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Here is the latest news of our research work in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Ligurian Sea.

In Gibraltar:
In July, our killer whale mission was surprising: only 3 individuals were present in the study zone while the other years, at the same period, a dozen of them were seen regularly. Their habits did not changed, there are here to feed on tuna, even if it means stealing them from fishermen, which is not without problems (see page 3). It is during August that we understood why the killer whales were so few for the last weeks: the rest of the group came back accompanied by a newborn. They were all very excited judging by the great show of jumps and spy hopping they gave us.

We also orientated our efforts of research to the sperm whales, updating our photo-identification catalogue. "Champi", who we see every year, was there with at least 5 other sperm whales. Problems of collisions in the Strait are still worrisome: again this summer, a fast ferry passed 2 meters away from a sperm whale that escaped at the last minute.

The first group of research volunteers had exceptional climatic conditions in the Strait. We were on the field every day with a calm sea. Unfortunately, the bad weather came back rapidly and two next groups could only go out two and five days. Nevertheless, they could see all the 7 species of the Strait because the abundance and diversity of cetaceans are exceptional. No matter the weather, everybody spent good times.

In Ligurian:
In August, thanks to our collaboration with the American scientist Bruce Mate, 11 Argos tags of satellite follow-up were deployed on Mediterranean fin whales. So far, we are still receiving the position of ten individuals out of eleven. Until now, the fin whales stayed in the Mediterranean Sea on the French side moving more or less around in the zone. One individual ventured between Sardinia and the Balearic Islands then turned around to come back closer to the French coasts.

While writing those lines, we don’t have clues on any migratory routes or even a direction that we could perceive, but do not worry, you will be the first to know when we will have our answer to our question… where do fin whales go in winter?

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This newsletter brings you information on the life of the common dolphin, problems of interactions between killer whales and tuna fishery in the Strait of Gibraltar and we are going on in exploring that hardly quiet world through acoustic analyses of cetacean’s vocalisations.

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CIRCE Newsletter n° 7 - made by Philippe Verborgh & Anne Collet