Threats to Marine Animals & Conservation

[Lisbeth]

Researchers cite climate crisis as possible reason behind decreased southern right whale migration to SA

By Anke Nel• 16 September 2021


Southern right showing its tail - Hermanus.Photo:Anke Nel

The past decade has marked a drastic decline in the number of southern right whales migrating to South Africa’s coast, and a team of research scientists from the Whale Unit at the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute are trying to find out why. But, despite lower migration numbers, local businesses in the top whale-watching town of Hermanus are not overly concerned.

Anke Nel is a freelance writer and photographer based in Pretoria covering the environment, conservation and international affairs. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of Pretoria (UP) and is an assistant lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences at UP. She writes in her own capacity.

The survival of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) has, to some extent, always depended on human activities. Wholesale hunting of right whales from the 17th century was so detrimental to population numbers that by 1946 the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (now International Whaling Commission) was established to prevent their extinction. The species’ name, “southern right”, in fact, comes from hunters’ belief that they were the “right” whales to hunt, because of their slow and docile nature, because they float when they die, and because they yield large quantities of oil and baleen (a feeding system in their mouths made of keratin — similar to human nails).

Although regulations halting commercial whaling allowed the recovery of right whale populations, indications point to an emerging threat to their foraging success, which is possibly linked to climate change. This ultimately means that fewer right whales have the energy reserves necessary to migrate to the South African coastline.

The town of Hermanus in the Western Cape is considered by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to be one of the top whale-watching destinations globally, largely due to the whale season from July to November, which offers tourists phenomenal land-based whale watching. Three types of whales can be seen in Hermanus: the humpback whale, the Bryde’s whale and the southern right. The latter is often more enjoyable for observers to watch, because of its calm nature, allowing tourists and whale watchers to experience the species at a closer proximity to the others.


A southern right whale exhales at the start of South Africa’s oldest ocean race, the Mossel Bay Race, in Cape Town on 22 September 2017. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma)

South Africa’s right whale population is now at about 6,116 individuals, increasing at an annual rate of 6.5%. The population is divided into two groups namely, “unaccompanied adults” (male and female adults who do not calve that year) and “cow-calf pairs” (female cows giving birth).

Although oceanic populations are increasing, research scientists from the Whale Unit of the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute (MRI), are discovering a substantial decrease in the number of right whales migrating to SA’s coastline, as well as an increase in the frequency at which they give birth (known as calving intervals).

Firstly, according to research manager at the MRI Whale Unit, Dr Els Vermeulen, there has been a substantial decrease in the number of unaccompanied adults migrating to our coastline over the last decade, from around 300-400 down to 15-30 animals per year.

Secondly, the number of cow-calf pairs have fluctuated substantially. Since 2015, there was a sharp decline in numbers, followed by a spike in 2018, thereafter numbers declined again.

Thirdly, there has also been an increase in calving intervals. Usually, a female gives birth every three years, but from 2009 this gap increased to four to five years. Lastly, compared to species surveyed in the late 1980s, females giving birth are reportedly about 24% skinnier in recent years, signalling a possible change in diets.

Although the Whale Unit’s research is still ongoing, it believes that this change in foraging strategy is likely the result of a changing climate altering oceanic frontal systems, which are areas of water with a high abundance of prey for whales and other marine species.


Cow-calf pair – Hermanus.Photo:Anke Nel

For example, in the Southern Ocean, Antarctic krill populations are declining and appear to be shifting southward, due to warmer waters in their key habitats. As “capital breeders”, right whales forage on these krill and microscopic zooplankton during the summer months. The food is stored as blubber in their bodies to sustain them through migration to SA’s coastline for the mating and calving season.

Understanding the changing foraging strategies of right whales is not simple. However, with the help of the MRI’s extensive database — considered one of the longest continuous datasets of any marine mammal globally — researchers have access to data from as far back as 1969. This includes, firstly, aerial photographs of right whales, which help to identify individual whales from their callosity patterns (white markings on their head, similar in uniqueness to human fingerprints).


The Whale Unit’s iconic research boat. (Photo: Anke Nel)

Secondly, using stable isotope analysis, which is derived from samples from skin and baleen plates from stranded animals, researchers can compare feeding strategies over time to determine whether right whales have changed what they feed on, and where they feed.

Lastly, a pod of right whales found in the Overberg region will be tagged this year with satellite tags, providing researchers with greater insight into the migration patterns of these whales, as well as their feeding locations.

What do changing migration patterns of southern rights mean for a town like Hermanus?

According to the manager of Cape Coast Tourism, Frieda Lloyd, whale-watching experiences are immensely valuable to local businesses, who all benefit from increased foot traffic in the town. One of the biggest tourist events in Hermanus is the annual Whale Festival, which takes place around the time southern rights return to SA’s coastline. According to data obtained from the Whale Festival Website, the 2019 festival attracted between 90,000 and 100,000 visitors. Said to be one of the largest and most promoted eco festivals in the region, the festival helps to put Hermanus on the map as a preferred tourist destination.

The value the festival brings to the town’s economy is difficult to ignore. Local news sources suggest that the festival assists with promoting Hermanus with multiplatform publicity equating to millions of rands and prioritises locals, with the majority of the vendors originating from the Overberg region; according to 2017 statistics, the festival injected R55-million into the local economy.

Despite the importance of whales to Hermanus’ economy, some local businesses do not seem overly concerned with the decrease in migration numbers. This is possibly because right whales and other species are still present along the coastline and have not completely disappeared, which means businesses are not financially impacted. There are also likely diverging perspectives between business and conservationists, as the former tend to think in the short term, principally, to put food on the table, whereas the latter are more focused on protecting and preserving animal species in the long term.


The Whale Fountain in Hermanus. (Photo: Anke Nel)

Despite the divergent views, it would be a mistake to ignore the research undertaken by the MRI Whale Unit. Southern right whale numbers in Hermanus are dropping — even if the reasons are not yet fully understood — and this may generate socioeconomic consequences down the line. More importantly, ignoring the science may hamper conservation efforts, which could lead to a further decline of right whales along SA’s coast. This decline will not be as easily reversible as the regulation of whale hunting was almost a century ago. DM/OBP

To learn more about the research undertaken by the whale unit visit www.adoptawhale.co.za. You can also opt to “adopt a whale” symbolically to help fund whale conservation by covering some of the costs associated with their fieldwork.

[Lisbeth]

Massacre of turtles in Mexico, at least 300 drowned

ats 29 October 2021

This is the Olive ridley species listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature



Massacre of sea turtles near the Mexican beach of Oaxaca, where they go to lay their eggs: at least 300 specimens were found dead, probably drowned after being entangled in illegal fishing nets.


This is the 'Olive ridley' species listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The turtles were found on Morro Ayuta Beach in Oaxaca, on the west coast of Mexico, one of the places where they go to lay their eggs. All specimens found dead were female, local media reported.

It is not the first time that large numbers of olive turtles have been found dead in Oaxaca. In 2018, fishermen had found another 300 entangled in fishing nets.

Mexico banned the capture of sea turtles in 1990 and there are severe penalties for anyone who kills them. Officials said the Mexican Navy will join environmental authorities in their investigation of the deaths.

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

Whales will help save the world’s climate crisis — unless the military destroys them first

By Koohan Paik-Mander | 15 Dec 2021
Koohan Paik-Mander, ​​who grew up in postwar Korea and in the US colony of Guam, is a Hawaii-based journalist and media educator. She is a board member of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, a member of the CodePink working group China Is Not Our Enemy, and an advisory committee member for the Global Just Transition project at Foreign Policy in Focus. She formerly served as campaign director of the Asia-Pacific programme at the International Forum on Globalization. She is the co-author of The Superferry Chronicles: Hawaii’s Uprising Against Militarism, Commercialism and the Desecration of the Earth and has written on militarism in the Asia-Pacific for The Nation, The Progressive, Foreign Policy in Focus and other publications.

Throughout their lives, whales enable the oceans to sequester a whopping two billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. That astonishing amount in a single year is nearly double the 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon that was emitted by the US military in the entire 16-year span between 2001 and 2017 — but US military activities and expansion are killing off our whales.
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The US military is famous for being the single largest consumer of petroleum products in the world and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Its carbon emissions exceed those released by “more than 100 countries combined”.

Now, with the Joe Biden administration’s mandate to slash carbon emissions “at least in half by the end of the decade,” the Pentagon has committed to using all-electric vehicles and transitioning to biofuels for all its trucks, ships and aircraft. But is only addressing emissions enough to mitigate the current climate crisis?

What does not figure into the climate calculus of the new emission-halving plan is that the Pentagon can still continue to destroy Earth’s natural systems that help sequester carbon and generate oxygen. For example, the plan ignores the Pentagon’s continuing role in the annihilation of whales, in spite of the miraculous role that large cetaceans have played in delaying climate catastrophe and “maintaining healthy marine ecosystems”, according to a report by Whale and Dolphin Conservation. This fact has mostly gone unnoticed until only recently.

There are countless ways in which the Pentagon hobbles Earth’s inherent abilities to regenerate itself. Yet, it has been the decimation of populations of whales and dolphins over the last decade — resulting from the year-round, full-spectrum military practices carried out in the oceans — that has fast-tracked us toward a cataclysmic environmental tipping point.

The other imminent danger that whales and dolphins face is from the installation of space-war infrastructure, which is taking place currently. This new infrastructure comprises the development of the so-called “smart ocean”, rocket launchpads, missile tracking stations and other components of satellite-based battle. If the billions of dollars being ploughed into the 2022 US defence budget for space-war technology are any indication of what’s in store, the destruction to marine life caused by the use of these technologies will only accelerate in the future, hurtling Earth’s creatures to an even quicker demise than already forecast.

Whale health: the easiest and most effective way to sequester carbon

It’s first important to understand how whales are indispensable to mitigating climate catastrophe, and why reviving their numbers is crucial to slowing down damage and even repairing the marine ecosystem. The importance of whales in fighting the climate crisis has also been highlighted in an article that appeared in the International Monetary Fund’s Finance and Development magazine, which calls for the restoration of global whale populations. “Protecting whales could add significantly to carbon capture,” states the article, showing how the global financial institution also recognises whale health to be one of the most economical and effective solutions to the climate crisis.

Throughout their lives, whales enable the oceans to sequester a whopping two billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. That astonishing amount in a single year is nearly double the 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon that was emitted by the US military in the entire 16-year span between 2001 and 2017, according to an article in Grist, which relied on a paper from the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute.

The profound role of whales in keeping the world alive is generally unrecognised. Much of how whales sequester carbon is due to their symbiotic relationship with phytoplankton, the organisms that are the base of all marine food chains.

The way the sequestering of carbon by whales works is through the piston-like movements of the marine mammals as they dive to the depths to feed and then come up to the surface to breathe. This “whale pump” propels their own faeces in giant plumes up to the surface of the water. This helps bring essential nutrients from the ocean depths to the surface areas where sunlight enables phytoplankton to flourish and reproduce, and where photosynthesis promotes the sequestration of carbon and the generation of oxygen. More than half the oxygen in the atmosphere comes from phytoplankton. Because of these infinitesimal marine organisms, our oceans truly are the lungs of the planet.

More whales mean more phytoplankton, which means more oxygen and more carbon capture. According to the authors of the article in the IMF’s Finance and Development magazine — Ralph Chami and Sena Oztosun, from the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development, and two professors, Thomas Cosimano from the University of Notre Dame and Connel Fullenkamp from Duke University — if the world could increase “phytoplankton productivity” via “whale activity” by only 1%, it “would capture hundreds of millions of tons of additional CO2 a year, equivalent to the sudden appearance of two billion mature trees”.

Even after death, whale carcasses function as carbon sinks. Every year, it is estimated that whale carcasses transport 190,000 tons of carbon, locked within their bodies, to the bottom of the sea. That’s the same amount of carbon produced by 80,000 cars per year, according to Sri Lankan marine biologist Asha de Vos, who appeared on TED Radio Hour on NPR. On the seafloor, this carbon supports deep-sea ecosystems and is integrated into marine sediments.

Vacuuming CO2 from the sky — a false solution

Meanwhile, giant concrete-and-metal “direct air carbon capture” plants are being planned by the private sector for construction in natural landscapes all over the world. The largest one began operation in 2021 in Iceland. The plant is named “Orca,” which not only happens to be a type of cetacean but is also derived from the Icelandic word for “energy” (orka).

Orca captures a mere 10 metric tons of CO2 per day — compared to about 5.5 million metric tons per day of that currently sequestered by our oceans, due, in large part, to whales. And yet, the minuscule comparative success by Orca is being celebrated, while the effectiveness of whales goes largely unnoticed. In fact, US President Joe Biden’s $1-trillion infrastructure bill contains $3.5-billion for building four gigantic direct air capture facilities around the country. Nothing was allocated to protect and regenerate the real orcas of the sea.

If ever there were “superheroes” who could save us from the climate crisis, they would be the whales and the phytoplankton, not the direct air capture plants, and certainly not the US military. Clearly, a key path forward toward a liveable planet is to make whale and ocean conservation a top priority.

‘We have to destroy the village in order to save it’

Unfortunately, the US budget priorities never fail to put the Pentagon above all else — even a breathable atmosphere. At a December 2021 hearing on “How Operational Energy Can Help Us Address Logistics Challenges” by the Readiness Subcommittee of the US House Armed Services Committee, Representative Austin Scott (R-GA) said, “I know we’re concerned about emissions and other things, and we should be. We can and should do a better job of taking care of the environment. But ultimately, when we’re in a fight, we have to win that fight.”

This logic that “we have to destroy the village in order to save it” prevails at the Pentagon. For example, hundreds of naval exercises conducted year-round in the Indo-Pacific region damage and kill tens of thousands of whales annually. And every year, the number of war games, encouraged by the US Department of Defense, increases.

They’re called “war games,” but for creatures of the sea, it’s not a game at all.

Pentagon documents estimate that 13,744 whales and dolphins are legally allowed to be killed as “incidental takes” during any given year due to military exercises in the Gulf of Alaska.

In waters surrounding the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean alone, the violence is more dire. More than 400,000 cetaceans comprising 26 species were allowed to have been sacrificed as “takes” during military practice between 2015 and 2020.

These are only two examples of a myriad of routine naval exercises. Needless to say, these ecocidal activities dramatically decrease the ocean’s abilities to mitigate climate catastrophe.

The perils of sonar

The most lethal component to whales is sonar, used to detect submarines. Whales will go to great lengths to get away from the deadly rolls of sonar waves. They “will swim hundreds of miles… and even beach themselves” in groups in order to escape sonar, according to an article in Scientific American. Necropsies have revealed bleeding from the eyes and ears, caused by too-rapid changes in depths as whales try to flee the sonar, revealed the article.

Low levels of sonar that may not directly damage whales could still harm them by triggering behavioral changes. According to an article in Nature, a 2006 UK military study used an array of hydrophones to listen for whale sounds during marine manoeuvres. Over the period of the exercise, “the number of whale recordings dropped from over 200 to less than 50,” Nature reported.

“Beaked whale species… appear to cease vocalising and foraging for food in the area around active sonar transmissions,” concluded a 2007 unpublished UK report, which referred to the study.

The report further noted, “since these animals feed at depth, this could have the effect of preventing a beaked whale from feeding over the course of the trial and could lead to second or third-order effects on the animal and population as a whole.”

The report extrapolated that these second and third-order effects could include starvation and then death.

The ‘Smart Ocean’ and the JADC2

Until now, sonar in the oceans has been exclusively used for military purposes. This is about to change. There is a “subsea data network” being developed that would use sonar as a component of undersea Wi-Fi for mixed civilian and military use. Scientists from member nations of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), including, but not limited to Australia, China, the UK, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, are creating what is called the “Internet of Underwater Things,” or IoUT. They are busy at the drawing board, designing data networks consisting of sonar and laser transmitters to be installed across vast undersea expanses. These transmitters would send sonar signals to a network of transponders on the ocean surface, which would then send 5G signals to satellites.

Utilised by both industry and military, the data network would saturate the ocean with sonar waves. This does not bode well for whale wellness or the climate. And yet, promoters are calling this development the “smart ocean”.

The military is orchestrating a similar overhaul on land and in space. Known as the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), it would interface with the subsea sonar data network. It would require a grid of satellites that could control every coordinate on the planet and in the atmosphere, rendering a real-life, 3D chessboard, ready for high-tech battle.

In service to the JADC2, thousands more satellites are being launched into space. Reefs are being dredged and forests are being razed throughout Asia and the Pacific as an ambitious system of “mini-bases” is being erected on as many islands as possible — missile deployment stations, satellite launch pads, radar tracking stations, aircraft carrier ports, live-fire training areas and other facilities — all for satellite-controlled war. The system of mini-bases, in communication with the satellites, and with aircraft, ships and undersea submarines (via sonar), will be replacing the bulky brick-and-mortar bases of the 20th century.

Its data-storage cloud, called Jedi (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure), will be co-developed at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. The Pentagon has requested bids on the herculean project from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and Google.

Save the whales, save ourselves

Viewed from a climate perspective, the Department of Defense is flagrantly barreling away from its stated mission, to “ensure our nation’s security”. The ongoing atrocities of the US military against whales and marine ecosystems make a mockery of any of its climate initiatives.

While the slogan “Save the Whales” has been bandied about for decades, they’re the ones actually saving us. In destroying them, we destroy ourselves. DM

This article was produced by Local Peace Economy, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

[Richprins]

What a shocking story! the time for military is over!

[Lisbeth]

I really hope so, but I doubt it very much. We are kind of back to a "cold war" atmosphere and all the countries are developing new and more deadly weapons

[Lisbeth]

'Supergroup' whale pods along SA's shoreline sign of population growth - marine researcher


A humpback whale and its calf. Auscape/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Nicole McCain | 06.01.2022

• The whale populations off the West Coast have been experiencing exponential growth.

• Two whale carcasses, which recently washed ashore in Cape Town, could be a symptom of this growth.

• South Africa experiences a unique phenomenon of large whale pods, called supergroups.

Two whale carcasses have washed up on Cape Town's shores in just under a month - and we're likely to see more, says a local marine researcher.

But they shouldn't cause alarm because the carcasses are a symptom of a growing whale population thriving off South Africa's coastline.

Marine researcher and founder of Sea Search, Simon Elwen, said after being nearly decimated around 100 years ago, the whale populations had started experiencing exponential growth.

Supported by a vast, rich ecosystem, South Africa has started experiencing a unique phenomenon of large pods of humpback whales travelling along its coastline.

These pods can contain anything from 20 to 200 whales - prompting the name "supergroups", explained Elwen.

While most Western Cape residents might be familiar with Southern Right Whales, which breed off the south coast in winter, South Africa's waters are home to various breeds of whales all year, said Elwen.

Humpback whales were often found off the West Coast, especially in summer, where they feed while migrating to warmer waters for their breeding season.

"It happens offshore, miles out to sea, so people don't see them very often," added Elwen.

Darryl Colenbrander, head of Coastal Policy Development and Management Programmes at the City of Cape Town, said it's not unusual for whale carcasses to wash up on Cape Town beaches, especially when a large pod was in the area.

The City of Cape Town officials and the National Sea Rescue Institute safely secured and removed a washed-up humpback whale carcass found in Sea Point.

"It's not unusual to have a large pod of whales moving past and to get the odd mortality," he said.

Both whales were large juvenile whales, which appeared to have died of natural causes, said Colenbrander.

"We usually examine the carcasses when they wash up. You can sometimes see if the whale has a clear cause of death like a propeller strike, but there was no evidence of this on the two whales that washed ashore," he said.

On Wednesday, there were pods off Scarborough and Sea Point, Elwen said.

Because of the growing population, many of the whales in the pods were juveniles.


The whale carcass washed up on Clifton 4th Beach on Tuesday morning, and was removed later that afternoon. Supplied


The whale carcass washed up on Clifton 4th beach on Tuesday morning, and was removed later that afternoon. Supplied. City of Cape Town

And scientists are starting to see more and more of these young whales beaching or their carcasses washing ashore.

Elwen said that several whale strandings had been recorded on the Namibian coast in recent months. Along with the carcasses washing up in Cape Town, this could indicate that the ecosystem was at carrying capacity.

These whales were likely young and hungry, making them more vulnerable to disease, propeller strikes or strandings.

Colenbrander said it's impossible to predict how many whale carcasses may wash ashore.

"We get several whale carcasses coming ashore every year, but that number varies. That's just the way mother nature operates. The whales could die from propeller strikes, entanglements or natural causes.

[Lisbeth]

The harpoons are gone, but whales face more complex modern threats


A humpback whale in Hermanus in the Western Cape. (Photo: Southern Right Charters)

By Julia Evans | 18 Jan 2022

Commercial whaling may have been banned in many countries, but a host of cryptic and intertwined dangers is putting these marine mammals at huge risk again.
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Whales may well be safe from commercial whaling in most countries, but that doesn’t mean they are out of the woods.

Dr Gwenith Penry, a marine mammal biologist and research associate at the Institute for Coastal and Marine Research at Nelson Mandela University, told Daily Maverick that “species have recovered pretty well, like humpback whales, and others haven’t, like blue whales”, explaining that the humpback whale population has increased since commercial whaling ended in South Africa.

“It depends very much on the species. It’s like calling a lion and a leopard a cat – they have very different biologies and behaviours.”

South Africa supports the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium on commercial whaling that was introduced in 1986, but according to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation it has been a non-whaling nation since 1975.

“The population is increasing, which is why those groups are becoming more obvious and more apparent,” said Penry in reference to the “supergroup” whale pods seen along the West Coast recently.

And, like humpback whales, the population of the southern right whale, a migratory species also found along South Africa’s coastline, has been rising – by about 7% a year.

“A couple of decades ago, southern right whales were in a worse state than they are now, and the same with our humpback whales. So their conservation statuses have improved,” said Penry.

“But we’re seeing more drastic fluctuations in the numbers that come to our coastline, and current thinking is that this is related to reduced prey availability in their Southern Ocean feeding grounds.”

While humpback whales and southern rights aren’t classified as vulnerable, unlike the resident Bryde’s whale that Penry specialises in, she said they are still of conservation concern because of a growing number of threats in our oceans.

“There are also massive ecosystem changes that are more noticeable on the West Coast, and that’s probably related to climate change and anthropogenic activities, which affect factors like current strength productivity, which is typically what is keeping those supergroups around.”

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has reported that six out of the 13 great whale species are classified as endangered or vulnerable.

While commercial whaling – which used to be a major threat to whale populations – has been banned in many countries (barring Japan, Iceland and Norway), whales still face many threats which are more complicated and intertwined.

“Commercial whaling was devastating and some populations may never fully recover. Lengthy scientific and political processes were required before the moratorium was affected, but as a whole it was a single industry that could be identified and addressed,” explained Penry.

“Modern threats to whales are often more cryptic and intertwined, and addressing them requires complex socioecological, political and economic cooperation to address them.”

Penry said the conservation concerns around our whales follow a global trend, with “increasing coastal development, increased shipping disturbance, more people living here, discarded fishing gear, plastic ingestion, pollutants, pollutant runoff from [agriculture]”.

“I dissected a killer whale six years ago here that just had a stomach full of plastic. So, it’s our horrible lifestyles that are affecting them.”

Penry said that globally entanglement and ship strikes are the biggest threat to large whales, having population-level impacts. Watch a whale disentanglement here.

There is increased disturbance from shipping, both from noise and ship strikes.

“So those ‘supergroups’ on the West Coast, they’re at a huge risk from ship strikes because they’re so close to shore feeding, and they are big, dense groups.”

Penry said entanglement is probably the biggest threat to whales currently, and has increased over the past few years.

“It’s increased, one because fishing efforts have increased – more global demand – [and] there’s more discarded or lost gear just floating around, because that happens sometimes – guys lose their gear or something’s broken.”

And second, “some populations are recovering, so the chances of an animal encountering it are higher”.

Mike Meyer, operations manager at the South African Whale Disentanglement Network, said there was a huge increase in whale entanglements from 2016 to 2020. In 2020 there were 38 reported entanglements, the most they’ve had.

Meyer said “superpods” of whales (that can consist of 300 to 400 animals) have faced more entanglement in recent years due to changes in wind which affects nutrient upwelling.

“We’ve had an increase in the southeasterly wind, carrying on right up to February, sometimes March, so what we get is this upwelling and nutrients coming to the surface,” he said, explaining that this coincides with periods of increased commercial fishing, which contributes to increased entanglement.

Penry said entanglement is more intense in certain areas around the world, but it’s killing some species at a rate that’s not replenishable, causing the populations to decline.

“Fishery gear, both lost and that which is set, is just increasing and becoming more of a hazard.

However, “there’s a lot of work going on to improve gear, some fisheries are on the whole quite open to changing gear or trying different gear types and mechanisms to reduce the amount of rope in the water column which is an entanglement hazard”.

The Whale Disentanglement Network has made strides in this area, significantly reducing entanglements in shark nets and octopus lines by changing mechanisms and gear.

Efforts like these, said Penry, are a national imperative as these teams need to be trained all along the coastline since entanglements are increasing.

In October 2021, Penry joined a Whale Disentanglement Network operation to disentangle a two-year-old humpback whale in Plettenberg Bay. It was wound so tightly around its tail that it took three hours to free the animal. It was like a noose and trailed about 15m behind it.

“If it had picked it up in Mozambique, it would probably have been on it for three, four weeks.”

Global warming

Meyer said they have seen an increase in entanglement (that wasn’t just reflective of population increases) since 2016, but the more important threat is global warming since it influences food availability and movement.

“What has happened is that the animals are disappearing, they’re moving somewhere else, probably because there’s food somewhere else, and they’re not getting the food. And as you know, the plankton in the Antarctic breeds mostly under the ice, and the ice is reducing. So things are changing, currents are changing, temperatures are changing, and food distribution is changing.”

Penry explained that changing temperatures and wind strength have changed the current systems, reducing nutrient upwelling in the Southern Ocean.

“Whales migrate to Antarctica to feed. As Antarctica is feeling the effects of climate change more heavily, it’s having an effect on nutrient upwelling and thus the whole food chain. So, if that doesn’t happen, because of weakening currents, or temperatures are too high, the plankton blooms don’t happen… then your whole food chain is affected.”

According to the WWF: “Warming oceans and loss of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic can affect the habitats and food of whales. Large patches of tiny plants and animals that they feed on will likely move or change in abundance as climate change alters sea water temperature, winds and ocean currents.”

Penry added: “It’s a much more cryptic threat – to the ecosystem rather than to the individual whale. So the environment is under attack by noise and pollution and rubbish, which then affects the health of the habitat that the whales rely on; their prey, their calving and resting areas, and their migration corridors.”

As the WWF has reported, “whales are at the top of the food chain and have an important role in the overall health of the marine environment”.

“Whales play a significant role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere; each great whale sequesters an estimated 33 tons of CO2 on average, thus playing their part in the fight against climate change.”

Penry agreed: “Whales play an important role in helping us to fight the climate crisis, as carbon sinks – when a whale dies, it sinks to the bottom of the ocean, taking a lot of the carbon with it – but it also creates a really valuable nutrient source for organisms that don’t easily find food.”

They have value to humans and the fight against the climate crisis because they are indicator species, she continued.

“They’re visible, they’re charismatic – people are watching them, studying them, they’re more accessible than some of the smaller, more cryptic species. So, changes in whale distribution, their behaviours, their feeding strategies are visible to us… they indicate changes in the environment to humans, which are then indicative of what’s happening in the ecosystem.”

In terms of their value to the ecosystem, they are vital in keeping the natural ecological balance of the food chain and help with nutrient upcycling.

“There’s a recent study which recalculated the amount of prey that whales consume, and consumption was found to be three times higher than we originally estimated. Which is just showing that because there are fewer whales now there’s less nutrient cycling,” said Penry.

“So it’s really important to ensure that numbers increase so that they eat more and then they defecate out more nutrients into the system.” DM168

[Lisbeth]

Whale migrations: how new UN treaty aims to protect species on the high seas

March 14, 2022 | Ryan Reisinger, Lecturer in Marine Biology and Ecology, University of Southampton
Ari Friedlaender, Professor of Ocean Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz
Daniel M. Palacios, Endowed Associate Professor in Whale Habitats, Oregon State University

A humpback whale we tagged while it was feeding off the Western Antarctic Peninsula made a nearly 19,000 km-round trip in 265 days, travelling north from Antarctica to its breeding area off Colombia and back. Whales migrate thousands of kilometres each year, gathering to mate and give birth in the tropics and subtropics during winter and then heading for cooler waters in higher latitudes to feast on abundant prey during summer.

Theories abound, but scientists still can’t agree on why whales undertake these epic migrations, or even how they manage to navigate vast ocean basins.

In a new report from WWF, a global environment charity, scientists compiled the migration tracks of over 1,000 whales worldwide, recorded using satellite tags. For the first time, the global scale and extent of the routes whales traverse during their migrations were illuminated. The report adds to the growing understanding among scientists that the routes between critical feeding and breeding habitats are as important to whales as the endpoints themselves.


A map of the world with whale migration routes highlighted.
Migration tracks of over 1,000 whales worldwide, from the WWF Protecting Blue Corridors report. WWF, Author provided

These routes also reveal how perilous the ocean is becoming for these giants. Climate change is shifting the places and times that whales can reliably find food, while fisheries are discarding nets and ropes that can ensnare and drown whales. Meanwhile around 11 billion tons of cargo is moved by sea each year. The routes these ships use cross the paths of migrating whales and other marine animals which may be struck and killed.

Six out of the 13 largest whale species are either endangered or vulnerable according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, even after decades of protection following the end of most commercial whaling in 1986.

Marine protected areas created by individual countries are one way to shield whales from some of these threats. These are zones where certain activities, like fishing, are restricted or prohibited. Currently, marine protected areas cover less than 8% of the ocean.

But whales move through the waters of multiple countries during their migration and spend much of this time in the high seas, where only 1.2% of the ocean is under some form of protection. Clearly, protecting whales requires a global effort.

Whales beyond borders

Geopolitical boundaries are invisible to whales but have extraordinary consequences for them. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, countries have rights to fish and pursue other activities in 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones (EEZ) extending from their coastlines. Countries designating marine protected areas within their EEZs can help conserve local ocean habitats.

But since laws vary substantially from country to country, it’s difficult to coordinate efforts to protect whales, although international agreements like the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals try to do just this.

It does little good protecting whales in one country, using measures like marine protected areas or rules restricting shipping and fishing, when they may face looser regulation in another country’s EEZ during a single migration. The WWF report showed that 367 humpback whales tracked by satellite in the southern hemisphere together traversed the EEZs of 28 countries during their migrations.

The 64% of the ocean which encompasses the high seas is beyond any EEZ and the authority of any single nation. Whales migrate between habitats thousands of kilometres apart, so it’s unsurprising that many species spend much of their lives there. The 367 tracked humpbacks spent half their time in these areas of the ocean beyond national jurisdictions.

A 2018 study tracked 14 large species, from leatherback turtles to white sharks, throughout the Pacific Ocean and revealed that 29% of all the positions recorded by satellite tags were in the high seas. In a 2020 study, we estimated that only 27% of important areas for marine mammals and seabirds in the Southern Ocean were within EEZs.


Five large open whale mouths surrounded by sea gulls at the ocean surface.
Some whales congregate in cool, productive waters to feed. Chad Graham/WWF-Canada, Author provided

Marine protected areas on the high seas

International negotiations are underway to figure out how to protect ocean species, including whales, outside of EEZs. In the more than 222 million km² that make up the high seas, there are almost no marine protected areas.

United Nations member states agreed in 2017 to negotiate an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of the high seas. The fourth and final session of these negotiations takes place in New York on March 7-18. The treaty will include ways that marine protected areas could be designated in the high seas, and these areas could restrict activities that threaten whales and other marine species in areas critical for their survival.

The treaty won’t design and implement these marine protected areas, though. That will rely on organisations like the Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force, which, with the help of scientists, has located at least 159 important marine mammal areas that could become protected. The migration tracks in the WWF report will be essential when it comes to identifying them.

Marine protected areas are only one measure among several which will be needed to make the high seas safer for marine mammals. Conservationists have to address mounting threats from climate change, fisheries, shipping and pollution.

There are glimmers of hope, however. The International Maritime Organization and the International Whaling Commission are collaborating to prevent ships from striking whales. Meanwhile, modifications to fishing equipment and other tools have reduced the number of dolphins caught in eastern tropical Pacific yellowfin tuna fisheries by 99%. Critical to any successful conservation effort is a solid foundation of scientific evidence and cooperation on local, regional and international scales.

[Lisbeth]

How we discovered that sea turtles in Seychelles have recovered from the brink


Rich Baxter, Author provided

March 17, 2022- April Burt, PhD Candidate, Conservation, University of Oxford. Adam Pritchard Visiting Researcher in Conservation, University of Exeter. Cheryl Sanchez, PhD Candidate, Biology, University of Pisa

It’s not always easy to assess whether animal conservation measures have worked. But we’ve discovered that green turtles of Seychelles – once almost hunted to extinction – are now thriving again. And it’s all because of crucial protection that was given to the species around 50 years ago.

Today, sea turtles are a well-loved icon for conservation, their image used worldwide to remind us why we need to clean up and protect our oceans. But back in 1888, turtle meat was the order of the day – with turtle soup a hugely popular delicacy throughout Europe.

One of the popular hunting grounds was the Seychelles archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, and in particular, an isolated place called Aldabra Atoll, one of the largest atolls in the world.

Around 12,000 turtles a year were hunted, resulting in Aldabra’s green turtle (Chelonia mydas) population collapsing to critically low levels – surveys carried out from 1967 to 1968 found no evidence of either recent or old nesting activity on the settlement beach, which was the targeted location for harvesting nesting turtles.

That was a turning point for Aldabra.

The Royal Society (an eminent scientific organisation in the UK) recommended that the atoll should become a nature reserve with complete turtle protection – and on August 13 1968 the Green Turtle Protection Regulations were implemented throughout the territory (which was under British rule at the time but gained independence in 1976). Since then many other protective area designations have been put in place in recognition of Aldabra’s importance to the natural world, including selection as a Unesco World Heritage site in 1982.

Thanks to all of these measures green turtles have remained largely undisturbed at Aldabra since 1968, and the effect of the protection has been astounding. As we report in our recent study in the journal Endangered Species Research, Aldabra now has the second-largest green turtle breeding population in the western Indian Ocean region.

Monitoring the turtles

Since the 1970s, the Seychelles Islands Foundation (Sif) – a public trust that took ownership of Aldabra’s management in 1979 – has worked with Dr Jeanne Mortimer, a turtle scientist, on a rigorous turtle-track monitoring programme to record the turtles’ recovery.

The survey effort has been atoll-wide with the most frequent surveys on the 2km settlement beach. It is walked every morning by an Aldabra ranger to count the number of “turtle nesting emergences” – that’s when a female comes out of the sea to attempt to nest and is recorded by counting the number of turtle tracks on the beach from the previous night. One female will leave one up and one down track – and rangers are able to distinguish between when she has actually laid eggs and when she has aborted the attempt.


Hatchlings leaving the nest
Amazing recovery: now there are between 3000 and 5000 female sea turtles nesting at Aldabra each year. AJ Burt, Author provided

From 1980-2019 over 128,000 turtle tracks across 44,000 turtle track surveys were recorded. So, under the guidance of Professor Brendan Godley, we worked with Sif to analyse this huge dataset.

Green turtle nests were found to have increased by between 410% and 665% since those early 1968 estimates, from around 2,500 to around 15,000 nests annually by 2019 – an estimated 2.6% annual growth rate in nest numbers. That equates to between 3,000–5,000 female turtles nesting each year at Aldabra today, because each female will nest several times each season.

Notably, the greatest increase was seen at settlement beach, which is the longest beach on the atoll and, historically, the hardest hit by exploitation.

Estimates for Aldabra’s turtle population before peak exploitation were as high as 8,000 nesting females per year, suggesting the current population could double again.

We also found uncovered many other interesting patterns in the detailed data.

There were almost twice as many nesting attempts abandoned by the nesting females because of obstacles on the beach, such as steep banks from coastal erosion and, potentially, also a result of increased litter washing up on the beaches.


Ranger doing track counts on settlement beach
Tracks left by female sea turtles were monitored each morning in Aldabra. Rich Baxter, Author provided

We also saw a potential shift in the nesting patterns of the turtles with peak nesting activity happening later in the year, perhaps a shift in their breeding season due to climate change.

More animal success stories

Similar recoveries have now been recorded in green turtle populations in Australia, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Mexico and on Ascension Island. All of these successes highlight the value of protecting nesting areas for species recovery.

And the benefits don’t end there. The protection of habitats at Aldabra has not only been a lifeline for marine turtles in the region but a whole range of other species too – not least, the iconic Aldabra giant tortoise that was also close to extinction as a result of extensive harvesting from Aldabra. It now has the largest population of giant tortoises worldwide.

The atoll is also the only site in Seychelles where dugongs – a sea cow related to manatees – are found, which is probably linked to the healthy seagrass beds that the turtles maintain through grazing.

The importance of marine turtles to ecosystems is widely acknowledged – but there are still a number of huge threats to these iconic animals that no amount of protection at Aldabra can stop, including unsustainable fisheries, climate change and plastic pollution.

But undoubtedly protected sites are a crucial tool for regional ecosystem recovery and health, and the Aldabra story can serve as encouragement to conservation efforts around the world. It shows that, given the chance, animals have an extraordinary capacity to recover from the brink.