Scientists to monitor north military excercise over strandings fear
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A group of scientists are to shadow Europe's biggest war games off the Sutherland coast - and with new hi-tech equipment - to investigate the effect on whales and dolphins.
The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust's research vessel Silurian - which was used in the BBC series Blue Planet - will track the controversial massive Joint Warrior exercise using hydrophones and other equipment to check on the possible damage and disturbance to any cetaceans in the area.
It is the second of the exercises which are held each year in and around The Minch and North coast - and comes with continued concern over the threat to whales and dolphins.
A pod of pilot whales stranded in July, 2011, at the Kyle of Durness in what is believed to have been Scotland's largest ever such event. Some 19 of the 70 whales died.
Four large bombs exploded underwater by the Royal Navy were later blamed by government scientists for the mass stranding.
A long-delayed report released last year by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs said that the noise from the explosions could have damaged the hearing and navigational abilities of the whales, causing them to beach and die.
The report revealed that three 1,000-pound bombs were detonated in the sea nearby by the Royal Navy’s Northern Diving Group in the 24 hours before the whales were stranded. A fourth 250-pound bomb was exploded after stranding began.
The bombs were left over from military exercises, such as Joint Warrior, in which planes and ships target Garvie Island, a small rocky outcrop 4.5km from the Kyle of Durness. Some bombs miss the island, fail to detonate and sink to the seabed, where they have to be located and disposed of for safety reasons.
And in 2010, the war games were also at the centre of a row after conservationists claimed that two whales had been damaged by naval sonar off the west coast.
Now HDWT has filled every space on October's trip to watch over the massive Nato exercise, involving many ships and submarines.
Six volunteers have even paid £895 each to help the crew of three monitor the effect on cetaceans during the war games.
"Sonar, gunnery and high speed manoeuvres are used, which all have the potential to affect marine mammals due to the associated underwater noise," said a spokesman for HWDT.
"Recent mass strandings in the UK have been linked, by expert marine mammal pathologists, to military sonar use - e.g. in Cornwall, 2008 - and bomb denotations - e.g. in Sutherland, 2012 - subsequent to Joint Warrior exercises.
"A common factor in mass-strandings associated with military exercises, is the presence of offshore species in coastal waters - such as common dolphins in Cornwall and long-finned pilot whales in Sutherland.
"HWDT is committed to surveying for cetaceans near the Joint Warrior exercises and reporting any sightings through appropriate channels, in order to prevent mass-strandings or injury to cetaceans in the area.
"We will conduct our standard visual and acoustic surveys in the same general area as the naval vessel fleet between October 10 and 17.
"The HWDT team has additional equipment on board this year in order to document any unusual behaviour consistent with strong avoidance - such as fleeing an area at speed.
"This video range tracking (VRT) kit allows the team to track whales benignly using a calibrated video camera and binoculars mounted together with a stills camera which records angles. Using trigonometry, the distance, direction of swim and speed of the animals can be estimated, in order to reconstruct their movements without the need for tags.
"We are also monitoring the locations of vessels...... HWDT continues to engage with representatives from the Ministry of Defence regarding Joint Warrior activities, with a view to improving impact assessment and noise mitigation measures."
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