Research and animal welfare – two sides of the same coin

Text: Christine Schmid, photos: firmm

Thanks to decades of effort, government funding is now also available for research into whales and dolphins in the Strait of Gibraltar, and various protective measures have been put in place. Different methods are used to study the animals and their behaviour.

Photo identification as a non-invasive form of research

As an independent foundation, firmm does not accept any public funding and exclusively uses non-invasive photo identification methods. This means that we work with photographs of the animals, mainly their fins and flukes, to identify and recognise them. Sorting, processing and comparing the photographs is a time-consuming task and only provides data when we actually see the animals at the surface of the water.

An invasive form of research would be chipping,

where transmitters are attached to the animals' fins. This is done by shooting the transmitter into the animal's flesh, ideally into the fin, or in the case of Sperm whales, into the dorsal ridge (Sperm whales do not have a pronounced fin). Nevertheless, even the invasive form of chipping is legal and subsidised by the state.

Currently, the organisation CIRCE has been given an official and subsidised mandate to research and tag whales in the Strait of Gibraltar.

This mainly involves tagging Sperm whales, Pilot whales, Fin whales and Orcas. We have seen tagged individuals in the past and have observed them over the course of the season and over the years.

Examples of this is the Pilot whale Fernando, whose fin still bears a clear scar even after many years. The scar has healed well and Fernando has suffered no further visible damage. A sadder example is the Pilot whale Lola, whose fin became severely infected due to the wound caused by chipping and ultimately rotted away. Lola was not sighted again in the following season. Our current problem child is Ponce, whose wound on his fin looks better at times and worse at others.

At the beginning of this summer, we also observed a Sperm whale that had already been tagged. In this case, no visible inflammation could be detected.

On September 23rd, we observed from our boat how a Sperm whale suddenly appeared right next to the inflatable boat with members of CIRCE on board. The inflatable boat approached the whale immediately after it surfaced in order to tag it with a transmitter.
What surprised us was that the dinghy approached the Sperm whale immediately after it surfaced. The shot with the transmitter had to be taken at close range in order to attach the chip as accurately as possible. However, this is extremely distressing for the whale and, of course, painful.

Sperm whales feed in very deep water, at depths of up to 3,000 metres, where they hunt their favourite food, the giant squid. They can stay underwater for up to 80 minutes. However, like all other mammals, they must return to the surface after a long dive to replenish their vital oxygen supply. In this case, the largest of the toothed whales was denied this opportunity. The direct firing of the transmitter immediately after it surfaced, without allowing it a few minutes to breathe, caused the Sperm whale to dive straight back down without having taken in enough oxygen.

A little later, we spotted the same animal several hundred metres further on, back on the surface, where it could finally supply its body with fresh oxygen.

To our delight, we were able to observe another Sperm whale at the end of the trip, this time without any other boats around. This allowed us to watch the whale lying on the surface of the water like a log for several minutes, simply breathing. With each exhalation, we saw the characteristic diagonal blow. After about 10 minutes, when the animal had taken in enough oxygen, it arched its back and dived down for a few seconds before coming straight back up to the surface. But only to dive down for good. To do this, whales of this species move into an almost vertical position in order to dive as deep as possible as quickly as possible, showing us their beautiful fluke, the most sought-after photo of any Sperm whale sighting!

After this trip, we returned to Tarifa with mixed feelings. Research is important and necessary in order to protect the various species as a whole and also their habitats. Under ideal circumstances, invasive methods can provide more accurate and, above all, much more data than opportunistic photo identification research.

However, as their name suggests, they are invasive and bother the animals, and can even harm them if, for example, the wounds they cause become infected or the animals are disturbed too much.

Since the Sperm whales were tagged, we have not sighted any more animals of this species. We suspect that they are currently avoiding the strait due to the disturbance.

Therefore, the foundation will continue to limit itself to photo identification, as we care deeply about the welfare of each individual. Even though this method involves much more effort.

We sincerely hope that all the animals survived the massive tagging operation in the summer without any problems, that the wounds do not become infected over the winter, and that the transmitters will at least provide enough data to help advance the protection of whales.