Wildlife Ecology in Iceland: Crispus NGO Sibiu Romania: Arctic fox survey on the rapid tide regime

Arctic fox survey in the region with mass pilot whale death, Snæfellsnes Peninsula

Crispus NGO Sibiu Romania
Ovidiu C. Banea, Wildlife Ecology Department

The Reykjavik Grapevine "documented"

After a team investigated the possible causes of the 53 stranded whales (HERE), they found that the rapid tide out might be one of the reason of their death on the Gamlaeyri along Löngufjörur. After we met the #Jörfi farmer Mr Johannes during the last Sunday evening we understood that the way to the whales is not possible and we decided to wait biologists and authorities to arrive there and investigate the accident. But there arrived a team of inn-experts, the journalists and they rapidly concluded that the anthropogenic POPs (permanent organic polluters) might be one of the reason of their stranding. The Cetacean Stranding is a known phenomenon and documented from 1577.

1902, Cetacean stranding

The beaching reasons are not yet well understood but the rapid in-out tide is known for that region and probably this was the cause of their death.

We met yesterday Mr Ragnar Jónasson, brother of Jóhannes at their Jörfi farm and he kindly explained us that during this year the number of the observed seals increased from 20 last years to 40 in 2019, this when we were asking him if he has any insight on the local fishing stokes. Aurelia aurita, plankton other food resources might have been occurred in recent years since Iceland control correctly the fish quota, better environmental policies and more biota in the sea. Yes, like happened recently in Central Europe with the increasing numbers of large carnivore. Or climate change? Let us ask people from The Reykjavik Grapevine on how it was the climate change in 1902 before the industrialization.

Yesterday we set three camera traps in a region close to the Gamlaeyri with the aim to observe the behavior of the common land predator, the Arctic Fox, in this fast tide environment.