cetacea
hrynyshyn | April 20, 2010The idea that deglaciation could affect vulcanism is not new. For anyone who thinks that linking climate change to volcanic eruptions is a prime example of over-the-top alarmism, consider this look at the subject in New Scientist in 2006:
Although these forces on the Earth's crust are subtly changing all the time, their effects are most obvious at times of major or sudden climate change, such as at the beginning and end of an ice age or during the period of climate change we are expected to experience over the coming centuries. As the balance changes between the stresses acting on the crust…
hrynyshyn | January 6, 2010Some has decided that the Island of Doubt is one of the top marine biology blogs around. Which is a bit odd as I rarely post about such issues anymore. But I do pay attention, and in an effort to at least acknowledge the honor, here's a relevant post:
The Sea Shepherd Society's ultra-cool trimaran, the Andy Gil, is no more:
And thanks to Southern Fried Science, here's another view of the same incident:
Who's to blame? I wasn't there and I know enough about the challenges of navigating in rough seas not to pass judgment based only on videos taken from less than ideal perspectives. But hey…
hrynyshyn | January 8, 2009I'm gettin' bugged driving up and down the same old strip
I gotta finda new place where the kids are hip
My buddies and me are getting real well known
Yeah, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone
I get around
-- B. Wilson, "I get around"
This is just a pair of data points on the itinerant habits of one individual, but it's the kind of thing that makes marine biology fascinating. A certain northern right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) known to human observers as 3270 (pictured), usually hangs out with the other 300 or so remnants of his species on the east coast of North America. But on…
hrynyshyn | August 12, 2008Looks like we won't be needing a team of aging, time-traveling Starfleet officers to save the humpbacks after all. The IUCN has downlisted (I hate that word!) (Megaptera novaeangliae) from Vulnerable to Least Concern. Only took 25 years of keeping the whalers at bay to do it. But I'll take the good news when I can get it. (At right are animatronic members of the species.)
Of course, other member of Cetacea are still in trouble. The vaquita of the Gulf of California is on the way out . The baiji of China's Yangtze River is probably already gone. And while the southern right whales were also…
hrynyshyn | June 1, 2008There's a reason the Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic whaling fleets mostly take the smallest of the great whales ;;;;; whalers had taken so many of the bigger species that only the minke could tolerate any kind of hunt. There are supposed to be hundred of thousands of them out there, just waiting to be exploited by responsible, sustainable whaling operations. But wait...
This past weekend comes news from Iceland of a dramatic drop in minke whale number in the country's waters.
According to a whale count from 2001 compiled by aircraft, there were 43,600 minkes in Icelandic waters, but last…
hrynyshyn | May 1, 2008You'd think that the vice-president would have better things to do than try to make life difficult for one of the most endangered species on the planets. But then, you'd be wrong. Via Talking Points Memo, we learn that Dick Cheney's office has been refusing to let the federal government establish new speed limits for boat traffic in northern right whale territory.
We know this thanks to the efforts of the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Henry Waxman, who has released an April 30 letter to Susan Dudley, administrator
of the Office of Information and…
hrynyshyn | February 7, 2008Whales hear through their jaws, right? Maybe not, if a new study is correct...
Researchers from San Diego State University and the University of California have been using computer models to mimic the effects of underwater noise on an unusual whale species and have discovered a new pathway for sound entering the head and ears.
...
Since 1968, it has been believed that noise vibrations travel through the thin bony walls of toothed whales' lower jaw and onto the fat body attached to the ear complex. This research shows however that the thin bony walls do not transmit the vibrations. In fact…
hrynyshyn | January 17, 2008It didn't take but two weeks for President George W. Bush to resume his war on science. Collateral damage this time will be of the cetacean order, thanks to an executive order exempting the Navy from any inconvenient environmental laws.
From the AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush exempted the Navy from an environmental law so it can continue using sonar in its anti-submarine warfare training off the California coast -- a practice critics say is harmful to whales and other marine mammals.
...
The Navy training exercises, including the use of sonar, "are in the paramount interest of the…
hrynyshyn | January 4, 2008It's not over until the Supremes rule on any appeal, but yesterday U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper became my new hero when she issued a ruling that ...
...severely limited the Navy's ability to use mid-frequency sonar on a training range off the Southern California coast, ruling that the loud sounds would harm whales and other marine mammals if not tightly controlled.(WaPo, Jan. 4)
As I wrote in the previous post, this could have far-reaching implications for the long-standing war of priorities between the national security hawks and environmental doves.
In particular, Cooper banned…
hrynyshyn | January 3, 2008Should the U.S. Navy be above the law when it comes to saving the whales? So asks Marc Kaufman of the Washington Post. Good question. One with much broader implications as we head into a future that will almost certainly include mandatory limits on all sorts of now-common but environmentally deleterious practices.
The proximate issue is whether the Navy can exempt itself from the provisions of the Endangered Species Act and, more specifically, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, in order to carry out its national security duties. The Navy wants to use active sonar (echolocation to a toothed…
hrynyshyn | September 11, 2007Monday we heard that a group of rogue Makah Indians killed a gray whale without going through the red tape that they're supposed to (or bothering to land it). Tuesday comes a new study that shows the eastern Pacific gray whale population, from which the doomed creature was taken, isn't doing as well as we once thought. The first item is more sensational, but hardly ecologically significant, even with the new data on the whale's pre-whaling population size. But still, interesting timing...
The new study, by Elizabeth Alter, Eric Rynes, and Stephen R. Palumbi, measured genetic variation among…
hrynyshyn | August 21, 2007Actually, burning it would probably be better than this. A barge overturned and dumped a loaded diesel truck in waters just metres from Robson Bight, one of those areas where the term "ecologically sensitive" just doesn't do seem to do justice.
Robson Bight, up near the northern end of Vancouver Island on Canada's west coast, is a wilderness area off-limits to just about everyone and everything, except orcas (killer whales to the unwashed), which visit its gravel beaches for a good rubdown. From today's Globe and Mail:
"There couldn't have a been a worse time and a worse place for this to…
hrynyshyn | August 9, 2007First, the bad news: the current issue of Biology Letters reports the extinction of the baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin, in what amounts to the official publication of an earlier announcement that the species could no longer be found in its already limited habitat. That would make the baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) the first cetacean to wiped from the face of the Earth by humans. That we know of. Not one has been seen for about a decade. I suppose it's a testament to the species' tenacity that it held on as long as it did, considering the hellish environment in which it was living -- one of the…
hrynyshyn | May 26, 2007The plight of just two humpback whales that got themselves lost up the Sacramento River has got the nation transfixed. This sort of thing happens every few years. Back in 1988, it was three gray whales trapped in the ice on the north slope of Alaska. It's curious how we, as in news directors, get all worked up about two members of the species, while Japan's plans to kill 50 of them deliberately garner almost no attention. Not that we're hypocrites, of course...
In fact, the United States has consistently opposed Japan's plans to kill 50 humpbacks, which are listed by the IUCN as still…
hrynyshyn | December 14, 2006From the annals of the weird and wonderful comes this tale of a pair of lucky dolphins:
The world's tallest man helped save two dolphins in China by reaching into their stomachs and pulling out harmful plastic they had swallowed, state media said Thursday. The dolphins got sick after eating plastic from the edge of their pool at an aquarium in Liaoning province.
Veterinarians said they decided to call for help from Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9-inch herdsman from Inner Mongolia, according to Chinese state media. Photos from the scene show Bao reaching his arm, which is more than one metre long,…
hrynyshyn | November 20, 2006I was talking yesterday with a friend of mine who works at the University of British Columbia's Fisheries Centre, which has long been at the forefront of research into the scope of the decline of fish species around the world. He said it's good to see so many scientists finally willing to take a public stand on what is clearly a crisis in the oceans.
Now, assuming a position on a matter of public policy is very different from issuing a statement on the science involved in the issue. In climate change, for example, there remains considerable debate over just how alarmist climatologists should…
hrynyshyn | October 26, 2006So Iceland is back at it, joining Norway and Japan in the atavistic habit of killing whales. I find it interesting that this subject is so often framed as a scientific one, evidenced by the number of posts on the subject my fellow SciBloggers. Is there in fact a scientific argument against killing whales? Yes, but it's not the one that most people make.
When it comes to certain species, most notably the fin and minke whales that are the target of the Icelandic and Norwegian whaling fleets, the world's populations can certainly handle the minimal, self-assigned, quotas. There are tens of…
hrynyshyn | September 5, 2006I'm a little late to this particular debate, but it's long been one of my favorite subjects, ever since I had a most intriguing encounter with a wild member of the species Tursiops truncatus, in Australia 16 years ago. More about that later. I, too, was taken aback by the recent media coverage of Manger's study of dolphin intelligence. What was even more surprising than his study, however, was his flipper flippant comment that dolphins trapped in tuna nets must be stupid because, "If they were really intelligent they would just jump over the net because it doesn't come out of the water."…
hrynyshyn | June 12, 2006It's that time of year, when the International Whaling Commission gets together and pretends its decisions will be based on the best available science. In addition to poorly serving the planet's cetaceans, these annual gatherings are embarrassments for both the pro-whaling members and the animal-rights gang. It's also a case study in the politicization and abuse of the scientific method.
For those familiar with the IWC, it's the recognized world authority on whaling. Formed about 60 years ago after it became bleedingly obvious that the industry required regulation -- the near extinction of…
hrynyshyn | June 12, 2006Had enough of the coke-and-mentos display? Time for a more mellow viral video fix, perhaps. This week's New York Times offers some soothing underwater footage of humpback whales. The accompaying story promises even better visuals soon, thanks to the advent of hi-def.
The story follows marine biologist Jason Sturgis' quest for better resolution of his research subject, and makes much of the utility of high-definition video:
"Jason's images might well serve whale research in the manner that Carl Sagan's eloquence made physics and astronomy meaningful to a lay audience," said Dan R. Salden,…