This summer has been a poor time for minke whales in the Southern Trench Moray Firth MPA. There has been a notable lack of available sandeels for the whales, and until last week, we had absolutely zero encounters with the whales inshore. 🧪

Introducing our 2nd newborn bottlenose calf of the 2025 season with her proud mum "Barbi" (ID#253)! 🐬

This new youngster (5th known calf for Barbi), was probably only hours old when we met her yesterday, as evidenced from its bent-over dorsal fin and uncoordinated surfacing behaviour. 🧪

"Blotchy" has successfully raised 4 of her 5 previous calves, so we have high hopes for this wee one, and will continue to track the health and welfare of mum and her little one over the following weeks/months ahead. 🧪

#dolphins #bottlenosedolphins #cetaceans #research #conservation #science

Some lovely news to start your week! 💙

Meet "Splatch", our first recorded newborn bottlenose calf (neonate) for 2025, born at the very end of July! 🐬

"Splatch" is the 6th known calf of ID#035 "Blotchy", who we first recorded back in 1997 when she was just a juvenile herself. 🧪

Further impact may also be due the increase in vessel traffic and associated noise disturbance caused by the proposed export cable corridors and landfall sites for new wind farm operations adjacent to this newly-designated MPA. 🧪

#whales #minkewhales #conservation #research #science #marinebiology

The nearshore habitats utilised by juvenile minke whales, for example, may harbour greater impacts from anthropogenic activities such as set creel lines (with pathological evidence of entanglement in creel lines being seen in as many as 50% of all stranded minkes in Scottish waters).

A better understanding of the movements, habitat preferences, behaviour and niche segregation of these whales is necessary to inform the adaptive management process for this north east MPA (see sitelink.nature.scot/site/10477).

The team have all been working very hard with our beloved minke whales these past few weeks, and after long hours going through all the accumulated photo-identification shots, we have been finding some super recaptures of whales that have been in our long-term ID catalogue for many years now. 🧪

Changes in prey availability, due to climate change or other environmental factors, can lead to reduced food intake and emaciation as well.

Last week we saw the first wave of newly-arriving minke whales to the Southern Trench MPA (Marine Protected Area). Several of the animals were evidently underweight, distinguishable from their projecting vertebrae, which could clearly be seen along their backs.

Emaciation in baleen whales can be a serious issue. However, it is not unusual to see this in these animals upon returning to their high latitude feeding grounds from their low latitude breeding grounds - especially in females, post-calving, visibly exhibiting their low energy reserves. 🧪

A follow up on our recent emergency call-out to a group of sperm whales sighted in dangerously shallow waters within the inner Moray Firth.

Yesterday (Thursday 19th Jun 2025) afternoon the CRRU team was alerted by the public to a group of sperm whales in the inner Moray Firth sighted in dangerously shallow waters.

New light on the function of the raised, epidermal tubercles on the leading edge of the dorsal fin (shown in the attached image) also suggests an anatomical role in sexual behaviour.

Come and join the CRRU webinar talk this week (presented by Dr. Kev Robinson) hosted by @rspb.bsky.social Aberdeen and North East Scotland

The webinar will be presented via Microsoft Teams and is free to attend – to book simply email nesevents@rspb.org.uk

Thank you! 💙

Lots of hard work behind the scenes here at CRRU in the new year, in preparation for the upcoming research season ☀️