Dear MARMAM Subscribers, please find below, for your information, a message that I have just sent to the Secretariat of ACCOBAMS.
Should anyone wish to send to the Secretariat a letter supporting my concern, you are most welcome! Best wishes, Giuseppe Inizio messaggio inoltrato: > Da: Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara <[email protected]> > Oggetto: I: [ECS-TALK] New atypical mass stranding of Ziphius in the Ionian > Sea, Greece > Data: 01 dicembre 2011 10:02:57 GMT+01:00 > A: Marie-Christine Grillo - Compulsione <[email protected]> > Cc: Alexandros Frantzis <[email protected]>, Montanaro Oliviero > <[email protected]>, Eleni Tryfon <[email protected]>, > "Alexei Birkun Jr." <[email protected]>, [email protected] > > Milano, 1 December 2011 > > To: Mrs. Marie-Christine Grillo Compulsione, Executive Secretary, ACCOBAMS > > Cc: Mr. Oliviero Montanaro, ACCOBAMS Focal Point for Italy > Mrs. Eleni Tryfon, ACCOBAMS Focal Point for Greece > Mrs. Elvana Ramaj, ACCOBAMS Focal Point for Albania > Mr. Alexei Birkun, Jr., Chair, ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee > Mr. Alexandros Frantzis, Scientific Director, Pelagos Cetacean Research > Institute, Vouliagmeni, Greece > > > Dear Mrs. Grillo Compulsione, > > You may already have seen the report by colleague Dr. Frantzis a few hours > ago, posted on the ECS-Talk discussion list (below), describing the atypical > mass stranding of a minimum of three Cuvier's beaked whales, Ziphius > cavirostris, which occurred yesterday, 30 November 2011, on the western > shores of the Greek island of Corfu. Based on this very preliminary > information it is still impossible to tell whether the stranding event was > caused by human activities. However, on the basis of the report there > appears to be strong evidence that human noise from an unknown source, > similar to sound known to cause atypical beaked whale mass strandings, was > generated in the location's marine waters as the strandings were occurring. > > Based on recommendations from the ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee, the waters > of the eastern Ionian Sea (where the above mentioned strandings of Cuvier's > beaked whales have occurred) were listed in MOP Resolution 3.22 ("Marine > Protected Areas for cetaceans") as "areas of special importance for the > common dolphin and other cetaceans". The deep marine waters off NW Greece > and S Albania are widely known to contain important, possibly critical > habitat of Cuvier's beaked whales, as also suggested from the modeling > exercise performed by Dr. Ana Cañadas, requested by the Scientific Committee > of ACCOBAMS and presented to the Committee's 7th Meeting in Monaco (March > 2011)(see map of predicted relative density of animals, 1990-2010, in Dr. > Cañadas' report). In that occasion the Meeting agreed that beaked whales > should not be exposed to a Sound Pressure Level greater than 140 dB re 1 μPa > @ 1 m throughout most of Mediterranean waters deeper than 600 m. > > Based on the above I cannot avoid considering the production of high level > noise in the waters off western Corfu a deliberate take of Cuvier's beaked > whales, a protected species. > > During the Third (Dubrovnik, 22-25 October 2007) and Fourth Meetings of the > ACCOBAMS Contracting Parties (Monaco, 9-12 November 2010), Resolutions were > adopted by all Parties (Resolution 3.10 and Resolution 4.17) that are > relevant to prevent human-generated noise from jeopardizing the conservation > status of protected cetacean species, such as Cuvier's beaked whales, in the > ACCOBAMS area. Resolution elements include, amongst others: > > urging Parties to give particular attention to the management of habitats > that host sensitive species, such as beaked whales (Res. 3.10, 1, b) > urging Parties to include consideration of the effects of underwater noise in > EIAs and in the consequent design of mitigation procedures for any activity > that might introduce noise underwater (Res. 3.10, 1, d)(Res. 4.17, 4) > urging Parties and intergovernmental organisations to inform the Secretariat > on current and reasonably foreseeable noise-producing activities occurring > under their jurisdiction within the ACCOBAMS area (Res. 3.10, 10) > calling upon Parties to request information on the possible impact of > anthropogenic noise on marine mammals in existing procedures relating to EIA > and where necessary, to develop specific measures, by the competent national > authorities, for activities which produce anthropogenic noise having an > impact on marine mammals (Res. 3.10, 11) > inviting Parties to implement mitigation and monitoring measures for noise > producing activities within the ACCOBAMS area, including, avoiding key marine > mammal habitats, areas of high marine mammal density and marine protected > areas, and defining appropriate buffer zones around them; establish safe, > precautionary and scientifically-based exclusion zones around the noise > source; effectively monitoring for marine mammals in the vicinity of that > source; and managing activities in the light of cumulative, seasonal, and > historical impacts from multiple sources (Res. 3.10, 12) > strongly requesting Parties to emphasize the need for a precautionary > approach and to envisage the appropriate mitigation measures, including a > provision for expert review by specialists and a provision for the action to > be taken if unusual events, such as atypical mass strandings, occur (Res. > 4.17, 5) > directing the Secretariat to distribute to the Parties the findings of the > Scientific Committee on the habitat of species particularly vulnerable to > noise ... (Res. 4.17, 12) > > Furthermore, Resolution 4.17 contains in its Annex Guidelines "to address the > impact of anthropogenic noise on cetaceans in the ACCOBAMS area", with > explicit indication of measures to be adopted to avoid that events such as > yesterday's Corfu atypical mass stranding of Cuvier's beaked whales will > occur. These include 19 specific guidelines of actions to be followed during > the course of seismic surveys and airgun uses. > > Since I am unaware whether most of the above Resolution commitments, > recommendations and prescriptions were implemented, while I am aware that > Cuvier's beaked whales continue to be subject to episodes of atypical mass > strandings in the ACCOBAMS area - with the Corfu event being only the last > known - I am kindly asking you to inform me and the science and conservation > community in the Mediterranean at large about what measures the Parties - > with the support of the Secretariat - intend to implement, amongst those that > the Parties have agreed upon in the above mentioned Resolutions, so that the > illegal takes of a species protected by many international (e.g., ACCOBAMS, > CMS, Bern Convention, EU Habitats Directive, SPA-BD Protocol to the Barcelona > Convention) and national legal instruments be avoided in the future. In > particular, I think that it would be important to know whether the > Secretariat or the Parties most concerned by the specific Corfu event (i.e., > Albania, Greece and Italy) are informed about the occurrence of > noise-producing human activities in the area, and if yes whether an EIA for > such activity exists, whether you have seen such EIA, on what scientific > bases the EIA was produced and approved by the competent authorities, whether > there were Marine Mammal Observers on board, whether the EIA was brought to > the attention of the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS, or whether the EIA was > evaluated by cetacean bioacoustic experts. > > Given our extreme concern for the continued existence of Cuvier's beaked > whales in the Mediterranean Sea, I look forward to your feedback on my > questions above, and take this opportunity for sending you my best regards. > > Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara > President of the Tethys Research Institute - Partner of ACCOBAMS > Former Chair, ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee > > > Inizio messaggio inoltrato: > >> Da: Alexandros Frantzis <[email protected]> >> Oggetto: [ECS-TALK] New atypical mass stranding of Ziphius in the Ionian >> Sea, Greece >> Data: 01 dicembre 2011 01:04:32 GMT+01:00 >> A: [email protected] >> Rispondi a: Alexandros Frantzis <[email protected]> >> >> Dear all, >> >> Once more we have bad news regarding Cuvier's beaked whales in the Ionian >> Sea. The local population unit, which has repeatedly been affected by NATO >> naval activity (last time in February 2011 east of Sicily) may be steadily >> heading towards its extinction... >> >> Today 30 November 2011 at least three Cuvier's beaked whales stranded alive >> and atypically in west Corfu, along 23 km of coast. All whales were led >> offshore by people who tried to rescue them. One whale died some 200 m >> offshore. Another whale, after having swam some 600 m offshore, returned and >> stranded once more (if this wasn't a different animal). It was led once more >> offshore after the sunset, so no further information is available so far. >> The third animal was not seen after it was "rescued". >> >> I would like to draw your attention on two "peculiarities": >> >> 1) Independent rescuers in two different stranding areas, reported that they >> were hearing "whistles" while approaching the single animals. The "whistles" >> were heard even out of the water at a distance of 100 m from the animal (!), >> and became much louder when the rescuers entered the water to approach the >> animal. The rescuers kept hearing the "whistles" until they left the place, >> two hours after the death of the unique whale present! They thought that >> there might be other whales calling the stranded animal from further >> offshore, although they could observe nothing for hours. >> >> Two independent rescuers (separated by 23 km) described these "whistles" as >> "emission"-pause of 10-15 seconds-"emission"-pause and so on. I wonder if >> what the rescuers were hearing was the probable sonic cause of the >> stranding. If you have a similar experience or knowledge, please share it >> with us. >> >> The rescuers didn't see any military or seismic survey vessels from the >> shore. A fisherman from the area said that today he saw an "unusual" >> research vessel offshore that he believes (it is known in the area that >> seismic surveys have started or are about to start) was performing research >> for oil. >> >> 2) The whale that died 200 m offshore was found at about 3-4 m depth at an >> unusual position (to me at least). Its flukes were on the sea bed while the >> beak and part of the head of the animal was out of the water! For some >> reason the head could float at surface and the animal never sunk. Does >> anyone has an explanation? >> >> Unfortunately no necropsy was performed to the animal that died. >> >> The port-police authorities and local volunteers have been alerted and we >> just hope that tomorrow we won't find more animals along the coasts. >> >> Repeated use of military sonar and now growing seismic survey activity go on >> in an area that is critical for the two deep diving Mediterranean species, >> the Cuvier's and the sperm whales. In 2007 ACCOBAMS officially proposed the >> creation of a MPA for deep diving cetaceans in the eastern Ionian Sea >> (Hellenic Trench), but nothing has happened so far. >> >> Best wishes, >> Alexandros >> -- >> ___________________________________________ >> >> Dr. Alexandros Frantzis >> Scientific director >> Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute >> Terpsichoris 21 >> 16671 Vouliagmeni, >> GREECE >> Tel.: +30-210-8960108 >> e-mail: [email protected] >> website: http://www.pelagosinstitute.gr >> ___________________________________________ >> _________________________________________________________________________ >> Homepage www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ECS-TALK >> >> How to join/leave the ECS-TALK list, how to obtain a Listserv Password, how >> to post a message to the list, what to do when going on Holiday? >> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/using/quickuser.htm gives the answers to >> these and more questions! >> >> >> > > ____________________________________________________ > Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Ph.D. > President, Tethys Research Institute > Via Benedetto Marcello 43, 20124 Milano, Italy > [email protected] • +39 335 6376035 • Skype: patmos1999 > www.tethys.org • www.disciara.net >
_______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
