USING PASSIVE ACOUSTICS TO SURVEY LUNDY ISLAND’S NEAR SHORE WATERS FOR SMALL ODONTOCETES

• Main Author: Squires, Natalie J
• Other Authors: Faculty of Science and Technology
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Plymouth University 2012
• Subjects: Phocoena phocoena
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10026.2/1713

Historically, Lundy Island has been an important site for marine conservation and has recently become Britain’s first Marine Conservation Zone. Despite this, the marine fauna and flora protected by the designations afforded to Lundy Island are facing potential threats from the Atlantic Array; a newly proposed offshore wind farm to be built in the Bristol Channel within close proximity of Lundy Island. This study provides insight on the temporal and spatial distribution of the previously unstudied odontocete species inhabiting Lundy Island’s near shore waters. Passive acoustic surveys were conducted in 2011 using two C-PODs provided by Natural England. These surveys were complemented by visual observations made from cliff top locations on Lundy Island during the spring, 2012. Poor weather conditions and technical failures hindered data collection, however, detections of Harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and dolphins were made by the C-PODs. Observations of Delphinus delphis were made during visual surveys. Tidal influence was found to be the dominating factor affecting porpoise distribution, with most acoustic encounters occurring during ebb tides. For dolphin species environmental drivers were less obvious with both tidal and diel variation showing influence on dolphin acoustic activity. From the information acquired it can be deduced that Lundy Island is an important site for odontocete species, which may be negatively affected by the Atlantic Array development unless appropriate mitigation measures are taken.