Should we let some endangered species die?
Marine biologist and blogger WhySharksMatter presents the latest in his award-winning "ethical debate" series, showcasing a "hot topic" from the environmental movement, presenting both sides, and asking readers to argue it out in the comments. Since his readership includes scientists, politicians, and leaders from the environmental movement, these discussions are always interesting, and this one is sure to generate some strong opinions.
WhySharksMatter is claiming in this ethical debate that North Atlantic Right Whales, one of the most endangered animals on Earth, are going to go extinct whether or not we help them, and therefore we should stop wasting so much of the environmental movement’s limited resources on protecting them.
“For the sake of this debate, I will concede the following points (i.e. there is no need to debate them any further).
* Right whales are a unique and interesting animal. They, like us, are mammals.
* Without our protection, they will certainly go extinct
* It is undeniably, 100% our fault that they are so endangered in the first place”
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Newly Discovered Species Eat Only Dead Whales
Meet the Ophryotrocha craigsmithi, a newly discovered species of bristleworm that eats only dead whale bones. But there’s a plus side to eating a carcass of an animal that large: a single whale can provide food for 20 years, to be eaten by generations of worms!
Once flesh-eaters like hagfish and sharks have picked clean a whale’s skeleton, the 0.8-inch-long (2-centimeter-long) worms go to work, said zoologist Helena Wiklund, a member of the University of Gothenburg team behind the study.
Generations of worms "could be there for maybe 20 years depending on how big the whale was," Wiklund added. "Bones from a big whale last really long on the seafloor."
But when the whale is finally disposed of, the bacteria-munching worms must find another whale carcass, and that could be many miles away.
How the tiny creatures hop from dead whale to dead whale remains a mystery. Some bristle worm species, though, have microscopic larvae that ride ocean currents, Wiklund said.
Mother Nature wastes nothing at all, doesn’t she? Link (Photo: Helena Wiklund, University of Gothenburg)
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Sailors with a Sweet Tooth
Whaling was a profitable industry throughout the second half of the 19th century. One sperm whale could net a ship up to three tons of spermaceti, or whale oil, which was used for lamp oil and in many other products. The sperm whale has the largest teeth of any animal; one tooth can weigh seven pounds! While at sea, sailors would pass the time by etching artworks into the teeth, originating an art form called scrimshaw. The Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine has a collection of whale tooth scrimshaw, several examples of which you can see at Curious Expeditions. Link
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Friendly Whales
The New York Times looks at the history of human-whale interaction, from whale hunting to the modern effects of sonar on the cetaceans. A very different type of interaction takes place in the lagoons of Baja California, Mexico, where gray whales give birth. The mother whales seek out human contact, as if wanting to make friends.
Some marine biologists have dismissed the phenomenon as little more than a reflexive behavior, suggesting that the whales are merely attracted to the sound of the boats’ motors or that they are looking to scratch their lice-ridden and barnacled backs against the boats’ hulls. Still, a combination of anecdotal evidence and recent scientific research into whale biology and behavior suggests that there may something far more compelling going on in the lagoons of Baja each winter and spring. Something, let’s say, along the lines of that time-worn plot conceit behind many a film, in which the peaceable greetings of alien visitors are tragically rebuffed by human fear and ignorance. Except that in this particular rendition, the aliens keep coming back, trying, perhaps, to give us another chance. To let us, of all species, off the hook.
New whale research shows that the animals are smarter than previously thought. Could they be trying to tell us something? Link -via Metafilter
(image credit: Ivan Chermayeff)
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Why Whales Beach Themselves: It's The Bends!
Why do whales beach themselves? A new study may have answered the question that baffled scientists for decades: it’s the bends …
A new study offers evidence to support the theory that beaked whales get the bends when they surface rapidly, possibly after being startled by naval sonar.
The report could help scientists understand why beaked whales appear to be more vulnerable to the potentially harmful effects of sonar than other marine mammals.
Together with other studies, the results may also help scientists and regulators think of how navies could adjust their sonar use during training to prevent beaked whale strandings and deaths.
"It provides more evidence that beaked whales that are being found dead in association with naval sonar activities are likely to be getting decompression sickness," said Robin Baird, a marine biologist at Cascadia Research Collective and one of the report’s authors.
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Beached Whale Has Gigantic Swollen Tongue
A 40-foot finback whale that washed up on Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts, has a very unusual anatomy: a gigantic swollen tongue!
What really stands out is the whale’s swollen tongue, which looks like a giant balloon sticking out of its mouth.
C.T. Harry of the International Fund for Animal Welfare told the Cape Cod Times the tongue was swollen by gas created in the decomposition process.
Marine biologists may do a necropsy, but not so soon:
"You don’t want an open carcass on the beach on a busy weekend," Harry told the paper.
(Photo: David G. Curran/SatelliteNewsService)
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Whale Fossil Discovered in Unlikely Place
While cutting through some Egyptian limestone recently, stone masons in Italy made an interesting discovery. A whale fossil! They called in experts who confirmed this was a 40 million year old whale. Then the fun really began. Well, fun for the archeologists paleontologists that is.
They went to the place where the stone was extracted and found prehistoric bone fragments and more. A bigger dig is currently underway. We hope this didn’t put the masons out of business.
National Geographic has a video report, with an unedited transcript:
“BEING MASONS WE WERE IGNORANT OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DISCOVERY WE HAD MADE” SAYS SUPERVISOR RICARDO FRANCIONI.
BUT THEY KNEW ENOUGH TO CALL IN SOME ITALIAN EXPERTS WHO DETERMINED THEY HAD INADVERTENTLY CREATED AN ALMOST PERFECT CROSS SECTION OF AN ANCIENT WHALE.
IT LIVED IN EGYPT 40 MILLION YEARS AGO.
FINDING ANCIENT WHALES FROM EGYPT, A COUNTRY THATS 95 PERCENT DESERT, MIGHT SEEM UNUSUAL — BUT IT ISNT.
Link – via yesbutnobutyes
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You Call That a Whale?
47 million years ago, whales that looked like this gave birth on land, according to a study published this week that analyzes the fossil of a pregnant whale found in the Pakistani desert. This type of ancient proto-whale was amphibious.
When the fossil was discovered, the scientists were perplexed by the jumble of adult and fetal-size bones. First they found small teeth, then ribs going the wrong way. The head-first postion of the fetus gave them the clue: land mamals are generally born head first, and marine mammals are born tail first.
Illustration courtesy John Klausmeyer and Bonnie Miljour/University of Michigan Museums of Natural History.
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