Whales, it seems, could be worth more alive than dead, with the first peer-reviewed assessment of whale tourism's global value predicting the $US2.1 billion ($2.3 billion) industry could easily grow by 10 per cent each year over the next decade.
Some 13 million eco-tourists paid to see the animals in their natural element last year, generating 13,000 jobs for people across hundreds of coastal regions worldwide, the study found.
''We can have our whales and still benefit from them, without killing them,'' said the study's co-author, Ussif Rashid Sumaila, a researcher at the University of British Columbia.
The study coincides with a decision on Thursday by the 88-nation International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco, to adopt a ''five-year strategic plan'' to explore both the economic benefits and ecological risks of whale-watching.
The move comes as some scientists say the marine mammals are not only smarter than previously thought but also share several attributes once claimed as exclusively human.
Self-awareness, suffering and a social culture along with high mental abilities are a hallmark of cetaceans, an order grouping more than 80 whales, dolphins and porpoises.
''We now know from field studies that a lot of the large whales exhibit some of the most complex behaviour in the animal kingdom,'' said Lori Marino, a neurobiologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
A decade ago, Dr Marino conducted an experiment with bottlenose dolphins in which she placed a small mark on their body and had the mammals look at themselves in a mirror.
By the way the dolphins reacted to the image and then looked at the spot, it was clear that they had a sense of self-identity, Dr Marino determined.
For Georges Chapouthier, a neurobiologist and director of the Emotion Centre at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, self-awareness means that dolphin and whales, along with some higher primates, can experience not just pain but also suffering.
Unlike nociception - a basic nerve response to harmful stimuli found in all animals - or lower-order pain, ''suffering supposes a certain level of cognitive functioning,'' he said.
''It is difficult to define what that level is, but there's a lot of data now to suggest some higher mammals have it, including great apes, dolphins and, most likely, whales.''
As for intelligence, cetaceans are second only to humans in brain size, once body weight is taken into account.
More telling than volume, though, are cerebral areas which specialise in cognition and emotional processing - and the likelihood that this evolution was partly driven by social interaction, according to several peer-reviewed studies.
Some scientists suggest this interaction can be described as culture, a notion usually reserved for humans.
''Evidence is growing that for at least some cetacean species, culture is both sophisticated and important,'' said Hal Whitehead, a professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
If culture is learnt behaviour passed across generations that is different from one community to the next, then humpback whales, to cite one example, are rather cultured indeed.
'At any time during the winter breeding season, all the males in any ocean sing more or less the same elaborate song, but this communal song evolves over months and years,'' Professor Whitehead noted in a study in the journal Biological Conservation.
Scientists have also observed orcas, or killer whales, learning from other orcas from a geographically separate group how to steal fish from longlines used by commercial fishing boats.
Two orca communities that rarely intermingle despite sharing the same waters off the coast of Vancouver Island, meanwhile, have learnt to divide their natural bounty: and one group eats fish and the other mammals, especially seals, Professor Whitehead reported.
Such findings are disturbing factors in the calculus of conservation.
''If we wipe out a subgroup, it is more than killing a certain number of individuals. It could actually wipe out an entire culture,'' Dr Marino said.
vrijdag 25 juni 2010
donderdag 24 juni 2010
Orca doing well, wellwishers name her Morgan
The orca, or killer whale, rescued in the Wadden Sea on Wednesday evening is recovering well at the Dolfinarium in Harderwijk, news agency ANP reports.
The orca has been named Morgan. 'It is a Scottish Celtic name and we chose it because she may well come from the north of Scotland,' a spokesman said. 'We are pleased with her progress so far.'
The orca has been named Morgan. 'It is a Scottish Celtic name and we chose it because she may well come from the north of Scotland,' a spokesman said. 'We are pleased with her progress so far.'
Ailing killer whale captured off Dutch coast
A killer whale has been spotted in the Wadden Sea off the Netherlands for the first time in over 60 years, but was captured and taken to a marine park after it was found to be ailing, officials said on Thursday.
"The killer whale was very weak and thin, we took the decision, with the Environment Ministry to capture it in order to take it to the marine park (in central Harderwijk) and look after it," said Bert van Plateringen a spokesman for the park.
"We do not know where it came from nor how it arrived here," he said, adding that the black and white sea mammal was a young female about three years old. It weighed about 400 kilos (880 pounds) and was 3.5 metres (11 feet) in length.
It was moved in a specially adapted lorry and would remain at the marine park until it could be released back into the sea, he said.
Killer whales generally live in groups in waters deeper than the Wadden Sea, which stretches around 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the southwestern Netherlands up to Denmark.
A dead killer whale was washed up on a beach at western Noordwijk in 1963, but no live sightings have been recorded since 1947, according to the Dutch Environment Ministry
"The killer whale was very weak and thin, we took the decision, with the Environment Ministry to capture it in order to take it to the marine park (in central Harderwijk) and look after it," said Bert van Plateringen a spokesman for the park.
"We do not know where it came from nor how it arrived here," he said, adding that the black and white sea mammal was a young female about three years old. It weighed about 400 kilos (880 pounds) and was 3.5 metres (11 feet) in length.
It was moved in a specially adapted lorry and would remain at the marine park until it could be released back into the sea, he said.
Killer whales generally live in groups in waters deeper than the Wadden Sea, which stretches around 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the southwestern Netherlands up to Denmark.
A dead killer whale was washed up on a beach at western Noordwijk in 1963, but no live sightings have been recorded since 1947, according to the Dutch Environment Ministry
Baby orca killed by severe storm
A dead orca calf that washed ashore west of Sooke in early May appears to have been a casualty of a strong windstorm that swept the coast with 40-knot winds, results of a necropsy show.
"This birth, combined with a huge storm, was bad timing for the calf," Paul Cottrell, marine mammal co-ordinator with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said yesterday.
Analysis based on DNA reveals the male orca was not one of the endangered southern residents but a member of a transient pod.
The death rate among orca calves in resident populations is steep, as high as 40 per cent over the first year.
The survival rate for transients is believed to be similar, although the transient animals prove more difficult to track.
A necropsy carried out by veterinarian Stephen Rafferty showed the whale was between a half a day and two days old
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Baby+orca+killed+severe+storm/3196331/story.html#ixzz0rveDDPso
"This birth, combined with a huge storm, was bad timing for the calf," Paul Cottrell, marine mammal co-ordinator with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said yesterday.
Analysis based on DNA reveals the male orca was not one of the endangered southern residents but a member of a transient pod.
The death rate among orca calves in resident populations is steep, as high as 40 per cent over the first year.
The survival rate for transients is believed to be similar, although the transient animals prove more difficult to track.
A necropsy carried out by veterinarian Stephen Rafferty showed the whale was between a half a day and two days old
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Baby+orca+killed+severe+storm/3196331/story.html#ixzz0rveDDPso
vrijdag 11 juni 2010
New K-Pod Orca Calf Identified
A new orca calf has been born in K pod, one of the three groups of killer whales that frequent the Salish Sea and Puget Sound, experts say.
The young calf, designated K-43, was spotted Tuesday swimming with K-12, presumed to be the mother, according to biologists with the Center for Whale Research. It is the third calf born to the three Southern Resident pods this year.
K pod returned to the San Juan Islands this week by way of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but apparently turned back. All three groups are beginning to settle in for a summer of fishing in and around the islands. J pod and portions of L pod have already arrived, but both pods have been coming and going, apparently not finding many chinook salmon, experts say.
The new whale apparently was spotted by observer Jeanne Hyde on Feb. 21 while K pod traveled with J pod in the San Juan Islands. At that time, the calf could not be positively confirmed, but it now looks to be five months old.
K-12, the new mother, is believed to be 38 years old.
She was a young animal when Ken Balcomb, the center’s director, began to identify individual whales and maintain an annual census. She has two other offspring, K-22 and K-37.
The new birth brings the number of whales in K pod to 20. J pod has 28 whales, and L pod 42. Final counts for this year won’t be made until all the whales have returned.
The young calf, designated K-43, was spotted Tuesday swimming with K-12, presumed to be the mother, according to biologists with the Center for Whale Research. It is the third calf born to the three Southern Resident pods this year.
K pod returned to the San Juan Islands this week by way of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but apparently turned back. All three groups are beginning to settle in for a summer of fishing in and around the islands. J pod and portions of L pod have already arrived, but both pods have been coming and going, apparently not finding many chinook salmon, experts say.
The new whale apparently was spotted by observer Jeanne Hyde on Feb. 21 while K pod traveled with J pod in the San Juan Islands. At that time, the calf could not be positively confirmed, but it now looks to be five months old.
K-12, the new mother, is believed to be 38 years old.
She was a young animal when Ken Balcomb, the center’s director, began to identify individual whales and maintain an annual census. She has two other offspring, K-22 and K-37.
The new birth brings the number of whales in K pod to 20. J pod has 28 whales, and L pod 42. Final counts for this year won’t be made until all the whales have returned.
zondag 6 juni 2010
B.C. seal escapes orca attack by hitching ride on boats
VICTORIA — A lucky harbour seal escaped from a group of transient killer whales by jumping onto two boats in the Juan de Fuca Strait.
Valerie Shore was on a whale-watching tour Saturday afternoon when she saw the whales circling another boat.
“There was a harbour seal that had jumped on the outboard. Up to eight whales were circling the boat,” she said.
The Victoria Clipper ferry had also stopped to watch the whales.
When it appeared the predators had given up, the seal hopped back into the ocean.
But the orcas were soon in pursuit, tossing the seal in the air and pulling it under the water.
“It was very quick. We thought, ‘This is over, that seal is dead,’ ” Shore said. “Then we noticed the whales circling the Clipper.”
The savvy seal had lodged itself on a jet at the back of the ferry, eluding the orcas once again.
“It was not going anywhere.”
Victoria Times Colonist
Valerie Shore was on a whale-watching tour Saturday afternoon when she saw the whales circling another boat.
“There was a harbour seal that had jumped on the outboard. Up to eight whales were circling the boat,” she said.
The Victoria Clipper ferry had also stopped to watch the whales.
When it appeared the predators had given up, the seal hopped back into the ocean.
But the orcas were soon in pursuit, tossing the seal in the air and pulling it under the water.
“It was very quick. We thought, ‘This is over, that seal is dead,’ ” Shore said. “Then we noticed the whales circling the Clipper.”
The savvy seal had lodged itself on a jet at the back of the ferry, eluding the orcas once again.
“It was not going anywhere.”
Victoria Times Colonist
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