DENEGACIÓN DE LA SOLICITUD

The first records of the presence of bottlenose dolphins in Scotland are from stranded animals in the late 1800s. More regular records exist from 1929, kept by the Natural History Museum of London, in which reported strandings are mostly from the Moray Firth and the Hebrides, the majority from the 1990s and 2000s (Thompson et al., 2011). Data collated between 1979 and 1997 for the JNCC cetacean atlas show a large number of sightings in the north-east of Scotland, especially around the Moray Firth (Reid et al., 2003). Data collected by the Sea Watch Foundation between 1966 and 2007 include sightings along the east coast of Scotland, from the Moray Firth to the Firth of Forth (Cheney et al., 2013).

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Figure 1.1. Bottlenose dolphin distribution on the NW Europe from the JNCC Cetacean Atlas (extracted from Reid et al., 2003) and sightings of bottlenose dolphins around Scotland from 1966 to 2007 recorded by the Sea Watch Foundation and the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (extracted from Thompson et al., 2011).

1.4.1. Designation of the Moray Firth SAC

To meet the UK’s commitments to the EU Habitats Directive and the ASCOBANS, a

candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC) for the inner Moray Firth was put forward in 1996 to protect the only known ‘resident’ population of bottlenose dolphins in the North Sea. The information that was used to determine the boundaries of the Moray Firth cSAC was based on sighting data collected during wide-scale seabird surveys in the 1980s in the Moray Firth (Mudge et al., 1984) and from dedicated photo-identification boat surveys conducted between 1989 and 1991 mainly in the inner Moray Firth (i.e. where the SAC is located), but also along the southern coasts of the outer Moray Firth and the Aberdeenshire coasts (Curran et al., 1996). The analysis of the data collected during those initial surveys suggested that the inner Moray Firth was the main area of occurrence of this population, although individuals were also occasionally sighted in other surveyed areas (Curran et al., 1996, Wilson et al., 1997a). The proposed area for the cSAC covered the inner Moray Firth and was delimited by a line drawn from Helmsdale on the northern coast to Lossiemouth on the south coast (Figure 1.2). A first minimum estimate of population size of 62 animals was obtained in 1991, based on counts from a coordinated shore-based survey (Hammond and Thompson, 1991). Later on, based on photo-identification data collected during boat surveys in 1990 to 1993 in the

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inner Moray Firth, the population size was estimated at 129±15 SE individuals (Wilson et al., 1999b).

A population viability analysis (PVA) was developed for this population in 1999 to provide information for management options. The model used population parameters from the literature and also the few available from the study population (adult and calf mortality rates and crude birth rate) based on 8 years of data (Sanders-Reed et al., 1999). The model

predicted an apparent annual decline of 5.67% (SD=1.01%) and a median number of 45 (95% CI = 33-64) years to quasi-extinction. These results highlighted the need of a precautionary approach in the management of this population (Thompson et al., 2000).

1.4.2. Range expansion

Sightings of bottlenose dolphins outside the inner Moray Firth went from being occasional in the late 1980s and early 1990s to being frequently reported during the 1990s. Sightings along the coast in the southern outer Moray Firth became more frequent from 1991 onwards (Lewis and Evans, 1993) and during the 2000s (Robinson et al., 2007, Culloch and Robinson, 2008). Further south, along the Aberdeenshire coast, sightings of bottlenose dolphins were also reported more frequently from the mid 1990s (Weir and Stockin, 2001, Stockin et al., 2006, Anderwald and Evans, 2010). A similar situation occurred in St Andrews Bay, where

sightings started to increase from the mid 1990s (Wilson et al., 2004, Anderwald and Evans, 2010). The known distributional range of this population now extends from the Moray Firth to the Firth of Forth (Figure 1.2). Wilson et al. (2004) concluded that this apparent change in the population’s distributional range was the consequence of a range expansion rather than a range-shift or influx of new individuals from other populations. The authors also highlighted that the degree of protection offered by the designated SAC may be reduced.

1.4.3. Population structure and abundance

The closest known populations of bottlenose dolphins are located on the west coast of Scotland. In the Outer Hebrides, a small population of dolphins is consistently sighted using the Sound of Barra (Grellier and Wilson, 2003, Cheney et al., 2013), and another larger community occurs throughout the Inner Hebrides and mainland coast (Cheney et al., 2013). Individuals within the study population (i.e. off the east coast of Scotland between the inner

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Moray Firth and the Firth of Forth) are known to be highly mobile and range throughout the population’s range. However, results from comparative photo-ID studies indicate a lack of movement of individuals between the east and the west coasts (Cheney et al., 2013). The results of genetic analysis show low levels of genetic diversity within the population, and indicate that the study population is demographically isolated from others in the west coast and elsewhere around Britain (Parsons et al., 2002, Islas-Villanueva, 2009, Thompson et al., 2011). All these studies suggest that the study population should be considered as a separate unit for management purposes (Cheney et al., 2013).

Estimates of abundance of bottlenose dolphins using the Moray Firth SAC are available since 1990 (Cheney et al., 2012), most recently as part of the monitoring programme designed for the SAC. The most recent available estimate of abundance of animals using the SAC is of 114 individuals (95% CI = 96-135) in 2010 (Cheney et al., 2014). Knowledge of the abundance of animals in other areas of the distributional range is more limited. Abundance estimates for the southern outer Moray Firth range between 61 and 108 individuals based on data collected between 2001 to 2004 (Culloch and Robinson, 2008). Weir et al. (2008) provide a minimum number of 62 individuals seen in the Aberdeenshire on an annual basis between 1999 and 2008. For St Andrews Bay, only one unpublished estimate of abundance is available based on data from 2003 and 2004, between 81 and 142 dolphins (Quick, 2006). The most recent and precise estimate of total population size for the currently known distributional range is at 195 individuals (95% CI = 162-253), based on data from 2006 (Cheney et al., 2013).