Sea Notes

Carnival of the Blue 14

It's that time again -- when the best ocean blogging from across the web comes together in the monthly Carnival of the Blue.

This month's edition is hosted by Anthony Townsend at The Blue Economy. Check it out.

A whale of a week

My week started in the best way possible: watching a mom and calf humpback whale feeding in the nutrient rich waters of Monterey Bay. It's hard to say, however, if whales elsewhere are having such a great week.

On the one hand, Chile announced a proposal to designate its coastal waters as a whale sanctuary. An important move, given that the oceans in the southern hemisphere having been seeing increased activity in the hunt for whales for "scientific purposes".

Chile is the host of this year's International Whaling Commission meeting, and many hoped their announcement would set the tone. Japan responded by proposing the legalization of whaling. Looks like a long week ahead.

In other whale news, the Centre for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit seeking to force the U.S. Coast Guard to comply with the Endangered Species Act and protect endangered whales from ship traffic off the coast of California coast. In 2007, ship collisions were responsible for the deaths of at least three Blue whales off southern California, yet the Coast Guard maintains that it need not address endangered species when setting shipping lanes and otherwise regulating ship traffic headed into U.S. ports. That looks like a long battle too.

Meanwhile, on a more positive note, whales have provided inspiration to the designer of a wind turbine! Frank Fish (yes, apparently his real name!) after years of pondering over the design benefits of the shape of a humpback whale's unique flippers, finally got it! He realized that the bumps cause water to flow over the flippers more smoothly, giving the giant mammal the ability to swim tight circles around its prey. Fish realized this design feature could be incorporated into turbines. Now he's studying the nasal cavity of the shark, which might lead to developing an artificial nose. Just goes to prove how much we have to learn from the natural world.

(Thanks to Whaleygirl for the great breaching humpback image. Another finalist in our annual Ocean Action Team photo contest).

Monday's Inspirational Photo - Sea Otter

This lovely image was the runner up in our recent World Ocean Day photo contest. Glenn Hightree took this photo of one of our exhibit otters, Joy, in February this year. Joy also acts as a surrogate mom to young otters who have become separated from their moms in the wild. The hope is that these pups will learn the lifeskills they need to survive and can be returned to the wild and later become parents themselves. With only 3,000 sea otters in California waters, each animal has an important role to play in the future success and survival of this population.

California's sea otters are in the news again this week. A new draft report by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife service indicates that "Southern sea otters are holding their own on California's coast but their fragile population still is at risk from disease, oil spills and other disasters."

The Monterey Bay Aquarium's "Sea Otter Research and Conservation" program (SORAC) works with federal and state agencies to try to better understand the threats facing this threatened population, especially infectious disease, which is taking a heavy toll.To learn more, you can listen to our podcast or check out our SORAC web pages.

Want to do more? Check out our Save the Oceans section and learn how you can donate, join our Ocean Action Team or learn about how your seafood choices can make a difference.

Monday's Photo: Doing the Right Thing

North Atlantic right whales are one of the rarest and most endangered species of whale on our planet.  A live birth had never been witnessed until 2005, when a researcher from the New England Aquarium, (doing routine offshore observations) noticed unusual activity. On closer inspection, it turned out she was witnessing what no other person had observed before.

You're probably thinking we are slow to report this! But this event made the news again in the last few days, as the long-awaited publication of the photographs of this rarest of events finally happened. You can see them here on the New England Aquarium's website.

Find out how scientists are hoping to protect the remaining 350 whales of this species, with a network of "listening" devices. The network detects the endangered mammals as they navigate the eastern seaboard, and alert ships' captains to their presence, so they can try to avoid a collision, one of the leading causes of death for these rare whales. Unfortunately, a federal protection plan to mandate slowing of ship traffic, is on hold. Let's hope lawmakers will do the "right thing" before it's too late.

New Hope for Chile's Whales

Two great pieces of news for whale lovers -- and anyone who wants the kind of oceans that can support a growing population of whales.

First, new sightings of humpback whales off the Chilean coast are the latest and best sign of a comeback for a population that was hunted virtually to extinction. The Los Angeles Times has not only a report, but fantastic video of a humpback feeding (surrounded at one point by what looks like leaping sea lions).

Second, Chile is poised to declare its entire coastline a whale sanctuary -- perhaps by June, when it hosts the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Establishing the sanctuary would make permanent a ban on whaling that now extends through 2025.

Bárbara Galletti, president of the Cetacean Conservation Center in Santiago -- which is working with Chilean officials to establish the sanctuary, told the Santiago Times, "This is about creating a country where there is respect, deep respect. Respect for our heritage, for our waters, and for life itself. And that’s what should be unilaterally declared, that our country offers a sanctuary to the whales.”

Costa Rica and Mexico have also created sanctuaries and conservation groups are working to establish a protected zone covering all of Latin America’s Pacific coastal waters. All these efforts are being pressed in conjunction with the IWC meeting in Santiago.

The Chilean organization Ecooceanos estimates that nearly half of the world’s whale species, including endangered blue whales, pass through Chilean waters on a regular basis.

Monday's Photo: Narwhals

They're called the unicorns of the sea. Narwhals are Arctic dwellers, related to belugas and unique because the left tooth of male narwhals grows into a twisted tusk.

Now, researchers tell us, they may become the poster child for endangered Arctic wildlife.

The March 2008 issue of the journal Ecological Applications is devoted entirely to the topic of "Arctic Marine Mammals and Climate Change." Narwhals are considered the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on northern ecosystems.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Stanford University biologist Terry Root (who wasn't part of the study) said the analysis published in the journal reinforces her concern that the narwhal "is going to be one of the first to go extinct" from climate change despite a relatively healthy population today.

"There could a bazillion of them, but if the habitat or the things that they need are not going to be around, they're not going to make it," Root told AP science writer Seth Borenstein.

While polar bears can adapt somewhat to the changing Arctic climate, narwhals can't, Root said.

The journal, published by the Ecological Society of America, evaluated the status of 11 Arctic marine mammals. In addition to narwhals, other species at greatest risk include polar bears, hooded seals, bowhead whales and walruses.

There's a lot we can do -- individually and as a society -- to tackle the growing volume of carbon dioxide we're putting into the atmosphere. It's the challenge of our lifetime, and well worth the effort -- for the narwhals and ourselves.

Strange Days on Planet Earth

This Earth Day, people around the world are getting active, seeking solutions to a host of environmental challenges that  more of us acknowledge must be addressed now, while we have time to make a difference.

Part of the path to solutions lies in understanding the nature of the problems. A great set of television programs exploring just that airs on Wednesday night.

"Strange Days on Planet Earth," narrated by actor Edward Norton, presents a second season with two hours of programs that look at threats facing the oceans -- including overfishing, unsustainable fish farming and the interconnections between what we do on land and the health of the seas.

It's a project of our friends at Sea Studios Foundation, just down the block on Monterey's Cannery Row. Created in collaboration with National Geographic Television, "Strange Days" will air on a PBS  station near you (our on your DVD player, if you buy a disc to share with family & friends).

"Dirty Secrets" and "Dangerous Catch" address threats to our water supply and the oceans, and the producers challenge us to "find out how we all can make a difference."

Their website offers tools so you can make a difference  --from buying seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council to using one of our Seafood Watch pocket guides when you shop for fish.

Check it out & tell your friends. The planet we save is, after all, our own.

Walrus Wanderings

In the tale of The Walrus and the Carpenter in Lewis Carroll' sequel to "Alice in Wonderland", the walrus is to be found strolling across a sandy beach. Of course, in our world, walrus favor the cold ice floes of the Arctic. This great new animation from the United States Geological Service (USGS) let's you watch the movements of these tusked wonders around the frigid waters of the Bering Sea. Despite their size, it is not easy to monitor the movements of these creatures, as they spend 80% of their time underwater, foraging for surprisingly small prey items such as snails and clams. These walrus are carrying satellite transmitters which report on their location each hour and will help scientists understand more about where the food seems to be concentrated.

Much is told of the plight of the polar bear due to global climate change, but these changes likewise impact the habitat and ecosystem of many marine mammals who live or dine in the polar regions. Scientists are working hard to understand the changes in the Bering Sea, where they're already seeing the disappearance of some crab species as well as other anomalies. These and other factors have led to the Center for Biological Diversity filing a petition with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Pacific walrus under the federal Endangered Species Act, due to threats from global warming and growing oil and gas development throughout its range.

Carnival of the Blue 11

It's time again to check out the best of what's being blogged about the ocean and its inhabitants. Check out Carnival of the Blue 11, brought to you this month by the fine folks at Zooillogix. There's even a brief item about the travels of our young white shark.

Fresh Fishery News

Plenty of news lately on the seafood and fisheries front -- and much of it is good news.

First, the really bad news: The all-but-certain decision next month by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council to close the West Coast salmon season because of the virtual collapse of the Chinook salmon populaton south of Alaska. The stunning collapse is bad news in itself for fish lovers as well as fishing communities -- and because of what it says about the state of the oceans, rivers and estuaries on which healthy salmon populations depend.

On the plus side, the Maine lobster industry is seeking certification as a sustainable fishery so it can tap into a growing movement by big seafood buyers to purchase only sustainable seafood. It's currently ranked by the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program as a "Good Alternative" because of uncertainties about the status of the lobster population.

In potentially positive news, the National Marine Fisheries Service has released a recovery plan for endangered Stellar sea lions in Alaska -- a plan that includes continued restrictions on commercial fishing in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. Later this year, NMFS will get a biological opinion on whether fisheries, as currently restricted, jeopardize sea lions or their habitat.

All these are just more reminders of what marine biologist Ed Ricketts and Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck observed in their 1941 book, Log from the Sea of Cortez:

"And it is a strange thing that most of the feeling we call religious, most of the mystical outcrying which is one of the most prized and used and desired reactions of our species, is really the understanding and the attempt to say that man is related to the whole thing, related inextricably to all reality, known and unknowable . . .It is advisable to look from the tidepool to the stars and then back to the tidepool again."