BIO 358 1st Edition Lecture 23 Outline of Last Lecture I 1972 a events II Marine Mammal Protection Act a Definition of take b Definition of Marine Mammals i Division of responsibilities III Events Leading up to the MMPA a Whaling b Seal Clubbing c Tuna Dolphin Problem IV Exemptions a Aboriginal tribes b Permit System V Tuna Dolphin problem Outline of Current Lecture I Svend Foyn Inventions for whaling II Timeline on Whaling These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute III North Atlantic Right Whale Current Lecture Svend Foyn solution to whale decline hunt balaenopterids roquals Reasons we haven t hunted them yet pelagic species and fast swimmers morphology and they sink when you kill them Sven Foyen came up with solutions Commercial harpoon gun with exploding head Exploding head small grenade in the tip of the harpoon that kills or seriously injures the whale on impact Foyen designs first steam powered whaling boat Harpoon gun attached to a REALLY strong line so that when the harpoon leaves the cannon use line to retrieve whale carcass puncture a hole in the whale and fill it with compressed air Where to use these Antarctica Huge whale resource Commercial hunting in 1860 920s Sven got 30 blue whales in 1868 1904 Larson shore based whaling station caught 195 whales 1920 coastal Antarctica whale stocks depleted needed a new invention for offshore hunting Factory whaling ship with a stern ramp Anything on a shore based whaling station on a giant vessel Stern ramp easy to pull whale on board Mother ship associated with catching ships 1931 40 000 whales 1939 46 039 whales World War 11 brief reprieve from commercial whaling 2 000 000 whales taken from the southern hemisphere 1946 International group IWC international whaling commission convened safeguard for future generations the great natural resource presented by whale stocks maintain maximal sustainable utilization of whales stocks as a resource to be exploited NOT the MMPA designed to be able to take whales maximally while maintaining sustainable fishery After WWII took the quota pre WWII and divvy it up beteween whaling naitions Blue whale Unit one blue whale or 2 fin whales or 2 5 humpbacks or 6 sei whales Problem everyone is going to target blue whales DISADTEROUS target biggest first till gone then fin whales until rare then sei whales and then minke whales FLAWED MANAGEMENT SCHEME continued until 1972 1972 MMPA in part because of IWC s ineffectual management of global whale stocks IWC changes role and calls for a world wide moratorium on whaling Permits scientific whaling Japan Norway and Iceland could set their own quotas but not sell outside of the country capturing whales specifically to better understand biology and life history of whales Norway and Iceland removed themselves from the IWC Japan stayed in the game but continued to whale under scientific whaling quota took 6 800 minke whales There are countries that want to whale St Kitts and Nevis Declaration 2006 passed 33 32 IWC s commitment to normalizing the functions of the IWC go back to whaling over protecting whales LET WHALING RESUME Iceland Japan Norway Russian Federation were paying for small islands memberships to IWC and created a voting block that won 2010 IWC 10 year peace plan scientists get together and determine catch limits for the countries that want to whale 2020 breathing room to find out what is going to happen 2011 pirate illegal and unreported whale kills in Japanese and Russia Scott Baker tested whale meat in japan and Korean fish markets transferred molecular genetics lab into hotel and bought whale meat found that a lot of the whale being sold was misrepresented as being legally caught some were from threatened or endangered species uncovered illegal whaling and selling of whale meat 2014 Australia and New Zealand sued Japan for not doing much science on scientific whaling UN declares Japanese scientific whaling program is not meeting scientific goals banned whaling from japan Japan is changing the way they hunt not taking species other than Minke whales limited to 330 whales applied for new scientific permit WHAT WILL THE CONSEQUENCES FOR JAPAN BE USSR came apart we learned something about their whaling that we didn t know before 1991 Scott baker did humpback survey work and he could not find humpbacks even though they were protected there massive illegal hunt by soviet union killed everything and collected correct data KGB took numbers and produced false records biologists protected their real records Take home we have a poor record of hunting marine mammals in a sustainable way and we do not tell the truth how would you do this 100 percent observer coverage but completely independent of country protected from government Review Right whale Mammalia Cetacea Mysteceti Baleanidae Eubalena Galacialis North Atlantic Right Whale we know them to individuals by callosities skim feeders focal prey calanus finmarchicus copepod only feed 4 8 months out of the year in high latitude areas then a group of NA right whales pregnant females head south to give birth 85 of remaining population location unknow at this town Northern Florida Southern Georgia calving ground Critical habitat special protection Last right whale calf intentionally killed in the US in 1935 by sport fisherman off St Augustine Florida 1935 right whales received international protection IWC right whales completely taken off list of huntable species Despite protection there are only 500 individuals that we can identify NA right whale used to inhabit coastal waters of a huge range now there is a very small area where they can be found our coast NA right whale has been extirpated from most of the north Atlantic remnant population found along Canadian and US Atlantic coast What is contributing to lack of recovery Low genetic diversity Slow reproductive rates calving interval for NARW in late 1990 s 5 years normal interval 3 4 years not well understood Poor nutritional status NARW body condition varies with copepod densities which varies with North Atlantic Oscillation Not well understood Negative human impacts EXTREMELY WELL UNDERSTOOD Remnant population Calving nursery southern grounds Northern feeding grounds Have to traverse the coast to go back and fourth Pass Boston harbor LOTS OF SHIPPING Right whales live in very urbanized waters VESSEL STRIKES AND ENTANGLEMENT Major concern for