ISRP STATEMENT ON MEDIA ACCOUNTS OF 2008 MADAGASCAR STRANDING REPORT

In response to various news releases and accounts of the ISRP stranding report on the Madagascar melon-headed whale mass stranding, the ISRP would like to make the following comments and clarifications.

(1) The report clearly concludes that the use of seismic airguns several days after the whales were fully into the LaLoza lagoon system played no role as a triggering event in the stranding of those animals. This is clearly identified in the report as one of the potential causes, with many others, that the ISRP ruled out as a contributing factor. There are major differences in the sound output characteristics between seismic airguns used in exploration surveys and multi-beam echosounder systems. The ISRP was confident in ruling out the former but not the latter as potentially contributing to the stranding.

(2) The ISRP emphasised the uncertainty that exists in unequivocally concluding a cause and effect relationship between the multi-beam echosounder and the stranding. There are a number of unknown factors as well as several other potential contributing factors that were emphasized that limit how definitive this conclusion may be. Several of the media reports largely do not reflect the caution that was included in the ISRP report.

(3) However, the nature of this type of event, where a behavioral response may serve as the initial trigger for animals being in an ‘out-of-habitat’ scenario in which mortality is caused by secondary factors, is inherently difficult to ever ‘prove’. Unlike the case for something such as a ship strike or a disease, there may never be physical indicators or medical tests to indicate such a relationship may have occurred. The approach taken in the ISRP report is to consider all of the possible contributing factors and rule out those for which there is clearly no evidence. The ISRP was unable to rule out the multi-beam echosounder as contributing to this event. Given the close time and space proximity to the stranding location and its directed pattern of usage, the ISRP concluded that this was the most plausible and likely initial triggering event. These conclusions and caveats related to (2) above are clearly stated in the executive summary and in the report.