Plastic ingestion by harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena in the Netherlands: Establishing a standardised method

van Franeker, Jan A.; Bravo Rebolledo, Elisa L.; Hesse, Eileen; IJsseldijk, Lonneke L.; Kühn, Susanne; Leopold, Mardik; Mielke, Lara
Ambio (2018)

Stomach contents of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) collected in the Netherlands between 2003 and 2013 were inspected for the presence of plastic and other man-made litter. In 654 stomach samples…


Clinical, pathological, and laboratory diagnoses of diseases of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena), live stranded on the Dutch and adjacent coasts from 2003 to 2016

van Elk, Cornelis E.; van de Bildt, Marco W. G.; van Run, Peter R. W. A.; Bunskoek, Paulien; Meerbeek, Jolanda; Foster, Geoffrey; Osterhaus, Albert D. M. E.; Kuiken, Thijs
Veterinary Research (2019)

Harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in the North Sea live in an environment heavily impacted by humans, the consequences of which are a concern for their health. Autopsies carried out on…


Dead useful; methods for quantifying baseline variability in stranding rates to improve the ecological value of the strandings record as a monitoring tool

ten Doeschate, Mariel T. I.; Brownlow, Andrew C.; Davison, Nicholas J.; Thompson, Paul M.
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (2017)

The ecological value of the stranding record is often challenged due to the complexity in quantifying the biases associated with multiple components of the stranding process. There are biological, physical…


Quantifying parasite presence in relation to biological parameters of harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena stranded on the Dutch coast

ten Doeschate, M. T. I.; IJsseldijk, L. L.; Hiemstra, S.; de Jong, E. A.; Strijkstra, A.; Gröne, A.; Begeman, L.
Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (2017)

Harbour porpoises are often found to be infected by endoparasites in several organs including the lungs and stomach as well as the heart, liver and ears. Nevertheless there is still…


Differential population dynamics of a coastal porpoise correspond to the fishing effort in a large estuarine system

Lin, Wenzhi; Karczmarski, Leszek; Li, Jun; Chan, Stephen C. Y.; Guo, Lang; Wu, Yuping
Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (2019)

The finless porpoise (genus Neophocaena) is susceptible to fishery‐caused mortality, and its numbers are thought to be in decline across its entire range. However, population demographics have rarely been quantified…


Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls are still associated with toxic effects in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) despite having fallen below proposed toxicity thresholds

Williams, Rosie; ten Doeschate, Mariel; Curnick, David J.; Brownlow, Andrew; Barber, Jonathan L.; Davison, Nicholas J.; Deaville, Robert; Perkins, Matthew; Jepson, Paul D.; Jobling, Susan
Environmental Science & Technology (2020)

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are toxic, persistent, and lipophilic chemical compounds that accumulate to high levels in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and other cetaceans. It is important to monitor PCBs in…


Histological variation in blubber morphology of the endangered East Asian finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis sunameri) with ontogeny and reproductive states

Ji, Junhua; Nabi, Ghulam; Zeng, Xianyuan; Hao, Yujiang; Wang, Ding
Zoological Studies (2019)

The highly lipid-rich blubber in the hypodermis is a specialized structure that functions in thermoregulation, energy storage, buoyancy control, locomotion, and streamlining the body shape in marine mammals. The key…