ScanMed, the launch of an exciting collaboration of Marinelife & Maersk to monitor whales & dolphins

July 5, 2008 - PRLog -- Marinelife, the UK-based marine conservation charity and Maersk, one of the leading international liner shipping companies, announce the start of an exciting research collaboration to monitor marine wildlife in the European Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea.  

The project, named ScanMed, will commence on the 8th July with the first research survey leaving aboard Maersk Newark as a platform, from Felixstowe (UK). Two Marinelife researchers will be aboard the ship as it sails its scheduled course; through the English Channel, across the Bay of Biscay, down the coast of Portugal, through the Straits of Gibraltar and across the Western and Eastern Mediterranean Sea to Ambarli on the coast of Turkey before making the return trip.

‘Marinelife’ Director and Science Officer, Dr Tom Brereton, commented: “We are very grateful to Maersk for the opportunity to work together on this research project. We are excited about the opportunity to extend our research which chiefly covers the English Channel and Bay of Biscay to adjacent areas which are not regularly surveyed. This will offer the opportunity to greatly increase scientific knowledge of the movement and distribution of poorly studied marine wildlife”.  

Research into the behaviour, distribution and abundance of marine mammals such as whales, dolphins and porpoises is often limited to small geographic areas. As these animals can be highly mobile and migratory, understanding where they go and what they do outside of these areas is a gap in the existing knowledge.
These marine mammals, the flagship indicators of the health of our oceans, are currently under great threat from a number of pressures, including over-fishing, marine pollution and climate change. The ScanMed surveys offer us a chance to better understand their patterns of movement and gain an early indication of any changes which occur with time.

The ScanMed project with Maersk follows on from the establishment of two ‘Marinelife’ research routes with Maersk companies – Felixstowe (UK) to Vlaardingen (Netherlands) with Norfolkline Ferries and Felixstowe (UK) to various UK North Sea ports or Rotterdam (Netherlands) with Feederlink.

‘Marinelife’ Senior Researcher and PR Officer, Adrian Shephard, said: “Clive Martin - Chairman of Marinelife and Emma Webb - Community and Operations Officer have worked closely with Maersk and we would especially like to extend thanks to Matthew Woodhouse at Maersk Marine Services Ltd for all his efforts in helping initiate the surveys. We look forward to the results of the initial survey in July and August and a long and productive relationship with Maersk, through a series of quarterly surveys along the route”.

Marinelife’s unique long term monitoring project, the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme (BDRP) has been conducting monthly scientific whale, dolphin and seabird surveys to strict scientific protocols through the English Channel and Bay of Biscay since 1995, on board the P&O Cruise Ferry, The Pride of Bilbao, as a research platform.  In 2006, the charity extended its research in the English Channel with Brittany Ferries operating between Plymouth (UK) and Roscoff (France) on the Pont-Aven. This year, in addition to the research with the Maersk group, we have also initiated a survey between Poole (UK) and Santander (Spain) with Brittany Ferries Freight on the Cotentin. The charity is also a founder member of the Atlantic Research Coalition (ARC), a partnership of many marine charities working together in adjacent areas of ocean in Europe to better understand the pattern of cetacean behaviour and threats they face.

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Marinelife is a Charitable Limited Company established to co-ordinate and develop a growing portfolio of global research and monitoring projects. Through these we aim to further the conservation of the wildlife of coasts and oceans through scientific investigation and educational activities. Marinelife continues to work in partnership with a number of other research groups, spearheading an international initiative, the Atlantic Research Coalition (ARC) that aims to describe changes in the status of whales and dolphins at a European scale.
Further information on Marinelife can be found by visiting our website at www.marine-life.org.uk