Simon BerrowAtlantic Technological University | ATU · Department of Natural Resources & the Environment
Simon Berrow
PhD National University of Ireland
About
331
Publications
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Introduction
Lecturer at the Atlantic Technological University, Galway, Ireland (formerly GMIT) contributing to Applied Freshwater and Marine Biology degree and Masters programmes including IMBRSea. Supervisor of PhD and MSc student thesis. Chief Executive Officer of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (www.iwdg.ie). Main interests are conservation management of cetaceans but also research interests on basking sharks and seabirds. Believes good management requires strong science.
Additional affiliations
July 1995 - December 1999
Publications
Publications (331)
Monitoring the nutritional health of cetaceans has become increasingly important in a changing environment, where multiple stressors impact animals. Particularly for those species that require consumption of energy‐dense prey, such as the common dolphin. Thus far, no uniform measure for monitoring body condition has been recommended across cetacean...
Short-beaked common dolphins are important top predators in marine ecosystems, and inevitably they encounter a range of pressures in their environment. Parasite infections pose one such possible pressure and examining parasite burdens of common dolphins, and any possible impacts of infection, enables us to better understand these pressures. Here we...
Although killer whale (Orcinus orca) predation on humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) is rarely witnessed, resultant scars on humpback flukes provide evidence of non-lethal interactions. Humpback whale photo-identification catalogs from the North Atlantic were used to evaluate humpback flukes (n = 10,957) for the presence and severity of kille...
Acoustic telemetry can provide valuable space-use data for a range of marine species. Yet the deployment of species-specific arrays over vast areas to gather data on highly migratory vertebrates poses formidable challenges, often rendering it impractical. To address this issue, we pioneered the use of acoustic telemetry on basking sharks (Cetorhinu...
Irish waters are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic sources including the development of offshore renewable energy, vessel traffic and fishing activity. Spatial planning requires robust datasets on species distribution and the identification of important habitats to inform the planning process. Despite limited survey effort, long-term cit...
On 1 May 2022, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) received a report of
a live stranded whale in Glengarriff, Co. Cork. We identified it as a Dwarf Sperm
Whale, which was the first confirmed record of this species in Ireland, alive or dead.
The animal refloated itself, however, it was reported dead the following day and
collected for post mort...
Understanding the structure of populations is a critical element to the establishment of management and conservation measures. Sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus are characterised by a demographic spatial segregation, associated with a conspicuous sexual dimorphism reflected in their vocalisations. These characteristics make acoustic techniques ve...
Abundance estimates are crucial for implementing effective conservation measures for large marine megafauna - particularly cetaceans. When combined with robust research methodologies, citizen science can provide a very useful tool to monitor large baleen whale populations, especially given their migratory nature, with individuals covering large are...
Measurements from 106 stranded short‐beaked common dolphins along the Irish coast were taken between March 2017 and March 2023. Data were collected from the Irish Necropsy Project and Irish Cetacean Stranding Scheme. Total length measurements were gathered from 103 individuals where the tail flukes were still attached. These ranged between 96–238cm...
Irish and Scottish waters are important habitats for cetaceans in Europe. Yet, little data is available for the region of the Malin Shelf, north of Ireland. Despite a rich species diversity, relative cetacean abundance appears low compared to hotspots documented west of Scotland and Ireland. Whether this perceived low prevalence accurately portrays...
Parallel evolution provides strong evidence of adaptation by natural selection due to local environmental variation. Yet, the chronology, and mode of the process of parallel evolution remains debated. Here, we harness the temporal resolution of paleogenomics to address these long-standing questions, by comparing genomes originating from the mid-Hol...
Inshore waters off the south coast of Ireland are an important foraging area for a range of cetacean species. Some of the main prey species of these cetaceans are herring and sprat, two economically valuable fish species in the region. The Celtic Sea herring stock suffered a marked decline in 2013. The present study aimed to investigate potential c...
Climate change is predicted to impact the distribution of many marine species. In the North-East Atlantic and elsewhere in the world, studies indicate that climate change is leading to poleward shifts in cetacean distribution. Here, strandings data collected in the British Isles from 1990 to 2020 were used to assess whether there is evidence of a s...
Fin and humpback whales are the largest baleen whale species most commonly occurring in the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), although the drivers of their known distribution in these waters are not clear. Using presence-only data (1999-2021) from multiple sources, including citizen science, we constructed predictive Species Distribution Models...
Parallel evolution provides among the strongest evidence of the role of natural selection in shaping adaptation to the local environment. Yet, the chronology, mode and tempo of the process of parallel evolution remains broadly debated and discussed in the field of evolutionary biology. In this study, we harness the temporal resolution of paleogenom...
The deep sea is the largest ecosystem on Earth, yet little is known about the processes driving patterns of genetic diversity in its inhabitants. Here, we investigated the macro- and microevolutionary processes shaping genomic population structure and diversity in two poorly understood, globally distributed, deep-sea predators: Cuvier’s beaked whal...
Groups of basking sharks engaged in circling behaviour are rarely observed, and their function remains enigmatic in the absence of detailed observations. Here, underwater and aerial video recordings of multiple circling groups of basking sharks during late summer (August and September 2016–2021) in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean showed groups num...
Through a long-term citizen science project, the IWDG have built an extensive humpback whale photo-identification catalogue since 1999, confirming the identification of 116 individual humpback whales to date. This unique catalogue in Ireland provides the chance to derive the first robust abundance estimates for humpback whales in Irish waters using...
Irish coastal waters are an important feeding area for marine mammals, seabirds and a variety of fish megafauna species. A multidisciplinary survey evaluated this feature in the summer of 2019.
A recent increase in sightings and strandings of humpback and to a lesser extent, fin whales in the southern North Sea has been well documented. This positive trend in the marine mammal community is to be welcome. A similar increase has been documented off the south and southwest coasts of Ireland over the past 20 years. The first international mat...
Global warming is affecting the population dynamics and trophic interactions across a wide range of ecosystems and habitats. Translating these real-time effects into their long-term
consequences remains a challenge. The rapid and extreme warming period that occurred after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (7–...
Long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) mitochondrial (mtDNA) genetic diversity is considered low, especially in the North Atlantic, where only seven haplotypes have been recorded in previous studies using a 345 bp control region fragment. Such studies have not included samples from Ireland or the Netherlands. In this study we analyzed a longe...
Marine mammals have been proposed as ecosystem sentinels due to their conspicuous nature, wide ranging distribution, and capacity to respond to changes in ecosystem structure and functioning. In southern European Atlantic waters, their response to climate variability has been little explored, partly because of the inherent difficulty of investigati...
Little is known about the ecological importance of fin whales found year-round in southwestern offshore Irish waters. Understanding their ecology is important to reduce potential harm through any spatio-temporal overlap with commercial shipping and fishing activities. This study explored the potential environmental drivers and impacts of low-freque...
Abstract available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
The deep sea has been described as the last major ecological frontier, as much of its biodiversity is yet to be discovered and described. Beaked whales (ziphiids) are among the most visible inhabitants of the deep sea, due to their large size and worldwide distribution, and their taxonomic div...
Abstract available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The deep sea has been described as the last major ecological frontier, as much of its biodiversity is yet to be discovered and described. Beaked whales (ziphiids) are among the most visible inhabitants of the deep sea, due to their large size and worldwide distribution, and their taxonomic dive...
Studying repeated adaptation can provide insights into the mechanisms allowing species to adapt to novel environments. Here, we investigate repeated evolution driven by habitat specialization in the common bottlenose dolphin. Parapatric pelagic and coastal ecotypes of common bottlenose dolphins have repeatedly formed across the oceans. Analyzing wh...
Cuvier’s and Sowerby’s beaked whales occur year-round in western Irish waters, yet remain some of the most poorly understood cetaceans in the area. Considering the importance of the area for anthropogenic activities and the sensitivity of beaked whales to noise, understanding their ecology is essential to minimise potential overlaps. To this end, f...
Seabird eggs are considered a favourable matrix for monitoring marine pollutants and are widely used as higher trophic level indicators. Concentrations of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Σ15PAH) were determined in the eggs of four piscivorous seabirds in Ireland from multiple colonies for the first time, Common Guillemot Uria aalge, Northern Gann...
Higher levels of persistent pollutants (Σ16PCB, Σ6PBDE, ΣHCH, ΣDDT, ΣCHL) were detected in fresh eggs of Common Terns Sterna hirundo from Rockabill Island near Dublin (Ireland's industrialised capital city) compared to Common and Arctic Terns S. paradisaea from Ireland's west coast. Intra-clutch variation of pollutant levels in Common Terns was sho...
The Shannon dolphins are a population of bottlenose dolphins resident year round within the Lower River Shannon SAC, Ireland, which has been designated to protect this relatively small, genetically discrete population. Although trends in habitat use and foraging have been studied within the estuary, little is known about the movements of the Shanno...
Guillemot eggs from multiple Irish colonies and one Welsh colony were analysed for legacy pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and other organochlorine compounds (OCs), as well as metals. Stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) were measured in eggs to understand the influenc...
Adult survival is arguably the most important demographic parameter for long-lived species as it has a large impact on population growth, and it can be estimated for cetacean populations using natural markings and mark-recapture (MR) modelling. Here we describe a 26-year study of a genetically discrete, resident population of bottlenose dolphins in...
Sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus and long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas are the most abundant species among the community of deep-diving cetaceans occurring off the west coast of Ireland, northeast Atlantic. To address a knowledge gap on these elusive species in an area subject to increasing levels of anthropogenic noise, fixed bottom-m...
The Shannon Estuary in Ireland is home to a resident population of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and is designated as a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. It is an important industrial area, with numerous deep-water berths for shipping. Despite its high conservation value, there are few published studies on hab...
Previous studies off western Ireland have suggested that substantial numbers of, mainly male, sperm whales may be found in these habitats. Whaling vessels operating from shore stations in Ireland in the early 20th century frequently caught sperm whales in oceanic waters. It is likely that this North Atlantic region contains important foraging habit...
Seabird eggs are considered a favourable matrix for monitoring marine pollutants and are widely used as higher trophic level indicators. Persistent organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and other organochlorine compounds (OCs) as well as metals have been shown to have deleterious impacts...
What are the mechanisms that allow species to extend their ranges and adapt to the novel environmental conditions they find in the newly available habitat? The study of parallel adaptation of pairs of populations to similar environments can provide great insights into this question. Here, we test for parallel evolution driven by niche specializatio...
First confirmed sighting of pygmy killer whales from Cabo Verde. Recorded during our expedition in September 2019.
ABSTRACT: A bacterial disease occurred in a seawater Atlantic salmon farm, over 2 yr, causing serious mortalities. The causative agent was subsequently named as Oceanivirga salmonicida, a member of the Leptotrichiaceae. Searches of 16S rRNA gene sequence databases have shown sequence similarities between O. salmonicida and uncultured bacterial clon...
Photo-identification has been used to monitor the resident bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) population in the Lower River Shannon Special Area of Conservation in Ireland as part of European Union obligations since 1997. A discovery curve using data collected by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) between 2011 and 2015 suggested all anim...
Migratory movements in response to seasonal resources often influence population structure and dynamics. Yet in mobile marine predators, population genetic consequences of such repetitious behaviour remain inaccessible without comprehensive sampling strategies. Temporal genetic sampling of seasonally recurring aggregations of planktivorous basking...
Effective conservation of the endangered North Atlantic humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) which breeds in the eastern North Atlantic around the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa requires information about their spatio-temporal distribution, population size, and migratory patterns. Understanding temporal distribution is particularly important...
Cruise reports for two dedicated surveys of Cabo Verde in August and SIrish weptember 2019
Photo-identification is used to monitor the resident bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Shannon Estuary SAC (Ireland) as part of EU obligations to ensure Favourable Conservation Status. In 2015 a discovery curve using IWDG data collected during 77 photo-identification surveys suggested all animals in the population were captured provid...
This was the fourth dedicated cetacean survey of the Cabo Verde archipelago during late summer. It continued the series started in 2014 to improve our knowledge of the distribution and abundance of cetaceans around the archipelago and to establish the provenance of humpback whales reported during this time of year. Irish W
Bio-accumulation of persistent organic pollutants including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated flame retardants and organochlorine pesticides continue to be of major concern for marine apex predators such as killer whales. The concentrations of 16 polychlorinated biphenyls, 7 poly-brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), 1 poly-brominated biph...
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group in collaboration with Bios.CV and NOAA carried out biopsy sampling and photo-id on humpback whales off Boa Vista, Cabo Verde during April 2019. Between 17-28 April, photo-id and biopsy sampling was carried out from a dedicated vessel off Sal Rei, Boa Vista. The purpose of the research was not only to improve our kn...
omplex mammalian societies. In this study, we analyzed the fine‐scale sociality of wild bottlenose dolphins in the Shannon Estuary, Ireland, by examining associations between members of the whole population and between specific female and male dolphins. We carried out 51 boat‐based individual focal follows on 18 identifiable bottlenose dolphins ove...
Description of first record of Bowhead Whale as a new species to Ireland
List of cetacean stranding records from Ireland during 2017 with a brief review
The advent of massive parallel sequencing technologies has resulted in an increase of studies based upon complete mitochondrial genome DNA sequences that revisit the taxonomic status within and among species. Spatially distinct monophyly in such mitogenomic genealogies, i.e., the sharing of a recent common ancestor among con-specific samples collec...
The demography of baleen whales and their prey during the past 30 thousand years was assessed to understand the effects of past rapid global warming on marine ecosystems. Mitochondrial and genome-wide DNA sequence variation in eight baleen whale and seven prey species revealed strong, ocean-wide demographic changes that were correlated with changes...
Aim
The knowledge of a species biogeographical patterns greatly enhances our understanding of geographical ecology, which can improve identifying key conservation needs. Yet, this knowledge is still scarce for many marine top predators. Here, we aim to analyse movement patterns and spatial structuring of a large predator, the short‐finned pilot wha...
Highlights
Mitochondrial monophyly is commonly employed to define evolutionary significant units.
Monophyly may be caused by insufficient sampling or a recent common ancestor.
Mitogenomic studies are generally based on few samples and prone to sampling issues.
Expanded mitogenome sampling negates previous monophyly in fin whales.
Abstract
The adve...
Abstract Two sightings are reported of Sowerby’s beaked whales with calves off western Ireland. Despite individuals of the species being occasionally stranded in the UK and Ireland, these are the first at-sea sightings of calves in the north-east Atlantic. This record contributes to our knowledge of a poorly known species.
List and short review of cetacean stranding records from Ireland during 2015
List and review of cetacean stranding records from Ireland for 2016.