The Importance of Whale Poop

Asha de Vos is a marine biologist, who studies the impact of whales on ocean ecology. Her TED presentation points up the enormous contribution whales make to the health of Earth's pelagic environment.  Who knew that poo could be such a valuable commodity.

Here is a link to Asha de Vos' TED presentation --- http://www.ted.com/talks/asha_de_vos_why_you_should_care_about_whale_poo?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2015-01-10&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=top_left_image

How Whales Change the Climate

This is a beautiful video, showcasing some of the Earth's most compelling creatures.  I've always had a thing for whales. I hate the fact that there are people who want to kill and commoditize them. 

I admire humans who choose to put their own lives at risk to protect whales. It's no wonder that 'Whale Wars is one of my favorite TV series. 

Here is the link to 'How Whales Save the Climate... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M18HxXve3CM

Court Ends Japanese Whaling in the Antarctic

I have done several postings about the TV show, Whale Wars, that chronicle the ongoing struggle of the Sea Shepard Society to confront Japanese factory whaling in the Antarctic ocean.  Sea Shepard has been fighting this battle with Japanese whalers for about the last ten years.

The International Whaling Commission had imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s.  To get around that ban, Japan had been claiming that their whaling activities were based on research that required them to kill and slaughter hundreds of whales every year.  Of course, all of the whale meat taken this way has ended up in Japanese meat markets.

Australia and New Zealand went to the UN's International Court of Justice to challenge Japan's 'research' whaling.    This past week, a panel of judges ruled 12-4 that Japan's 'research' whaling was a sham. It ordered an immediate end to the practice. Though it has publicly regretted the court's decision, Japan agreed to comply.

This is a huge victory of the Sea Shepard Society and those of us who believe that whales should be protected from human exploitation.

Even with this very positive step, there is much that needs to be done to mend humanity's relationship with our oceans. Beyond our continued overexploitation of the ocean's fisheries, humans are responsible for billions of tons of plastic and other kinds of toxic materials being dumped into the oceans. Making this right will take a massive effort by humanity. Accepting responsibility for the mess we've made means new policies that prohibit  our waterways and oceans from being used as dumping grounds. We must also aggressively develop technologies that will allow us to clean up the mess we've already made.   Rather than seeing this as a financial burden, we should be looking at it as an important pathway to sustainability that will create jobs and improve the quality of life of all the world's people.

Time to get busy and take care of our planetary home.

Alaska Fishermen Rescue Orca Whale

It's always heartening to run across a story of humans being kind to an animal in distress.  In this case, three Alaskans, Jason Vonick and two friends,  were out in a remote area of shoreline on their boat when they came across a pod of orca whales.  They noticed that one of the smaller whales was stuck on some rocks and unable to move.  

The easy course for the fishermen would have been to keep on going. Instead, they anchored their fishing boat and tried to help.  They recorded some video of the event. The stranded whale remained calm and actually seemed to take comfort from the efforts of Vonick and his colleagues to keep her cool and reassure her.  The other orca remained just a few feet away. They were not even a little aggressive.  They seemed to understand that Vonick and his friends were there to help.

Finally, after four hours, the tide came in enough that the fishermen were able to use a pair of oars to lever the stranded whale free of the rocks.

It's a wonderful story, with a happy ending. I just wish the brand of kindness displayed by Jason Vonick and his two colleagues was the rule rather than exception.  

Here is the link to the You Tube video shot by the fishermen....  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrqcmDHY9xo

Ingrid Visser - Champion of New Zealand's Orca

In New Zealand, a marine biologist, Dr. Ingrid Visser has focused the last 20 years of  her life on studying and protecting the orca whales that spend their lives along the coastline of that island nation in the South Pacific.

Ingrid Visser, PhD, with wild orca

Orca is a more scientific name for the whale species commonly called killer whales.  People who appreciate their exceptional intelligence and generally benign relationship with humans prefer to call them orca.

On August 21st, I published a blog entry titled Great White Versus Orca.  One fact in that story was that sea lions and seals are the principle diet of the orca based locally off the Northern California coast. Apparently, they also kill and eat sharks.

The New Zealand orca whales have a very different diet.  Ingrid Visser, who was the first person to study New Zealand's resident orca, discovered that they depend to a large degree on hunting, catching and eating sting rays that they find very often in shallow inlets along the New Zealand coastline.

Sting ray

 People may recall that the well-known TV naturalist, Steve Irwin, was killed a few years ago while swimming in shallow water by a sting ray hiding in the sand.  Rays have a sharp barbed extension atop their tails that they use to defend themselves.  Ingrid Visser discovered that the New Zealand orca  have evolved a very effective technique for hunting sting rays, while avoiding the deadly tail barb.  The orca work together. When they locate a sting ray hiding in the sand, one whale seizes the ray by its tail so it can't use its deadly dangerous barb, and the other whale bites the ray, killing it. Then the two whales and sometimes their friends share the meal.




Orca with freshly caught stingray

Because many of the places where the whales hunt stingrays also serve as industrial harbors, Ingrid Visser was concerned that toxic chemicals like poly-chlorinatred biphenyls (PCP) left over from human industrial activity could be present in the resident sting rays. That posed an even bigger threat to the orca, because PCPs tend to accumulate in the fatty tissues of predators ingesting tainted fish.

Long story short,  Ingrid Visser used tissue samples from locally caught sting rays and also from one of the resident orcas to prove the rays were indeed carrying high levels of PCPs and other toxic industrial chemicals.   

Ingrid Visser is more than a marine mammal scientist. She is also a champion for New Zealand's orca and her nation's  marine environment in general. She founded the Orca Research Trust to advance her work and to report it to the public. She also successfully petitioned the New Zealand government to change its designation for its resident orca to critically endangered.

Because of  Ingrid Visser's tireless efforts, the people of New Zealand know a lot more about the marine mammals that live close at hand with them. Because of Ingrid Visser,  prospects for New Zealand's resident orca are far better than they would likely be othewise.  In my book, that makes Ingrid Visser a hero of the highest order.

Here is a link to Ingrid Visser's webpage.
http://www.orcaresearch.org/

Great White Versus Orca

This incident happened a few years ago. National Geographic later did a one hour piece on the whole relationship between orca, aka killer whales, and great white sharks in the Farallon Islands, off San Francisco.

Orca dining on a Great White

In this video, a tourist boat comes across an orca swimming with its calf.  Then, a great white shark came along.  The next thing the tourists saw was the orca coming to the surface holding the shark upside down in its jaws.  The shark never had a chance.

Two interesting bits of understanding emerged from this incident.

Interesting bit #1 - Researchers have long known that turning a shark upside down induces a form of torpor,  rendering the shark totally defenseless.  The scientists knew this, but this incident appears to prove that at least some orcas know it as well and use it in their hunting technique with sharks.

Interesting bit #2 - The orca killed the shark at a time of year when there were a lot of seals in the area. Because of that, lots of great white sharks were also there, looking to score a seal for dinner.  Some scientists were working in the Farallons with tagged great whites at the same time the shark was killed by the orca. The scientists recorded some totally unexpected behavior. The great whites took off. In one case, a radio tagged shark dove deep and fled the area. It didn't stop until it was thousands of mles away.  Somehow, the sharks seemed to know one of their own had been killed.  The mechanism remains unknown, but, at a time of year when the waters around the Farallons are normally teeming with great white sharks feasting on seals, there were no sharks to be found.

I just thought this whole episode was fascinating. If the tourist boat hadn't been on scene when the orca killed the shark; if that incident had not been witnessed,  shark researchers would still be trying to figure out why all the other great whites in the area suddenly dissappeared. 

Here is the link to the video that shows the orca dispatching the Great White Shark..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbQ5qCJEEwc&feature=related