Whales, Dolphins & Turtles
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What?
The Azores archipelago is one of the prime whale and dolphin hotspots in the world and around 30% of the world’s known cetacean species have been recorded there.
Study species Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) Other landmark species present: Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) When? This study takes place April 4th thru April 27th, 2009. Why? The expedition initiated the first long term concerted study on baleen whales in the Azores. For management purposes the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has included the Azores archipelago in the East Greenland and Iceland stocks, but there is little evidence to support this. These animals in particular have not been studied around the Azores and accurate knowledge of the origins of the baleen whales passing the archipelago during April and May will help to determine which stocks they come from and assess more accurately their true numbers (which are often inflated in efforts to set hunting quotas).
The expedition will also continue existing sperm whale, bottlenose and Rissos’s dolphin studies. The sperm whale study is part of a larger migration and social study, and the dolphin study is in the early stages of assessing animal numbers and migratory behavior around the archipelago. Loggerhead turtles will also be studied and tagged as part of an international research project studying their life history and migration around the Atlantic. Where? The Azores archipelago, Europe’s westernmost point and part of Portugal’s territory, is a group of nine distinct islands, lying on the same latitude as New York and Lisbon, around 1600 kilometres off the coast of Portugal. |