Going GREENER
This month Jen Adams of Manx Whale & Dolphin Watch on spotting marine mammals off the Isle of Man
WATCHING WHALES AND DOLPHINS? SOUNDS LIKE A DREAM JOB…
It is! I’ve wanted to work with wild animals since I was little. I’m the outreach and education manager of Manx Whale & Dolphin Watch (MWDW), a tiny charity set up in 2006 by a resident of the Isle of Man to find out more about the marine mammals he saw from his window. We monitor harbour porpoises, minke whales, basking sharks and three species of dolphin: bottlenose, short-beaked common (above) and Risso’s.
ARE THEY EASY TO SPOT?
You can see all these species from the shore. In summer, we run Sea Watch events at The Sound, a viewpoint on the island. It’s a feeding hotspot for cetaceans [whales, dolphins and porpoises] due to a confluence of tidal rips, which pushes the fish together. Sometimes we get minke whales so close we can hear and smell them.
HAVE YOU ALWAYS LIVED HERE?
No, I didn’t know anything about this rock in the Irish Sea when I came as an intern at MWDW in 2012. But I fell in love with the work and came back. Now, I run the charity with two marine biologists: Tom Felce, my partner, and researcher Bryony Manley.
DO YOU SPEND A LOT OF TIME AT SEA?
My work involves arranging talks, school visits and activities at our visitor centre in Peel. But when the conditions are right, I’ll join the team on a boat-based survey. You need a calm sea to spot cetaceans, and collecting data takes priority: it’s why we’re here.
HOW DOES A SURVEY WORK?
Alongside environmental data, we record sightings of cetaceans and photograph their dorsal fins. Every whale, dolphin and porpoise has a unique pattern of scratches, cuts and scars on its fin. Being top of the food chain, cetaceans are an indicator species: their presence or absence tells us about the health of the ocean.
AND HOW ARE THEY DOING?
Really well, especially our short-beaked common dolphins. They had been declining in the Irish Sea. But our sightings in Manx waters have doubled during the past two years. In 2021 and 2022, we saw large pods of adults and young in late summer and we could see them mating and suckling their calves. The species has bee
