On Tuesday, MARINElife Research Director Tom Brereton and Chairman of Trustees Adrian Shephard headed out in to Lyme Bay aboard the Huntress II with an experienced Diver to deploy an acoustic listening device called a C-POD in an area known to be frequently visited by White-Beaked Dolphins.
The C-POD is a passive, non-invasive device which listens
for the streams of click produced by dolphins and porpoises and
records these around the clock, allowing us to gain a fuller
insight on the usage of the area by not only White-Beaked
Dolphins, but also the other species such as Bottlenose Dolphin,
Common Dolphin and Harbour Porpoise which are frequently recorded
in Lyme Bay.
The device was placed on the seabed at around 50 meters of depth by
Dave, an experienced diver who volunteered to help us.
The deployment at slack water took approximately an hour to
complete.
We will now allow the device to do its job and
record acoustic information during the next few months before
collecting it for analysis.