The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (also known as HWDT) is a marine conservation charity in the Hebrides, Scotland that is dedicated to research and education of whales, dolphins, and porpoises (Cetaceans) in Hebridean waters. It is based in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull although it works across the whole of the West Coast of Scotland. [1] [2]
HWDT was founded in 1994 off the back of the UK's first whale watching operator, with the goal of further understanding the rich diversity of whales and dolphins in Scottish waters. [3] [4] [2]
HWDT works 'directly with local communities to ensure whales, dolphins and porpoises are protected and valued throughout Scotland's west coast.' [5] Much of their data is collected through citizen science from members of the public as well as local boat tour operators and fishermen. [3] Data they have collected has contributed to creating Marine Protected Areas (MPA) for Minke Whales, Risso's Dolphins, and Basking Sharks, and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for Harbour Porpoise in Scottish waters. [6] [7] [8] [9]
In 2017, HWDT launched a free app called Whale Track allowing a community of both locals and tourists to the Hebrides to report their sightings to the Trust. Designed to function without phone signal or WiFi, the app allows the Trust to collect data daily from sightings around the Hebrides. The data is also visible to other users allowing the community to know what species are being seen in their local area and encouraging them to report. Data from this has contributed to creating MPAs in the Hebrides as well as increasing the knowledge about what species visit Scottish waters. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
In 2002, the Trust bought a Research Vessel named Silurian to help them survey and collect data about the Hebridean Seas. The 60 ft ketch had previously been used in the Azores to film the first series of BBC's Blue Planet. [15] [16] Silurian has collected data for the trust every year since 2002, staffed by paying volunteers and crew. In this time, she has sailed over 100,000 km, recorded 15 species as well as collecting over a year's worth of underwater acoustic recordings via hydrophone. [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]
Silurian also operates as a floating classroom taking on schoolchildren to teach them about marine research and the marine life in Scottish waters. [22]
The Trust also use Silurian to monitor the impact of military activities on the local marine mammals during the bi-annual Joint Warrior military exercise that take place in North West Scotland. [23] [17]
In 1997, a discovery centre was opened in Tobermory, in order to increase the public engagement of the charity and educate both locals and tourists about Scottish cetaceans [3]
It currently operates as an interactive visitor centre on Tobermory's Main Street, running education and engagement sessions to teach the public about the wealth of marine life found is Scottish seas [24]
Established in 2019, the Hebridean Whale Trail is a series of whale-watching and whale heritage sites across Hebridean Islands and the West Coast of Scotland designed to encourage accessible and sustainable whale watching from land. [25] [26] [27] [28] [12] [29] The trail also aims to boost local economies and educate visitors about the history and heritage of the Hebrides, particularly Scotland's role in industrial whaling. [30] It includes over 30 sites including: St. Kilda; Tiumpan Head (Isle of Lewis); Kilt Rock (Isle of Skye); Kinloch (Isle of Rùm); Ardnamurchan Lighthouse; Glengorm Castle (Isle of Mull); and The Oa (Islay). The site of Huisinish, on the Isle of Harris, is close to the Bunavoneader Whaling Station which closed in 1953. [31] [32]
Cetacea is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel themselves through the water with powerful up-and-down movement of their tail which ends in a paddle-like fluke, using their flipper-shaped forelimbs to maneuver.
Whaling is the hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16th century, it had become the principal industry in the Basque coastal regions of Spain and France. The whaling industry spread throughout the world and became very profitable in terms of trade and resources. Some regions of the world's oceans, along the animals' migration routes, had a particularly dense whale population and became targets for large concentrations of whaling ships, and the industry continued to grow well into the 20th century. The depletion of some whale species to near extinction led to the banning of whaling in many countries by 1969 and to an international cessation of whaling as an industry in the late 1980s.
Whales(Balaena) are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and porpoises. Dolphins and porpoises may be considered whales from a formal, cladistic perspective. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla, which consists of even-toed ungulates. Their closest non-cetacean living relatives are the hippopotamuses, from which they and other cetaceans diverged about 54 million years ago. The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have had their last common ancestor around 34 million years ago. Mysticetes include four extant (living) families: Balaenopteridae, Balaenidae, Cetotheriidae, and Eschrichtiidae. Odontocetes include the Monodontidae, Physeteridae, Kogiidae, and Ziphiidae, as well as the six families of dolphins and porpoises which are not considered whales in the informal sense.
Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins (cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity, but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes. A study prepared for International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2009 estimated that 13 million people went whale watching globally in 2008. Whale watching generates $2.1 billion per annum in tourism revenue worldwide, employing around 13,000 workers. The size and rapid growth of the industry has led to complex and continuing debates with the whaling industry about the best use of whales as a natural resource.
The toothed whales are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales. 73 species of toothed whales are described. They are one of two living groups of cetaceans, the other being the baleen whales (Mysticeti), which have baleen instead of teeth. The two groups are thought to have diverged around 34 million years ago (mya).
The short-finned pilot whale is one of the two species of cetaceans in the genus Globicephala, which it shares with the long-finned pilot whale. It is part of the oceanic dolphin family (Delphinidae).
The harbour porpoise is one of eight extant species of porpoise. It is one of the smallest species of cetacean. As its name implies, it stays close to coastal areas or river estuaries, and as such, is the most familiar porpoise to whale watchers. This porpoise often ventures up rivers, and has been seen hundreds of kilometres from the sea. The harbour porpoise may be polytypic, with geographically distinct populations representing distinct races: P. p. phocoena in the North Atlantic and West Africa, P. p. relicta in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, an unnamed population in the northwestern Pacific and P. p. vomerina in the northeastern Pacific.
Burmeister's porpoise is a species of porpoise endemic to the coast of South America. It was first described by Hermann Burmeister, for whom the species is named, in 1865.
Dall's porpoise is a species of porpoise endemic to the North Pacific. It is the largest of porpoises and the only member of the genus Phocoenoides. The species is named after American naturalist W. H. Dall.
The Isle of Mull or just Mull is the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides and lies off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute.
The melon-headed whale, also known less commonly as the electra dolphin, little killer whale, or many-toothed blackfish, is a toothed whale of the oceanic dolphin family (Delphinidae). The common name is derived from the head shape. Melon-headed whales are widely distributed throughout deep tropical and subtropical waters worldwide, but they are rarely encountered at sea. They are found near shore mostly around oceanic islands, such as Hawaii, French Polynesia, and the Philippines.
The southern right whale dolphin is a small and slender species of cetacean, found in cool waters of the Southern Hemisphere. It is one of two species of right whale dolphin. This genus is characterized by the lack of a dorsal fin. The other species, the northern right whale dolphin, is found in deep oceans of the Northern Hemisphere and has a different pigmentation pattern than the southern right whale dolphin.
Cetacean bycatch is the accidental capture of non-target cetacean species such as dolphins, porpoises, and whales by fisheries. Bycatch can be caused by entanglement in fishing nets and lines, or direct capture by hooks or in trawl nets.
British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) is a British charity established in 1988 and is a frontline marine mammal response organisation. It utilises a network of trained volunteers around the country to respond to marine mammals potentially in need of assistance via a public 24hr hotline and callout system. The organisation's main areas of operation are in the United Kingdom and its territorial waters; however, the charity has received requests from Canada, the Falkland Islands, Kenya, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malta and Abu Dhabi.
The southern bottlenose whale is a species of whale, in the Ziphiid family, one of two members of the genus Hyperoodon. Seldom observed, the southern bottlenose whale is resident in Antarctic waters. The species was first described by English zoologist William Henry Flower in 1882, based on a water-worn skull from Lewis Island, in the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia. They live in deep ocean waters over 1000 meters.
Erich Hoyt is a whale and dolphin (cetacean) researcher, conservationist, lecturer and author of 26 books and more than 700 reports, articles and papers. His book Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, has been widely reviewed as the "definitive reference of the current extent of cetacean ecosystems-based management" and as "a unique and essential book for anybody interested in the conservation and protection of cetaceans. [This] definitive source on MPAs marine protected areas for cetaceans…will influence the design and management of this important and rapidly developing conservation tool." Choice listed the book as an "Outstanding Academic Title’ for the year 2012. Since 2013, as Research Fellow with Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) and IUCN SSC/WCPA Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force co-chair with Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Hoyt has focussed on the creation and development of the new conservation tool of Important Marine Mammal Areas, or IMMAs. In 2016, following a MAVA Foundation pilot project to identify IMMAs in the Mediterranean, the Task Force's GOBI collaboration funded by the German Climate Initiative (IKI) began a six-year project to identify and implement IMMAs across most of the southern hemisphere. The IMMA tool has been received and widely endorsed by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), various commissions within the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Whaling Commission, as well as national governments and scientists.
The Swiss Cetacean Society or Swiss Society for the Study and Protection of Cetaceans is a Swiss nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of marine mammals and other endangered marine species in their natural habitat. Founded in 1997, its headquarters are in Lausanne in Switzerland.
Whale watching in New Zealand is predominantly centered around the areas of Kaikōura and the Hauraki Gulf. Known as the 'whale capital', Kaikōura is a world-famous whale watching site, in particular for sperm whales which is currently the most abundant of large whales in New Zealand waters. The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park is also a significant whale watching area with a resident population of Bryde's Whales commonly viewed alongside other cetaceans Common Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins and Orca. Whale watching is also offered in other locations, often as eco-tours and in conjunction with dolphin watching. Land-based whale watching from New Zealand's last whaling station, which closed in 1964, is undertaken for scientific purposes, mostly by ex-whalers. Some compilations of sighting footages are available on YouTube.
Whale watching in Ireland is a growing tourism activity. The territorial waters of Ireland have been designated a Whale and Dolphin sanctuary since 1991. In total, 25 different cetacean species have been recorded in Irish waters, with large numbers of cetaceans making seasonal passages off the coastline, and a number of resident populations in coastal harbours and transitional regions.