Whales in Wales

Some years ago Cristina Munilla came to us from Santander in northern Spain.First as an Intern and then later as an employee. She went on to do a Masters in Statistical Analysis and then last year she used our Ferry Data to analyse and gained a second Masters based on Big Data and Data Science. These were achieved while also working full time! Today Cristina will be starting a piece about how she has used the raw data we have collected on our ferry surveys.

Post 1. from: Cristina Munilla.

The beginning,

Now that we are all living under lock-down, we miss more than ever going out and enjoying the nature that surround us. Especially with the nice weather we have had over the past few weeks! But even in those winter days, when it’ was freezing cold, we enjoyed so much the adventure of being out on the ferry carrying out our surveys!

So, if you are feeling low, you are not alone! Don´t worry, we will be out again!

But let’s turn those lemons into some lemonade. This is the perfect moment to catch up with our never-ending to-do list where all things seem to be constantly postponed. So here at Sea Trust, we are going to start a set of posts to share with you some of the outputs and insights we have gained through the analysis of the data we have collected over the past few years.
Apart from being fun, the data we collect on these surveys is extremely important. Through the data, we are able to expand the knowledge we have on the habitats and behavior of the different cetaceans that inhabit these waters. We can detect changes in abundance, density or trends and identify the underlying causes that are driving these changes. And this is key to ensure their conservation status is properly understood.

At this point in time, for many species, their conservation Status has not categorized by the Red List due to insufficient data. This emphasizes the importance of this data-set and the value of the work carried out by all the people that have taken part in Sea Trusts Ferry surveys.
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So,we are taking this opportunity, to organize the different analysis we have performed with the data we have collected over more than 10 years on the surveys we have carried out along St George’s channel aboard The "Stena Europe"
This data-set is particularly valuable for several reasons:

1. The number of consecutive years for which we have data. The first surveys were carried out back in 2004.

2.. The seasonal consistency. It is not common to have survey data for all year round and this is extremely interesting as it allows us to study the seasonal behavior of the different cetaceans. During the period 2004-2014 we have carried out surveys for each month and for every year, with only a few exceptions.

We have been able to pick optimum conditions for surveys, thanks to:

• Carl Milne/Stena Line;. Through their support we were able to wait till the very last minute till confirmation of the optimal weather forecast for the survey.

• Also, we have trained and recruited a very extensive network of experienced observers and volunteers that were available and willing to jump onto the ship at very short notice, This made it possible to carry out our surveys with an average number of 3 observers whenever conditions were favorable.

It would be such a long post to include everything we have learnt here, so during the next month we will post some of the most relevant results and interesting findings derived from these Sea Trust " Stena Europe" ferry surveys thanks to you everybody! All our volunteers and all at Stena, ashore in Fishguard, aboard the Ferry and ashore in Rosslare.
diolch yn fawr!

Cristina.

All maps diagrams text and images © Copyright Sea Trust/Cristina Munilla unless other wise stated. Permission to use any of these materials must be requested- email: seatrustwales@gmail.com