Paul Gilding: The Earth is full
“Let me begin with four words that will provide the context for this week, four words that will come to define this century. Here they are: The Earth is full. It’s full of us, it’s full of our stuff, full of our waste, full of our demands. Yes, we are a brilliant and creative species, but we’ve created a little too much stuff — so much that our economy is now bigger than its host, our planet.

This is not a philosophical statement, this is just science based in physics, chemistry and biology. There are many science-based analyses of this, but they all draw the same conclusion — that we’re living beyond our means. The eminent scientists of the Global Footprint Network, for example, calculate that we need about 1.5 Earths to sustain this economy. In other words, to keep operating at our current level, we need 50 percent more Earth than we’ve got. In financial terms, this would be like always spending 50 percent more than you earn, going further into debt every year. But of course, you can’t borrow natural resources, so we’re burning through our capital, or stealing from the future.

So when I say full, I mean really full — well past any margin for error, well past any dispute about methodology. What this means is our economy is unsustainable. I’m not saying it’s not nice or pleasant or that it’s bad for polar bears or forests, though it certainly is. What I’m saying is our approach is simply unsustainable. In other words, thanks to those pesky laws of physics, when things aren’t sustainable, they stop. But that’s not possible, you might think. We can’t stop economic growth. Because that’s what will stop: economic growth. It will stop because of the end of trade resources. It will stop because of the growing demand of us on all the resources, all the capacity, all the systems of the Earth, which is now having economic damage.

When we think about economic growth stopping, we go, “That’s not possible,” because economic growth is so essential to our society that it is rarely questioned. Although growth has certainly delivered many benefits, it is an idea so essential that we tend not to understand the possibility of it not being around. Even though it has delivered many benefits, it is based on a crazy idea — the crazy idea being that we can have infinite growth on a finite planet. And I’m here to tell you the emperor has no clothes. That the crazy idea is just that, it is crazy, and with the Earth full, it’s game over.

Come on, you’re thinking. That’s not possible. Technology is amazing. People are innovative. There are so many ways we can improve the way we do things. We can surely sort this out. That’s all true. Well, it’s mostly true. We are certainly amazing, and we regularly solve complex problems with amazing creativity. So if our problem was to get the human economy down from 150 percent to 100 percent of the Earth’s capacity, we could do that. The problem is we’re just warming up this growth engine. We plan to take this highly-stressed economy and make it twice as big and then make it four times as big — not in some distant future, but in less than 40 years, in the life time of most of you. China plans to be there in just 20 years. The only problem with this plan is that it’s not possible.

In response, some people argue, but we need growth, we need it to solve poverty. We need it to develop technology. We need it to keep social stability. I find this argument fascinating, as though we can kind of bend the rules of physics to suit our needs. It’s like the Earth doesn’t care what we need. Mother nature doesn’t negotiate; she just sets rules and describes consequences. And these are not esoteric limits. This is about food and water, soil and climate, the basic practical and economic foundations of our lives.

So the idea that we can smoothly transition to a highly-efficient, solar-powered, knowledge-based economy transformed by science and technology so that nine billion people can live in 2050 a life of abundance and digital downloads is a delusion. It’s not that it’s not possible to feed, clothe and house us all and have us live decent lives. It certainly is. But the idea that we can gently grow there with a few minor hiccups is just wrong, and it’s dangerously wrong, because it means we’re not getting ready for what’s really going to happen.

See what happens when you operate a system past its limits and then keep on going at an ever-accelerating rate is that the system stops working and breaks down. And that’s what will happen to us. Many of you will be thinking, but surely we can still stop this. If it’s that bad, we’ll react. Let’s just think through that idea. Now we’ve had 50 years of warnings. We’ve had science proving the urgency of change. We’ve had economic analysis pointing out that, not only can we afford it, it’s cheaper to act early. And yet, the reality is we’ve done pretty much nothing to change course. We’re not even slowing down. Last year on climate, for example, we had the highest global emissions ever. The story on food, on water, on soil, on climate is all much the same.

I actually don’t say this in despair. I’ve done my grieving about the loss. I accept where we are. It is sad, but it is what it is. But it is also time that we ended our denial and recognized that we’re not acting, we’re not close to acting and we’re not going to act until this crisis hits the economy. And that’s why the end of growth is the central issue and the event that we need to get ready for.

So when does this transition begin? When does this breakdown begin? In my view, it is well underway. I know most people don’t see it that way. We tend to look at the world, not as the integrated system that it is, but as a series of individual issues. We see the Occupy protests, we see spiraling debt crises, we see growing inequality, we see money’s influence on politics, we see resource constraint, food and oil prices. But we see, mistakenly, each of these issues as individual problems to be solved. In fact, it’s the system in the painful process of breaking down — our system, of debt-fueled economic growth, of ineffective democracy, of overloading planet Earth, is eating itself alive.

I could give you countless studies and evidence to prove this, but I won’t because, if you want to see it, that evidence is all around you. I want to talk to you about fear. I want to do so because, in my view, the most important issue we face is how we respond to this question. The crisis is now inevitable. This issue is, how will we react? Of course, we can’t know what will happen. The future is inherently uncertain.

But let’s just think through what the science is telling us is likely to happen. Imagine our economy when the carbon bubble bursts, when the financial markets recognize that, to have any hope of preventing the climate spiraling out of control, the oil and coal industries are finished. Imagine China, India and Pakistan going to war as climate impacts generate conflict over food and water. Imagine the Middle East without oil income, but with collapsing governments. Imagine our highly-tuned, just-in-time food industry and our highly-stressed agricultural system failing and supermarket shelves emptying. Imagine 30 percent unemployment in America as the global economy is gripped by fear and uncertainty.

Now imagine what that means for you, your family, your friends, your personal financial security. Imagine what it means for your personal security as a heavily armed civilian population gets angrier and angrier about why this was allowed to happen. Imagine what you’ll tell your children when they ask you, “So, in 2012, Mom and Dad, what was it like when you’d had the hottest decade on record for the third decade in a row, when every scientific body in the world was saying you’ve got a major problem, when the oceans were acidifying, when oil and food prices were spiking, when they were rioting in the streets of London and occupying Wall Street? When the system was so clearly breaking down, Mom and Dad, what did you do, what were you thinking?”

So how do you feel when the lights go out on the global economy in your mind, when your assumptions about the future fade away and something very different emerges? Just take a moment and take a breath and think, what do you feel at this point? Perhaps denial. Perhaps anger. Maybe fear. Of course, we can’t know what’s going to happen and we have to live with uncertainty. But when we think about the kind of possibilities I paint, we should feel a bit of fear.

We are in danger, all of us, and we’ve evolved to respond to danger with fear to motivate a powerful response, to help us bravely face a threat. But this time it’s not a tiger at the cave mouth. You can’t see the danger at your door. But if you look, you can see it at the door of your civilization. That’s why we need to feel our response now while the lights are still on, because if we wait until the crisis takes hold, we may panic and hide. If we feel it now and think it through, we will realize we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Yes, things will get ugly, and it will happen soon — certainly in our lifetime — but we are more than capable of getting through everything that’s coming.

You see, those people that have faith that humans can solve any problem, that technology is limitless, that markets can be a force for good, are in fact right. The only thing they’re missing is that it takes a good crisis to get us going. When we feel fear and we fear loss we are capable of quite extraordinary things. Think about war. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it just took four days for the government to ban the production of civilian cars and to redirect the auto industry, and from there to rationing of food and energy. Think about how a company responds to a bankruptcy threat and how a change that seemed impossible just gets done. Think about how an individual responds to a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness and how lifestyle changes that previously were just too difficult suddenly become relatively easy.

We are smart, in fact, we really are quite amazing, but we do love a good crisis. And the good news, this one’s a monster. Sure, if we get it wrong, we could face the end of this civilization, but if we get it right, it could be the beginning of civilization instead. And how cool would it be to tell your grandchildren that you were part of that?

There’s certainly no technical or economic barrier in the way. Scientists like James Hansen tell us we may need to eliminate net CO2 emissions from the economy in just a few decades. I wanted to know what that would take, so I worked with professor Jorgen Randers from Norway to find the answer. We developed a plan called “The One Degree War Plan” — so named because of the level of mobilization and focus required. To my surprise, eliminating net CO2 emissions from the economy in just 20 years is actually pretty easy and pretty cheap, not very cheap, but certainly less than the cost of a collapsing civilization. We didn’t calculate that precisely, but we understand that’s very expensive. You can read the details, but in summary, we can transform our economy. We can do it with proven technology. We can do it at an affordable cost. We can do it with existing political structures. The only thing we need to change is how we think and how we feel. And this is where you come in.

When we think about the future I paint, of course we should feel a bit of fear. But fear can be paralyzing or motivating. We need to accept the fear and then we need to act. We need to act like the future depends on it. We need to act like we only have one planet. We can do this. I know the free market fundamentalists will tell you that more growth, more stuff and nine billion people going shopping is the best we can do. They’re wrong. We can be more, we can be much more. We have achieved remarkable things since working out how to grow food some 10,000 years ago. We’ve built a powerful foundation of science, knowledge and technology — more than enough to build a society where nine billion people can lead decent, meaningful and satisfying lives. The Earth can support that if we choose the right path.

We can choose this moment of crisis to ask and answer the big questions of society’s evolution — like, what do we want to be when we grow up, when we move past this bumbling adolescence where we think there are no limits and suffer delusions of immortality? Well it’s time to grow up, to be wiser, to be calmer, to be more considered. Like generations before us, we’ll be growing up in war — not a war between civilizations, but a war for civilization, for the extraordinary opportunity to build a society which is stronger and happier and plans on staying around into middle age.

We can choose life over fear. We can do what we need to do, but it will take every entrepreneur, every artist, every scientist, every communicator, every mother, every father, every child, every one of us. This could be our finest hour.

Thank you.”

Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future

“In the deepest, darkest parts of the oceans are ecosystems with more diversity than a tropical rainforest. Taking us on a voyage into the ocean — from the deepest trenches to the remains of Titanic — marine biologist David Gallo explores the wonder and beauty of marine life. Find more TED-Ed videos on our new YouTube channel: youtube.com/TEDEd”

More about David Gallo:

• TED Profile: http://www.ted.com/speakers/david_gallo.html
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Twitter: @gallotar
• Edith Widder, Ocean Research & Conservation Association
• Roger Hanlon, Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole

“Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.” Source: TED Talks

What do I know that would cause me, a reticent, Midwestern scientist, to get myself arrested in front of the White House protesting? And what would you do if you knew what I know? Let’s start with how I got to this point. I was lucky to grow up at a time when it was not difficult for the child of a tenant farmer to make his way to the state university.

And I was really lucky to go to the University of Iowa where I could study under Professor James Van Allen who built instruments for the first U.S. satellites. Professor Van Allen told me about observations of Venus, that there was intense microwave radiation. Did it mean that Venus had an ionosphere? Or was Venus extremely hot? The right answer, confirmed by the Soviet Venera spacecraft, was that Venus was very hot — 900 degrees Fahrenheit. And it was kept hot by a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere.

I was fortunate to join NASA and successfully propose an experiment to fly to Venus. Our instrument took this image of the veil of Venus, which turned out to be a smog of sulfuric acid. But while our instrument was being built, I became involved in calculations of the greenhouse effect here on Earth, because we realized that our atmospheric composition was changing. Eventually, I resigned as principal investigator on our Venus experiment because a planet changing before our eyes is more interesting and important. Its changes will affect all of humanity.

The greenhouse effect had been well understood for more than a century. British physicist John Tyndall, in the 1850′s, made laboratory measurements of the infrared radiation, which is heat. And he showed that gasses such as CO2 absorb heat, thus acting like a blanket warming Earth’s surface.

I worked with other scientists to analyze Earth climate observations. In 1981, we published an article in Science magazine concluding that observed warming of 0.4 degrees Celsius in the prior century was consistent with the greenhouse effect of increasing CO2. That Earth would likely warm in the 1980′s, and warming would exceed the noise level of random weather by the end of the century. We also said that the 21st century would see shifting climate zones, creation of drought-prone regions in North America and Asia, erosion of ice sheets, rising sea levels and opening of the fabled Northwest Passage. All of these impacts have since either happened or are now well under way.

That paper was reported on the front page of the New York Times and led to me testifying to Congress in the 1980′s, testimony in which I emphasized that global warming increases both extremes of the Earth’s water cycle. Heatwaves and droughts on one hand, directly from the warming, but also, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor with its latent energy, rainfall will become in more extreme events. There will be stronger storms and greater flooding. Global warming hoopla became time-consuming and distracted me from doing science — partly because I had complained that the White House altered my testimony. So I decided to go back to strictly doing science and leave the communication to others.

By 15 years later, evidence of global warming was much stronger. Most of the things mentioned in our 1981 paper were facts. I had the privilege to speak twice to the president’s climate task force. But energy policies continued to focus on finding more fossil fuels. By then we had two grandchildren, Sophie and Connor. I decided that I did not want them in the future to say, “Opa understood what was happening, but he didn’t make it clear.” So I decided to give a public talk criticizing the lack of an appropriate energy policy.

I gave the talk at the University of Iowa in 2004 and at the 2005 meeting of the American Geophysical Union. This led to calls from the White House to NASA headquarters and I was told that I could not give any talks or speak with the media without prior explicit approval by NASA headquarters. After I informed the New York Times about these restrictions, NASA was forced to end the censorship. But there were consequences. I had been using the first line of the NASA mission statement, “To understand and protect the home planet,” to justify my talks. Soon the first line of the mission statement was deleted, never to appear again.

Over the next few years I was drawn more and more into trying to communicate the urgency of a change in energy policies, while still researching the physics of climate change. Let me describe the most important conclusion from the physics — first, from Earth’s energy balance and, second, from Earth’s climate history.

Adding CO2 to the air is like throwing another blanket on the bed. It reduces Earth’s heat radiation to space, so there’s a temporary energy imbalance. More energy is coming in than going out, until Earth warms up enough to again radiate to space as much energy as it absorbs from the Sun. So the key quantity is Earth’s energy imbalance. Is there more energy coming in than going out? If so, more warming is in the pipeline. It will occur without adding any more greenhouse gasses.

Now finally, we can measure Earth’s energy imbalance precisely by measuring the heat content in Earth’s heat reservoirs. The biggest reservoir, the ocean, was the least well measured, until more than 3,000 Argo floats were distributed around the world’s ocean. These floats reveal that the upper half of the ocean is gaining heat at a substantial rate. The deep ocean is also gaining heat at a smaller rate, and energy is going into the net melting of ice all around the planet. And the land, to depths of tens of meters, is also warming.

The total energy imbalance now is about six-tenths of a watt per square meter. That may not sound like much, but when added up over the whole world, it’s enormous. It’s about 20 times greater than the rate of energy use by all of humanity. It’s equivalent to exploding 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs per day 365 days per year. That’s how much extra energy Earth is gaining each day. This imbalance, if we want to stabilize climate, means that we must reduce CO2 from 391 ppm, parts per million, back to 350 ppm. That is the change needed to restore energy balance and prevent further warming.

Climate change deniers argue that the Sun is the main cause of climate change. But the measured energy imbalance occurred during the deepest solar minimum in the record, when the Sun’s energy reaching Earth was least. Yet, there was more energy coming in than going out. This shows that the effect of the Sun’s variations on climate is overwhelmed by the increasing greenhouse gasses, mainly from burning fossil fuels.

Now consider Earth’s climate history. These curves for global temperature, atmospheric CO2 and sea level were derived from ocean cores and Antarctic ice cores, from ocean sediments and snowflakes that piled up year after year over 800,000 years forming a two-mile thick ice sheet. As you see, there’s a high correlation between temperature, CO2 and sea level. Careful examination shows that the temperature changes slightly lead the CO2 changes by a few centuries. Climate change deniers like to use this fact to confuse and trick the public by saying, “Look, the temperature causes CO2 to change, not vice versa.” But that lag is exactly what is expected.

Small changes in Earth’s orbit that occur over tens to hundreds of thousands of years alter the distribution of sunlight on Earth. When there is more sunlight at high latitudes in summer, ice sheets melt. Shrinking ice sheets make the planet darker, so it absorbs more sunlight and becomes warmer. A warmer ocean releases CO2, just as a warm Coca-Cola does. And more CO2 causes more warming. So CO2, methane, and ice sheets were feedbacks that amplified global temperature change causing these ancient climate oscillations to be huge, even though the climate change was initiated by a very weak forcing.

The important point is that these same amplifying feedbacks will occur today. The physics does not change. As Earth warms, now because of extra CO2 we put in the atmosphere, ice will melt, and CO2 and methane will be released by warming ocean and melting permafrost. While we can’t say exactly how fast these amplifying feedbacks will occur, it is certain they will occur, unless we stop the warming. There is evidence that feedbacks are already beginning. Precise measurements by GRACE, the gravity satellite, reveal that both Greenland and Antarctica are now losing mass, several hundred cubic kilometers per year. And the rate has accelerated since the measurements began nine years ago. Methane is also beginning to escape from the permafrost.

What sea level rise can we look forward to? The last time CO2 was 390 ppm, today’s value, sea level was higher by at least 15 meters, 50 feet. Where you are sitting now would be under water. Most estimates are that, this century, we will get at least one meter. I think it will be more if we keep burning fossil fuels, perhaps even five meters, which is 18 feet, this century or shortly thereafter.

The important point is that we will have started a process that is out of humanity’s control. Ice sheets would continue to disintegrate for centuries. There would be no stable shoreline. The economic consequences are almost unthinkable. Hundreds of New Orleans-like devastations around the world. What may be more reprehensible, if climate denial continues, is extermination of species. The monarch butterfly could be one of the 20 to 50 percent of all species that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates will be ticketed for extinction by the end of the century if we stay on business-as-usual fossil fuel use.

Global warming is already affecting people. The Texas, Oklahoma, Mexico heatwave and drought last year, Moscow the year before and Europe in 2003, were all exceptional events, more than three standard deviations outside the norm. Fifty years ago, such anomalies covered only two- to three-tenths of one percent of the land area. In recent years, because of global warming, they now cover about 10 percent — an increase by a factor of 25 to 50. So we can say with a high degree of confidence that the severe Texas and Moscow heatwaves were not natural; they were caused by global warming. An important impact, if global warming continues, will be on the breadbasket of our nation and the world, the Midwest and Great Plains, which are expected to become prone to extreme droughts, worse than the Dust Bowl, within just a few decades, if we let global warming continue.

How did I get dragged deeper and deeper into an attempt to communicate, giving talks in 10 countries, getting arrested, burning up the vacation time that I had accumulated over 30 years? More grandchildren helped me along. Jake is a super-positive, enthusiastic boy. Here at age two and a half years, he thinks he can protect his two and a half-day-old little sister. It would be immoral to leave these young people with a climate system spiraling out of control.

Now the tragedy about climate change is that we can solve it with a simple, honest approach of a gradually rising carbon fee collected from fossil fuel companies and distributed 100 percent electronically every month to all legal residents on a per capita basis, with the government not keeping one dime. Most people would get more in the monthly dividend than they’d pay in increased prices. This fee and dividend would stimulate the economy and innovations, creating millions of jobs. It is the principal requirement for moving us rapidly to a clean energy future.

Several top economists are coauthors on this proposition. Jim DiPeso of Republicans for Environmental Protection describes it thusly: “Transparent. Market-based. Does not enlarge government. Leaves energy decisions to individual choices. Sounds like a conservative climate plan.”

But instead of placing a rising fee on carbon emissions to make fossil fuels pay their true cost to society, our governments are forcing the public to subsidize fossil fuels by 400 to 500 billion dollars per year worldwide, thus encouraging extraction of every fossil fuel — mountaintop removal, longwall mining, fracking, tar sands, tar shale, deep ocean Arctic drilling. This path, if continued, guarantees that we will pass tipping points leading to ice sheet disintegration that will accelerate out of control of future generations. A large fraction of species will be committed to extinction. And increasing intensity of droughts and floods will severely impact breadbaskets of the world, causing massive famines and economic decline. Imagine a giant asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth.

That is the equivalent of what we face now. Yet, we dither, taking no action to divert the asteroid, even though the longer we wait, the more difficult and expensive it becomes. If we had started in 2005, it would have required emission reductions of three percent per year to restore planetary energy balance and stabilize climate this century. If we start next year, it is six percent per year. If we wait 10 years, it is 15 percent per year — extremely difficult and expensive, perhaps impossible. But we aren’t even starting.

So now you know what I know that is moving me to sound this alarm. Clearly, I haven’t gotten this message across. The science is clear. I need your help to communicate the gravity and the urgency of this situation and its solutions more effectively. We owe it to our children and grandchildren.

Thank you.

We are worried too. Worried about the effects on ocean life we’re already seeing (ocean acidification [2], warming and sea level rise…), the likely future changes to come, and especially the future of our own species.

Such a wonderful TED talk that we just had to share it. Enjoy!

Visit Census of Marine Life @www.coml.org

The video above is of a sea cucumber feeding. Within the ocean, organisms have adapted many different methods of gathering food. It’s not as easy to find food in water as on land, even within the same species there can be many different methods, just look at fish! You have gigantic whale sharks that filter feed on tiny planktonic creatures, to deep sea angler fish that use a flashing lure that brings food close enough to grab or even the awesome gulper eel that’s stomach is bigger than the body so it can eat a meal of any size.

So sea cucumbers are a member of the echinoderm family (starfish, sea urchins, sea daises and the holothurian or sea cucumber). This particular individual is a sea apple and they are round sea cucumbers that look like apples. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor and are the most abundant animal within the deep sea. This brightly coloured individual would be found on a coral reef in the Indo-Pacific. They can be found individually, in pairs or even in huge herds. The general feeding strategy is deposit feeding on detritus such as plankton or decaying material. Sea cucumbers will either pick through the sea bed or filter through the water column for their food, often being described as the earthworms of the sea. In this case, it’s filter or suspension feeding and this is done through the capture of particles on their mucous-covered tentacles. Once the tentacles are saturated then the particles are scraped off in the centrally-located mouth, from the video you can clearly see this movement.

I filmed this at work and find it fascinating and something often overlooked! You don’t often get to see this behaviour, when diving you want to see as much as possible and don’t often stop and stare! So here is the behaviour up close for all to see!

So the first piece of news, the secrets of the sea turtle migration have been uncovered. It turns out that the reproduction migration (females returning to their nesting beaches) is not the longest migration that sea turtles carry out. It has been found from the compilation of long term capture programs that the migration of immature turtles, termed “developmental migration”, is longer than the reproductive migration. Also this migration is only carried out once in their life time rather than every few years. On the migration topic as well, a study was carried out to determine the migration of juvenile leatherback sea turtles. However, due to the size and the weight of the juveniles it is impossible to attach a satellite tag to their shells without them sinking. So instead of following the hatchlings the scientists followed the currents. The “lost years” of a turtle’s life, the age between hatching and returning to foraging grounds can be anywhere between 3 to 5 years after they hatch. These years are the least understood part of a turtle’s life. Knowing more about where the turtles swim before they reach adulthood could be critical in protecting the species.

Next up, a bill is being put into place in California with the aim to raise awareness and aid in preventing sea turtles going extinct, particularly the leatherback turtle. California is making sea turtles an official marine reptile; they will join the likes of the desert tortoise, gray whales and other plants animals including fish as symbols of the state. In addition to this, 41,000 square miles of ocean off the coast will become a protected habitat. California is making a bold move in doing this, however they are providing the opportunity for this species to survive and thrive in their waters. Hopefully, this will set an example for many other countries.

Lastly, a recent report has been produced by a variety of organizations assessing the status of sea turtle population globally. The compilation of this data has resulted in a baseline study for all sea turtle populations, providing a blueprint for conservation and research. Also it resulted in the production of two population maps: one map of the healthy population and one of the threatened populations. This report was produced by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Marine Turtle Specialist Group in a collaboration involving over 30 experts from 6 continents and in more than 20 countries. The population maps can be found in PDF format at this link.

Now for part 2…. 50 years on and a second attempt is being made. Over the next year, four different organizations with different types of submersibles will attempt to again reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench. One of the four subs, the “Triton” is planning on eventually selling tickets to the general public to allow everyone the privilege of travelling to the bottom of the ocean. However, these tickets come at a steep price, $250,000 per seat. For more information on the types of subs being used check out Race to the bottom of the ocean. Only one will be crowned as a winner!

More About DEEPSEA Challenge…

There are many reasons for attempting the race to the bottom of the sea. It is not exactly known what’s down there or how organisms are surviving. Upon the first attempt they only saw one fish as detailed by Don Walsh in a recent interview. Finding out more about that environment and how it will cope with environmental change and how we will might effect it (through mining or drilling) is vital. There are just so many unanswered questions about this environment! More people have been into space than have been to the bottom of the sea and more is known about the surface of the moon than what lurks deep in our ocean on our own planet!

With the advancement in technology since the initial trip and all the sampling methods used to investigate this environment, I am surprised this has not been attempted sooner. However, I am glad that it is being attempted once again. I wish good luck to the four groups attempting this amazing feat and I will eagerly be waiting to see the video footage!

The app evolved from the book, “Fishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific” published in 1994. However, the app covers over 1,300 species allowing the identification of 10% of the world’s tropical fish species whereas the book only has 700. The app is free on iTunes: here and is potentially one of three apps according to iTunes descriptions.

Having downloaded and played around with this app it is very easy to use. It has a clear lay out containing a notebook section where you can compile your own lists and each page comes with a glossary section for any words used that aren’t understood. When you click on one fish you will also see other members of the family before it goes directly to the profile page, allowing for a perfect match. I like the feature of being able to find out the IUCN red list status which is available on each profile page. A useful little app that I would recommend to anyone needing to identify any pacific fish species!

RIP Mike, you will be deeply missed.

From TED Talk: Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus

This remarkable behavior was discovered just a few months ago; a black-marble jawfish (Stalix cf. histrio) following and mimicking a mimic octopus in one of my all-time favorite places at the center of marine biodiversity: the Lembeh Strait, Indonesia.

An outstanding find which shows just how much marine life has yet to teach us….

Here’s the journal article: http://www.springerlink.com/content/p74l7mn21441538t/ and the MSNBC news article: Tiny fish mimics octopus that mimics fish

Find out more about these amazing creatures at oceansunfish.org or National Geographic’s News article: World’s Heaviest Bony Fish Discovered?

After watching Ric O’Barry in The Cove, it’s hard not to want to free any dolphin you come across in captivity. O’Barry has been at the forefront of dolphin rescue since the ‘70’s, after watching Kathy, one of the five dolphins who played Flipper, commit suicide in his arms. O’Barry is now working to free the largest member of the dolphin family: the orca. Along with a former SeaWorld trainer, two other marine mammal experts, and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), O’Barry is listed as a “near friend” of Tilikum and Katina from SeaWorld Orlando; and Corky, Kasatka, and Ulises from SeaWorld San Diego. The five orcas are named as plaintiffs in PETA’s lawsuit against SeaWorld. Tilikum is the orca that grabbed and killed his trainer in 2010.

PETA is asserting that the whales are, in effect, involuntary servants: held in captivity, ripped from their families in the wild, subject to sperm collection and artificial insemination, and forced to perform; all for SeaWorld’s profit. PETA is arguing that this is illegal… under the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in 1864. PETA claims this is the first suit of its kind: seeking to apply constitutional rights to animals.

SeaWorld calls the suit “baseless and in many ways offensive.” And they may be right…PETA’s case is not being given very good odds by legal experts. It will be a victory for PETA if they can even get the case heard without it being dismissed right away. Even though the 13th Amendment doesn’t specifically say that it applies only to humans, it is doubtful that any court will want to open the door to the potential unforeseen legal backlash possibly created by hearing the case. After all, if constitutional rights could apply to orcas, what animal is next?

I can see both sides of this one. On the surface, I can see how people are offended by PETA’s suit. People fought long and hard in this country to end slavery and indentured servitude. That wound is still healing for many. Racial stereotypes, profiling, and discrimination are unfortunately alive and kicking still today.

But if you take a look below the surface, you get a different picture. We know that orcas have sophisticated social structures. We know they are very intelligent, and have a wide range of emotions. We know that different pods have unique hunting techniques and behaviors passed down through generations by communication, essentially their own culture. So the question looms: is it right for us to take an animal that may cover 75 miles a day in the wild, and hold them against their will in an empty pen, simply for our own entertainment?

SeaWorld claims that the suit would take away “the public’s right to enjoy and learn more about marine mammals.” But what gave us that right? And what marine mammal would you rather enjoy: the one with the defeated, curled over dorsal fin? Or the one in its natural habitat, behaving vibrantly as a normal whale would? Who knows if those questions will discussed in this lawsuit, but they are already being talked about in the court of public opinion, and that may turn out to be the most important part of this lawsuit.

Reading the new 2nd edition of Erich Hoyt’s MPAs for Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises gave me a lot to think about. What a fascinating topic and the book is… I’m not sure I have words. It is an impressive volume packed with information on cetacean species, highly detailed information on their habitat and migratory patterns, and lots of background on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

1. MPAs are a complex, but critical strategy to protect whales, dolphins, porpoises and other marine species. What are some of the biggest constraints to the success of MPAs and what are some steps to help overcome them?

EH: One constraint is getting them implemented. All MPAs start out on paper. It can be in the interests of government, industry or certain stakeholders in keeping them only on paper. There is inertia of course, too. Many areas stay as paper MPAs for years. I always say that all MPAs start out on paper but it is up to the stakeholders — the local communities, researchers, government ministries, conservation groups and those who care — to work separately and jointly to make them real MPAs that function to help protect marine wildlife and ecosystems. It is also important to realize that once effective protection is put in place, it is necessary to monitor and review the situation from time to time and make changes as needed to keep the MPA functioning and, indeed, improving.

For whales and dolphins and other highly mobile marine animals, there are particular challenges to overcome, but we can solve some of these issues by, for example, creating networks that protect the animals over various portions of their range, setting up corridors in important migratory areas, having seasonal and sometimes moveable zones of protection that can accommodate changes in the distribution. There are lots of good ideas around but we are only starting now to implement them. But we need to try and test these ideas to see how well they work and how they can be refined.

2. The first chapter is titled “From Whale Sanctuaries to Marine Protected Areas” – what’s the difference?

EH: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has devised a formal definition for ‘protected area’ that is in common use: a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

IUCN defines a marine protected area as: “Any area of intertidal or sub-tidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment,” (Kelleher, 1999). This definition is being refined by IUCN but, in general, a marine protected area is simply a protected area located anywhere from coastal waters to out to sea, usually defined by GPS coordinates. So the phrase “marine protected area” is a generic term indicating any area of the sea protected by formal or informal means.

When it comes to marine protected areas, there are a lot of confusing terms. I could have written a whole book trying to sort out the shades of meaning, as well as the profound differences in the uses of the same or similar terms from country to country, region to region, even within a country. For example, “sanctuary” means a highly protected area in Australia and New Zealand while the US has adopted the term for its multiple use “national marine sanctuaries” where for the most part fishing is allowed. Then there is the concept of large whale and dolphin sanctuaries covering the national waters of a country: these are mainly “no hunting” areas created by some 28 countries where there already are laws against no hunting. If we stood back and examined what they do, we would say in most cases absolutely nothing. But, on the positive side, they are statements of good intention. I think we should try to build on these positive intentions to try to create real habitat protection in these areas perhaps through establishing special zones of protection.

The IUCN has tried to address the confusion about the names by devising a rating system for all MPAs ranging from high protection reserved for science only or kept as wilderness (Category I) to multiple use areas that may even allow fishing and some industrial uses (Category VI). In between are marine national parks and monuments which allow tourism and other light uses but not extraction. The primary purpose of all MPAs, regardless of the category, is conservation of the biological, geological and/or cultural features. Any other uses are meant to be conducted without fundamentally disturbing the ecosystems that support the future sustainability of the area.

3. For years, Japan, Norway, and Iceland have gotten away with continued whaling, despite the moratorium imposed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). What will it take to get them to stop taking whales for “scientific” purposes and why do they refuse to recognize the harm being done by taking endangered species?

EH: In 1986, there was widespread celebration as a worldwide moratorium on hunting whales commercially finally went into effect. More than ¾ of the country members of the International Whaling Commission, supported by many scientists, conservation groups, governments and the public, voiced their strong view that the era of killing whales was over. That moratorium is still in effect today. However, a few countries have defied the spirit of the moratorium, by continuing to hunt whales through legal loopholes in the IWC regulations, and in some cases increasing the pressure on dolphin and other species formerly considered non- or less commercial. There is a recognition, even among many Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic people, that the so-called “scientific whaling” is primarily a device to keep whaling alive. The scientific results have been minimal and the publications marginal; most of the work can be accomplished through non-lethal methods and with better results. The meat from the scientific whaling is sold in commercial markets largely in Japan.

However, there are stockpiles of meat in Japan, Iceland and Norway as the general public even in these countries that go whaling have a severely declining interest in eating whales. Most of the industrial products have cheaper or more reliable substitutes today. So the market is declining and Japan has had to subsidize whaling for some years.

What we are seeing today is not even the last hurrah of what was once a huge industry. It is post-last hurrah. The last hurrah was in the Antarctic in the 1960s. Whaling hangs on, but just. The reason it hangs on at all is because there are individuals in all three countries who have a vested interest in seeing it continue. These include a whaler in Iceland who wants to use the ships and harpoons he already has. There is also the Japan Fisheries Agency in Tokyo whose whaling division negotiates its budget every year, some of which goes to keeping whaling alive. In Norway, there are existing minke whale ships that want to be able to hunt. But all of the above are confronting what is a small and declining market for whale meat and whale products. I believe that market forces will eventually sink the whaling industry but for now a few of those old iron ships are still plying the same old seas firing exploding harpoons into the bodies of whales, some of them endangered species. Most of the whales killed today are minke whales and they are not endangered, although there are minke populations under fire that are of concern, but Japan and Iceland have also the last few years targeted fin whales, the 2nd largest animal that ever lived after the blue whale. Fin whales are on the IUCN Red List, listed as “Endangered” due to the heavy whaling of this species through most of the past century. They have not yet recovered. Given the history of this industry and the specifics of the endangered fin whale, it is absolutely unthinkable that whalers in the early 21st century would be targeting and killing fin whales.

My book was written with the premise that for the most part we have done what we can to stop hunting but now we have to ask how do we truly “save the whales”. The answer is that we have to save their habitat, their homes in the sea. Without saving habitat, it means very little to have stopped hunting.

4. How are MPAs protected from illegal fishing/whaling? How can stakeholders partner to ensure that the limits imposed in MPAs are enforced?

EH: MPAs are mainly close to shore and illegal fishing and whaling are less of a problem because of the proximity of law enforcement. Offshore and outside the exclusive economic zones of countries, outside 200 nm, it’s a different story. In terms of fishing it is a wild west show. Illegal whaling is not such a problem anymore mainly because there is no real market for the meat.

Stakeholders are the strongest protection that whales and the sea have. An example is the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve in Mexico where some years ago the Mitsubishi Company wanted to build salt plants in the reserve beside the gray whale mating and calving lagoons. It seemed like a done deal until the “Group of 100″ Mexican artists, writers, citizens and their international friends, many of whom had gone whale watching in the reserve, as well as the local families and artisanal fishermen and boat operators who lived around the lagoons and made their livelihood from the healthy ecosystem, organized a massive worldwide campaign. In the end Mitsubishi was forbidden to expand their activities, a victory for the people, the stakeholders, and for the gray whale.

5. How is the impact of MPAs measured? Are cetacean census studies routinely conducted?

EH: MPAs and whale research are only a few decades old, and most of them have been created in the past decade. Therefore, there hasn’t been much time for evaluation but management plans are starting to monitor and re-evaluate the success of MPAs on a 5-10 year basis. There are various ways to monitor the health of ecosystems. It is expensive to do comprehensive abundance and distribution surveys of whales and dolphins but we need to do them every 5-10 years, if possible. The problem with most cetacean studies is that they focus only on very limited coastal areas and we have much less data offshore, so it is difficult to know how well we are doing in our protection efforts on a larger scale.

6. Shows like “Whale Wars” present whale conservation as entertainment. Do you feel that Sea Shepherd is helping to raise awareness in a positive way?

EH: “Whale Wars” gets people on all sides talking about the subject. That’s good, regardless of whether you are a whaler, an activist anti-whaler, or someone who works in other ways to effect change. If we don’t bring these things out into the open and think about them and talk about them, then they essentially happen behind closed doors and everyone just listens to their iPod or keeps texting while Rome burns. Of course, the bigger issues are what is happening and what is going to happen in the next decades with the all-out industrialization of the sea. We can’t drive our cars out to see the mess that is already starting to happen, but don’t be fooled: the ocean is the key part of our support system on Earth and if we don’t pay attention, our children will never forgive us.

7. Describe some of the most memorable moments you’ve had during cetacean encounters.

EH: I like the moments when you get to be in the presence of a family of whales or dolphins that you’ve been studying and come to know and you are with them for hours or even days and start to feel like a member of their community. This requires a delicate balance between being close enough to observe them yet far enough away so as not to disturb them or affect their natural behavior. For watching whales, I prefer when I am on land, but it’s possible on a boat with the best skippers who believe in “slow whale watching” and who have the gift of how to behave around whales so as not to disturb them.

Last summer I spent three days on a slow whale watching boat captained by my friends Jim and Mary Borrowman off northern Vancouver Island. I had long promised to take my wife and four children on this trip and this was the first time they had visited British Columbia and had the chance to meet orcas. For most of three days we watched the orcas gorging themselves on a record sockeye salmon run. The orcas were truly fat and happy — lying on the surface, resting for hours at a time. It was special for me because I renewed my acquaintance with some of the first whales I had ever studied in 1973. It was not just the same species but the same family called Stubbs’ pod (from my book Orca: The Whale Called Killer and also mentioned in many articles I wrote for National Geographic and other publications). One favorite female I met in 1973 was called Tsitika. She had just had a calf then and now she was a grandmother with an estimated age of 62 years. That was memorable to see her again. In my book I had written that orcas are so long-lived that someday I will be able to return and show my children these same whales and the offspring of these whales. There I was doing it.

One of the turning points in my work with whales years ago, long before there was any discussion about trying to protect whales in protected areas, was when I found that pods of orcas I was studying were coming back to the same areas day after day from late spring to early autumn and year after year. This is called ‘site fidelity’. Without this, it would be much more difficult to think about protecting specific ocean areas for whales and dolphins. Site fidelity is what creates the concept of “Homes in the Sea for Whales and Dolphins” which is a concept I devised and am hoping to work on as part of a campaign for habitat protection through WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

8. The book provides highly detailed descriptions of the global habitat of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Would you recommend it as a tool for whale watchers and tourists to learn more about where they can observe cetaceans in the wild?

EH: Yes my book can tell you where the 86 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises live around the world —- in every country, every ocean and sea and down to the fine detail of what can be seen in any of the 740 proposed and existing marine protected areas around the world.

These marine protected areas are similar to what the great national parks were in the early 1900s. Pioneer ecotourists are starting to discover them; many more people will follow. Of course, people have been going to a handful of these areas increasingly over the past couple decades, largely on whale watching and diving tours: the Great Barrier Reef and the US National Marine Sanctuaries in California, Hawaii and Stellwagen Bank off Massachusetts, being the most notable examples. But apart from these MPAs, tourism hasn’t really started on the marine side.

My book is starting to be used by pioneer ecotourists and whale watchers to find some of the great new marine sanctuaries and other protected areas where whales, dolphins and other marine life can be seen. In fact, I have been astonished by the remote and distant countries where the book turns up. I have been lecturing in more than 50 countries now and I expect when I go to places such as Suriname, that I am bringing my book for the first time, but I have been surprised quite a few times to find it already there and being used along with the world map posters we made showing all the MPAs on one huge map.

When you produce a book, you have no idea all the ways it will be used. My book explores the biological, ecological, legal, political and cultural aspects of marine habitat protection. I hope that this work will help in the creation of better protected areas for all marine animals, and that our oceans will achieve a high standard of management and protection and — that it will continue to sustain all of us into the distant future.

[Interview © Erich Hoyt and Joni Lawrence/MarineBio.org 2011]

For more information, review copies or to set up interviews, please contact: Ewa Magiera, IUCN Media Relations, t +41 22 999 0346, m +41 76 505 33 78, ewa.magiera@iucn.org

For immediate release: September 5, 2011

Whales & dolphins need more protected areas

Background: A new book, Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises is released, calling for accelerated efforts to conserve marine mammals by protecting a greater area of the ocean. Currently only 1.3% of the ocean is protected but many new Marine Protected Areas are being created. Erich Hoyt, the book’s author and IUCN’s cetacean specialist, examines current and future developments in ocean protection. The book is a key resource for cetacean scientists and managers of Marine Protected Areas. Since most of these areas promote whale and dolphin watching and marine ecotourism, the book is also useful for finding some of the best places to spot the 87 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises in 125 countries and territories around the world. The book is published by Earthscan / Taylor & Francis and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

Key Issues:

• The need for greater protection: “Marine protected areas are steadily getting bigger which is good news for large marine predators with big habitats,” says Carl Gustaf Lundin, Director, IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme. “However, most of them are still too small, too few and far between, with too little enforcement to adequately protect whale and other highly mobile marine animal habitats.”
• Growing threats: “At least 300,000 whales and dolphins a year end up dead in fishing nets alone, as so-called by-catch,” says Erich Hoyt, author, member of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission’s Cetacean Specialist Group and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. “Whales in some areas have been found to be emaciated. And scarcely a year since the BP Gulf Oil disaster, it’s business as usual in large parts of the Gulf and elsewhere.”
• Protecting the high seas: “To safeguard critical ocean ecosystems and highly mobile species, we need to set aside more untouched ocean wilderness areas in the high seas,” says Patricio Bernal, Coordinator, Western Gray Whale Conservation Project. “Outside of national jurisdiction, the high seas contain only a handful of protected areas. Without effective protection this huge area, which is equivalent to 64% of the ocean’s surface, will continue to be heavily exploited in the next few years.”

Materials for the Media:

• Photos for download: http://tinyurl.com/4yudg6d

IMPORTANT: Please note that these images can only be used to promote this book.

• World Map of all Proposed and Existing Marine Mammal Protected Areas, © Lesley Frampton, Calvin Frampton and Erich Hoyt: erichhoyt.com/MPA_files/MPAs4Whales_WorldMap_Poster_2011.pdf

About IUCN

IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges.

IUCN works on biodiversity, climate change, energy, human livelihoods and greening the world economy by supporting scientific research, managing field projects all over the world, and bringing governments, NGOs, the UN and companies together to develop policy, laws and best practice.

IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization, with more than 1,000 government and NGO members and almost 11,000 volunteer experts in some 160 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by over 1,000 staff in 60 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world.

For your FREE copy, join MarineBio with a minimum $100 donation. If you would also like a small (23.41 x 33.11 inches) or large (32.7 x 45.4 inches) map of cetacean MPAs around the world (also created by Erich) to go with the book, we ask that you donate a minimum of $150. Please add $25 for postage for orders outside the US.

Comprehensive almost seems like an understatement for this book, which includes great detail on existing and planned MPAs (including marine reserves, national parks, and sanctuaries in both national waters and the high seas) for cetaceans all over the world.

In addition, the book features extensive information on the history and background of cetacean protection, detailed characteristics of cetacean habitats, migratory patterns, global distribution, ecosystem-based management, and threats faced by cetaceans. The book is also loaded with maps, figures, illustrations, and case studies. Bonus information is provided throughout the book such as the view of MPAs in Iceland, how to set up an MPA, MPAs in Japan, etc.

This book serves as an excellent tool for scientists, conservationists and conservation groups, cetacean lovers, students, MPA managers, etc. Even whale watchers will find this book an indispensable resource for finding the best places to watch the 87 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises in 125 countries and territories around the world.

This fully updated, revised 2nd edition of Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, features new sections on:

• the impact of climate change and noise on whale and dolphin (cetacean) habitats

• the emerging strategies of employing flexible ocean zoning, spatial planning and networks to help solve the problems of creating and managing protected areas in rivers, estuaries, coastal waters, and on the ocean’s high seas

• 100 new maps, tables and boxes which detail the latest information on some 500 existing and more than 200 new MPAs worldwide

• A number of important areas presented in the book include case studies for what may become high profile campaigns in the lead up to 2012:

1. the proposed Costa Rica Dome MPA is the first area in the world where endangered blue whales have been found to feed as well as breed and raise their calves;
2. the proposed Ross Sea Marine Reserve is the last intact major ecosystem in the Antarctic with three different ecotypes of killer whales and minke whales.

Other areas featured in the book include the proposed Southeast Shoal of the Grand Bank MPA, with humpback, fin, sperm and blue whales on the high seas off the US-Canada east coast; and the proposed Hebrides Marine Reserve and Cetacean Critical Habitat Network in Scotland with resident Risso’s, white-beaked and bottlenose dolphins, minke whales and harbor porpoises.

The book is 448 pages, includes 20 color plates, 100+ maps, figures, tables & boxes, 10 case studies, a bibliography and index.

To read excerpts from the 1st edition see: http://www.cetaceanhabitat.org/intro.php

For your FREE copy, join MarineBio today.

Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises (2nd edition)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements/List of Figures, Tables, Boxes and Case Studies/Prologue/Introduction

Chapter 1

From Whale Sanctuaries to Marine Protected Areas: Approaches to Protecting Cetacean Habitat

• History of marine protected areas and cetaceans Ocean sanctuaries, marine reserves or parks: Which one and why?
• Biosphere reserves: A strategy for thinking about protected areas Defining and managing for critical habitat

Chapter 2

The Value of Cetaceans for Place-Based Conservation

• Introduction Red List assessment of cetacean species, subspecies and populations Cetaceans as assets for place-based conservation

Chapter 3

Planning Effective Protected Areas: Steps towards the Design, Establishment and Management of Protected Areas for Cetaceans

• Introduction
• Cetacean habitat needs
• Checklist for creating better MPAs and PAs for cetaceans

Chapter 4

The Big Picture for Cetacean Habitat: Planning for Ecosystem Management, Networks and Ocean Zoning

• The application of ecosystem-based management
• Planning for climate change
• Ensonification in an ever noisier ocean
• Networks of protected areas
• High seas MPAs
• Marine spatial planning and ocean zoning
• Other pragmatic approaches

Chapter 5

Habitat Protection for Cetaceans Around the World: Status and Prospects in the 18 Marine Regions

• Introduction
• Marine Region 1: Antarctic
• Marine Region 2: Arctic
• Marine Region 3: Mediterranean and Black Seas
• Marine Region 4: North West Atlantic
• Marine Region 5: North East Atlantic
• Marine Region 6: Baltic
• Marine Region 7: Wider Caribbean
• Marine Region 8: West Africa
• Marine Region 9: South Atlantic
• Marine Region 10: Central Indian Ocean
• Marine Region 11: Arabian Seas
• Marine Region 12: East Africa
• Marine Region 13: East Asian Seas
• Marine Region 14: North and South Pacific
• Marine Region 15: North East Pacific
• Marine Region 16: North West Pacific
• Marine Region 17: South East Pacific
• Marine Region 18: Australia-New Zealand

Epilogue

References/List of Acronyms and Abbreviations/Index

A FALL FROM FREEDOM is the first film to expose the long and sordid history of the captive whale and dolphin business; a history that continues to this day. The illegal capture and transport of killer whales, the thousands of dolphins that are killed in order to provide marine parks and aquariums with replacement animals, and the ability of these facilities to miseducate the public about these animals.

These, and many other issues, are covered in graphic detail in this 80 minute film.

Visit the A FALL FROM FREEDOM website @ http://afallfromfreedom.org for more information about the film including screenings, interviews and how to get a copy.

The WDCS “Homes for Whales” campaign is mentioned in MPA News. Free subscriptions are offered to this monthly newsletter which currently is sent out to marine protected area scientists, conservationists, managers and government departments in more than 120 countries. It is also available for download at http://depts.washington.edu/mpanews/MPA121.pdf.

Erich Hoyt’s new Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises is available in the US Friday, August 5th. MarineBio will be giving copies of the book FREE with your $150 donation. See our donations page for details.

This story proves how we’ve only scratched the surface of what we know about the ocean and marine life.

Some animals are classified as “intelligent” if they use tools right? What about fish? It is known that some fish use tools to crush the shells of their prey but it is not well documented in photos. Recently a diver on the Great Barrier Reef managed to photograph a tuskfish using a rock as an anvil to smash a clam shell open.

Tool use in the tuskfish Choerodon schoenleinii?

Fig. 1 a–f: Series of six photographs of a black spot tuskfish, Choerodon schoenleinii using a rock as an anvil to open a cockle shell. The photographs span 75 s and were taken while on a dive in the Keppel Islands region of the southern Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia. Broken shells are seen lying on the sand near the rock.

Jane Goodall describes tool use as the use of an external object as a functional extension of mouth or hand in the attainment of an immediate goal (van Lawick-Goodall 1970). Tool use is often observed in a foraging context in a wide range of species, and complex feeding behaviors are not uncommon among marine fishes. For instance, wrasses crunch sea urchins against corals and use anvils to smash food into more manageable pieces (Pas´ko 2010, reviewed in Brown et al. 2006). In spite of the anecdotal evidence for the use of tools in marine fishes, there are few documented cases, particularly those based on observations in the wild. Here, we present evidence of a black spot tuskfish, Choerodon schoenleinii, Valenciennes, 1839 using a rock as an anvil to open a cockleshell that conforms to Goodall’s definition of tool use.

On 12 November 2006, S. Gardner was returning from an 18-m dive in the Keppel region of the southern Great Barrier Reef (–23.199S, 151.099E) when he heard a cracking noise and saw a tuskfish hovering just above a sand patch near a rock grasping a cockle in its mouth. The photographs span 75 s and show the fish grasping the shell in its jaws and rolling onto its side to land alternate blows on the rock until the shell fractured (Fig. 1a–f). The use of a rock as an anvil rather than a hammer could be considered a sign of intelligence considering the ineffectiveness of manipulating a freely suspended tool in water. The images certainly provide an interesting starting point for further comparative studies on tool use in fishes.

References
Brown C, Laland K, Krause J (2006) Fish cognition and behaviour. Blackwell Publishing, Cambridge
Pas’ko Ł (2010) Tool-like behavior in the sixbar wrasse, Thalassoma hardwicke (Bennett, 1830). Zoo Biol 29:767–773
van Lawick-Goodall J (1970) Tool-using primates and other vertebrates. In: Lehrman D, Hinde R, Shaw E (eds) Advances in the study of behavior. Academic Press, New York, pp 195–249
A. M. Jones, Centre for Environmental Management, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD 4702, Australia
C. Brown, Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
S. Gardner, Ferguson Street, Emu Park, QLD 4703, Australia
DOI 10.1007/s00338-011-0790-y
SOURCE: http://www.springerlink.com/content/h1463564t1t2t00m/fulltext.pdf

I’m notoriously behind the times when it comes to mobile technology. When I finally got a “smart” phone I had fun playing Tetris for a few hours, then stupidly went back to using it as just a phone.

So I’m a little late to the party on this – but in case you are too – sustainable seafood apps. What fantastic apps! I can now tossrecycle my crinkled, waterlogged wallet card from Monterrey Bay Aquarium/Seafood Watch.

The Blue Ocean Institute has the FishPhone app for iPhone and if you’re not on the apple train, you can text your menu choice to see its conservation status. Just text “fish salmon” or “fish tuna” to 30644 and you’ll get a text message back ranking the fish’s sustainability and information on toxicity from mercury and PCBs.

I’m not on the apple train, so I recently downloaded Monterrey Bay’s Seafood Watch app (also available for the iPhone) that uses GPS to ID your location and give you recommendations for sustainable seafood in your area.

Both the Blue Ocean FishPhone and Seafood Watch apps are free. If you’re willing to invest $1 you can download Safe Seafood’s app, which ranks seafood sustainability from a variety of sources and gives them a green, red, or yellow “light” according to their conservation status.

If you haven’t already, go get the apps for yourselves, try them out, tell all your friends and let us know which one you like best.

Hot off the press!

Erich Hoyt, MarineBio’s Director of all things cetacean and Senior Research Fellow with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society in the UK has just published a fully-revised 2nd edition of his book Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises. The new edition features 477 pages, 12-pages of color plates, 100+ maps, figures, tables, case studies…a wealth of information on this important topic that spans the globe.

The book reveals the inside story on existing and planned marine protected areas (MPAs) and marine national parks and sanctuaries around the world. It is designed to be a key resource for scientists, research institutions, students, wildlife conservation agencies, MPA managers, and anyone who cares about cetaceans and the special places where they live.

Since most of the world’s MPAs promote whale and dolphin watching and responsible marine ecotourism, the book can also be used by cetacean watchers to find some of the best places to watch 87 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises in 125 countries and territories around the world.

To accompany the book, WDCS has produced a stunning poster-sized color map showing the 740 cetacean MPAs and sanctuaries around the world illustrated by Pieter Folkens and designed by Lesley Frampton, Calvin Frampton and Erich Hoyt. Stay tuned to the MarineBio donations page to find out how to get a copy. Or you can download a high-res copy of the map in a new window via http://web.mac.com/erich.hoyt/www.erichhoyt.com/MPA_files/MPAs4Whales_WorldMap_Poster_2011.pdf (21 MB).

We will also be giving away copies of the book. Stay tuned to find out how you can get yours. Or if you can’t wait, it will be available on Amazon or at a fine bookseller near you.

Selected Reviews & Comments

“In this richly updated and comprehensive volume, Erich Hoyt combines a sense of urgency about the need for action with a clear message of hope. Protecting areas in the sea to give marine mammals a better chance for survival benefits all life on Earth, including humans. As never before, the connections are clear. Never again will there be a better time to act for the sake of cetaceans – and primates, too.” — Sylvia A. Earle, oceanographer, National Geographic explorer-in-residence, Mission Blue founder

“Erich Hoyt’s book provides comprehensive and irreplaceable insight into marine protected areas dedicated to marine mammals — these animals that are so close and dear to us. It shows us how to harmonize mankind and the sea more effectively to enable human development and nature preservation to progress side by side at a similar pace.” — H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco

“Erich Hoyt’s handbook is an admirable, timely and highly welcome contribution….This will no doubt become the ‘bible’ of cetacean habitat conservation efforts.” — Michael Stachowitsch, Marine Ecology

“Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises is an especially timely book. The creation of MPAs is hot right now. While reading about the hundreds of existing MPAs summarized in the book and appreciating the dynamic nature of marine conservation, I was left in awe of the impossibility of Hoyt’s task. Nevertheless, he is successful in producing a volume that is authoritative, comprehensive, and up-to-date. The first part functions well as both a text for background reading and as a reference for specific information. The second part and the bulk of the book…is a worldwide review of those MPAs that include cetaceans. I recommend this book to everyone interested in marine mammals and/or marine conservation. Those researchers actively involved with MPAs will find it indispensable.” — Robert Nawojchik, Aquatic Mammals 2005, 31(4): 481-482.

“Essential reading as the protected area system around the world rapidly expands. Planning and managing for the well-being of marine mammals is essential for all protected area managers.”
— Carl Gustaf Lundin, Head, IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme

“The world’s oceans face numerous threats and there is strong scientific consensus that marine protected areas are a key solution. This book is a valuable contribution to understanding the successes, opportunities and challenges we face as we strive to conserve the oceans, the creatures that live in them and the important role they play in supporting human health, food and economies.” – David Suzuki

“A truly impressive piece of work…easy to browse, authoritative and up to date. It is the definitive reference of the current extent of cetacean ecosystems-based management and something I can see myself returning to on a regular basis over the next few years. It should also be of value to professionals and students with interests in wider marine management issues.” — Ben Wilson, Environmental Conservation 2005, 32(3): 283-284.

“After many years of research, Erich Hoyt has yet again produced a unique and essential book for anybody interested in the conservation and protection of cetaceans.… This will become the definitive source on MPAs for cetaceans for many years to come and will influence the design and management of this important and rapidly developing conservation tool. I strongly recommend it to everybody interested in whale and dolphin conservation.” — Simon Berrow, FINS 2(1) and Biology and Environment, Proc. Royal Irish Academy

“Drawing on a vast knowledge of the world’s whales, Hoyt cuts a clear path through the labyrinth of legislation involved in marine protected areas (MPAs) to create a comprehensive resource for all involved in marine conservation. For the first time, those involved in creating protected areas can gain a global perspective on their local work. It facilitates the sharing of ideas, reveals the glaring gaps and is a call to action. Hoyt transmits an urgency to get on with the task in hand. He sees all MPAs as works in progress with the capacity to improve and change. This book will go a long way towards its aims of promoting the creation of the best possible MPAs for cetaceans. Anyone sharing that aim will find it an invaluable contribution to marine conservation.” — Anna Levin, BBC Wildlife, in “The best new reads” (leading review)

“The definitive account of the status and protection of cetaceans – a well-written and interesting work on an important subject, accessible to both experts and general readers.” — Prof. Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize; author The Diversity of Life, On Human Nature, Consilience

“In this excellent and definitive book, the author makes clear that Marine Protected Areas, even in the earliest stages of full evaluation, offer a realistic and informed approach to immediate and future marine conservation. This book cuts through the multiplicity of labels attached to areas of protection for marine life and lays bare the precise meaning of each. This is an exhaustively researched, fascinating, thought-provoking and hugely useful book. It is both reference and reading material in one. For those involved in the conservation of cetaceans it must already be a compulsory handbook and for the lay reader it is a revealing and readable account of the considerable progress of our conservation experts and of the huge task still ahead. A massive achievement marking a milestone in marine protection.” Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars) — Rachel Saward, Amazon.com

“Multiple strategies are needed to reverse the decline of whales and dolphins, and one of these is creating protected areas for them. Renowned writer and leading authority on whale watching Erich Hoyt takes us on a fascinating journey across the complex and uncharted world of protected areas for cetaceans. This highly informative book will become a source of inspiration and understanding for the decision-maker as well as for the lay person, and an exhaustive repository of information and references for the specialist.” — Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Tethys Research Institute and Deputy chairman, IUCN/SSC Cetacean Specialist Group

“One of the leading scientists on sea mammals Erich Hoyt has just published Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. Worldwide in coverage, the 520-page book reveals the inside story on more than 500 existing and planned MPAs, national parks and sanctuaries…. a key resource for scientists, research institutions, students, wildlife conservation agencies, MPA managers and anyone who cares about cetaceans and the special places where they live.” — Chemistry and Life XXI Century (Moscow)

“Le premier tour du monde, détaillé et informé, des zones marines protégées, les meilleurs endroits où observer 84 espèces de baleines et dauphins.” — Sciences et Avenir (Paris)

“For many years, Erich Hoyt has been a leader amongst the conservation community….His award-winning books, which cover topics from ants to whales, act as sign-posts showing the way for the environmentalists of our age. His marine conservation work has focused mainly on whales, including evaluations of whale watching. Here, however, as the title tells us, he takes an in-depth look at marine protected areas. These MPAs have become a central theme of modern marine conservation efforts and a critical look at them is more than timely. He examines the guiding concepts in details and also provides details of the relevant MPAs in each region of the world. It is clear that considerable research has gone into what is presented making this a reference book of significant merit. It is a book for everyone with a serious interest in marine conservation and/or whales and dolphins and, once again, Hoyt has put in place a seminal work that will be widely cited and quoted for many years to come.” Overall rating, ***** (five stars) — Mark Simmonds, WDCS, reviewing on Amazon.co.uk

“Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises is the definitive handbook on this pressing issue [of marine habitat protection] and the first to bridge the gap between the disciplines of marine-protected areas and cetacean conservation. Essential.” — Sustain Magazine (UK)

“Hoyt makes clear that Marine Protected Areas offer a realistic and informed approach to immediate and future marine conservation. The science and logistics are complex, but the theory behind MPAs is simple. It’s a holistic approach to conservation in which single factors are considered cumulatively, rather than individually. So for example, the effects of all human activities in one area (say, fishing, recreational boating and waste management) are considered all together, not just for one particular species but on the entire local ecosystem, from whale to coral reef to microorganism. The emphasis is strongly on the management of human activities.” — Howard Garrett, Orca Network

“This authoritative handbook…is testimony to the substantial on-going efforts to implement the relatively new and bridging field of MPAs for cetacean species and habitats. [For Indonesia], the handbook is also a timely reminder that more MPAs are clearly needed… to ensure protective management.” — Indonesian Nature Conservation Newsletter

“In thirty years of cetacean advocacy I have never felt more empowered or inspired by any other cetacean book…Many books tell us all that we know about cetaceans; finally we have a book that tells us how to help them by protecting their habitats and perhaps more important, how to do more. This is the stuff the politicians need to know before they are moved to help… A book that anyone serious about wanting to conserve cetaceans and their habitats must have… A must-have book for every reference library in every country…. Only Hoyt could have written it.” — William Rossiter, Cetacean Society Int’l director, reviewing in Whales Alive!

“Expertly written account of… a neglected and pressing issue. This first of its kind reference work, is of immense value to everyone who busies themselves with whale and dolphin conservation, and should be in the hands of every policy maker.” — American Cetacean Society newsletter, Puget Sound chapter

“There is much to recommend in this book. It has a great deal of information about all manner of marine protected areas. In addition it offers masses of data about cetacean location, the range of conservation measures available and the laws that exist. Much of these data are in table form making it easy to compare options. It would add considerably to any conservation or marine study and should be seriously considered for such. Target Readership: Senior Secondary. Overall Rating: **** (4 stars) — Paul S Ganderton, Book Review Editor, British Ecological Society, Teaching Ecology Group.