Oksana Savenko, Ukraine

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Oksana Savenko, Research scientist  Ukrainian Scientific Center of Ecology of the Sea (UkrSCES)

89 Frantsuzsky Blvd., Odesa, Ukraine, 65009

*-Work phone +380965700409

*-Main email:   o.v.savenko@gmail.com     Website       http://www.sea.gov.ua

Skype etc:   Skype: o.v.savenko               

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I am the research scientist in Ukrainian Scientific Center of Ecology of the Sea (Odesa, Ukraine). My work is dedicated to the research and conservation of the marine mammals and birds of the Black Sea; also, I am involved in the monitoring of debris in the marine environment. I have comprehensive experience in field research on marine mammals of the Black Sea and North Pacific, and I have certain experience in observations of marine birds. My experience in GIS is basic and I wish to increase my  knowledge in more sophisticated analytical GIS tools, which are necessary for my work in the fields of research and conservation of marine species and ecosystem. I am a member of the local Conservation GIS community and often share my experience with my colleagues and students. I am currently working on my Ph.D. theses in Zoology, which is dedicated to the assessment of the distribution patterns of cetaceans in the Black Sea. My goal is to develop and promote a strategy for the conservation and management of the Black Sea endemic cetacean subspecies. Another important aim is to involve local communities in monitoring and protection of the Black Sea environment.

      The main activities of the Ukrainian Scientific Center of Ecology of the Sea are:  

Conducting national monitoring of the state of the environment of water areas in Ukraine, the Global Sea and coastal territories; elaborating programs for environmental monitoring and protection, sustainable use of nature resources and providing environmental safety to territories and aquatic areas; studies on nature processes in marine ecosystems, coastal ecosystems and factors influencing them; preparation and distribution of ecological certificates, including international level; assessment and drawing up standards for anthropogenic loads on the nature environment; environmental audit; metrological provision of analytical measurements; arbitrage (expert) analyses; research projects for creating and organizing facilities and territories of the nature conservation fund of Ukraine; participation in the national research programs in Ukraine and in the Antarctic; creating, applying and maintaining automated systems and databases; organizing conferences, lectures, training courses and workshops in environmental protection, use of nature resources, providing ecological safety and environmental management; publishing, polygraph, advertising and information activity.

 

   About 2.5 years ago, I was invited to join the Ukrainian Centre of Ecology of the Sea as a research scientist to initiate the monitoring program on the Black Sea cetaceans. Now we have small team of marine mammal researchers and volunteers involved in this work. In this short time, we managed to get several research and conservation grants.

Our ongoing projects:

Assessment of Black Sea mammal populations in 2016-2017 (supervised by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine), coordinated by me;

Marine mammals and marine litter studies in the international UNDP-EU Project EMBLAS II "Improving Environmental Monitoring in the Black Sea, Phase II" (terms of action: July 2015 – December 2018; the area covered: Black Sea), coordinated by me;

The project "Initial assessment of cetacean stocks in the Ukrainian sector of the north-western Black Sea, funded by ACCOBAMS (Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area), coordinated by Dr. Pavel Gol’din, under support of the Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Since 2014, I am working on my Ph.D. theses in Zoology (supervised by Dr. Igor Dzeverin, Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology NASU, Kyiv, Ukraine), which is dedicated to the assessment of the distribution patterns of cetaceans in the Black Sea.

 

*-HISTORY: During the high school, I conducted observations on the breeding colony of kestrels, located in a semi-ruined church in the middle of an artificial reservoir on the Dnieper River. Without the use of modern GIS techniques, I tried to visualize the foraging sites of different breeding pairs of kestrels. My research project won the first place at the competition of the Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. I have been involved in the research and conservation of marine mammals since 2004. My master's thesis dealt with the study of ecology and behavior of the cetaceans in the shore waters of the Crimean Peninsula (Azov and Black seas). During 2005-2012, I was the educational and scientific coordinator in the Ukrainian Youth Environmental League (Kyiv, Ukraine). In 2006, as a volunteer, I participated in the research project on bioacoustics and behavior of white whale, White Sea, Russia (supervised by Dr. Vsevolod Bel'kovich, Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia). I also have comprehensive experience in monitoring on marine mammals of the North Pacific (in Russian waters). In 2007–2010, I was the research worker at the Russian Far East Marine Mammals Research Program. Our primary project was dedicated to the long-term population studies of the declining pinniped species - Steller sea lion (supervised by Dr. Vladimir Burkanov, Kamchatka Branch of the Pacific Geographical Institute FEB Russian Academy of Sciences, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia). In 2012 and 2013 as a research worker, I participated at the Russia – U.S. Western Gray Whale Research Project, Piltun Bay, Sakhalin Island, Russia (supervised by Dr. Alexander Burdin, Kamchatka Branch of the Pacific Geographical Institute FEB Russian Academy of Sciences, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia).

 

My professional skills are: vessel and coastal observations of marine mammals, stationary observations on rookeries of pinnipeds, photo-identification of cetaceans (vessel-based and shore-based), passive acoustic monitoring of small cetaceans (C-Pod detector), VHF/satellite tagging of eared seals and mark-recapture of Steller sea lions and cetaceans, biopsy sampling of marine mammals, necropsy and collection of tissue samples from stranded cetaceans etc. Now I am learning to use this comprehensive research experience on primarily endangered marine mammal species for their conservation. I collaborate with colleagues from different National Parks and other protected areas. In addition, I am the scientific consultant of the nongovernmental organizations and local activists on the modern statuses of the Black Sea Cetaceans and on the problems of keeping cetaceans in captivity. Moreover, I am one of the scientific consultants on marine mammals of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine.

Local SCGIS work: I am the member of the initially Ukrainian Facebook group "Environmental GIS" which now plays the role of our local SCGIS chapter. I actively collaborate with many colleagues from different environmental organizations involved in it. We exchange our experience and knowledge. Now, my contribution mainly consists of providing new scientific knowledge. At the same time, by communicating with colleagues I gain experience in the Environmental GIS.

 

Local Community work: During previous years, I was a scientific consultant of several undergraduate students and students of master's program. In addition, I held series of public lectures and presentations about the conservation and research of marine mammals. In 2017, together with colleagues from different Black Sea countries, we created the game «Black Sea SaveBook», this game in an interactive way stimulates youth to contribute to the protection of the Black Sea ecosystem. Studying cetaceans of the Black Sea I managed to involve in my work members of the local communities, including the representatives of such important for the marine environment group as fishermen.

What is the most challenging about the conservation/GIS work that you do?

My goal is to draw public attention to the problem of the environment of the Black Sea and its cetacean species in particular. The cetacean fauna of the Black Sea includes only three species and they are recognized as endemic subspecies. The Black Sea harbor porpoise and the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin are now listed as Endangered by the IUCN and the Black Sea common dolphin is listed as Vulnerable. Moreover, all of them are suffering from different human activities in the region. My aim is to create an alert network and the rapid response team on cetacean strandings. My wish is to attract people to the observation of cetaceans in the wild – not in captivity. My plan is to develop easy-to-use mobile applications for the researchers and for the amateurs, and also create interactive online maps and use open public databases, to collect more data on cetaceans in the region and to involve local communities in the monitoring and conservation of  Black Sea inhabitants and the ecosystem.

 

Plan for the next year: Analyze the data on monitoring of marine mammals, birds, and floating marine litter in the Black Sea collected by my colleagues and me during the previous years, and the data collected from local residents. To determine distribution patterns of the Black Sea cetaceans and the **bleep** the influence of different environmental covariates including human activities. To publish the obtained results.

Develop conservation strategy for the Black Sea Cetaceans in Ukrainian Black Sea waters, including an initiative on creating of the dedicated marine protected areas.

Develop a final version of the mobile template for the monitoring of cetaceans in the Black Sea, work on open databases, create online maps and involve local citizens in observations and conservation of cetaceans.

Participate in the next annual workshop on Environmental GIS held by colleagues from Slobozhanskiy National Park, participate in the annual European Cetacean Society Annual Conference and the associated workshops, and share the new knowledge with students and colleagues during workshops and other activities.

 

 

GIS work: First, I learn GIS from my experienced colleagues. If there are specific issues and difficulties, the answers can be always found in our Facebook group: Environmental GIS (most of its members are from Ukraine), which was created by one of the SCGIS Global Scholarship Program's graduates - Roman Sizo. He is always ready to help with advice and he was the person who inspired me to submit this application. My colleagues from Slobozhanskiy National Park holds an annual workshop on Environmental GIS and they publish very valuable materials. One of the founders of the workshop - Anton Biatov, helped me to make the first steps in GIS and he is always ready to help with advice. Sometimes I find on the internet useful educational video tutorials for GIS education and try to read manuals. I plan to try further training with the help of GIS online courses.

I can describe my current experience in GIS as basic. Usually, I have to put on the map coordinates of the marine mammals encountered during our research vessel cruises or animals observed through the shore-based studies. These maps display patterns of spatial distribution and movement of marine mammals. I have only basic skills in such programs as ArcGIS 10.4 and QGIS 2.4.

 

Below I give examples of maps from recently published scientific papers carried out in collaboration with my colleagues  as well as a fragments of the projects, which I am working on right now

 

(RIGHT). Summer distribution of marine mammals in the Krusenshtern Strait and the vicinity of Kamennye Lovushki Islands, 2003–2012 (Savenko et al., 2015b).

 

We used the ArcGIS 10.4 to create this map.

 

Savenko O.V., Shulezhko T.S., Altukhov A.V., Burkanov V.N. Marine mammals of the Kamennye Lovushki Islands (Kuril Islands) and the adjacent waters // Marine Mammals of the Holarctic. Collection of Scientific Papers. – 2015b. V. 2. – P. 140-147.

 

 

 

 

(LEFT). Locations of recorded sightings of North Pacific right whales from 1977 to 2014: this study, orange diamonds; Myashita and Kato (1998), yellow reversed triangles; approximate positions from Matsuoka et al. (2012), purple triangles; approximate positions from Istomin et al. (2013), green circles; Sekiguchi et al. (2014), red stars  (Ovsyanikova et al., 2015).

 

The Maptool program was used for analysis and graphics in this paper. Maptool is a product of SEATURTLE.ORG (http://www.seaturtle.org)

 

Ovsyanikova, E., Fedutin, I., Belonovich, O., Burdin, A., Burkanov, V., Dolgova, E., Filatova, O., Fomin, S., Hoyt, E., Mamaev, E., Richard, G., Savenko, O., Sekiguchi, K., Shpak, O., Sidorenko, M. and Titova, O. (2015), Opportunistic sightings of the endangered North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica) in Russian waters in 2003–2014. Marine Mammal Science, 31: 1559–1567. doi: 10.1111/mms.12243.

 

 

 

RIGHT. Marine mammal encounters during the EMBLAS II research cruises in 2016.

This map was created in the ArcGIS 10.4, and shows the marine mammal distribution in the Black Sea in 2016. This map will be used in the EMBLAS II (Improving Environmental monitoring in the Black Sea) Project Scientific Report (Authors of the Marine Mammal chapter: O. Savenko, M. Pogojeva, S. Bukreev, A. Fedorov, R. Sizo). I was marine mammal observer in Ukrainian, Romanian, and Georgian Black Sea waters, and in the open sea. Our goal was to evaluate cetacean distribution patterns during this period. We encountered 481 groups (2,352 individuals) of all three species of the Black Sea cetaceans. Our pilot study allowed us to identify areas of predicted high density of marine mammals. During 2017, we collected more data on the Black Sea cetaceans and now I am learning to analyze the influence of different environmental covariates including human impacts on the cetacean distribution patterns. This work requires from me to purchase skills in more sophisticated GIS methods.

 

(above). Poster with the information on the mobile application for young researchers of the Black Sea - «Black Sea SaveBook».    Together with colleagues from the different Black Sea countries we created the game «Black Sea SaveBook» in frames of the EMBLAS II (Improving Environmental monitoring in the Black Sea) research project (Fig. 7-8). I am responsible for the information on cetaceans. This game in an interactive way stimulates youth: to look for and make photos of found so-called “Environmental sentinels” – mollusks and algae, which are the indicators of the good environmental status of the Black Sea coast; to identify and mark dolphins if any; to get additional points and awards for collected beach litter. All data collected will be georeferenced and used by the scientists as an additional information source about the status of the Black Sea. The mobile application is available in Georgian, Russian and Ukrainian languages.

During 2017, we received hundreds of protocols from young people from various Black Sea countries and have now begun to analyze them. Data collected by local communities will be presented on an interactive online map and will be an important contribution to the study and protection of the Black Sea ecosystem.

 

(above). Poster with the information on the mobile application for young researchers of the Black Sea - «Black Sea SaveBook».   In 2017, I initiated creation of the mobile template for the collection of the data on the Black Sea cetaceans in the field during vessel research and opportunistic cruises. We made the pilot version of the template together with my colleague Anton Biatov from Kharkiv branch of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (Fig. 9). The template is based on the NextGIS Mobile platform (http://nextgis.com/nextgis-mobile), and it was already successfully tested during several research and ferry cruises. This template includes over 30 parameters, which allow collecting detailed data on observation effort, weather conditions, and cetacean sightings. We expect that this template will be useful for researchers and amateur cetacean observers from different Black Sea countries.

 

2018 Title of the paper you will present:

"Marine protected areas in the conservation of marine mammals in the Ukrainian Black Sea waters: are they effective?"

   In my paper, I will question the effectiveness of marine protected areas in the conservation of the local populations of the marine mammals, based on the spatial data on the distribution and abundance of cetaceans in different periods of the year and their annual cycle, and on knowledge of the most significant threats for their survival in the region. The alternative methods for the protection of cetaceans will be offered, which together with the planned increase of the marine protected areas in size and number, will help to improve the effectiveness of conservation strategies for marine mammals in Ukraine.