US Navy Sonar Testing

FACING LAWSUIT, NAVY DECLARES ITSELF ABOVE THE LAW IN HIGH-INTENSITY SONAR FIGHT

Underwater Sonic Assault Threatens Marine Mammals Near New Ocean Sanctuary; Pentagon Rejects Simple Steps to Fix Longstanding Problem Before Giant War Game

LOS ANGELES (June 30, 2006) - With the U.S. Navy facing a lawsuit to stop its illegal use of high-intensity sonar in a massive practice exercise that began this week, the Pentagon today took the unprecedented step of declaring the military exempt from the basic law protecting whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals. The drill is taking place in a 210,000 square nautical mile area near the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, created just two weeks ago by President Bush.

The suit was filed on Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other conservation groups after the Navy ignored requests for a safe resolution of the problem and forged ahead with its sonar plans for the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) maneuvers. High intensity, mid-frequency sonar is a technology that has been directly associated with mass strandings of marine mammals around the world.

"This is an historic and unprecedented retreat by the U.S. Navy from our national commitment to protect whales, dolphins and other marine life," said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney at NRDC and director of its Marine Mammal Protection Project. "It's not that the Navy can't comply with the law; it's that the Navy chooses not to."

In a two paragraph memorandum, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England excused the Navy for a period of six months from any and all provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) in its use of high-intensity, mid-frequency sonar. The memo from Deputy Secretary England states that in that period, the Navy will work with "the Department of Commerce to address the regulatory authorization process and expedite the analysis and regulatory steps necessary to come into full compliance with the requirements of the Marine Mammal Protection Act." (Click here for PDF file of memo.)

In other words, the Pentagon today acknowledged that its use of mid-frequency sonar does not comply with the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Numerous mass strandings and mortality incidents have been associated with sonar use, including events in Hawaii, Washington State, North Carolina and the Bahamas. Whales exposed to high-intensity sonar have been found bleeding from the eyes and ears, with lesions in their organ tissue. Biologists worry that whales found dying on beaches are only the tip of an iceberg, and that many more are dying at sea.

"Whales and other marine mammals shouldn't have to die for practice," said Reynolds. "The Navy has more than enough room in the oceans to train effectively without injuring or killing endangered whales and other marine species. When the Navy decides to stage a war game in the middle of some of the richest underwater habitat on earth, it is legally obligated to take simple, common sense steps to protect that ecosystem."

Among preventive measures that the Navy has refused to accept: a larger safety zone at all times around the sonar source, as the Navy uses for other sonar systems; adding an extra spotter on board ships during all sonar training; reducing the sonar power level at night or at other times when spotters' visibility is compromised; and avoiding areas in or near significant marine mammal habitat like whale breeding and feeding areas and migratory routes.

During the last RIMPAC exercise in 2004, a group of over 150 melon-headed whales stranded in Hanalei Bay on the island of Kauai following a Navy sonar exercise. After that incident, NRDC and other organizations approached the Navy about the need for planning, review, and mitigation measures to prevent a recurrence. The filing of litigation this week followed the Navy's refusal to include adequate protective measures or to obtain legally required permits and review.

Despite the Marine Mammal Protection Act exemption invoked today by Deputy Secretary England, the groups say the Navy is also operating in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, and they plan to vigorously pursue the pending lawsuit regardless of today's action.

"The rule in this country has always been that no one is above the law, including the military," said Richard Kendall, a litigation partner at the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella and co-counsel for plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "We intend to continue our efforts to force the Navy to mitigate its sonar use in RIMPAC by prosecuting the Navy's other violations of law."

The lawsuit was brought by NRDC in conjunction with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Cetacean Society International, the Ocean Futures Society, and Jean-Michel Cousteau. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in Los Angeles.

http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/060630a.asp

The sonar testing has been put on hold until the next court hearing on July 18 (King5.com).

Navy gets permit to use sonar that may affect whales, dolphins
Judge temporarily bars Navy use of sonar that may harm whales

Superpod!

All three pods were in spread out today along the west side of the San Juan Island. We met up with the whales off Hanna Heights as they foraged and traveled north. The new K pod baby, K39, was sighted and the whales were quite active with lots of repeated breaches and vocalizations.

K & L pods

Aerial scan


Synchronized spyhop


Flash / L73


Hugo / L71


Mt. Baker


An amazing day on the water with K and L pods. The whales were quite active with lots of percussive behaviour, aerial scans, and a synchronized spyhop by two individuals! Flash / L73 and was identified as well as Hugo / L71.

Offshore Killer Whale

A third group of killer whales, called offshores, have been discovered as a distinct population off the coast of North America. They are found in large groups of 30 to 60 individuals. They have been seen as far south as southern California and as far north as southeast Alaska. They are smaller than resident and transient killer whales. Their dorsal fin shape and mottled saddle patches resemble resident killer whales suggesting a closer common ancestor than with transients. Offshores have been recorded emitting discrete call types and their teeth are ground down from suspected shark prey.

On August 29, 1997 a dead killer whale was reported drifting 17 miles
offshore. It took the Strawberry Isle Marine Research Society’s small research boat eleven hours to tow the carcass to Strawberry Isle, with many re-fueling visits from whale-watching boats. The 5.5m (18ft) female orca’s saddle patch and dorsal fin identified her as O120, a member of the elusive offshore group of killer whales. No clear cause of death was found, though her heavily worn teeth and thin blubber suggest that she may have been old and far removed from her home in more southern waters.

After year of bleaching the bones in the sun, Society member Dominique Dupuis (Pipot) and a crew of volunteers put in close to 700 hours scrubbing and treating the bones with a non-toxic penetrating epoxy. Pipot and Robinson Cook created the ingenious orca-sized framework that supports the skeleton. The Build-A-Whale exhibit has inspired people in classrooms and at community events all over Vancouver Island, and will continue touring after it leaves the BC Experience.

Orcasphere Blog

Orcasphere Blog
Science, policy, and education for orcas and their ecosystem

SRKW Symposium

Southern Resident Killer Whale Symposium 2006
NOAA NW Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, WA. Apr 3- 5

There have been approximately 650 oil spills in the Puget Sound area since 1985. In 2006, NOAA developed a response team, tug, and increased safety standards for single-hulled ships. The maximum number of Southern resident killer whales occurred in 1996 at 97 individuals. The United States has two protection acts. The goal of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) is to restore stocks to optimum sustainable levels. The goal of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is to develop protective, regulations, define critical habitat, and develop a Recovery Plan. Critical habitat is defined as the biological and physical elements essential for conservation. In 2001, a petition was submitted to the ESA committee to list the southern residents as ‘endangered’. In 2002, the committee voted not to list the population as endangered on the fact that they are not recognized as a separate species. In 2003, this population was listed as ‘depleted’ under the MMPA. In 2004, the southern residents were listed as ‘threatened’ as a ‘distinct population segment’ (DPS). The population was determined as significantly different because of is distinct acoustic and behavioral cultural traits, genetics, and morphology. Culture is defined as learned knowledge or behavior passed though generations that are important for survival. For example, the southern residents engage in greeting ceremonies whereas the northern residents beach rub. In 2005, a MMPA Conservation Plan was developed. On February 16 2006, the southern residents were officially listed as ‘endangered’ under the ESA. Research is needed on sound, prey, and toxic pollution. Canada implemented the Species at Risk Act (SARA) in 2003 to designate habitat and develop Action, and Recovery, Plans for species at risk (SAR). Species at risk are defined as those with ‘threatened’ or ‘endangered’ listings. There are four ecotypes of killer whales in British Columbia, southern and northern resident (fish-eating), offshores, and transients (meat-eaters). The southern residents are listed as ‘endangered’, the northern residents as ‘threatened’, the offshores as of ‘special concern’, and the transients as ‘threatened’. Within a year of listing, Action and Recovery Plan are developed. Transient killer whales were listed as ‘threatened’ in 2006 and thus require plans by 2007. The plans for the residents are to promote long-term viability, preserve geographic conditions, and preserve matrilines with multiple generations. Objectives; adequate and accessible food supply, chemical and biological pollution, disturbance from human activity, critical habitat and acoustic environment protection. The management process is to monitor, determine, investigate, and identify threats. The precautionary principle must be untilised because for long-lived species we may never know long-term effects.

Acoustic Monitoring Project - AMP

Link to Acoustic Monitoring Project

Luna Tributes

Remembering Luna

Orca Lab : Luna Dies

Read their essay here

Very sad news...

Our friend Luna has died apparently struck by a tugboat at 9am this morning.

West Coast Birds Dying

Thousands of seabirds dying along the coast of B.C.

Published: Friday, February 24, 2006
Countless thousands of seabirds are mysteriously washing ashore dead along the B.C. coast this winter from the west coast of Vancouver Island to the Queen Charlotte Islands.

"It's spooky to see them coming in like that," Pete Clarkson, assistant chief warden at Pacific Rim National Park Reserve at Long Beach, said Thursday in an interview.

The massive die-off of seabirds this winter follows the near-complete failure of at least two seabird nesting colonies last spring.

About 1,000 glaucous-winged gulls failed to successfully breed at Cleland Island, a provincial ecological reserve northwest of Tofino, while about 400 glaucous-winged gulls and 300 rhinoceros auklets failed to breed at Seabird Rocks, south of Barkley Sound.

Curiously, up to 200 of the gulls successfully bred at Florencia Islet north of Barkley Sound, a colony that might have benefitted from its location just two kilometres from a local garbage dump.

"That's the only thing I can think of," Clarkson said. "It's a strong suspicion."

Thousands of seabirds were also reported washing ashore or breeding with poor success on the U.S. Pacific coast between California and Washington, including the mass starvation deaths of murres on Tatoosh Island off the Olympic Peninsula.

U.S. scientists speculate the deaths may be associated with warmer weather and changes in winds and currents that might have reduced the availability of the birds' marine food.

Clarkson said the first wave of seabirds, red phalaropes, began washing ashore in large numbers around last Christmas on the beaches of Pacific Rim park. The small shorebirds looked emaciated. "They appeared to be starving, minimal body fat," he said.

Northern fulmars, western grebes, common murres, and rhinoceros auklets were among the seabird species that washed ashore at the Carmanah light station.

Clarkson noted that a similar die-off of phalaropes occurred about three years ago. An examination of their gizzards found plastic pellets or nodules produced for manufacturing consumer products. These pellets find their way into the ocean only to be ingested by seabirds feeding on the surface.

While these plastics pose an environmental and ecological problem, they are not thought to have caused the death of the phalaropes, Clarkson said.

Then, after last Christmas and into January, large numbers of Cassin's auklets began washing ashore on the west coast of Vancouver Island. "I sense it's specific to a food source, or somehow a problem in that food web," Clarkson said.

Surveys found three to seven dead auklets per kilometre on beaches in the park.

On the east coast of the Queen Charlottes, officials also reported large numbers of ancient murrelets, marbled murrelets, and Cassin's auklets being found dead.

The total number of birds dead all along the coast would have ranged into the thousands, he said.

Various bird carcasses have been sent to the provincial lab in Abbotsford for analysis, while federal scientists with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Delta and Sidney gather information in an effort to find the cause of the massive die-off and consider the implications on overall populations.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=736d8450-eb25-4016-b411-b776f3a8537f&k=14758

Marine Mammal Monitiring Workshop

more...

WWOANW Guidelines

The Whale Watch Operators Association Northwest has updated their
2006 Guidelines and Best Practices for Commercial Whale Watching Operators

Ambergris - Grey Amber

Whale 'vomit' sparks cash bonanza

(Image: ambergris.co.nz)


An Australian couple who picked up an odd-looking fatty lump from a quiet beach are in line for a cash windfall.

Leon Wright and his wife took home a 14.75kg lump of ambergris, found in the innards of sperm whales and used in perfumes after it has been vomited up.

Sought after because of its rarity, ambergris can float on the ocean for years before washing ashore.

Worth up to $20 a gram, Mr Wright's find on a South Australian beach could net his family US$295,000 (£165,300).

At first, Mr Wright and his wife Loralee left the strange lump on the beach where it was found.

However, two weeks later the couple returned to Streaky Bay and found it still lying there. Curious, Mrs Wright persuaded her husband to take it home.


AMBERGRIS FACTS

Found in warm water oceans around the world
Bile secreted by sperm whales as a digestion aid
Solidifies and floats on water, sometimes for years
Used in perfumes, medicines, flavourings
Banned in US under endangered species legislation

Internet investigations failed to resolve the mysterious matter of the lump's identity, so the couple turned to local marine ecologist Ken Jury for help. "I immediately decided it was ambergris - it couldn't be anything else," Mr Jury told Australia's ABC radio.

Mythologised for thousands of years, ambergris has been referred to as "floating gold" by scientists and scavengers who long for a windfall amid the surf.

Expelled from the abdomen of the giant sperm whale, often while hundreds of kilometres away from land, ambergris is a natural excrement thought to be used by the whale as a digestion aid.

The hard beaks of giant squid, a main source of food for the whale, have often been found inside lumps of ambergris.

Initially, ambergris is a soft, foul-smelling waste matter that floats on the ocean.

But years of exposure to the sun and the salt water of the ocean transform the waste into a smooth, exotic lump of compact rock that boasts a waxy feel and a sweet, alluring smell.

"It's quite remarkable when you think about it, because when the whale throws this out, it's discarded material that they can't digest," Mr Jury explained.

"[But] after 10 years, it's considered clean and all you're getting then is the wonderful musky, very sweet perfume, which I've got to say is ultra smooth - it's unbelievable."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4642722.stm

Mexico

Mexico flickr set

Playa del Carmen

I'm off to Mexico for a week...thanks Orcagirl and Friends!!!

Giant Pacific Octopus Attacks ROV

Octopus tries to make sub sandwich



Video

VICTORIA -- A giant Pacific octopus that attacked a remotely operated submarine off north Vancouver Island could have been senile or maybe just peckish, said a marine biologist yesterday.

"Large male octopuses in the last part of their lives become senescent, or senile," said Jim Cosgrove of the Royal B.C. Museum.

"They get to be like humans, doddering old fools that have inappropriate behaviours such as being out in the daytime," said Cosgrove, an expert in octopus behaviour, adding that it was probably trying to determine if the sub was edible.

The attack occurred on Nov. 18, 2005, off Brooks Peninsula, on the northwest coast of the island.

The Seaeye submarine was 55 metres below the surface. Mike Wood was on a boat on the surface, guiding it along the ocean floor while looking for electronic receivers that detect salmon.

"I had the ROV [remotely operated vehicle] with its manipulator claw attached on a ground rope," Wood said.

A tentacle shot forward very quickly and wrapped itself around the sub's manipulator claw, prompting Wood to immediately throw the sub into reverse and blast the octopus with sand and debris from the ocean floor.

On the video, the octopus whips its tentacles around as it tries to deal with the sub's counterattack.

"Eventually, it releases the vehicle and it gets blasted off into the distance," said Wood. The octopus was not injured, he said.

The Province, Page A28, 26-Jan-2006

Northern Bottelnose Whale

Race to save whale in London

Friday, January 20, 2006; Posted: 8:08 p.m. EST (01:08 GMT)

LONDON, England -- It's a whale of a tale -- a bottle-nosed whale swimming up the River Thames past Big Ben and Parliament on Friday as rows of worried Londoners looked on.

The northern bottle-nosed whale was spotted in central London in the afternoon -- the first sighting in the river since whale-watching records began in 1913 -- as it flailed around the murky waters of the Thames, stirring up patches of what looked like blood as seagulls hovered above and rescue boats stood on the ready.

Witness Tom Howard-Vyne said he saw the mammal swim under Westminster Bridge, near Big Ben. "I saw it blow. It was a spout of water which sparkled in the air," said Howard-Vyne. "It was an amazing sight."

Other witnesses reported seeing a second whale in another part of the river Friday, and marine experts spotted two disoriented whales off northeastern Scotland last week, suggesting something was causing bottle-nosed whales to become confused.

"It is a race against time to save the animal," said Alison Shaw, marine and freshwater conservation program manager at the Zoological Society of London.

A small armada of rescue boats made frantic searches for the whale, which disappeared from view around sunset after diving under the surface of the water. (Scenes from a whale's time in London)

Crews barricaded a section of river in an attempt to force the animal to change course and reports Friday evening claimed the mammal may be heading for safety.

Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the whale was last seen at Chelsea Bridge -- further downriver from earlier sightings, meaning the animal could be moving back out to sea. (See where the whale has wandered)

"A whale in the shallow water of the River Thames is like a human lost in the heat of the Sahara desert," said Laila Sadler, scientific officer at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She estimated it could survive only for 24 to 48 hours in a river that has an average depth of between 26 feet and 20 feet.

"It also seems to be in distress, it has made two seemingly deliberate attempts to beach itself," Sadler said.

Witnesses reported seeing injuries to the mammal, claiming its snout was bloodied. Photos also appeared to show damage to one of the whale's eyes and a number of cuts to its torso, though Sadler said these are not uncommon.

Several onlookers jumped into the river's 48-degree water -- after the mammal emerged, splashing to coax it away from shore.

The whale -- which is about 17 feet long -- is normally seen in the deep northern Atlantic, traveling in pods. They can reach 26 feet long -- the size of a red double-decker London bus.

When sick, old or injured, whales often get disoriented and swim off from their pod, said Mark Simmonds, science director at Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, although witnesses reported seeing a second whale in a different section of the river Friday.

Scientists have said fluctuating ocean temperatures, predators, lack of food and even sonar from ships can send whales into waters that are dangerous for the mammals.

"It's going to be very confused. It's already stranded twice. The poor creature doesn't know where to go," said Tony Martin, a senior scientist with the British Antarctic Survey.

The whale drew hundreds of people and scores of television crews to the river's banks and captivated Londoners who called radio and television stations asking if they could help.

London's Natural History Museum said it was the first time a northern bottle-nose has been sighted in the Thames since it began records in 1913.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/20/
britain.whale/index.html

Snub Nose Dolphin

NEW SPECIES OF DOLPHIN IDENTIFIED

A new dolphin species was identified by scientists off the coast of north Australia. The animals, which have been named snubfin dolphins were initially thought to be members of the Irrawaddy dolphin species, but DNA tests have confirmed them to be a distinct species. The snubfins are coloured differently and have different skull, fin and flipper measurement to the Irrawaddy dolphin. It is not known how many snubfin dolphins are in existence, but numbers are thought to be low, with a group of about 200 living off Townsville, north-east Australia.

For information on WDCS science and field projects around the world, please go to http://www.wdcs.org/fieldprojects

Greeting Ceremony

One group of whales stopped, tightened up, and made surface vocalizations. Another group lined up in front of them and the two groups slowly travelled towards each other in lines. When they met, they dove and made some beautiful underwater vocalizations.