Monitoring of marine mammal findings 2024-2028

Project description

The ITAW has been conducting research on marine mammals for more than 30 years and, with over 50 employees at the institute in Büsum, has sufficient highly qualified professionels on hand. The aim of the scientists is to investigate the ecology and physiology of marine mammals and to assess the impacts of humans on the animals, their health and their population.

In the project “Monitoring of marine mammal strandings”, all reporting forms completed by the seal hunters are digitized and transferred to a database. This reporting forms are filled in by the seal hunters of Schleswig-Holstein for every stranded marine mammal, both for stranded sick or dead animals, and contain information on stranding date, location, species and condition of the animal/carcass. This data is summarized and evaluated annually in order to investigate trends in stranding numbers for the three resident marine mammal species and to assess the possible causes for the stranding. Furthermore, the data is regularly cross-referenced with the data from the cases investigated at the ITAW. This enables a more comprehensive and objective assessment of the situation of the native marine mammal population. In addition, more complex scientific evaluations can be carried out than before and the resulting findings can be used directly by the responsible authorities for the further development of existing management plans.