Animals
Climate Change and Northern Abalone
SeaDoc sponsored research:
In Washington, Northern abalone are in decline and exhibit recruitment failure despite closure of the fishery. The long-term persistence of northern abalone in this region is a concern in light of threats from ocean warming. The likelihood of future ocean warming poses challenges for abalone restoration, suggesting that improved monitoring and protection will be critical.
The SeaDoc Society sponsored researcher Laura Rogers-Bennett's invetigation into Northern and Flat Abalone. See the citation and download the PDF.
Is climate change contributing to range reductions and localized extinctions in northern (Haliotis Kamtschatkana) and flat (Haliotis Walallensis) abalones
Species of concern within the Salish Sea Marine Ecosystem: changes between 2002 and 2008
Salish Sea Science Prize awarded
Salish Sea Science Prize Award Speech
February 8, 2009
Seattle, Washington
Although Congressman Dicks has always been a big fan of science-based policy and we are now fortunate to have a President of the United States who has pledged to restore integrity to US science policy, our government has not always been known for valuing science or for basing important decisions on scientific information. As we all look at the huge task before us to design a healthy Salish Sea, it is clear that many of the untold thousands of decisions that we need to make must be based on science.
The SeaDoc Society created the Salish Sea Science Prize to recognize the importance of science in providing a foundation for designing a healthy Salish Sea ecosystem. Every two years this prize will be given to a prominent scientist or team of scientists whose work has resulted in the marked improvement of management or policy related to the conservation of marine wildlife and the Salish Sea marine ecosystem. A $2,000, no strings attached prize comes with this prestigious and one of a kind award, which is given in recognition of, and to honor the spirit of Ms. Stephanie Wagner, who loved the region and its wildlife.
Among many worthy individuals and groups that were nominated for consideration by the Award committee this year, the life work of this year's winner embodies the essence of the prize. This person's work has been collaborative and transboundary, drawing on the help of both US and Canadian Scientists. It also has been scientifically rigorous and the results have changed the way we think about, manage and protect marine wildlife.
Although the first live capture of a killer whale occurred in 1961, the development of a netting technique and large-scale commercial demand lead to large increases in capture efforts in Washington and British Columbia in 1967. Before the captures ceased in 1977, more than 300 whales were likely captured, of which 55 were transferred to aquaria, while many others died.
During this time period this year's winner, collaborating with Canadian colleagues, pioneered the use of photo identification to study and individually identify killer whales. This work provided many new revelations:
• That killer whales could be individually identified
• That the Salish Sea was not home to unlimited killer whales free for the taking for display
• That Salish Sea killer whales belonged to 2 ecotypes – fish eaters and marine mammal eaters
• That resident fish eating whales had a non-dispersing matrilineal society
While many of these ideas were not initially accepted by the scientific community, this person's persistence in conducting an annual census of the Southern Resident killer whale population, one of the only true censuses conducted on any wildlife population, has come to make these facts known by school kids and citizens throughout the region and the world.
This annual census, conducted since 1975 and usually with little financial support, has become the basis of the population assessments that ultimately lead to the Canadian and US listing of the Southern Resident Killer Whale community as endangered. Additionally this person's work has served as a foundation for our understanding of resident killer whale longevity, toxics loading in killer whales, and the implications of disease on the long-term viability of this population. This person's work formed a critical foundation for both the US and the Canadian killer whale recovery plans, as well as for new legislation such as that which creates a no-vessel zone around these animals to minimize anthropogenic impact on these animals as they feed and communicate.
Without a doubt, this person's long-term research and commitment to documenting the killer whales of the Salish Sea has contributed substantially to conservation initiatives and policy in the Salish Sea, and has served as an example for the world on why science is important for designing healthy ecosystems. It is with great pleasure tonight, that the SeaDoc Society awards the prestigious Salish Sea Science Prize to Mr. Ken Balcomb.
Canine Giardia in Harbor Seals
A recent study by the SeaDoc study demonstrates that harbor seals in the Puget Sound region carry their own type of Giardia, but in at least one location in South Puget Sound harbor seals could have been infected with a canine strain of Giardia. Many people are familiar with the cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii infecting and killing sea otters; this study suggests that dogs also could transmit their parasites to marine mammals and reminds us that what happens on land is intimately connected to what happens in the ocean.
Novel And Canine Genotypes Of Giardia Duodenalis In Harbor Seals (Phoca Vitulina Richardsi )
When Food Can Kill: Salmon and Killer Whale Populations
A study published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry explains the process by which threatened and endangered killer whales in the waters of northwestern North America become contaminated with persistent organic pollutants, particularly polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), that are present in chinook salmon, their primary food source.
Two years of this study were funded as part of the SeaDoc Society's competitive grants program.
Two main observations were made. First, nearly 100% of the contaminants in chinook salmon were acquired while they lived in the ocean. Second, southern killer whales are contaminated with higher concentrations of chemicals because 1) they eat more salmon than their northern counterparts and 2) southern salmon have higher levels of contaminants than northern salmon because the southern waters are more contaminated than the northern waters. In fact, PCB concentrations in southern salmon were almost four times those in northern salmon.
It is known that salmon can lose as much as 80% of their lipid (fat) stores as they journey back to their natal streams. Salmon stop eating during this time and draw energy from their lipid stores. Thus, they are less nutritious to whales than they would be otherwise. Furthermore, southern salmon were found to have lower lipid content than northern salmon. Whales therefore eat larger amounts of salmon and consequently are exposed to larger amounts of chemicals in the salmon. Southern whales, in particular, consume as much as 50% more salmon to compensate for the fact that their food is, per unit, less nutritious.
Salmon paradoxically help killer whales (food) and harm them (contamination). This study is important because it illustrates the increasing amount of damage to fragile ecosystems that occurs as industries continue to dump waste into rivers and oceans.
To read the entire review, Persistent Organic Pollutants in Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha): Implications for Resident Killer Whales of British Columbia and Adjacent Waters (Vol. 28(1):148–161), visit http://www.allenpress.com/pdf/ENTC_28.1_148.pdf
Scientists try to uncover the dangers to Killer Whales
When seven resident killer whales that frequent inland waters of Washington went missing this year, there was no shortage of suspects.
