Update on November workshop & stranding events

A short update for the November stranding workshop. The workshop is now titled “The 1^st National Indonesian Marine Mammal Stranding Workshop”. It’s still from Monday, 25 November to Thursday, 28 November 2013. However, 25 November event starts with dinner and opening ceremony by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries during dinner. Hence we recommend participants to arrive by Monday, 25 November late morning or afternoon, instead of Sunday, 24 November.

Registration form is still being finalised, so is the invitation letter. We hope to put the registration form online by late next week. Also, we hope to put the tentative schedule online by the end of August. The rough idea is: Day One for 1^st Responder workshop and training, Day Two for vet and bycatch lectures, and Day Three for vet lectures and necropsy demo (see below).

The head of a Fraser's dolphin stranded in north Bali on Sunday (4 Aug13)

Stranding season seems to be starting again in Indonesia. We have four recorded strandings since 31 July 2013 as follows:

• 31 July at 8:30 pm in Alor (East Nusa Tenggara): suspect baby humpback whale (credit to Atlas South Sea Pearl)
• 1 August at 2 am in Adonara (East Nusa Tenggara):  suspect Bryde’s whale (credit to WWF Indonesia)
• 2 August in Durian Daun, Lais, Bengkulu: Layard’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon layardii), credit to Wojtek Bachara and Anton van Helden
• 4 August at 7am at Kerobokan Village, Singaraja, Buleleng (north Bali): Fraser’s dolphin (Lagenodelphis hosei); credit to Alit Kertaraharja (the Jakarta Post) for the article and original fresh photographs and Ketut Sarjana Putra (Conservation International Indonesia) for letting me know about the event

All cetaceans except for the suspect baby humpback eventually died. Since the last stranding event happened in Bali, I was able to, with the help of some friends, secure the head of the poor Fraser's dolphin. The body had been cleanly dissected by the locals before my friends and I arrived there yesterday, but we managed to secure the head. We still need to confirm with our vet experts whether the head is suitable for necropsy demo; but the chance is high for acoustic pathology. We might be having a necropsy demo in Bali in November after all...