Oil rigs may be fit for porpoise (PDF)
Coghlan, A. New Scientist 201 8-9 (2009) Deep-sea oil rigs are havens for wildlife, according to a survey of porpoises visiting a rig in the North Sea. If confirmed, the findings may prompt a rethink of current regulations governing the fate of platforms in the north-east Atlantic and Europe.
Wildlife reports – cetaceans (PDF)
Hobbs, M. British Wildlife Magazine 27 40 (2009) The last report was dominated by the ‘big’ news of Blue Whales Balaenoptera musculus and ‘singing’ Humpback Whales Megaptera novaeangliae off Ireland. It was very opportune timing then for the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell University, in the United States, to publish some preliminary results (Technical Report 08-07) from a ten-year period (1996-2005) of monitoring […]
‘Rigs to reefs’ could help British wildlife (PDF)
Rowe, M. BBC Wildlife Magazine 27 40 (2009) Greenpeace may oppose it, but a programme of sinking old oil rigs would interest porpoises. The question of whether oil and gas rigs can benefit marine life has been reopened after a study suggested that the structures can create extensive ecosystems and that, in UK waters, porpoises in particular […]
Porpoises and rigs: an unforeseen dependency? (Cover story) (PDF)
Todd, V.L.G. Mammal News 155 10-11 (2009) Let’s face it, when it comes to environmental stewardship, oil and gas companies get a bad press. The media have successfully portrayed the worst aspects of this industry, notably graphic representations of wrecked oil tankers, flailing in raging surf and brown foam, against a backdrop of glistening black […]
Diel echolocation activity of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) around North Sea offshore gas installations (PDF)
Todd, V.L.G., Pearse, W.D., Tregenza, N.C., Lepper, P.A., & Todd, I.B. ICES Journal of Marine Sciences 66 734-745 (2009)DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsp035 Echolocation clicks of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) were detected with T-PODs, autonomous, passive, acoustic-monitoring devices, deployed from an offshore-exploration-drilling-rig and gas-production-platform complex in the Dogger Bank region of the North Sea from 2005 to 2006. Echolocation-click trains were […]
Echolocation activity of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) around an offshore gas production platform-drilling rig complex (PDF)
Todd, V.L.G., Todd, I.B., Lepper, P.A., & Treganza, N.C. Fifth International Conference of Bio-Acoustics 8 31 March – 2 April Holywell Park, Loughborough University, UK (2009) Harbour porpoises (Phocoena p. phocoena L.) are vocal animals and their activity can be monitored effectively using underwater, autonomous, passive-acoustic cetacean-click detectors called T-PODS [e.g. 1, 2, 3]. The characteristics of porpoise-echolocation […]
