Landgoed Hoenderdaell Landgoed Hoenderdaell

Lemur02 said:
Landgoed Hoenderdaell will house SOS Dolfijn, a cetacean rescue center, which was previously housed in the Dolfinarium, but they had to leave in 2017. After a long search, they have finally found a new location and the rescue center will open in 2022.

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This is actually the second attempt of housing this rescue center on Landgoed Hoenderdaell. Hopefully it will work this time, eventhough they haven't aquired the needed funds yet.
SOS Dolfijn verhuist naar Landgoed Hoenderdaell - Dierenpark Hoenderdaell
 
JurassicMax said:
This is actually the second attempt of housing this rescue center on Landgoed Hoenderdaell. Hopefully it will work this time, eventhough they haven't aquired the needed funds yet.
SOS Dolfijn verhuist naar Landgoed Hoenderdaell - Dierenpark Hoenderdaell
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Harderwijk selling out to a for profit facility and organisation that does not have the relevant experience. Seems like a very bad choice all around and I fear the net result of an ill-begotten rationale and myth that marine pollution, shipping traffic, open sea trawling and ghost netting do not affect in-shore and non pelagic cetacean species in our Eastern Atlantic portion.

We are very much in danger of losing all the relevant expertise gained at Harderwijk and adequate facilities to house harbour porpoise. The one site able to do this at the moment and has adequate amenities is Texel's Marine Institute where some porpoises are already located (as the number of injured and rescued porpoises increases over time). I would really prefer to have 2 or 3 more facilities along our North Sea coastline able to take in and care longer term for stranded or injured porpoises and other cetaceans.

It seems in line with another ill-advised scheme to downscale rescue facilities for seals along our Dutch shoreline due to successful population growth in the Dutch/German part of the Wadden Sea. Now it is a recurring issue that once in a short timeframe another zoonosis will happen and significantly reduce the seal populations in the North Sea and Wadden Sea complex. Even now, their populations while having somewhat recovered are far from in safe numbers with marine pollution, overfishing and gas/oil exploration is increasing unabated and nothing is constructively being done to combat any of these severe human impacts on the Wadden Sea environment.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
It seems in line with another ill-advised scheme to downscale rescue facilities for seals along our Dutch shoreline due to successful population growth in the Dutch/German part of the Wadden Sea. Now it is a recurring issue that once in a short timeframe another zoonosis will happen and significantly reduce the seal populations in the North Sea and Wadden Sea complex. Even now, their populations while having somewhat recovered are far from in safe numbers with marine pollution, overfishing and gas/oil exploration is increasing unabated and nothing is constructively being done to combat any of these severe human impacts on the Wadden Sea environment.
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The rescue of "abandoned" pups has nothing to do with the population's resistance to diseases. The population of Harbor seal has seen a steady increase that even the outbreak of Phocine Distemper Virus in 2002 did not reduce it to the levels before 1975. Currently the population growth has mostly stopped which is a sign that the population is reaching carrying capacity. There is no doubt that without the disturbances you mention the carrying capacity would have been higher. If the populations of seals in the Dutch Wadden Sea is to grow even further, we need to tackle these more fundamental disturbances, however diverse and complex they may be. Rescuing "orphaned" pups is not going to solve this issue, and in fact by altering selection pressures and raising the population level above the carrying capacity it may only make the population more vulnerable to future threats, including another outbreak of PDV.

Also note that raising the population of Harbor and Grey Seals will inhibit the growth of other populations of piscivores in the Wadden Sea. This includes the enormous numbers of gulls, terns and other sea birds for which the area is a major stop-over and breeding site. With already more than 40000 Harbor Seals, I think their population is relatively save and artificially raising it will not benefit the overall Wadden Sea ecosystem. Grey Seals are scarcer (which about 6000-7000 individuals), but they have only relatively recently (re?)colonized the Dutch Wadden Sea.
 
Latest count from 2019 for harbour seals has been around 27,800 and their total number is cited to be around 40.800 individuals (actually a guesstimate borne out by the number expected to be missed at aerial counting due to being invisible buoyant in marine open waters). The population has been stable since 2012. What is unclear is why annual pupping is yet at 35%, but the population is not increasing: mortality how and why and wherefore remains unclarified. What you fail to acknowledge that food availability, available habitat, general health of seals (mind impacts of disturbance, fishing and techniques, habitat loss and pollution) might just have as well have produced this stabilisation. This is also what the Waddensea wildlife monitoring team is unsure about.

Abandoned pups is likely not caused by canine distemper susceptability (allthough it may be that pollution and being top predator may be predisposing individuals to the disease when it crops up), but more likely disturbance at and loss of safe birthing and resting sites and the general condition of mothers at calving. I never really claimed that there was a direct link between abandoned pups and zoonosis in the first place or that canine distemper was the prime ailment for abandoned and underweight pups.

What I would think is also relevant is the question what the population of harbour seals was like before large scale oil exploration, fishing interests in the Waddensea started impacting waders, fish stocks and other wildlife dependent on these rich feeding grounds. How large was the population of harbour seals prior to this era based upon total available and optimum habitat in the Waddensea, total food productivity for seals and the to be expected total population numbers at the time.

All this - while welcome - is somewhat shying away from my main argument that I do believe expertise and the capacity for caring and recuperating stranded or sick individuals whether they be seals or porpoises or other small dolphin and small cetacean species is integral to highlighting the plight of our High Seas. Given the increasing levels of pollution, disturbance, fishing interests and shipping transport as well as other negative human impacts on our marine environment, I am convinced we actually need more of these marine centres along our coastline. However, where we do agree I guess is that the strategy very much needs to be not an only rescue and recuperate, but far more broad based centers for public awareness, education, scientific research and conservation. We really need to start getting more serious about a marine conservation strategy in order to conserve our coastal marine environments and ensure significant portions of the marine environment and coastal ecosystems are fully protected and not given over to unwelcome interests like yet more oil exploration (as has already happened in the Dutch portion of the Waddensea and North Sea/Atlantic) or fishing methods and interests continue to use fishing techniques that continue to ecologically destroy the wetland habitats of the Waddensea and thus the food kitchen for all dependent wild species.

I hope this clarifies more clearly my position and why I remain a healthy sceptic here.
 
I think we should at least give Hoenderdaell a fair chance.
They probably will get plenty of lessons over at either Ecomare or Dolfinarium for gaining knowledge and what else, who knows!

You speak of marine conservation, but conservation starts with education. This new location for a marine center might be just what that department needed. Honestly, if I was to ask my neighbours and any random person if they think that the seals and porpoises here are under (possible) threats, they probably wouldn't know. In my opinion the first step to upgrade our marine conservation strategy is to raise more awareness. And I think this will do just that.
 
Ursus said:
I think we should at least give Hoenderdaell a fair chance.
They probably will get plenty of lessons over at either Ecomare or Dolfinarium for gaining knowledge and what else, who knows!

You speak of marine conservation, but conservation starts with education. This new location for a marine center might be just what that department needed. Honestly, if I was to ask my neighbours and any random person if they think that the seals and porpoises here are under (possible) threats, they probably wouldn't know. In my opinion the first step to upgrade our marine conservation strategy is to raise more awareness. And I think this will do just that.
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I am not denying this! Please just ingest fully what I wrote on thes "marine conservation centers".

PR, media and education, animal unit and rescue as well as marine conservation and protected area management. In my view, this should not be a for profit organisation nor an NGO, as both are in the public domain. I am primarily signalling the role (or rather the lack of a visible constant one) of the national administration and government for national conservation policy and operations as well as innovation and baseline and fundamental research.

However, - we - the Dutch have fully privatised our national forestry service SBB and pretty much a good deal of the national roles' of government in conservation to public engagement NGO's and private landowners. Now, I am not saying we do not need NGO's or private engagement, these are imperative as checks and balances and additional forces to foment fundamental change in landscape management and conservation. It seems to me just the lack of a coherent nationally driven policy with strict adherence to set goals and guidelines. We also leave to way too much room for so-called "economic interests" like amongst others the oil and gas industry and the fishing industry to operate in our largest protected landscape and only true wilderness.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
All this - while welcome - is somewhat shying away from my main argument that I do believe expertise and the capacity for caring and recuperating stranded or sick individuals whether they be seals or porpoises or other small dolphin and small cetacean species is integral to highlighting the plight of our High Seas. Given the increasing levels of pollution, disturbance, fishing interests and shipping transport as well as other negative human impacts on our marine environment, I am convinced we actually need more of these marine centres along our coastline. However, where we do agree I guess is that the strategy very much needs to be not an only rescue and recuperate, but far more broad based centers for public awareness, education, scientific research and conservation. We really need to start getting more serious about a marine conservation strategy in order to conserve our coastal marine environments and ensure significant portions of the marine environment and coastal ecosystems are fully protected and not given over to unwelcome interests like yet more oil exploration (as has already happened in the Dutch portion of the Waddensea and North Sea/Atlantic) or fishing methods and interests continue to use fishing techniques that continue to ecologically destroy the wetland habitats of the Waddensea and thus the food kitchen for all dependent wild species.

I hope this clarifies more clearly my position and why I remain a healthy sceptic here.
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What I was talking about is that artificially raising the number of seals above the current carrying capacity by what for all intents and purposes is a continuous kick-starting program (taking in vulnerable young animals and releasing them when they are older and more likely to survive), is not a good strategy at the moment. That doesn't meant that Ecomare-like "rescue" and education facilities are not important - they absolutely are! Education about the plight of our marine ecosystems by using rescued seals, porpoises, gannets or guillemots as ambassadors to showcase the dangers that these species face however is something different than the large scale rescue and rehabilitate program that was employed until recently or is still used now at some places.

Kifaru Bwana said:
What you fail to acknowledge that food availability, available habitat, general health of seals (mind impacts of disturbance, fishing and techniques, habitat loss and pollution) might just have as well have produced this stabilisation. This is also what the Waddensea wildlife monitoring team is unsure about.
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Perhaps I was not clear enough about that. Carrying capacity is based - in part - on the factors you cite, and if the population has reached a size where these factors become limiting it stops growing and stabilizes. The carrying capacity will be raised if we tackle over-fishing, disturbance of calving sites and general pollution of the Wadden Sea. So my point was that to ensure a sustainable future for a larger population of seals we need to solve these problems instead of continue with the large scale kick-starting.

Please do take my word with a grain of salt. I'm certainly not a seal expert.
 
Mr. Zootycoon said:
What I was talking about is that artificially raising the number of seals above the current carrying capacity by what for all intents and purposes is a continuous kick-starting program (taking in vulnerable young animals and releasing them when they are older and more likely to survive), is not a good strategy at the moment. That doesn't meant that Ecomare-like "rescue" and education facilities are not important - they absolutely are! Education about the plight of our marine ecosystems by using rescued seals, porpoises, gannets or guillemots as ambassadors to showcase the dangers that these species face however is something different than the large scale rescue and rehabilitate program that was employed until recently or is still used now at some places.



Perhaps I was not clear enough about that. Carrying capacity is based - in part - on the factors you cite, and if the population has reached a size where these factors become limiting it stops growing and stabilizes. The carrying capacity will be raised if we tackle over-fishing, disturbance of calving sites and general pollution of the Wadden Sea. So my point was that to ensure a sustainable future for a larger population of seals we need to solve these problems instead of continue with the large scale kick-starting.

Please do take my word with a grain of salt. I'm certainly not a seal expert.
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I think we are on the same page here: I do believe if all negative impacts on wildlife and the ecosystem / biome Wadden Sea Netherlands and Germany were sorted the seal population's carrying capacity and total population would probably increase substantially further beyond the current upper estimate.
 
To enlarge the small Barbary macaque-group at Hoenderdaell 2 females were collected from the animal-rescue-center at Opglabbeek - Belgium and the first signs to introduce the new animals into the group are looking good :).
 
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