19 March 2019: Harbour Porpoise Working Group

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The NAMMCO Working Group on Harbour Porpoise meets this week at the Faroese Representation in Copenhagen. The Working Group will be under the chairmanship of Bjarni Mikkelsen (FO), and is attended by members of the NAMMCO Scientific Committee and invited experts.

The Working Group has four main goals that relate to the management, conservation and study of harbour porpoise in the North Atlantic. First, the sustainability of the harvests in West Greenland will be assessed. This will be followed by a wider review of assessments conducted in other areas by the joint IMR/NAMMCO Harbour Porpoise workshop that took place in December. The Working Group will then proceed to identify knowledge gaps and areas for further research. Finally, the impact of non-hunting related anthropogenic stressors will be reviewed. With increasing industrial offshore development, marine ani

mals will be ever-more exposed to the effects of pollution, noise disturbance and climate change.

As the harbour porpoise is a species common to all NAMMCO member countries, this Working Group hopes to provide and excellent basis for the comprehensive assessment of these small cetaceans throughout a large portion of their range.

To find out more about the harbour porpoise, as well as work conducted in NAMMCO relating to their study and management, follow the link here.