HABITAT MARE Year of the dolphin in Europe 2007, Keynote and download of the presentation, Fabian Ritter

Conference Year of the dolphin in Europe 2007

Ship strikes are a matter of growing concern.
Number of ship strike events appear to be increasing worldwide.
True numbers remain largely unknown due to (purposeful) lack of reporting or probable high number of cases going unnoticed
Fatalities/Severety of injuries are related to a) size of vessel and b) speed of ves-sel.
Ship strikes have the potential to contribute to extinction of local populations.
Certain geographical areas where overlap of high cetacean abundance and ship traffic is high are of special concern, e.g. Northern MED., Canary Islands, NE Coast US
Effective technical mitigation measure are missing.
Decrease of ship strike risk possible through a) dedicated on-board observes, b) speed reduction and c) shift/relocation of shipping lanes.
International Whaling Commission (IWC) is dealing with the issue through its Ship Strike Working Group (SSWG), worldwide data base currently developed by Ship Strike Standardisation Group.
General problem: (huge) knowledge gaps.
Actions urgently needed include: Standardisations of ship strike records, manda-tory reporting systems, studies on quantification of shipping traffic in relation to cetacean abundance (hot spots), Experimental use of technical devices, studies on effectiveness of mitigation measures, Standardisation of stranding/necropsy protocols, international co-ordination and legislation

Presentation: 15-Fabian_Ritter.pdf