The Manx Wildlife Trust has investigated a record number of dead ‘marine magafauna strandings’.

Megafauna strandings include whales, dolphins, seals, basking sharks and even turtles that wash up on our beaches after they have died.

The MWT says that such work help them to understand more about the sea around the Isle of Man.

In the last year 42 strandings were reported, making it a record year.

Seals, dolphins and porpoise are most commonly found, while otter and loggerhead turtles, which are rarely seen in Manx waters, were also found last year.

The trust has 20 volunteers andislooking formorespecially in the south, weat andeast of theisland.

The programme involves going out to investigate a dead creature once it has been reported, usually by a member of the public. The aim is to collect as much information as possible about the individual, such as species, sex, condition, cause of death and other biometrical data. The information is used to build up a baseline of knowledge regards the marine species in our waters.

The data collected is reported back to the Department of the Environment, Fisheries and Agriculture and sent to the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP)

An MWT spokesmansaid: ‘With any scientific study, the more we have discover, the more questions there are – where did they come from?

‘Why so many more strandings this year? It could be due to greater storm events causing more individuals to wash up onto our shores or could be an indication of something more sinister?’

A new aspect of this work undertaken recently, has been to collect tissue samples from the dead strandings to test for heavy metals and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which has been made possible thanks to funding from the DEFA. Cetaceans have the ability to store these contaminants in their blubber and ‘lock’ it away. However, in times of hardship when food is limited, cetaceans can use their fat reserves, which can expose the individual to those harmful compounds.

Marine officer Lara Howe said: ‘Even though it’s usually wet and windy it’s a great excuse to get out of the office and walk along a beautiful beach.

‘Generally, you smell the stranded individual before you see it!

‘Often the individual has been dead for a long time making identification difficult, but it is vital work that feeds not only into our records but also into a national database to build up a better understanding of what’s happening in UK waters.’

MWT is running a training course on Monday, March 13, at 7pm at the Wildlife Trust Office in Peel. Contact Lara Howe, at [email protected] if you’d like to go.

And if you come across a dead marine mammal or turtle report them to her on 844432 or 450879.