Quantification of ferry traffic in the Canary Islands (Spain) and its implications for collisions with cetaceans
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TL;DR: An overview of the inter-island ferry traffic in the archipelago is given in this article , where normal, fast and high speed vessels are described, and the transects on which they operate are identified.
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Abstract: The Canary Islands, known for their high cetacean species diversity, have witnessed a rapid expansion of fast ferry traffic during the past few years. At the same time, ship strikes have been repeatedly documented. In this paper an overview of the inter-island ferry traffic in the archipelago is given. Ferry types in use (normal, fast and high speed vessels) are described, and the transects on which they operate are identified. To quantify the extent of the inter-island ferry traffic, three parameters were determined: (1) the actual transects from the different ports on the islands; (2) the number of journeys made per week on each transect; and (3) the length of each transect. Resulting numbers indicate that normal ferries travel approx. 66,000km, fast ferries travel approx. 570,000km and high speed ferries travel approx. 845,000km between islands each year. Fast and high speed ferry traffic is concentrated in the western islands. Areas of high risk for ship strikes within the archipelago are identified by comparing the location of transects with known areas of high cetacean abundance. It is argued that the Canary Islands are a hot spot for vessel-whale collisions and that a policy to counteract this situation is urgently needed.
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Citations
Increasing numbers of ship strikes in the Canary Islands: proposals for immediate action to reduce risk of vessel-whale collisions
Manuel Carrillo,Fabian Ritter +1 more
- 01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined 556 cetacean carcasses, found ashore, or reported, in the Canary Islands between 1991 and 2007, and found that 59 strandings (10.6%) were found to involve vessel-whale collisions, the great majority of strandings occurred on Tenerife.
Increasing numbers of ship strikes in the Canary Islands: proposals for immediate action to reduce risk of vessel-whale collisions
Manuel Carrillo,Fabian Ritter +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors examined 556 cetacean carcasses, found ashore, or reported, in the Canary Islands between 1991 and 2007, and found that 59 strandings (10.6%) were found to involve vessel-whale collisions, the great majority of strandings occurred on Tenerife.
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Abundance and distribution of sperm whales in the Canary Islands : can sperm whales in the Archipelago sustain the current level of ship-strike mortalities?
Andrea Fais,Tim P. Lewis,Daniel P. Zitterbart,Daniel P. Zitterbart,Omar Álvarez,Ana Tejedor,Natacha Aguilar de Soto +6 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the absolute abundance of sperm whales in an area of 52933 km2, covering the territorial waters of the Canary Islands, was estimated from 2668 km of acoustic line-transect survey using distance sampling analysis.
Accidents between artisanal fisheries and cetaceans on the Brazilian coast and Central Amazon: Proposals for integrated management
Camilah Antunes Zappes,Luiz Cláudio Pinto de Sá Alves,Camila Ventura da Silva,Alexandre F. Azevedo,Ana Paula Madeira Di Beneditto,Artur Andriolo +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the accidents between cetaceans and fishing boats on the Brazilian coast and the Central Amazon region through the perception of the artisanal fishers, and propose mitigatory measures to decrease their occurrences.
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Collisions of sailing vessels with cetaceans worldwide: First insights into a seemingly growing problem
Fabian Ritter
- 01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented the first global quantification of vessel-whale collisions and near misses, spanning from 1966 until 2010, suggesting an increasing trend in the number of collisions.
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TL;DR: The high likelihood of unreported fatal strikes combined with other anthropogenic threats suggests an urgent need for a comprehensive, basin-wide conservation strategy, including ship strike mitigation requirements, like real-time monitoring of whale presence and distribution to re-locate ferry routes to areas of lower cetACEan density, and reducing ship speed in high cetacean density areas.
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