Brave new ocean re-posted

I am going to re-post this in case some of you missed it. It is 1-hour long but worth watching until the end (when it gets more personal and also global).

Brave New Ocean

Some scientists think that Jeremy Jackson is an "environmentalist", which those scientists do not see as a compliment. You can probably judge for yourself, based on your own experience, whether what Dr. Jackson says makes any sense.

Giovanni Bearzi

Sardine frenzy

Amazing footage on sardines feast frenzy has been caught by a BBC crew.

Each winter, cool ocean currents drive millions of these small fish northwards along the eastern coast of South Africa. Here, common dolphins, sharks, pinnipeds and marine birds take advantage of this natural migration and feed on sardine schools.

The BBC team used helicopter, boat-based and underwater crews to capture the feeding frenzy in extensive detail. This footage helped to reveal more about the way gannets hunt. They don’t simply dive, catching a fish and bringing it back up to the surface, but they ‘arrow’ down to a depth of 10m, then swim a further 20m and finally they charge around like penguins.

It is really incredible how common dolphins and gannets swim centimetres away from sharks, just ignoring these big predators and focusing only on sardines.

Watch the videos at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7921949.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7921854.stm

Silvia Bonizzoni

On the discovery of new species

The discovery of a new mammal species fills us with joy and positive thoughts and we’re curious to see the new ‘arrival’, but most of the time we don’t really think about what this new discovery is teaching us.

In a recent paper, Paul Ehrlich and Gerardo Ceballos, two biologists from Stanford University and Mexico’s National University, respectively, say the assumption that ‘nearly all mammal species are known to science’ is incorrect. They argue that global animal and plant species diversity is badly underestimated, even within well-studied taxa.

"What this paper really talks about is how little we actually know about our natural capital and how little we know about the services that flow from it," said Ehrlich, adding that the diminishment of biodiversity can have very significant impacts on mankind.

"The economy of nature is what allows us to have a human economy. If we let the infrastructure of nature go down the drain, then we just can't make up for it with human infrastructure... It just can't be done."

Watch the interview at: http://news-service.stanford.edu

Silvia Bonizzoni

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For more information:
Ceballos G. & Ehrlich P.R. 2009. Discoveries of new mammal species and their implications for conservation and ecosystem services. PNAS: 0812419106v1-pnas.0812419106. (Abstract only)

http://news-service.stanford.edu

Pink dolphin

A rare albino bottlenose dolphin was sighted in the Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary in Louisiana (USA). The animal is a juvenile, he’s entirely pink in the whole body and has reddish eyes. This strange dolphin, nicknamed 'Pinky', was first spotted late last year and has become such a tourist attraction that conservationists are warning people to leave it alone...

SB

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Foto: Olycom/sipa

For more information:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The depressing life of elephants in captivity

A recent study on elephants in zoos found out something that many of us probably already suspected... these captive animals are at risk of depression and unhappy if kept alone or in small groups.

The important point made by the author Paul Rees is that life in small groups is unnatural for herd animals.

In their ‘normal’ life elephants are used to having many contacts with members of their own species, and this is crucial for the animals to develop normal behaviour patterns and friendships.

If they are forced to stay with just a few other individuals they cannot learn important socials skills such as finding a mate or greeting rituals, and many of them begin showing abnormal behaviour that suggests depression.

This study represents another reason to re-consider the ethical implications of keeping animals in captivity for human amusement.

Silvia Bonizzoni

Photo from: http://animalphotos.info

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For more information:
Rees P.A. 2009. The sizes of elephant groups in zoos: implications for elephant welfare. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 12 (1):44-60. (Abstract only)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4787398/Elephants

Brave new ocean

If you don't bother to read scientific papers about the present condition of our oceans, you can simply watch the impressive lecture given by Jeremy Jackson at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles).

"Brave new ocean"

SB

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Jeremy Jackson is a marine ecologist based at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. In 2003, Jackson and Daniel Pauly co-founded ‘The Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project’ to help promote a wider understanding and use of the term in discussions of general conservation. Shifting Baselines is a sort of partnership between ocean conservation and Hollywood to help bring attention to the severity of ocean decline, to point out that the changes people saw in their 20th-century lifetimes were just small snapshots in a larger picture of environmental decline that has been accelerating for 200 years.

For more information:
http://www.aseachange.net

"Every ecosystem I studied is unrecognizably different from when I started. I have a son who is 30, and I used to take him snorkelling on the reefs in Jamaica to show him all the beautiful corals there. I have a daughter who is 17... I can't show her anything but heaps of seaweed."
-- Jeremy Jackson

Marine photos and videos from NOAA’s library

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has launched the ‘National Marine Sanctuaries Media Library’, a new online multimedia library with public access.

The online library is a comprehensive database containing a collection of thousands high-quality ocean-related photos and videos taken by NOAA scientists, educators, divers and archaeologists.

Thank to an easy search system it is possible to find materials on 13 themes: birds, culture/people, fish, invertebrates, marine mammals, marine reptiles, maritime heritage, media roll, plants, scenic, science/research, ships/vessel/facilities, treats/pressures.

Have a look!

Silvia Bonizzoni

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For more information:
www.noaanews.noaa.gov

The troubled waters of the Amvrakikos Gulf

On February 17th, Tethys researcher Joan Gonzalvo attended a meeting at the city hall of Vonitsa, Greece, organized by the Management Body of the Amvrakikos Wetlands.

This body was established after the creation of the Amvrakikos Gulf National Park on March 21st, 2008. The meeting was attended by local authorities, a research team from the University of Patras, the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), the Development Agency for South Epirus and Amvrakikos (ETANAM), and local fishermen representatives.

The local fishermen proposed Joan’s participation in the event as an independent observer. A series of presentations by the participants reviewed the dramatic problems faced by the Gulf, namely increasing eutrophication and pollution. Especially alarming was the presentation by Prof. Kostas Koutsikopoulos (University of Patras) who studied the oxygen concentration on the sea floor and deep waters of the Gulf. His results show that anoxic conditions are found in waters deeper than 23 m, while twenty years ago such conditions were observed in waters 40 m deep and below. According to professor Koutsikopoulos, today approximately 70% of the Gulf is, in his own words, a dead zone.

Local fishermen did not seem surprised at all about the evidence shown. They have been claiming that the situation of the Amvrakikos Gulf is critical for several years as indicates by steadily decreasing fish captures.

Participants in the meeting acknowledged the uniqueness of the Gulf and its increasing vulnerability to human impact. The authorities promised to react and try to address the problem.

The good news are that the University of Patras, HCMR and ETANAM have manifested their interest in collaborating with Tethys. Such synergy would be important to take advantage of the intensive work done by Tethys since 2002 to document the abundance, movements and trends of bottlenose dolphins that reside year-round in the troubled waters of the Amvrakikos Gulf .

Joan Gonzalvo

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For more information:

Bearzi G., Agazzi S., Bonizzoni S., Costa M., Azzellino A. 2008. Dolphins in a bottle: abundance, residency patterns and conservation of bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus in the semi-closed eutrophic Amvrakikos Gulf, Greece. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 18(2):130-146.

Culling whales will not help fisheries

A new paper published on Science, has examined the scientific evidence for the assertion that ‘commercial fisheries are negatively impacted by whales in tropical breeding areas’ and that ‘reducing the number of baleen whales in the oceans would improve fisheries because whales eat fish that are caught for human consumption’.

The study, based on ecosystem models, examines the potential increase in the biomass of commercially important fish stocks that would result from a reduction in whale abundance in the Northwest African and Caribbean ecosystems.

Researchers have demonstrated that even a complete eradication of whale populations in tropical waters would not lead to any considerable increase in fish populations. “Our models unequivocally show that removing whales would not significantly increase the amount of commercially valuable fish,” said Leah Gerber, one of the authors, “Instead, we found that fishing is having a far greater bearing on the health of the fish stocks in the region...”

Daniel Pauly, a well-known fishery scientist and co-author of this paper, added “The assertion that fish supply is in peril is legitimate, but the problem is resolved with better management, not whaling”.

SB

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Gerber L.R., Morissette L., Kaschner K., Pauly D. 2009. Should whales be culled to increase fishery yield? Science 323: 880-881.

For more information:
www.lenfestocean.org

Narwhals migration filmed

For the first time, spectacular aerial footage captured by the BBC shows elusive narwhal during their annual migration north from the west coast of Greenland to their summer feeding grounds in the fjords and bays beyond Lancaster Sound (Canada).

The cetaceans have been filmed from a helicopter. They were swimming in groups of 20 or 30, in perfect unison as they surface for air.

SB

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The BBC video

For more information:
http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Mothers' jobs

Two papers on cetacean mothers have been recently published.

One investigated the role of menopause and reproductive senescence in a long-lived social mammal such as killer whales. The study reports that older mothers appear to be better mothers, producing calves with higher survival rates, than younger less-experienced moms.

"Older females may be more successful in raising young because of maternal experience, or they may allocate more effort to their offspring relative to younger females", researchers said.

This result is consistent with similar studies of other mammals; the presence of grandmothers may positively influence survival of juveniles at a critical life stage. The study also confirmed that menopause and long post-reproductive lifespans are not prerogatives of humans.

The other study focused on the whale mothers who teach their babies where to eat. Thanks to genetic and chemical analyses, researchers show that the right whale teach to their calves the location of feeding grounds during a long migration through the South Atlantic Ocean.

Researchers are now linking this result to the ocean present situation and they are raising concern about whales ability to find new places to feed if climate change is disrupting their traditional feeding areas.

SB

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Photo:
Southern Right whale and calf, by Genevieve Johnson (earthOcean)

For more information:
Ward E.J., Parsons K., Holmes E.E., Balcomb K.C., Ford J.K.B. 2009. The role of menopause and reproductive senescence in a long-lived social mammal. Frontiers in Zoology 6: 4. doi:10.1186/1742-9994-6-4

‘Mother whales teach babies where to eat: can Southern right whales adapt if food becomes scarce?’

Tilen Genov contributes to Tethys research in the Gulf of Corinth

A 'special' researcher is going to join the Ionian Dolphin Project team next spring: Tilen Genov, President of Morigenos.

When he was about 8, Tilen had been the first adopter of a bottlenose dolphin in the context of a campaign launched to support research by Tethys around Losinj, Croatia. Since then he has been a frequent guest at the Losinj field station, initially with Tethys and then with BlueWorld.

Having learned much through contact with researchers and direct observation, Tilen eventally created his own organization in Slovenia and started doing dolphin research with his team.

Tilen just published a paper summarizing his findings on bottlenose dolphins along the Slovenian and adjacent coasts.

Tilen will work with Tethys researchers in the context of "Delphi's Dolphins", the new dolphin research and conservation project in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece.

Giovanni Bearzi

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Morigenos, together with Tethys and various other cetacean research and conservation NGOs, is member of the Cetacean Alliance.

Maiacetus inuus: il 'nuovo' antenato dei cetacei

Confermata l’ipotesi che i più antichi antenati dei cetacei attuali avessero origini terrestri.

In Pakistan sono stati rinvenuti i resti di un nuovo Protocetide, il Maiacetus inuus, un animale vissuto 49-37 milioni di anni fa che conduceva una vita semiacquatica. Gli scheletri appartengono a una femmina lunga 2,6 metri con il suo feto e a un altro esemplare maschio leggermente più lungo.

Di particolare interesse è la posizione del feto nel corpo della madre. Il piccolo, quasi pronto per nascere, è in posizione cefalica e ciò differisce dagli attuali cetacei che invece si presentano ‘di coda’. Secondo i ricercatori questo suggerisce che il M. inuus, non essendo ancora completamente adattato alla vita acquatica, fosse costretto a partorire a terra. Questa caratteristica è coerente con la morfologia scheletrica, che consentiva all'animale di sostenere il suo peso sulla terra. Precedenti teorie sull’appartenenza dei Protocetidi al mondo anfibio vengono quindi scalzate dalla recente scoperta.

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Presidente onorario di Tethys, intervistato dal Corriere della Sera, ha commentato così la notizia: “Conosciamo così poco sulla storia evolutiva dei cetacei che la scoperta di un fossile di cetaceo con il feto è straordinaria, unica. La nascita è un momento drammatico nella vita dei cetacei attuali, perché partoriscono nell’acqua un piccolo che respira aria. E’ stato un giro di boa importante nella loro evoluzione. Questa scoperta è come una finestra aperta su uno stadio intermedio delle modalità di riproduzione. E’ come il fotogramma di un film”.

Silvia Bonizzoni

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Immagine: Scheletro di una femmina adulta di Maiacetus inuus (ossa rosa) e del suo feto (ossa azzurre)

Gingerich P.D., ul-Haq M., von Koenigswald W., Sanders W.J., Smith B.H., Zalmout I.S. 2009. New Protocetid whale from the Middle Eocene of Pakistan: birth on land, precocial development, and sexual dimorphism. PLoS ONE 4(2): e4366.

ABSTRACT: Protocetidae are middle Eocene (49-37 Ma) archaeocete predators ancestral to later whales. They are found in marine sedimentary rocks, but retain four legs and were not yet fully aquatic. Protocetids have been interpreted as amphibious, feeding in the sea but returning to land to rest. Two adult skeletons of a new 2.6 meter long protocetid, Maiacetus inuus, are described from the early middle Eocene Habib Rahi Formation of Pakistan. M. inuus differs from contemporary archaic whales in having a fused mandibular symphysis, distinctive astragalus bones in the ankle, and a less hind-limb dominated postcranial skeleton. One adult skeleton is female and bears the skull and partial skeleton of a single large near-term fetus. The fetal skeleton is positioned for head-first delivery, which typifies land mammals but not extant whales, evidence that birth took place on land. The fetal skeleton has permanent first molars well mineralized, which indicates precocial development at birth. Precocial development, with attendant size and mobility, were as critical for survival of a neonate at the land-sea interface in the Eocene as they are today. The second adult skeleton is the most complete known for a protocetid. The vertebral column, preserved in articulation, has 7 cervicals, 13 thoracics, 6 lumbars, 4 sacrals, and 21 caudals. All four limbs are preserved with hands and feet. This adult is 12% larger in linear dimensions than the female skeleton, on average, has canine teeth that are 20% larger, and is interpreted as male. Moderate sexual dimorphism indicates limited male-male competition during breeding, which in turn suggests little aggregation of food or shelter in the environment inhabited by protocetids. Discovery of a near-term fetus positioned for head-first delivery provides important evidence that early protocetid whales gave birth on land. This is consistent with skeletal morphology enabling Maiacetus to support its weight on land and corroborates previous ideas that protocetids were amphibious. Specimens this complete are virtual ‘Rosetta stones’ providing insight into functional capabilities and life history of extinct animals that cannot be gained any other way.

Per maggiori informazioni:
http://www.corriere.it/scienze_e_tecnologie
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evoluzione_dei_cetacei

The so-called ‘scientific whaling’

In the recent paper ‘Reconsidering the science of scientific whaling’ Peter Corkeron, a renowned cetologist, reviewed the data obtained in the last years by Japanese scientific whaling research.

From a scientific standpoint, Corkeron analyzed every single aspects of this lethal research, and provided evidence on why this technique is useless, simplistic, unsophisticated and problematic.

SB

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Corkeron P.J. 2009. Reconsidering the science of scientific whaling. Marine Ecology Progress Series 375: 305-309.

ABSTRACT: Scientific whaling is one of the most publicly contentious applications of marine ecological research today. An evaluation of the second phase of Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) program in the western North Pacific (JARPN II) is soon to be conducted under the auspices of the Scientific Committee (SC) of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Previous IWC SC reviews identified serious problems with the programs, yet reached inconsequential conclusions, and the JARPN II review is the first under a new format. The basic design of this study - forestomach sampling coupled with acoustic and trawl surveys for prey - is an unsophisticated approach to investigating the foraging ecology of Balaenoptera spp. Published results of the JARPN II feasibility study demonstrate problems with the execution of field work. Data analyses were simplistic. Non-lethal studies into the foraging ecology of Balaenoptera spp., using far fewer resources, have produced more definitive information. The recent changes in the IWC SC review process should result in unambiguous advice on how to improve the design of JARPN II. If the review recommends improvements that are not acted upon by the program's proponents, the IWC may need to decide whether the JARPN II program can be considered to be scientific research under Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.

The proper way to eat a cuttlefish

A new study on dolphins registered elaborate and complex feeding behaviour to turn a cuttlefish into a soft, chewy snack.

In the Upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia, researchers observed and recorded a wild female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) repeatedly catching, killing and preparing cuttlefish for consumption using a specific and ordered sequence of behaviours.

Cuttlefish were herded to a sand substrate, pinned to the seafloor, killed by downward thrust, raised mid-water and beaten by the dolphin with its snout until the ink was released and drained. The deceased cuttlefish was then returned to the seafloor, inverted and forced along the sand substrate in order to strip the thin dorsal layer of skin off the mantle, thus releasing the buoyant calcareous cuttlebone.

As the researchers said ‘this behaviour is a dramatic example of how dolphins, with their relatively unspecialised morphology, can utilise behavioural flexibility to tackle prey items that require substantial handling before consumption...’

Silvia Bonizzoni

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Drawing:
Stages of prey handling of giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) by Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin

For more information:
Finn J., Tregenza T., Norman M. 2009. Preparing the perfect cuttlefish meal: complex prey handling by dolphins. PLoS ONE 4(1):e4217.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature

Tethys field station in Galaxidi now completed

The new field station in Galaxidi, on the Gulf of Corinth, is finally ready.

The small apartment for Ionian Dolphin Project staff members has been completed (photo in this blog) and it now looks as welcoming as the adjacent area that houses project participants (see more photos at: photo_idpc_base.htm).

Work with volunteers will start in April - please consider joining us in Greece and sharing with us the excitement of this new enterprise!

Giovanni Bearzi

The new field station of Tethys in Greece

One more "message from the field" from another part of the Mediterranean...

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After ten days of hard work we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - the new field station in Galaxidi, on the Gulf of Corinth, is almost ready. We are still working in the staff headquarters and the patios, but the space for volunteers has come out quite nice.

In the photos posted here you can see how it was at our arrival. Photos of how it is now can be found at:

photo_idpc_base.htm

We also posted some new photos of the area:

photo_idpc_area.htm

photo_idpc_life.htm

We managed to get cable connection and set up our private mooring facilities.

So far so good :-)

Giovanni, Silvia and Joan

The largest Marine Protected Area

The US is going to establish the world's largest oceanic protected area in the Pacific.

The area will span about 190,000 square miles in the Pacific Ocean and will include the so-called ‘trio of marine national monuments’: the Mariana Trench and Northern Mariana Islands, the Rose Atoll in American Samoa and a chain of remote islands in the Central Pacific.

The area covered include some of the most remote islands and some of the most biologically diverse places on the planet including coral reefs and atolls, undersea volcanoes, hot seafloor vents and submarine pools of sulphur thought to be unique on earth.

In this part of the Pacific Ocean fishing will be probably banned or limited in many island areas, volcanoes and hydrothermal vents along the ocean floor beneath the Mariana Islands will also be protected.

Silvia Bonizzoni

Photo: Marina Costa / Tethys

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For more information:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.globaloceanlegacy.org

A question to Bernd Würsig

Q: What do you enjoy most about your career?

A: Bright inquisitive promising students who care about nature and life, probably like you.


From http://www.marinebiology.edu/WursigQuestions.htm

Bernd Würsig is Regents Professor of Marine Mammalogy & Director of the Marine Mammal Research Program, Texas A&M University

The Story of Stuff in 11 languages

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.

It exposes the connections between a number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world.

The Story of Stuff, launched online in December 2007, has now been translated into 11 languages and it is also possible to find a complete translation in each language. This is contributing to an amazing dissemination of the important message conveyed by the video, which according to its creators has been viewed by more than 4 Million people.

The Story of Stuff (main)

The Story of Stuff (international)

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Una versione sottotitolata in italiano non è ancora stata inclusa nel sito ufficiale, ma è disponibile su:

http://it.youtube.com (Parte 1 di 3)
http://it.youtube.com (Parte 2 di 3)
http://it.youtube.com (Parte 3 di 3)

Dolphins, Photography and Dreams

A recollection


Back in my twenties, when I was moving my first steps as a cetology geek, I was assigned the task of recording cetacean sightings at sea by Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, who was my thesis co-advisor. ‘Find a boat and report what you see’, he said. Little was known back then - it was 1986 - about the distribution and ecology of whales and dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea. So I managed to embark on board a mid-size oceanographic ship and set out to defy my own seasickness, looking for dorsal fins and flukes from the upper deck of R/V ‘Bannock’, together with my colleague Benedetta Cavalloni.

Our very first cruise brought us to the Sicily Channel, where on the second day at sea I made one of my best sightings ever. A mixed group of nine common dolphins and one bottlenose dolphin came to ride the ship’s bow for a relatively long time. We had seen a school of striped dolphins on the previous day, but that event has faded in my memory. The early mixed Delphinus / Tursiops group, however, was not going to be forgotten.

The large bottlenose dolphin behaved as the leader and immediately positioned himself right in front of the bow, enjoying the pressure wave generated by the fast-moving ship and not allowing any of the smaller common dolphin group members to gain his apparently privileged position.

For some reason I had loaded a roll of black & white film but I soon realized that this wasn’t a good way of capturing such a colourful moment. I quickly got rid of those photos and inserted a roll of colour slides into my Pentax LX all-manual reflex camera.

Then the magic started. The morning light was beautiful and sharp, the dolphins lively and playful. Common dolphins were swimming fast on both sides of the ship, leaping at unison in golden water spry, gliding in the deep-blue water and showing their ochre-coloured flanks and amazing grace. I was absorbed by the difficult task of aiming, focusing and setting appropriate shutter speeds, but fully aware that I was shooting extraordinary photos. My first good photos of any cetacean species in the wild, something I had been dreaming about for years. I was there, eventually, and the beauty of the moment transcended my expectations.

At frame number 36 I was ready to change roll, but my camera kept going. At 38 I started worrying a little, but I had been hand-rolling my film and it wasn’t unusual to get a few additional photos. After frame number 40 I grew really nervous. What the hell was going on there? All the beauty disappeared and a thick fog filled my eyes. I kept shooting like a madman, telling myself that the roll was about to end, but it did not. In my hurry, I had failed to insert the tip of the film deep into the slit of the manual winder drive, and no image could be exposed. The camera had been shooting on idle. I opened the camera back and frantically tried to re-insert the roll, but the sighting was over. All the dolphins had left and even the morning light now looked kind of grey.

Some months later, Benedetta and I were invited to present our work to a public of specialists at the Milan Natural History Museum. These included Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, the eminent cetacean expert Luigi Cagnolaro and two scientists who had been pioneering field research on cetaceans in the Ligurian Sea: Michela Podestà and Luca Magnaghi. I was proud to be given an opportunity to report on our exploratory cruises and show the photos and data we had been collecting in the central and eastern Mediterranean. Unfortunately, that was my first public presentation and I felt overly nervous and uneasy. I desperately wanted to show that Benedetta and I had done a good job, but I was much too anxious for making a good impression to anyone. At the end of the slide show, after my disappointing talk, someone from the floor asked if we really had sighted common dolphins, particularly in a mixed group. A sighting of this species turned out to be an infrequent record, even back in the mid 80s. Could I project any slide to confirm our identification?

That was a moment of panic. As I was too ingenuous to find a clever excuse, I ended up confessing my technical mistake with stammering words, something that made me feel ridiculous and unfit. I cannot tell whether mouths really curved into ironic smiles and heads started shaking, or it was just my imagination. I felt horrible anyway. I had been unable to document an important sighting. I couldn’t even manage to use my own camera. Did I stand any chance to ever become a cetacean scientist?

Afterwards, Giuseppe asked me to show him the black & white photos and although these were no Bob Talbot’s, the identification of dolphins in the mixed group was unquestionable. At least our credibility was ok, but that whole experience was going to leave a lasting shade... in my dreams.

Since then, I have been regularly dreaming of extraordinary sightings: orcas swimming up a river, hundreds of dusky dolphins socializing in a beautiful sandy lagoon, sperm whales performing spectacular behaviours meters away from my boat. I was there with my camera, all excited for this opportunity to document something special, but unable to take a single photo. Have you ever experienced difficulty to walk or run in a dream, your legs suddenly turned into lead? I had a similar feeling about taking photos of the animals, and it felt painful.

Eventually, after many years, this kind of dreams stopped bothering me. Perhaps I managed to overcome my frustration, or alternative frustrations and nightmares came to replace that particular one. Today I can laugh at my early experience and tell myself that I should have set aside the camera to simply enjoy the wonderful sighting.


Giovanni Bearzi © 2008

Are bottlenose dolphin daughters smarter or just more diligent than sons?

Back in 1997, researcher Rachel Smolker and colleagues studied bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Shark Bay, Western Australia, and they noticed that some females often carry sponges on the tips of their rostrum.

At that time they suggested that this behaviour was the first example of tool use by dolphins. Sponges might protect the cetacean that is searching for food on the seabed from the spines and stings of animals such as stonefish and stingrays.

Now, researcher Janet Mann found out that while mothers show both their male and female calves how to use sponges, female calves seem to be more interested in this behaviour than males. ‘The daughters seem really keen to do it, they try and try, whereas the sons don’t seem to think it’s a big deal and hang out at the surface waiting for their mothers to come back up’.

Researchers are still not sure why only part of the females' population is involved in this activity and why most of the ‘spongers’ are females. They are also trying to understand if this behaviour may have evolutionary and other benefits.

Silvia Bonizzoni

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Photo: Amanda C. Coakes

For more information:
Mann J., Sargeant B.L., Watson-Capps J.J., Gibson Q.A., Heithaus M.R., Connor R.C., Patterson E. 2008. Why Do Dolphins Carry Sponges? PLoS ONE 3(12): e3868. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003868

Smolker R.A., Richards A., Connor R., Mann J., Berggren P. 1997. Sponge-carrying by Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins: possible tool-use by a delphinid. Ethology 103: 454–465.

http://www.newscientist.com
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com

Urgent action is needed to save Mediterranean common dolphins

A week after representatives of 110 governments met in Rome at the 9th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) to discuss better protection for migratory species around the globe, conservationists and scientists call for urgent action to prevent the Mediterranean common dolphin from regional extinction. The issue was addressed during the International Summit on the Mediterranean Environment held in Crete, Greece, last week and organised by Essence Consulting with the support of the Hellenic National Commission for UNESCO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the context of the “Year of the Dolphin”.

Greek authorities, conservationists, scientists and representatives of the artisanal fisheries sector met to discuss immediate measures to avoid the complete eradication of common dolphins and other endangered marine mammals. In 2003, Mediterranean common dolphins have been listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. This species is also listed in the CMS Appendixes I and II and protected by ACCOBAMS, the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area. However, no concrete action has been taken so far to protect these animals. As a result, the conservation status of common dolphins is now more alarming than ever.

According to representatives from OceanCare and WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, who participated in the Summit held in Crete, immediate management action can prevent a further decline of Mediterranean common dolphins, but Governments must act before it is too late for a species that - despite its name - is becoming less and less common.

The situation is particularly worrying in Greece, particularly in the waters east of Lefkada and around the island of Kalamos, where common dolphins decreased from 150 to only 15 animals over the past ten years. For this reason, a Call for Action to save the last common dolphins around Kalamos was launched by 13 regional and local NGOs and was endorsed by the Summit in Crete. This species is also declining in the Gulf of Vera, Spain. In the northern Adriatic Sea, common dolphins were abundant until the 1960s, but they have now completely disappeared.

The main factor thought to be causing the decline of common dolphins is reduced availability of their prey caused by excessive fishing pressure. Mortality in fishing gear, particularly driftnets, is another major source of concern. Conservationists and scientists demand concrete management action by the Governments, especially to reduce fishing pressure and enforce existing legislation.

“Scientists and conservationists spend much of their life frantically writing documents and recommendations, but little or nothing happens in the real world. Is paper, and then more paper, all that governments really want from us? When will the time for action come?” declared Giovanni Bearzi, President of the Tethys Research Institute and one of the leading experts of common dolphins.

(Press release by WDCS and OceanCare)

Stop hunting Faroese pilot whales (they aren't safe for human consumption!)

Every year, photos of the pilot whales slaughter in the Faroe Islands are shown in various web sites to condemn the barbarity of this activity.

Every year Danish and Faroese officers reply by claiming that whaling is part of their culture and a fully sustainable tradition.

While NGOs and private citizens have long been trying to stop this practice, advocating respect for highly-evolved marine mammals, their efforts so far have been unsuccessful. However, now there may be a new reason to stop slaughtering pilot whales.

Faroese chief medical officers have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered safe for human consumption, simply because their meat and blubber contain too much mercury, PCBs and DDT.

Silvia Bonizzoni and Giovanni Bearzi

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http://www.newscientist.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grindadrap
http://therotundaramblings.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/danish-pride/

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Danish officers' reply to a complaint:

Dear Sir
The Danish Foreign Ministry has received your letter where you express your feelings caused by some pictures circulating on the internet depicting selected scenes from the catching of pilot whales in the Faroe Islands. We take note of the fact that a number of people find the above mentioned pictures disturbing. However, before passing any judgment upon whaling in general or the Faroese pilot whale drive fishery in particular one will need to supplement a possibly negative aesthetic first hand impression with considerations of a number of issues such as:
· General principles regarding use of wildlife;
· Biodiversity: the effects of the catch upon the relevant whale stock;
· Principles regarding the sustainable use of ocean resources, including interdependence between marine mammals and fish stocks;
· Animal welfare issues, including comparisons of a whale hunt with other hunts of large mammals in the wild, with the treatment of farmed animals throughout their life cycle, and of animals which are regarded as a nuisance; one might even consider certain kinds of non-food-related violent treatment of large mammals, found in some cultures.
· Ethics of food production in general. Does a meal of pilot whale meat represent more or less cumulated man-made animal pain than dishes normally eaten in one’s own country?
· Ecological questions, notably the ecological footprint of different modes of meat production, including the choice between local and imported food.
· Geographic and nutritional factors, availability of alternative food sources, notably in islands and remote coastal areas, not least in arctic or sub-arctic parts of the world.
· Cultural diversity, and tolerance/intolerance towards people with different food preferences and/or different attitudes towards different animals;
The Faroe Islands have autonomy within the Kingdom of Denmark. The islands are not included in Denmark’s membership of the European Union. Affairs regarding industry, agriculture, the environment, fishing and whaling, are subject to Faroese autonomy. If you want to address the Faroese authorities regarding pilot whaling, the e-mail address of the Foreign Department of the Faroese Government is mfa@mfa.fo; The e-mail address of the Faroese department of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs is fisk@fisk.fo;
If you, before forming your own finite opinion of the subject, or before addressing the relevant authorities, should be interested in acquiring some factual knowledge about whaling in the Faroe Islands, you may turn to the homepage on whaling of the Faroese authorities:
http://www.whaling.fo/
Kind regards,
THE EDITORS OF DENMARK.DK
EDITORS@DENMARK.DK
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF DENMARK
ASIATISK PLADS 2 / DK-1448 KØBENHAVN K
WWW.DENMARK.DK - THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF DENMARK

A new bottlenose dolphin species?

Two species were already included in the genus Tursiops: the common bottlenose dolphin T. truncatus and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin T. aduncus. Now a third species has been described in the waters off southern Australia.

This dolphin looks like the Indo-Pacific species, but genetically it is very different and according to the authors who published this finding it should be classified as a separate species.

Researchers from the Marine Mammal Research Group of Macquarie University, Sidney, say that this species is quite closely related to the Fraser's dolphin Lagenodelphis hosei, which lives in deep waters mostly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The suggested common name of this ‘newborn’ species would be Southern Australian bottlenose dolphin, but a scientific name can only be given after a formal description.

It remains to be seen whether this species will be formally and unanimously recognized by the scientific community.

Silvia Bonizzoni

Möller L.M., Bilgmann K., Charlton-Robb K., Beheregaray L. 2008. Multi-gene evidence for a new bottlenose dolphin species in southern Australi. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 49(2):674-681.

Photo from Macquarie University

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For more information:
www.wildlifeextra.com
www.pr.mq.edu.au

Sousa still struggling

The unique Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis) found in the strait between Taiwan’s western coast and Hong Kong has long been suffering hardship.

The west coast of Taiwan spans a sea of ‘industrial parks’, which have been seen to dump their waste runoff directly into the adjacent coast. Unfortunately, the adjacent coast also houses Sousa sightings. With seafood occupying the majority of the Taiwanese food market, the coastline and the surrounding waters of Taiwan are also filled with a variety of nets including gill nets and large driftnets.

This harsh environment leaves little chance for the declining numbers of these dolphins who are believed to be less than 90 individuals and, thanks to a recent study from Dr. John Wang, are a distinct population from that of Hong Kong.

Local marine biologists, NGOs and international scientists are working hard to help these remarkable mammals to recover but the way seems to be long. Only a few months ago, this dolphin was listed by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) as ‘Critically Endangered’, the most serious category of threat before extinction!

We hope that the endangered declaration will increase pressure on the Taiwanese government to protect the dolphins' habitat. But this is not enough, much more must be done quickly to help stabilize and eventually bring the Sousa population back to stronger numbers.

Shiva Javdan

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Photo from csiwhalesalive.org

For more information:
IUCN Red List - Sousa chinensis
Taiwan Sousa blogspot
www.cms.int

Lucky penguins

What is really remarkable here isn't the penguins avoiding orca attacks, but rather the fact that orcas did not attack the inflatable to feast on pinguins and humans...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTLptH63gIs

P.S. forget abut the music...

Amazing photos

Amazing underwater photos of common dolphins, sharks and birds feasting on sardines off the South African coast.

Absolutely wonderful!

Don't miss them, have a look!

From a cetacean point of view

Have you ever wondered how it feels being a cetacean?

Some footage taken by swimming whales can be seen on the web site of Dr. Robin Baird

Thanks to a crittercam system attached to the animal with a suction cup, which rotates to face into the direction the animal is swimming, Dr. Baird and his team are studying the diving behaviour of cetaceans in Hawaiian waters.

Have a look at this amazing footage! You will see false killer whales, short-finned pilot whales, and oceanic white-tip sharks.

Silvia Bonizzoni

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For more information:
www.cascadiaresearch.org

A mini-helicopter for studying whales

Dr. Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse (Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Zoological Society of London), found out a new way to study disease in whales.

Forget about samples taken from stranded, dead or captive animals and think about a 3.5 feet-long helicopter! This small remotely-controlled machine flies over the whale as it surfaces to breathe expelling air through its blow hole. At that time, gases and mucus blown out are collected in sterile Petri dishes attached to the mini-helicopter, and are then examined to see whether the animal is carrying any disease.

The new research method has been tested in the Gulf of California and off the western coasts of Baja California.

Silvia Bonizzoni

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For more information:
Mini-helicopter used to test whale health