2006 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA7 Technical Report - Marine Mammals (NE Atlantic west of Scotland)
This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA7) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). Twenty-one cetacean species have been recorded in the SEA7 region. Of these, ten species are known to occur regularly: harbour porpoise, bottlenose dolphin, short-beaked common dolphin, Risso's dolphin, white-beaked dolphin, Atlantic white-sided dolphin, long-finned pilot whale, killer whale, sperm whale and minke whale. Five further species, though not very often recorded, and primarily associated with deep water, probably also occur regularly: striped dolphins, fin whales, northern bottlenose whales, Cuvier's beaked whale and Sowerby's beaked whale. There are occasional at-sea records of a further 6 species: Sei whale, humpback whale, blue whale, northern right whale and false killer whale. Pygmy sperm whales and at least three further species of beaked whale might also be expected in the general area on occasion. In this report, each of the more abundant species is briefly described with particular reference to its distribution and abundance in the SEA-7 area.
dataset
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal
- The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS.
Murchison House, West Mains Road,
Edinburgh,
EH9 3LA,
UK
tel: +44 (0)131 667 1000
email:
offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk
Role: custodian
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
Admiralty Way,
London,
SW1A 2HD,
UK
tel: +44 0300 060 4000
email:
enquiries@decc.gsi.gov.uk
Role: originator
Data Quality
This report was prepared by the Sea Mammal Research Unit as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. Quantitative abundance is limited to areas of overlap with the NASS surveys, conducted in North Atlantic waters by Iceland, the Faroes and Norway. The most recent NASS survey (2001) was denied access to UK waters, so there are no recent abundance estimates available for these waters. The NASS-95 survey resulted in estimates of some of the large whale species that may be relevant to this area. Relative abundance data are available from platform of opportunity sightings data (see Reid et al., 2003), as well as some small-scale coastal survey work conducted by organisations such as the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT).