A Christmas Visitor RETURNS

It's just a small garden in a small town on the Isle of Wight and, on a Christmas night illuminated by a brilliant full moon, long after all the party- and midnight-mass-goers have gone to sleep, there comes a dainty visitor.  

And he came again in the early hours of boxing day.

(This is the same garden from a different angle). 

He seems in good condition - lovely busy tail.

Favorite Photo of 2015

These birds are part of 'my' little starling flock sitting in an old hawthorn on the hedgerow at the end of my small garden. The one second in from the right still shows some juvenile plumage in his brown head.

The hawthorn is in berry; the sky is blue -it late summer and just below the honeysuckle is still in bloom. Later in the year, the same hawthorn broke in half when strong winds pushed on heavy ivy and honeysuckle and caused the trunk to snap. I think this is my favourite photo of 2015. Its colourful and bit busy and I can almost hear the starlings babbling.

But I also very much like my badgers of course.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS 

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

SMM2015 Big Awards Friday (REV)

Phil Clapham with typical wit, good humour and precision tells us about the status of whales in the Pacific. On the screen is his collaborator (and wife),Yulia, is working through all those falsified whaling records (note the wonderfully well-ordered desk).


Then, after five more consecutive sessions jam-packed with information, on to the business meeting of the Society - expertly presided over by (from the right) Nick Gales - departing president, Jay Barlow, incoming president and the Society's Treasurer, Jim Harvey.

Jay announces that his main focus as the new president will be to establish an SMM conservation fund. He will be seeking sponsors and hopes to make a real difference.

The business meeting includes the announcement of the location of the next SMM meeting in two years and these two young folk in national dress (well woolly hats) will be hosting it in Halifax, Canada. (Full marks for enthusiasm and lots of pretty pictures of Halifax).

There are then various report-backs from the Society's committee's. Here Giuseppe Notabartolo di sciara  SMM senior member-at-large reports in.

Barbara Taylor gives the report of the Conservation Committee below and proposes to make the new conservation award permanent and that a major focus of new conservation focus panels should be bycatch.

James Mead

The onto the Society's Lifetime Award, which is presented to James Mead, Curator Emeritas at the Smithsonian and beaked whale expert. He take us through the history of his institution and its leaders. modestly including his own role in this in the third person.

The Smithsonian was founded  by a bequest from the Smithson family which in modern terms would be worth some $97 million. He is treated to a standing ovation on his conclusion  and pauses to shyly view the packed hall before leaving the stage.

One of the images of the early cetacean biologists
based at the Smithsonian shared by Mead - this is
Frederick True

James Mead with a younger James Mead - note that waistcoat wear - or for Americans 'vest-wear'  - has prevailed. 

A lengthy award ceremony followed and President Gales passed the microphone to Lindsay Porter (below) to deal with all the names whilst he handed out the prizes and gave handshakes and hugs.

Lindsay Porter in action

All in all, SMM2015 in the Union Square part of San Francisco has been an amazing affair. Very rich in information and a good way to discretely consider the main preoccupations of the scientific community (beyond where does my nest research grant come from). Major themes to my mind at this meeting were climate change and conservation,

In my opening blog I asked a few questions and there are the answers - firstly could we do something for the endangered vaquita? Yes we could, the opening session award to a consortium of Mexican heroes reached even the President of Mexico who is known to have retweated it.

Did I find the key colleagues (and friends) that I was hoping to meet and did the hard-working workshop organiser, Frank Cipriano, get lured onto stage - yes and yes (although only as the chair for the genetics session).

Oh and I did indeed find Naomi Rose.

Naomi Rose and Mark Peter Simmonds (Naomi is on the left)

And will we all get home for Christmas? Well let's see.

SMM2015 Paradigm-Shift Thursday

Again just sampling some highlights here:

Here is David Mattila of the Secretariat of the International Whaling Commission talking about the IWC's big whale disentanglement initiative:

Today’s plenary featured a stunning and inspiring presentation by Claudio Campagna which looked at how language frames the debate around the biodiversity conservation and how, in particular, this important area of concern has been subverted by the concept of ‘sustainable development’. A few of the speaker’s key slides are copied 

. 

Claudio considered how the main internatuional treaties had moved over time
from a focus on environment to development

Another great point:

Here's Claudio.

Here's the final contribution.

Professor Orbach and his fine mustache

Among other things the good Professor contrasted the US law as it applies to terrestrial animals - you can shoot a bear in any US state - with that applying to marine mammals which are highly protected. He put the roots of this higher level of protection (enshrined in the US Marine Mammal Protection Act) in the media of the 1980's which included the 'flipper' series. He also made a few pithy comments on the International Whaling Commisson and the moratorium that it oversees.

SMM 2015 - Rare sightings Wednesday

Another day when there were hundreds of presentations and posters to be viewed…. Overwhelming really!

I am not entirely ancient but I can remember a time when the impacts of noise, chemical pollution and climate change were not legitimate issues for study (so, for reference, I am looking back only some 20 years and I anticipate that younger readers will find this difficult to accept as true), here there are dozens of high quality presentations touching on these issues, and much more besides.

I will sample just a few highlights here:

Firstly, Lindsay Porter speaking about ‘The Indo-Pacific [pink] humpback dolphin and the Hong Kong Zuhai-Macao Bridge: building bridges between science and management’.  

Lindsay Porter 

The situation of this small population is truly remarkable their habitat is full of human activities, ships, construction discharges and such and it is remarkable that the population continues to survive. The bridge is the latest major construction project.

An Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin in mid-flight (photo Lindsay Porter)

A rare lunch-time sighting of Naomi Rose here with a fan (Naomi is on the left).

 In the afternoon plenary - a very rare sighjting of Professor Frank Cipriano - the shy geneticist and conference workshop coordinator, rocking an organge bow-tie. Frank introduced two outstanding speakers.

Beth Shapiro’s excellent (and very funny) talk on ancient DNA focused on the lineages of walruses and grey whales and considered how the very distant past informed what is happening on our rapidly changing planet. The walrus which comes in 2-3 sub-species is rather unique lacking close relatives and ice-loss bodes ill for it. The grey whale, by contrast has previously moved from the Pacific into the Atlantic at times of low ice (where is, of course, where we are going)…. So further to a couple of grey whales that have been reported in recent years in the Atlantic region (indeed off the coast of Israel in one remarkable case), we might expect to see more of the same.

Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse spoke on Novel tools and technologies in health assessment – explaining again the relevant of this to rapidly changing ecosystems. Droids. Of course, featured and sampling the blow (breath) of whales.

Key signage at the meeting

That bow-tie in detail. 

SMM 2015 - How-the-whales-are-saving-the-planet-Tuesday

A giant skinny Nick Gales menaces his smaller brother.

 A stunning plenary session today. Introduced by President Nick Gales, three excellent speakers covered the positive role of whales in maintaining ocean ecosystems; how climate change is mediated via the jet stream and its implications; and climate change and the Arctic.

A giant smiley dolphin menaces Trish Lavery 

Trish Lavery, of the Department of the Environment, Australia, spoke with wonderful lucidity and enthusiasm on the topic of ‘Whales sustain fisheries: Blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean’.

She started by noting that whales are not uniformly distributed across the oceans but associated with high productivity zones and that fertilisation of the oceans causes carbon to be drawn down from the atmosphere. Such fertilisation can be achieved by the defecation of whales – and she gave a clear example using sperms whales which feed at depth but defecate in the upper layers (in the photic/light zone) where the plant plankton (which underpin the productivity of the whole ecosystem grow). This movement of nutrients from the deeps means that sperm whales (at current population levels) contribute to the addition of some 200,000 tonnes of carbon more than they are using.  Whaling has hugely reduced the contribution that sperm whales now make.

Lavery also looked at blue whales – so like all baleen species – they feed and defecate in the upper levels. Hence no net gain might be expected and she commented on the advocacy from some to cull whales in favour of fisheries interests; a ‘bottom-up’ view. She noted that there has been a significant reduction in krill and that whilst this was typically linked to climate change, the removal of whales by whaling might have have played a part, noting that whaling selectively removed the older and bigger whales. Lavery was able to show a possible moderate stimulation of krill caused by the whales and she commented that whales being in balance with their ecosystem might explain why they have survived 30 million years ‘without eating all the fish’! She concluded by pondering about what other ‘ecosystem services’ the whale might be providing.    

Trish 

At the end of her talk and further to loud and prolonged applause, the president of the SMM, Nick Gales, commented that it was 'wonderful' that a paradigm shift in thinking was resulting from a student project.

You can link to Trish Levry's publications which will give a more fulsome and authoritative account of her work via Researchgate HERE  Incidentally in my blogs from meetings, I paraphrase what was said and strive for accuracy but welcome corrections.

It's all about the jet stream

Jenifer Francis of Rutgers University spoke on ‘Crazy Weather and the Arctic Meltdown’. She reminded us that CO2 in the atmosphere was at its highest level for 800,000 years; that the resulting warming was not evenly spread over the planet (with a particular focus in the Arctic).

She emphasised that weather was being driven by the Jet Stream - its strength and its location. A weak Jet Stream is being caused by sea-ices loss in the Arctic which allows major heat loss to the atmosphere in the winter. 

And a weak Jet Stream tends to stay in one place – hence, relative to what went before, weather systems tend to ‘get stuck’: this caused repeated storms (including in the Arctic and over the UK for example) and droughts in some places and enhanced precipitation elsewhere. The implications of this for marine mammals include those relating to sea-ice loss and changes in productivity - a theme picked up by the last speaker, Sue E Moore who spoke on ‘Marine Mammals as Sentinels to Impacts of Climate Change on Arctic Ecosystems’. She emphasised the likely movement of baleen whales north – so they may be net benefiters – and also the less positive implications for those species that are dependent on ice for resting and breeding (including walruses and polar bears).

   

SMM 2015 Communications Monday

Delegates at the Conference of the Society for Marine Mammalogy were menaced today by a giant fur seal pup.

Or .... Nancy Baron of  COMPASS moderates a session on
Communicating Science

 The 'How to make your Science Matter panel:

An impressive line-up of experts - from the right:
Jane Lubchenco, USA Marine Envoy for the Oceans (now there is a title!);
Nick Gales (President of the SMM - without his scarf);
Marcia McNutt, Science, Editor in Chief;
Charles Littnan, Haiwaiin Monk seal scientist;
David Malakoff, deputy editor, Science
Ken Wiess, Journalist

Some 2000 people attended the session and were asked if they -

1. believed communicating science was part of their job;
2. It was important to them that their marine mammal work had impact; and
3. Did they want to change the world.

(Everyone did - let's hope that we all want to change it for the better.)

Much good advice was dispensed and a question and answer session followed.

And here is Englishman-at-large, Andrew Wright poised to ask what would undoubtedly have been an excellent question... but time ran out
.

Elsewhere - there was accute competition for lunch at surrounding restaurants and cafes when delegates piled out in the lunchbreak an we learnt that exposure to oil is really bad for cetaceans in many many ways in an extensive report-back on many excellent investigations into the effects of the Deepwater Horizon Spill in the Gulf of Mexico - and also that this is not necessarily the official view of the relevant USA agencies (yet). These investigations should finally put the nails in the coffin of the old and much promulgated idea that cetaceans avoid oil spills and so are not affected by them!

SMM 15 San Francisco - Opening Ceremony

 Nick Gales (below) Society of Marine Mammalogy (SMM) President, resplendent in a particularly fetching scarf, gives the opening speech (these scarfs seem to be all the fashion here).

The president tells us that the 2,300 or so people gathered at the conference come from 80 countries and notes that the SMM was founded 34 years ago in San Francisco.... so it has come home.

Peter Tyack (above ) of the Sea Mammal Reseach Unit in St Andrews, Scotland,  gives an overview on where marine mammal science has come from - making a significant reference to whaling (and how it is now apparent that whaling data were significantly falsified). His conclusions focus on the future of marine mammal science and are summarised on this concluding slide below.

Next, the SMM has instigated a new conservation award and this is awarded jointly to group of people from Mexico, including scientists, administrators and fishermen, have been working to save the critically endangered vaquita (Gulf of California porpoise).

Mexicans to the left - to the right in red Dr Barb Taylor (in red) and Nick Gales looking at something off stage. 

Among those honoured is the redoubtable Lorenzo Roja-Bracho (below)  - the world authority on the species.

Lorenzo with award

Thanks extend to the Mexican President and the Sectary of the Environment.

The representative of the Mexican government thanks everyone and among other things notes that whilst Mexico has only 1% of the world's land area it has 10% of its biodiversity.

Issues at the Society of Marine Mammalogy Biennial Conference (SMM15)

Holding up the Golden Gate Bridge

We love Drones!

So, this is the most enormous conference and a gathering of the marine mammal science superstars (and some other people). Over 2,300 have registered to attend and more are expected to sign up on the door.

We have already had two days of associated workshops. The three most popular were reported to be Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones), the Sirenian Syposium and Baleen Whale Migration. 

The important workshop on sea pens (retirement homes) for orcas was also very well attended and evidently very lively!

(I attended an IWC workshop on investigations into mass strandings and, yesterday, World Animal Protection's excellent 'Loose the Loop' workshop, which was focused on seal entanglement).

As we enter the main conference week, I am daunted as much of it will run in no less than five consecutive sessions. There will also be plenary sessions.

Some of the focuses here (from a review of the agenda) include trying to help the world;s most critically endangered cetacean, the vaquita. More about this HERE; there are also a number of sessions and presentations on Climate Change; and marine noise (more about this issue HERE) might be another major topic. Interestingly and by contrast there is very little about marine debris.

Other things to look out for here might include trying to spot Naomi Rose (the Erin Brockovich of the cetacean captivity issue) among all her fans (the Rosettes); whether Chris (ECM) Parsons will finally break the Guinness Book of Records record for the most tweets ever sent from a conference;how many scientists will sneak off to the Golden Gate bridge to view the harbour porpoise aerial sex show that is reported there (I have to say that I am quite surprised at the porpoises which I have always regraded as particularly undemonstrative animals, but then this is San Francisco) ; will shy conference workshop organising super-hero Frank Cipriano be forced onto a stage to accept the conference's thanks; and will we all get home for Christmas?

I'll do a little light reporting on this mega-event here.

The ear-breaking Icebreaker at the SMM - noise levels reached 95db

A banded plover in the mud near the Golden Gate Bridge