town in the South of Namibia called Luderitz.  The main goal there was to investigate the distribution, abundance and population dynamics of whales and dolphins within the Namibian Islands Marine Protected Area (NIMPA) using both visual and acoustic surveys. Most of the NIMPA region is full of wildlife, especially the islands them selves so, needless to say that, it was a complete joy every time that we went out to sea! On top of this, I had the chance to share very nice thoughts and conversations about Biology and life in general with the rest of the team members and helpers.

To conclude, if anyone is thinking in going there to give them a hand, don’t even dare to think twice. Just go! You will not regret it. Luis

---

Mainly what we've seen is dusky dolphins - you hardly ever see them up in Walvis Bay so it's been great to see so many of the guys down this way.  Some pics below as well as "Bertie" - a minke whale that was semi resident in Luderitz Bay for a few months, but seems to have moved on now.

  

The NIMPA surveys - Part II

The surveys begin... by Tess Gridley

After securing the funding, compiling the hydrophone in Scotland (thank you Rene and Ricardo Antunes!), learning to use the software, driving 2000km to Namibia and eventually receiving the hydrophone (after a very frustrating 2 week delay) and bench testing in the lab, we finally embarked on our first survey last Thursday. 

Rene trying to figure our where to beging unravelling the hydrophone:

With nervous anticipation we loaded the 400 meter hydrophone onto our new research vessel the !Anichab and headed out to sea. What they don't tell you in the instruction book is just how long it takes to unravel 400 meters of hydrophone.. ..Thirty minutes and three safety lines later our hydrophone was successfully deployed (along with several peoples breakfasts!) and we were ready to start our acoustic surveys.

A very happy with Rene, with 400m of fully functioning hydrophon deployed off the back of the !Anichab

At first the weather was pretty good, and the visual team were doing considerably better than the acoustics team at a) spotting dolphins and b) not throwing up.. but after a while, and rather predictably the swell picked up, the mist thickened and acoustic methods were really our only hope of detecting any life out there in the misty Benguela. Though all credit has to go to JP Roux who carried on looking for cetaceans and birds regardless of the < 200 m visibility. 

Our survey lines took us out to the shelf edge at a water depth of 200 m +.  On the way out we encountered one lonely Heaviside's dolphin, in 120 meters water depth something which is either rare or rarely reported (only further research will tell.. :-)) . To our surprise, and several shouts from Simon, we also spotted 3 largish baleen whales, from the pictures  we think are likely to be sei whales. Which didnt hangaround for too long and may well have been feeding. Quite an unusual sighting and not what we had expected. 

  

By the end of the survey, we had also detected several Heaviside's dolphins and a large school of dusky dolphins.. Most importantly, the acoustic system was up and running nicely, and detecting animals that were not spotted by our visual observers! 

So what next...? This is only the tip of the iceberg.. Surveys will continue to run until June this year and intermittently for the next two years at least. We hope to build up information on Heaviside's and dusky dolphin habitat use patterns, as well as much needed information on a whole range of species out there in the Benguela. We hope that this information can be integrated into conservation and management plans and will hopefully help to protect vulnerable populations of marine top predators.. So watch this space, as we will be regularly updating this blog on the progress of the NIMPA Visual and Acoustic surveys !

The NIMPA surveys - Part I

Around this time last year we were granted funds through the Nedbank Go Green Fund to purchase an acoustic array for surveys of the Namibian Islands Marine Protected Area, near Luderitz. This is basically a series of hydrophones (underwater microphones) which are towed behind a research vessel and can detect the naturally occurring sounds produced by whales and dolphins. Using acoustic methods in surveys of marine mammal distribution and relative abundance can greatly increase the chances of detection and optimise survey time and funds.  With the strong winds and swell experienced in southern Namibia, we felt like acoustic methods were the best way to study the area and were thrilled to get the chance to start this work.

We planned this research in collaboration with Dr JP Roux of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources and soon after began working with Rene Swift (University of St Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit, UK) to design the most appropriate hydrophone for our needs and budget. 

Through a SCOR visiting fellow grant, Rene was able to visit South African and Namibia to run training in the use of PAMGUARD software which we are using throughout these surveys.  Training in South Africa took place over two days (23-24th Feb) and involved participants from the Uni. Pretoria's Mammal Research Institute, SANBI and Namibian Dolphin Project and was a great success. SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute) are using PAMGUARD to study the distribution and abundance of frogs on Table Mountain, showing how useful acoustic methods can be to biologists.

Feb 2012 - new field season beginning

During February, Ruth has been up in Walvis Bay running a MarWise course - this is a training and education course aimed at ocean users interacting with marine mammals - see her blog about it here.

Simon and Tess have been down in Cape Town, writing papers, writing grant applications for more funding, finding students and volunteers, buying the relevant equipment, building the new website and just generally sorting out a million little logistical challenges for the next field season.

We'll be heading up to Namibia by the end of Feb to start the new Nedbank Go Green funded project surveying the Namibian Islands Marine Protected Area in conjunction with the Ministry of Marine Resources and Fisheries.

In other news - YAMAHA have supported the Project by providing us with new 7-HP 4-stroke motors at cost price - this is very generous of them and they are currently being shipped to Namibia to be fitted for free by Skeleton Coast Yamaha.  Getting new engines for the boat will make a huge difference to the project - increased reliability and the ability to travel further will mean more data collected in more areas, 4-stroke motors are also quieter and more fuel efficient which will make a big difference to our pollution levels and carbon footprint on the water!   So a BIG thank you to both Yamaha and Skeleton Coast Marine!

One minor glitch in the plan is that cost price is still far from free. The NDP is looking for additional funding to cover some of the R150 000 for the motors.  If you are interested in supporting marine research and conservation (as a person or a company) - get in touch.  Your branding on our brand new Yamaha motors will look great!

Latest news - Dec 2011

In December, Tess and Simon attended the 19th Biennial Conference of the Society of Marine Mammalogy, held in Tampa, Florida. Over 2000 people attended from all over the world and this meeting is the biggest of its kind globally. [Conference Website]

Simon had a talk accepted and spoke about the research the NDP has been doing on bottlenose dolphins in Namibia entitled: Considering behaviour and individual identity in defining a protected area for an isolated population of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

The talk was very well received and it was great to get our research and Namibia's cetaceans on the map.

In other news:
Ruth and Simon have also managed to get a short note out on sightings of leatherback turtles and killer whales in Namibia based on collated sightings from our own work and sightings made by various tour companies. A special thanks must go to Francois Visser of Levo Tours, and Mike Lloyd and Orlanda Sandinha of Catamaran Charters for sharing their sightings with us.  Please get in touch if you'd like to get a copy of the paper.

Elwen, SH and Leeney RH. 2011 Interactions between leatherback turtles and killer whales in Namibian waters, including possible predation : short communication. S. Afr. J. of Wildlife Research.

Lastly - we're currently building our new 'proper' website which is partly why updates have been slow on here - this site will soon link to the new website and vice versa.

Meeting of minds

By Gabriel Al-Najjar - Oceans Intern August 2011

I’m now halfway through the internship living and working with people from all over the world and still feeling like there is so much to do and learn. That’s not to say I haven’t been fulfilling my goals for the month, but a month is a relatively short time to take in everything there is to see. Up to this point, the most memorable experience in the whole trip has happened in one minute; one minute of pure significance and amazement. I was out on the water where we had encountered a group of bottlenose dolphins with about 7 individuals. I had been documenting their behaviour, so I was able to really focus on everything that they were doing: every jump, every breath, every action taken above the water or next to the boat. We had been with them for about half an hour and this is when it all happened. One of the adult dolphins came up to our boat to the side I was on, and had turned on his side in such a way that he could look up at me. At first I wasn’t sure what he was doing, and that’s when Simon said “He is totally looking up at you right now”. In that instant, I knew that I was experiencing something that I had longed to be a part of since I begun aspiring to be a field biologist. The dolphin had continued to swim with us and fix his gaze for about a minute before breaking our locked eyes and dashing off to reunite with his dolphin friends where he belonged. To see these magnificent creatures in the wild as free beings and have an interaction like this one has, in a way, made the whole trip worthwhile. That is one minute of my life that I will never forget.