News

DMAD researchers keep spirits high despite rough seas and even a bit of snow You see so many pictures on social media of researchers in swimwear with big smiles and bright blue skies in the background. You rarely see the other side of surveys on social media, partly because there are less surveys in the winter but partly because of the pressure of showing the ‘perfect life’. Our team in the Levantine Sea of Turkey have been through rain and rough waters for the last few days with even a bit of snow near Adana! But they’ve still managed to keep smiling as they collect important information to fill data gaps in one of the most data deficient areas of the Mediterranean. If you want to learn more about a research in the Levantine, you can read more here

Liam Van Walsum presented about the results of DMAD’s expeditions in the Eastern Mediterranean at the 5th Annual Conference of the ANZSCSMM21 We said a quick hello to the new year! Our intern and teammate Liam Van Walsum present us at the Conference. He presented at the 5th ANZSCSMM Conference this year and talk about the results of DMAD’s expeditions in the Eastern Mediterranean. You can access the video of the conference below, and you can reach Liam’s presentation starting from the 19th minutehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNJKtRrt_E4&feature=emb_logo&fbclid=IwAR2r5CEIVnBN8O7XVJ5mJnQHfsHySM39N-EQP6

28/12/2020 A Bottlenose Dolphin stranded on the Beach of Budva Just before we leave 2020 behind us, something sad happened. Last Monday night (28-12-2020) a dolphin stranded on the beach of Budva, Montenegro. When it stranded it was already dead for a while. The dolphin was an adult Bottlenose Dolphin. Unfortunately, the cause of death is unknown. Bottlenose dolphins are a common species and live on the whole coastline of Montenegro, including the Kotor bay. They can grow up to 3,5 meters and reach a lifespan of 40-50 years. Our team mostly observes them in groups of 2-4 individuals, however last month we observed a group up to 8-10 individuals with 2 juveniles in the Kotor Bay.Thank you for photos&videos to @podgoricki_vremeplov account.

M. Melis Basmaci writing for DMAD 19/12/2020 DMAD is an active and successful NGO that focuses on Marine biology and its conservation. It has another significant part in my life as it happens to be founded by my old and good friend Dr. Aylin Akkaya. Although it has been a long time that Aylin has started doing surveys in many parts of the world; it was for the first time that we had a chance to take our first survey together in Rose Heights, Radovici, Tivat yesterday morning.  The weather was sunny and the sea was calm as a sheet with a lovely panoramic view of almost 180 degrees. We arranged the exact spot for the theodolite and gathered around our equipments in order to be ready for a possible dolphin survey at 8 o’clock in the morning. First it was a calm scenery of four fishing boats sitting duck. Later on, there was a bit more of a traffic that was caused by several speeding boats crossing over in laps in and out of our survey sight. After two hours, we had spotted the diving activity of a pod of four dolphins. They were moving towards to the Herceg Novi direction and after around 500 meters they met the rest of the pod with four more dolphins. So it was 10:56 a.m. and the pod was surface feeding as we were watching them with joy. As a course of events, suddenly, three speeding boats had entered to our sight from both directions towards to the spot where the rest of the pod was heading through or hunting. The boats had a speed of 20 knots approximately, and by the time they entered a radius of 800 meters the pod dived into the water for good and disappeared.  We waited for another half hour observing the scenery for another sighting. As after a while had passed without an action, we accepted their disappearance and started to pack up our gear. Oh by the moment, Aylin felt dizzy from all day long sea gazing under the sun and she tripped over the theodolite and jugged its position. At that exact moment, I spotted the same pod emerged on the water in a sudden. So, there it was right in front of our eyes, a pod of four individuals, that were surface feeding. At the same time, though there was a motor boat cruising approximately 700 meters radius near them, yet they kept on feeding. There seems to be no disturbance caused by only one cruising boat with a speed of 7 knots in the perimeter around the pod.  However, it was obvious that the speeding boats with a speed of 20 knots seem to cause a disturbance for the pod. So, It was 11:32 when we spotted the pod for the second time and here they disappeared again. After another while of waiting without any sight, we decided to end the survey for the day and packed our equipments to be headed to the beach to meet Aylin’s son Doga. Eventually, It was an exciting survey where we could read clearly the old rivalry story between the dolphins and the humans repeating again. M. Melis Basmaci 19 December 2020 Radovici – Tivat – Montenegro

Presentation of the State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries 2020 DMAD staff were today in attendance of a virtual presentation on the ‘State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries 2020’. The presentation was presented by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean. The presentation covered an overview of a document with the same name that provides decision makers, scientists and other stakeholder with a comprehensive overview of regional and subregional trends in fisheries. It is a key tool in understanding the trends in fisheries to help decision making and and monitoring of impacts. The GFCM were quick to say that there was a long way to go with incredible to face in the future but used the event to a celebrate that despite 75% of Mediterranean and Black Seas fish stocks still being overexploited this number had actually decreased by more than 10% since 2014. Similar results were found for exploitation ratio with the number of stocks with relatively high biomass doubling since the last report. You can read the full document and a summary of important results here .

You mainly see photos on social media from research groups of marine mammals and researchers collecting data in the sun with tranquil seas in the background but an awful lot goes on in the background to make sure that this data isn’t just collected for photo opportunities and actually goes on to be meaningful. One of these background tasks is knowledge sharing and collaboration between different international parties. One of the very few benefits of COVID-19 is that it has forced everything online, allowing access to meetings/workshops for a great deal more scientists who either wouldn’t be able to afford flights or wouldn’t be able to justify the carbon footprint of attending these meetings in person. It’s been a busy week for the DMAD team and a look into our ‘new normal’ with presentations to the French Embassy in Istanbul, workshops with the Mediterranean Protected Area Network and a meeting of the IUCN family to discuss Marine Key Biodiversity Areas. On Tuesday, Dr Aylin Akkaya, DMAD’s Founder and Scientific Director met with various other parties to discuss climate change and our project run under WWF-Turkey which collects important data on the cetaceans of the Istanbul Strait. Simultaneously, DMAD’s Montenegrop Operations Director, Tim Awbery, joined a group of more than 200 scientists to take part in an online discussion about Marine Key Biodiversity Areas with presentations from a wide range of different approaches. Of particular interest to Tim were the country level work that has been taking place in Mozambique and obviously the section that focused on marine mammals which was presented by Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara. Fast-forward less than 24 hours and Aylin and Tim were back talking to a group of more than 100 scientists from across the Mediterranean. This time these scientists were from the Mediterranean Protected Area Network (MedPAN) of which DMAD is a partner organisation. The conference was with regards to marine turtles and DMAD took part to learn about how we could make sure that the turtles that were encountered on our marine mammal research expeditions were properly recorded increasing collaboration between teams and making sure that meager research budgets stretch a little bit further. Next week sees the DMAD team talking to specialist acousticians from the UK and Ireland and engaging in a presentations from General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean – GFCM about the State of Fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

DMAD have article published in ACCOBAMS’ FINS article The article by Tim Awbery and Aylin Akkaya focused on the ‘Worrying Decline in the Presence of Bottlenose Dolphins in Montenegro and the Importance of Citizen Science During COVID-19’ and was published by the The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS) in their annual FINS journal.  The article cited a notable decrease in the percentage of surveys where bottlenose dolphins were sighted (dropping from 43% in our first year studying in Montenegro to just 22% in the last year. It continued to state that due to the longevity of bottlenose dolphins, it is currently too early to draw trends in the population, but that DMAD implored Montenegrin decision makers to take precautionary measures to protect bottlenose dolphins, including the establishment of Montenegro’s first marine protected area. It also discussed how COVID-19 has adversely affected DMAD, imposing restrictions that meant we were unable to survey from March to July. This left us with a considerable hole in our data, so we turned to locals for help. It was unfeasible for them to collect in-depth data, but we were able to obtain reliable coordinates with photographic evidence on more than 20 occasions including 17 in the Bay of Kotor (northern Montenegro) alone.The article can be downloaded here.

THOUGHTS from our Operations Director Tim Awbery, Senior Research Associate Wow! What a tough year it has been. From reduced financial income to a complete halt in all survey operations from March-June, we’ve faced some incredible challenges. Nevertheless, thanks to incredible work from our staff, interns and helpers from around the globe we have adapted, evolved and overcome problem after problem and are delighted to announce that COVID-19 has not put a stop to our research or conservation efforts in Montenegro.  Research November saw our first month with a return to full survey effort with 14 land-based surveys and 2 boat-based surveys bringing us to a total of 36 land-based and 7 boat-based surveys since our last issue in September. Kudos goes to our Research Assistants as well as Intern Coordinator, Selina Brouwer for all the early starts, late finishes and constant changes to the plan to accommodate the ever changing weather and COVID restrictions. In Issue 1, we told you about the launch of our Montenegro Dolphin Sightings Network. With summer over and less people on the water, we were worried that we would see a big slump in reported sightings. This hasn’t been the case at all and we’ve received some really useful data which will help fill our data gaps caused by COVID. This important citizen science is set to become a feature of an article in the next issue of FINS, the annual magazine of ACCOBAMS (The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area).  MEETINGS, CONFERENCES and ACTIVITIES Government of Montenegro: Despite initial postponements due to COVID, we managed to organise an online meeting with the Montenegrin government to update them on the work that we are doing and our results so far. We look forward to working with them closely in the future. IMEKO TC-19 2020 INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON METROLOGY FOR THE SEA: In early October, Montenegro Dolphin Research staff presented at the IMEKO virtual conference and were awarded, “Best Paper Presented by a Young Researcher”. Turning the Tides: Cetacean Research and Conservation in Turkey and Montenegro: A week later, MDR’s Scientific Director was inspiring young minds at Whale Camp, an online event to encourage individuals to get into marine mammal research.Beach Cleaning: Once again DMAD joined the mighty youth force of NGO Our Action to help clean up the beaches of Montenegro, this time at beaches near Bulgarica. Mediterranean Protected Area Network (MedPAN): In November, Montenegro Dolphin Research staff participated in both the Partner’s Meeting and the Annual General Meeting of MedPAN, an organisation that strives to improve the protections given to marine areas by sharing knowledge between protected areas. Blue Engineers of Montenegro II: In a follow-up to our first presentation, the MDR team were back in action talking to the youth of Kotor as well as Radio Kotor about what our team has learned so far from the four years of research we have conducted (all in a COVID friendly manner). International DMAD Turkey: Back in September, we brought you the news that the new DMAD offices in Antalya were ready to be moved into. Our team is now moved in and flourishing, having conducted surveys in the Istanbul Strait and the Aegean Sea under WWF Turkey as well as getting involved in WWF’s bycatch workshops this November. From our Neighbouring Countries: In October, the Croatian Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries alongside Blue World Institute began the pilot study of the Soundscape Project, an assessment of Recreational Boat Noise to help better protect sensitive marine environments. A Note From Our Editor Normally, this is where we would list our upcoming events, however, if you’ve got this far through the newsletter you will know that (just like the rest of the world), coronavirus makes it difficult to plan what’s happening next week, let alone in 2021 and we don’t want to promise events that we can’t guarantee. We would like to take a moment to thank all of our Montenegrin Interns who have worked tirelessly on site and our Remote Interns, who have helped our efforts from afar and who are collectively responsible for all we have managed to achieve so far. We can’t guarantee you a community day in January 2021, nor that it will be safe enough for us to go into schools or give presentations to youth organisations but we do guarantee this:DMAD’s Montenegro Dolphin Research project will continue to do our absolute utmost to keep our research and public outreach at its maximum capacity, to help protect dolphins in Montenegro and make our seas a little better for eveyone. Enjoy the festivities and stay safe, The DMAD Team Keep your eyes peeled for our next issue which will be out in March 2021!

Whistles and Clicks of Kotor Bay – Sian McGuinness writing for DMAD A survey memoir from Sian McGuinness… “New COVID-19 restriction meant that only three of us could attend (potentially) the last boat survey of the year. We set off from Zanjic and motored into the Bay of Kotor. It was a beautiful, sunny, but slightly chilly day and the bay was looking spectacular. We continued with our survey and travelled to the most inner part of the bay. Although this was where we had last seen dolphins, today we were out of luck. We headed back, resigned to a survey without a sighting. Yet, as we were leaving the three of us looked up and to our surprise there they were. Exactly where we had started. As we approached, it became obvious that this was a large pod of around ten individuals, including a new-born. We started taking pictures, recording behaviour, and putting the hydrophone into the water. The dolphins were clicking and whistling the entire time. After we had collected all the necessary data, we decided to leave the dolphins. However, we were all heading in the same direction and the dolphins, very kindly, escorted us home.”