PReCAST Main Page
Policy and Recommendations from Cetacean Acoustics, Surveying and Tracking (PReCAST) is a partnership between the IWDG and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT).
This three year project (2008-2011) aims to provide robust scientific data to support conservation policy and provide guidance to state agencies in implementing national and international obligations and in so doing to build national capacity in the area of automated assessment and monitoring wildlife populations.
- contribute very significantly towards fulfilling the requirements of the EU Habitats Directive to "put in place comprehensive, adequate, ongoing monitoring programme for cetaceans that could enable a system of strict protection for those species to be devised"
- develop acoustic monitoring protocols for species of small cetaceans and develop innovative protocols for aerial and acoustic monitoring.
- increase research capacity by establishing a research team at GMIT and provide technology transfer in the use of bio-telemetry.
- provide a case study for ecosystem management of fisheries by exploring the links between schooling fish stocks in the Celtic Sea, the processes that lead to their presence and the marine megafauna that rely on this ecosystem.
- disseminate and present the data collected in a readily accessible and relevant format for public understanding of science and policy.
There are four main workpackages:
- Work Package 1:
- Monitoring of spatial and temporal habitat use and abundance of cetaceans
- Work Package 2:
- Developing Acoustic monitoring techniques
- Work Package 3:
- Develop best practice in the use of bio-telemetry for monitoring marine megafauna in Irish waters including satellite tracking of fin whales in the Celtic Sea
- Work Package 4:
- Research into ecosystem links and habitat use between cetaceans and fisheries in the Celtic Sea
Project Co-ordinator: Dr David McGrath (dave.mcgrath@gmit.ie)
Project Manager: Dr Simon Berrow (simon.berrow@iwdg.ie)
Links:
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT)
PReCAST pages:
19 November 2008
Cetaceans: can we manage to conserve them ?
As part of the IWDG/GMIT project PReCAST, Greg Donovan, of the International Whaling Commission will give a public lecture in GMIT at 13:10 on Monday 24 November.
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