Life-sized inflatable dolphin puzzles visitors

28 October 2008

Visitors to Perranporth recently were surprised to see a whale, a dolphin and a seal pup on the beach, surrounded by attentive volunteers from the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network. But a closer inspection revealed that the animals were, in fact, life-sized inflatable models being used to demonstrate to  the volunteers how to record these marine creatures for real. "I thought it was a live dolphin" said one holidaymaker, "and I was so relieved to see when I got up close that it was only a pretend one."

"Sadly, they so often are real stranded animals that people see", said Jan Loveridge, one of the coordinators of the Network, "and that's why we ran this simulation exercise, to train more volunteers in what to look for when they are called out by us to examine a marine animal. We've just revamped our recording forms so that we can collect even more data: we thought the exercise would be more realistic if we held it on the beach, as our volunteers have to go out in all weathers to do this work. Although, I have to say, the day was actually fine!"

In the morning sessions, volunteers learned why becoming a 'dolphin detective' or a 'seal sleuth' is so important in building up a picture of each animal's life. They also learnt how to protect themselves from picking up diseases from the stranded animals they examine and what signs to look for that might explain why the animal died. "We have learnt a huge amount from studying stranded marine creatures," said Joana Doyle, Marine Conservation Officer for CWT. "We know, for instance, whether dolphins and porpoises have interacted with other species - and the fact that these meetings can sometimes be aggressive. We also know whether they've died from starvation due to illness, or from being caught in nets. The seals we've recorded tell us a lot about when they have pups and how many survive, and about how they're affected by humans. We recently had a seal reported with a fishing hook stuck in its mouth, for example, and that will obviously have affected its ability to feed."

As well as being shown how to record what they see, the volunteers were put through their paces in safely retrieving a dolphin for closer examination by a veterinary pathologist. "The model of the dolphin was lent to us by our colleagues in British Divers Marine Life Rescue and it was only filled with air," said Tom Hardy, also a Marine Conservation Officer for CWT, "so we needed to make this a bit more of a challenge! We came up with the idea of filling a large bag with sand to make it look like and weigh about the same as a dolphin, and got the volunteers to lift that. It did look like a rather suspicious package on the beach though!"

"Although the simulation exercise was fun, it did have a serious purpose," Jan Loveridge added. "Helping our volunteers to keep safe while they're doing this work is obviously important. In the last 5 years alone, volunteers have examined more than 300 seals and over 660 cetaceans all around the Cornish coast and its important they know what to avoid. We're very lucky to have the help of a veterinary pathologist, James Barnett, who's recently become an advisor to the team. He not only offers health and safety advice, but also helps with identifying any unusual features that might explain the life history of some of the animals we examine.

"We normally do our training indoors," said Joana Doyle, "but I think things like, suddenly realising that the sea is a mile away, when you need some water to wash off a dolphin before you photograph it, is a good way of learning to be prepared!"

Kate Hockley, a Marine Strandings Network volunteer, was one of the trainers on the day: "My fellow volunteers are always so enthusiastic and we've now also got some excellent new recruits. I think we all recognise that understanding the lives of these animals is the best way to help protect them, and recording a stranding is the best way to do this. You don't need to disturb any animals; you don't have to put them under stress by catching them, and you can learn so much more this way than from spotting a quick glimpse of a dolphin in the sea. It may be upsetting at times to do this job, but knowing all that makes up for it."

The CWT Marine Strandings Network operates a Hotline for the public to call in any strandings they find on 0845 201 2626, and their web site, www.cwtstrandings.org, describes a lot more about their vital research into marine animals around Cornwall.