Skip to page content

Primary navigation

Why are we monitoring strandings ?

The stranding data collected is providing important information about 

  • population numbers
  • distribution
  • disease
  • health status 
  • cause of death

as well as highlighting early warnings of threats to cetaceans in UK waters, from things such as environmental pollutants.  

Museum's stranding research

The museum scientists research is focused mainly on:

  • finding out how many whales, dolphins and porpoises are stranded or wash up on the English coasts.
  • allocating all stranded cetaceans with an individual ‘stranded whale’ number.
  • determining what species they are and where and when they strand.
  • identifying gender
  • looking for long-term feeding strategies and season distribution
  • maintaining an extensive photographic database
Cetaceans Strandings Investigation Program (CSIP) 

As part of the government funded Cetaceans Strandings Investigation Program (CSIP) our aims are:

  • collate, analyse and report data for all strandings around the UK coast
  • investigate the cause of death of stranded cetaceans
  • to be vigilant to any new threats to cetaceans that could effect their conservation status
  • maintain a cetacean tissue archive
  • write an annual report for Defra (link?)
  • submit data on strandings and post mortems for ASCOBANS (Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas) http://www.ascobans.org/
Print version