ErichHoyt.com Blog

Let’s protect Mediterranean sperm whales

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:32:23 +0000

Buried in all the extreme weather reports across Europe in late December and early January was the news from Italy of a mass stranding of sperm whales along the southeast coast of the country. They were attended by scientists from Centro Studi Cetacei, the Natural History Museum of Milan, the Italian universities of Bari, Padua, Pavia and Siena; the Tethys Research Institute paid a visit too, photographing and blogging on the story. While this was a huge occasion of sadness for Italian researchers and the public who watched the seven young males slowly die on the beaches, it was perhaps even more significant an event for a Greek research team.

For the past 12 years Alexandros Frantzis and his colleagues at the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute have been patiently studying sperm whales in the Ionian Sea of western Greece, some 400 nautical miles away (741 km) from the stranding site. They have photographically identified nearly 200 individual sperm whales and watched the whales come back year after year to their main study site in the Hellenic Trench, proposed as a marine protected area. The Greek government has been very slow to take measures to protect this population. But still Alex and his team have persisted.

Looking at photos of the dead whales that appeared on the internet, Alex was able to identify a male sperm whale from the Italian strandings that they had seen eight times over the previous decade.

Alex and other researchers are trying to piece together what may have happened. The whales stranded alive, at least most of them, apparently refusing to abandon one of the males that was either ill or somehow got stranded. No one yet knows the cause of the stranding but researchers are asking if it could be seismic surveys, plastic ingestion, seaquakes, among other hypotheses.

To know at least one and potentially more of these dead whales was sad for Alex but, as he says, “it also provides more evidence that the sperm whales of the entire eastern Mediterranean Sea are very few. The fact that a mass stranding due to whatever natural or anthropogenic cause can remove an important part of the population shows that this population is extremely fragile. Urgent conservation measures have to be taken with no further delay by the Greek government, as well as at the regional level across the Mediterranean.”

The Southwest Crete/Hellenic Trench MPA proposal was recommended in 2006 by the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS, the main whale and dolphin conservation agreement for the Mediterranean, and subsequently approved in principle by the parties (countries) to the agreement. Now it is time for the Greek government to act with full protective measures. It could be a fitting memorial for the 7 dead sperm whales.

© 2010 Erich Hoyt. All rights reserved.

Defending 50-year-old toothfish in the Ross Sea

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:35:23 +0000

Today we turn to the matter of toothfish in Antarctica. At up to 2.5 m long they can be the size of a porpoise or dolphin. Left alone, they live for up to 50 years; they don’t breed until they’re about 16 and not every year thereafter. But aside from some remarkably similar reproductive parameters how is this relevant to whales and dolphins?

The reason is that they are being caught at what may be an unsustainable pace in a place where they shouldn’t be caught at all: Antarctica’s Ross Sea, one of the most treasured, least affected ecosystems on Earth. It is an area full of Antarctic minke whales, southern bottlenose and Arnoux’s beaked whales and three ecotypes of killer whales, or orcas, which may someday be considered three species. (The fish-eating orca ecotype sometimes dines on toothfish.) The 250,000-square-mile (647,000 sq km) Ross Sea has been proposed as a highly protected marine reserve. Preserving it for its biological wonders and as a laboratory for studying climate change is a “no brainer” as the Americans like to say — something that anyone in their right minds would say: “that’s a great idea; let’s do it!”

Enter the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the UK-based Moody Marine which this week proposed to certify Ross Sea toothfish for the kitchens, tables and restaurants of higher-end society. At $28/lb in US markets where it masquerades as “Chilean sea bass” or simply “sea bass”, it is not likely to turn up as fish ‘n’ chips. Giving this “green label” to the exploitation of Ross Sea toothfish is “completely inappropriate,” says Sidney Holt, a long-time expert on fish population dynamics as well as on the Antarctic and whales.

It is not just the whale and overfishing lobbies who are upset about this. A large number of scientists and conservation organizations have joined together as part of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) to protest this misguided seal of approval being given to “an exploratory fishery with no reliable stock assessment” in the words of Ross Sea scientist David Ainley.

You can read more about it here. ASOC hopes that MSC will listen to reason and refuse to certify Ross Sea toothfish.

Meanwhile the Ross Sea remains unprotected despite discussions in a number of key Antarctic meetings this year. The Antarctic body called CCAMLR is charged with creating a network of MPAs in the Antarctic with a target of 2012 for completion but has not yet given its full attention to the Ross Sea. As one of the most precious places on Earth many people will continue to defend it against further exploitation.

In recent days the Japanese have launched yet another “scientific whaling” foray to Antarctica. The intention is to catch their self-allotted minke whale total in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary and they may well, as in years past, take some of them from the heart of the Ross Sea, too.

But today the issue is toothfish and the fact that this fishery also catches the complete range of benthic species which make up vulnerable marine ecosystems including stony corals, black corals, gorgonians, sponges and bryozoans. These organisms, thousands of years old, ironically provide habitat for toothfish, but all is laid to waste. It is a bit like cutting down the forest to supply deer for the king’s table.

It is clearly time that the Ross Sea gets the full protection it deserves.

© 2010 Erich Hoyt. All rights reserved.

Australia’s big decision on marine protection

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:25:29 +0000

All marine conservation eyes are watching Australia where Environment Minister Peter Garrett has some very important papers in his in-box. He is being asked by a large number of Australian conservation groups, the Save Our Marine Life (SOML) consortium, supported by international cetacean scientists, to set aside substantial portions of southwest, northwest and northern Australia in highly protected marine areas.

This is part of the same region that has just experienced the devastating TImor oil spill, so Minister Garrett’s decision will be very timely.

Nearly three decades ago Australia launched the modern movement to protect marine areas with its designation of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Over the past few years, however, marine protection efforts in Australia have slowed down while designations in the Pacific and portions of the Antarctic have accelerated. The Great Barrier Reef is no longer the largest MPA in the world, nor is it the most highly protected; several areas in other countries have now surpassed it.

Many Australians are eager that their government revives its leadership in marine conservation affairs. With its dominant location in the great southern ocean, Australia has the capacity to make huge strides now for marine conservation in the lead-up to 2012 when countries are going to be evaluated on what they have done in terms of creating effective marine protected areas and restoring marine biodiversity.

The decision is going to be made on Southwest Australian MPAs and reserves before Christmas 2009, with the northwest and northern areas to follow in early 2010. WDCS is asking people to send an urgent email to Minister Garrett to recommend he vote for the highest possible protection levels for whales, dolphins and marine life. Go to http://www.wdcs.org/protect/cms/story_details.php?select=495.

At last a bit of a breakthrough in Antarctica

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:23:00 +0000

The first high seas marine protected area in the Antarctic region has been declared in an area south of the South Orkney Islands. The proposal was successfully pitched by the UK delegation to the meetings last week of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Tasmania. The South Orkneys MPA is situated in the northern Weddell Sea, east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula — a prime area for feeding humpback whales and lots more.

The area is just under 94,000 sq kms, about four times the size of Wales. We were hoping for much more from CCAMLR — the Ross Sea on the other side of the Antarctic continent is a special area that ought to be protected as one of the treasures of the world. Hopefully, the South Orkney MPA will be the start of a network across the Antarctic marine region that leads to the Ross Sea and other protected designations. And then of course we will need some real enforcement. But this is a great step one for the Antarctic. Thanks to the British Antarctic Survey for their work in this area.

For more information on the special qualities of the Ross Sea, please download our recent poster. Scroll down to “Proposed Ross Sea Marine Protected Area” under POSTERS here.

Studying whale habitat in Russia

Mon, 6 Jul 2009 11:44:53 +0100

Just over ten years ago, Alexander Burdin and his wife Tanya, Hal Sato and I met up in Hokkaido, travelled around and went whale watching together and planned a long-term whale research and conservation project on the back of a few napkins.

This summer, the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP) celebrates 10 years of bringing Russian students into the field to study killer whales, or orcas, in their natural habitat off easern Russia. Focusing on the behavioural ecology and acoustics of killer whales, this project was conceived and has been supported by WDCS, with sponsors from the US, UK, Japan and Germany.

In part to mark this celebration and the arrival of Kosatka, the Team Russia boat in the Volvo Ocean Race sailing into St. Petersburg, WDCS has announced that its flagship Far East Russia Orca Project will extend its work to the study of whale and dolphin habitat in the waters of eastern Kamchatka and the Komandor Islands, off Far East Russia.

FEROP’s habitat-based work will extend to humpback whales, sperm whales, Baird’s beaked whales, minke whales and others, as part of WDCS’s “homes for whales” campaign. The project will start in the Russian Far East to study the habitat for whales living around Kamchatka and the Komandor Islands. Currently, Russia has one main, large MPA in the Komandor Islands which is being considered for extension. Russia also has a fine tradition of land-based protected areas, the zapovedniks. But there are many important marine habitats which have no protection. Our goal is to identify these areas needing protection and to help build a network of effectively protected marine areas around Russia.

In recent months, the FEROP team has published three important scientific papers on the fascinating societies of killer whales that live in Russian waters. The team has also worked with WDCS, WWF and other groups to produce the first guidebook, in Russian, to cover all the marine mammals across the vast Russian coastline touching three oceans. The papers are available for download here.

The Russian Whale Habitat Project has first year funding only and is seeking support for at least 3 more seasons of work that will be necessary to characterize and map whale habitat in the Kamchatka-Komandor Islands area.