Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1992, Side 23

THEINTERNATIONAL RESEARCH .. .
27
become clearer, maybe modified, as analy-
sis goes on.
In term of management, one of the most
critical and exciting questions is to assess
on which population the fishery is operat-
ing (single or multi stocks, stock bound-
aries and size, trends in abundance ...) and
whether separate stocks exist within the
North Atlantic. More work is clearly need-
ed on both sides of the Atlantic to allow any
definitive answer to these questions.
Already, however, it is interesting to note
that several studies connected to the inter-
national research programme on the
Faroese drive fishery on electrophoretic
markers, organchlorine and heavy metal
contaminants, and parasite fauna lead to
convergent results about differences
between schools. The combined results
suggest at least three groups of schools
among those landed in the period 1986-
1988 and analyzed: Øravík (150986),
Tórshavn (081087) -/- Leynar (220787),
Leynar (240787), Miðvágur (020887) -/-
the remainder.
Acknowledgments
This report is not based on original findings or hypotheses
of the authors of the report alone, but summaries the results,
conclusions and hypotheses put forward by the different
authors referred to. Most of them (Aguilar, Amos,
Balbuena, Caurant, Hoydal, Lockyer, Raga and Sigur-
jónsson) were sent the relevant section of the manuscript for
review. Thanks to all of them for their contribution and to
A. Nørrevang, B. Remmel, L. Toft Rasmussen and K.
Sanderson for reviewing and editing the manuscript as a
whole. Thanks to Marianna Debes Dahl for translation of
the Faroese abstract.
The results of this intemational investigation are the
product of a team effort by those participating in the
Faroese pilot whale project. All the scientists are greatly
indebted to the many people who assisted with the sam-
pling, in particular the Faroese participants. Their invalu-
able help, their enthusiasm and availability hunt after hunt
made this large scale project - and especially the year-round
sampling - possible. We sincerely wish to thank all of them,
and in particular S. Skaaning, E. Stefansson, M. Debes-
Dahl, S. Jacobsen, S. Fredriksen, H. Gaasedal, P. Jean and
L. Venturino. Many more co-operated to the success of this
project, we would like them to be sure that they are not for-
gotten.
We would specially like to mention the support to this pro-
ject of the Faroese population as a whole. In particular, we
like to thank the Faroese sýslumen, formen, grindmen,
policemen and ftremen which many times helped the sam-
pling team. Thanks to the kindness and courage of all those
who welcomed and fed in their house the dirty and smelly
sampling team. Very special thanks to the Bacalao ftsh fac-
tory, the management and all those who helped us, day after
day, for the storage and manipulation of our samples. Last
but not least, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to J.
Jóhansen, Director of the Faroese Museum of Natural
History, and his staff for having hosted the project in their
institute.
Finally, we wish to acknowledge the support provided by
the Faroese Govemment at all levels, with special mention
of Kjartan Hoydal, Director of Fisheries. We would like to
express our appreciation of the important financial support
from the Faroese Govemment which made possible the
continuous two-year sampling period.
We would like to mention especially our late British col-
league, Timothy David Waters from the Sea Mammal
Research Unit. He died tragically in the Faroes in a plane
accident in July 1987 at the beginning of a Faroese air sur-
vey, which was to have been part of the North Atlantic
Sighting Survey. His companionship, kindness and enthusi-
asm were much appreciated by all of us who met him, and
he is greatly missed. Sadly, in the same accident the
American whale scientist, Frederick Merrild Fairfield, and
the British pilot, Raymond Allan Hughes also disappeared.
References
Bloch, D. 1992. Studies of the long-finned pilot whale in
the Faroe Islands, 1976-1986. Fróðskaparrit 38-39: 35-
61.
Bloch, D., Desportes, G., Hoydal, K. and Jean, P. 1990.
Pilot whaling in the Faroe Islands: July 1986 - July
1988. North Atlantic Studies 2(1+2): 36-44.
Bree, P. J. H. van. 1971. On Globicephala sieboldii gray,
1846, and other species of pilot whales. Beaufortia
249(19): 79-87.
Buckland, S.T. 1985. Perpendicular distance model for line
transect sampling. Biometrics 41: 177-195.