Maltese researcher in Med. expedition

Adriana Vella, a local cetacean (marine mammals) field researcher since 1997, participated in the World Cetacean Research Project, organised by the Ocean Alliance.

This research expedition has been in the Mediterranean since June and will leave this month.

The project, The Voyage of the Odyssey, is a five-year programme aimed at gathering the first ever baseline data on levels of synthetic contaminants throughout the world's oceans.

In order to reach this goal researchers are focusing on sperm whales and pelagic fish as indicator species for measuring the health of the seas.

The Ocean Alliance is dedicated to rigorous scientific research in conjunction with global education in order to improve people's appreciation for, and understanding of, the ocean environment and the creatures within it and to contribute to the conservation of whales.

Ocean Alliance sponsored the visiting scientists on board the research sailing boat Odyssey and allowed Accobams (Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area) region scientists to contribute to the unique and exceptionally interesting project.

For Dr Vella, the experience of being part of such a project was unforgettable even if she has carried out years of cetacean field work in Maltese waters as part of her ongoing long-term scientific research. The difference was in having the opportunity to work with the latest instrumentations and equipment that made searching for and finding the very elusive sperm whales greatly focused.

There was also the opportunity to join an international team and share an experience with all its familiar problems and satisfactions.

Joining the expedition in the Mediterranean Cetacean Sanctuary in the Ligurian Sea, on the north-west coast of Italy, was both interesting and valuable to Dr Vella as a conservation biologist.

She looked forward to seeing a cetacean sanctuary set up in the southern and central region of the Mediterranean in order to conserve the vulnerable Mediterranean cetacean species found in the region.

Cetacean sightings in the Ligurian Sea included sperm whales, fin whales, pilot whales and stripped dolphins.

The research included obtaining minute tissue samples from the sperm whales in order to study the genetics of the world sperm whale populations and toxic substance levels accumulated in their fat through the food they ate and seas they lived in.

Dr Vella pointed out that technology had advanced to the level where relevant and valuable conservation research could be undertaken with great sophistication without harming the animal under study.

She looked forward to sustaining her cetacean research project around the Maltese Islands and to see greater financial support from both local private and government entities and foreign sources that could assist the ongoing project for the benefit of both the species and the sea.

The founder and president of Ocean Alliance and senior scientist and executive producer of the project is Roger Payne. Dr Payne is best known for his discovery, together with Scott McVay, that humpback whales sang songs and for his theory that the sounds of fin and blue whales can be heard across oceans, a theory recently confirmed by one of Dr Payne's students working with blue whales.

He has studied the behaviour of whales since 1967 and has led over 100 expeditions to all oceans and studied every species of large whale in the wild.

He pioneered many of the benign research techniques now used throughout the world to study free-swimming whales and has trained many of the current leaders in whale research.

The Voyage of the Odyssey stands as an excellent example of how cetaceans could be studied to investigate their presence, abundance and health. Through these factors accurate indications of the sea's status and its requirements to safeguard marine life could also be obtained.

Further information on the Maltese Cetacean Project could be obtained from Dr Vella at the Conservation Biology Research Group, Department of Biology, University of Malta, Msida.

avel@cis.um.edu.mt
http://www.pbs.org/odyssey/
http://www.accobams.org/index_science.htm