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I’m off to Thailand for two weeks so won’t be monitoring this blog. I’m learning to scuba dive whilst I’m out there so hopefully I’ll be able to get some awesome marine pictures.
Lots of love x
Anonymous asked:
Did you see there will be a new documentary on Granny? It's called The 100 Year Old Whale. Do you have any thoughts on it?
I went and had a read of the website, thanks for the heads up! In my book a new whale documentary is always something to get excited about! The guy creating it seems to be an environmentalist which is awesome, so hopefully this will raise awareness of the southern residents which can only be a good thing.
The only thing that will frustrate me is that Granny probably wasn’t 100. I think a more conservative and realistic estimate of her age is between 70-80, the analysis they conducted on her blubber suggested between 65 and 80 years (which is still exceptional!).
We know that Ruffles (J1) wasn’t Granny’s son so they only other family we can guess her age from is her presumed daughter J12 (Sissy). Sissy had two known calves Canuck born in 1972 and Samish born in 1974. If we are conservative and assume Canuck was Sissy’s first calf and assuming 14 as the age of having a calf successfully (I think that’s around the average for the SR) then it puts a conservative estimate ofnSissy’s birthday as 1958 (officially its 1935) and assuming the same for Granny then a conservative birth estimate around the mid 1940′s vs 1911. This assumes that Sissy was not actually post menopausal after giving birth to her last known calf Samish just that she just never had any more successful pregnancies. Its entirely possible that Granny became pregnant in the 60′s and 70′s but she was unlucky in losing her calves to miscarriage, death or capture therefore giving the illusion she had been post menopausal for a long time when studies began in the mid 1970′s. Then again this is assuming Sissy was the daughter of Granny which we don’t know for sure.
Even though Granny or Sissy may have been as old as originally thought I think its best the er on the side of caution. One bad statistic can ruin an otherwise brilliant message.
Okay rant aside I’m really looking forward to this/hope it doesn’t make me cry which is what usually happens whenever I think about the southern residents.
Today marks 100 years since some women were given the right to vote in the UK after decades of protest.
These amazing women risked all fighting to be heard and respected in a world built to ensure they stayed silent.
We owe these women so much, and I thank them every day for their determination, persistence and sacrifice.
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Angry Rant
I literally cannot fathom the thinking certain people on this website that support the new chinese parks importing russian orcas.
Even if you don’t care about capturing wild orca for marine parks, even if you think that they live peachy lives in captivity or that its okay if they live bad lives because “bad things happen in the wild too”. Do they not understand that we know virtually nothing about the state of the populations from which these orca are taken. Or that the scientists studying these animals believe there many only be a few hundred transients in the Sea of Okhotsk and taking so many animals could decimate this population. Do they not listen to these scientists, the people that know these whales best, begging the government to stop the captures for fear of what will happen.
How the hell can they claim to love these animals if their desire to see them twirl on cue for their fucking amusement could wipe out or severely harm a wild population. How can they sleep knowing mothers lost their calves, pods lost family members drowning in nets and babies were ripped from their culture, from their grandmothers, aunts, uncles, mothers, brothers and sisters. How are they okay with the terror those babies must have felt, or how Nord, Orpheus and Grace starved and nearly died adapting to captivity.
How can they claim that preventing captive whales from experiencing motherhood is horrendously cruel, while at the same time supporting an industry which denies that motherhood to countless wild whales. Those mothers would have fought, screamed, grieved for their children, HOW can they be okay causing a sentient, emotional being so much pain.
How is that they claim to care so much for the captive animals, but care so little for those wild whales who end up suffering because of those captures?
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Tracey McManus - Jan. 30, 2018
Amid strong lobbying from SeaWorld against it, a bill to ban orca breeding and future captivity in Florida has died in a legislative subcommittee.
The Florida Orca Protection Act aimed to cement into law what SeaWorld voluntarily adopted in 2016 — an end to its killer whale breeding program and a phase-out of performances as public attitudes about whales in captivity have shifted. California easily passed its own version of the law that same year after SeaWorld dropped an initial fight against the crack down.
Advocates say the marine park’s resistance to making its policy legally binding in Florida, home of its global headquarters, suggests its commitment to making this generation of orcas the last in captivity could be short-lived.
“This shouldn’t be a controversial issue because it’s just making law out of what SeaWorld says its corporate policy is,” Animal Legal Defense Fund attorney Lindsay Larris said. “There’s no accountability. It should be the lawmakers holding them accountable.”
More proof that this company cannot be trusted.
If they intended to keep their word, they would not have fought this legislation.
I have a feeling this breeding ban will be lifted if Manby leaves/is kicked out.
My thoughts exactly when I read they lobbied against it; this self-imposed end to breeding and letting the orca’s be “the last in their care” is not going to last at all…
While this just proves that SeaWorld is not to be trusted, lifting the breeding ban would just even further prove it, and I believe that would damage SeaWorld at the same level that Blackfish did, because people then would have a clear and visible statement of SeaWorld’s inreliability and of them being untrustworthy. Lifting the ban would be the equivalent to SeaWorld shooting themselves in the foot.
I agree, it would be stupid to remove the breeding ban now.
It might be that they’re hoping in 5 - 10 years that the pressure will have died off and they’ll quietly start breeding again. Or god forbid they want to move the whales to China eventually.
Either way it isn’t good
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Tracey McManus - Jan. 30, 2018
Amid strong lobbying from SeaWorld against it, a bill to ban orca breeding and future captivity in Florida has died in a legislative subcommittee.
The Florida Orca Protection Act aimed to cement into law what SeaWorld voluntarily adopted in 2016 — an end to its killer whale breeding program and a phase-out of performances as public attitudes about whales in captivity have shifted. California easily passed its own version of the law that same year after SeaWorld dropped an initial fight against the crack down.
Advocates say the marine park’s resistance to making its policy legally binding in Florida, home of its global headquarters, suggests its commitment to making this generation of orcas the last in captivity could be short-lived.
“This shouldn’t be a controversial issue because it’s just making law out of what SeaWorld says its corporate policy is,” Animal Legal Defense Fund attorney Lindsay Larris said. “There’s no accountability. It should be the lawmakers holding them accountable.”
More proof that this company cannot be trusted.
If they intended to keep their word, they would not have fought this legislation.
I have a feeling this breeding ban will be lifted if Manby leaves/is kicked out.
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Monday, January 29, 2018
Phototoxicity and is the Hybrid SeaWorld Orca Malia Dying?
Malia is a female hybrid killer whale born at SeaWorld of Florida on 12 March 2007. Her mother was Taima, a half-transient & half N. Atlantic mix & her father was Tilikum, a wild-captured Icelandic male…
New blog at VOTO:
Another possible explanation for Malia’s skin problems.
SeaWorld’s latest comment on Malia
“ As you’ve noticed, Malia is going through some discoloration of her white skin, similar to what wild whales experience when they travel through colder waters. It’s important to note that these changes are limited to the outer layers of her skin. At this time we have no indication that this is infectious based on bloodwork and several biopsies. Also, Malia’s behavior has not changed and she continues to interact with the entire orca pod, as well as with her trainers. As with all animals at SeaWorld, the Veterinary and Animal Care teams are monitoring Malia daily. . “
Source x
They’re still rolling with that diatom crap. If it really was diatoms they’d be able to name the species - I’d want microscope images of their damn silica frustules.
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Hey do you know any good scientific books about Killer Whales? Or you lots about them yourself? I'm writing a scientific fact file / short novel about them based of my intense love and fascination of these creatures and my personal experience of swimming with them in the wild. The catch? I only have one good book about whales, with only four pages about orcas and any articles or books I find in the internet are about SeaWorld, and that's not what my focus is on this project. Thank you xx :)
Someone asked a similar question ish-recently and I was trying to find that, but I didn’t have any success. So! Probably the most informative, scientific book on my shelf about orcas specifically is this one - Killer Whales of the World, by Robin Baird. Baird is cool! There may be newer editions of this book. It’s not too terribly expensive. Specific to certain populations, these books exist:Killer Whales: The Natural History and Genealogy of Orcinus Orca in British Columbia and Washington StateTransients: Mammal-Hunting Killer Whales of British Columbia, Washington, and Southeastern Alaska I really like them, but they can be difficult to obtain. Try to get a newer edition if you want to pick one of these up.If anyone else reading this post knows of a good, orca-fact-centric book, please suggest? All the others I’ve read are more about an instance, a specific whale, a person’s set of experiences, etc (with information about the orcas interspersed throughout.) I really like Erich Hoyt’s Orca, The Whale Called Killer but it definitely falls into this category.The thing I’ve noticed with orcas (and it’s probably very true for many animals… I am just paying close attention to orcas) is that there’s a lot of research constantly nudging what’s known this-way-and-that, so most books are going to be missing the newest bits, or reflecting older information. I am also (very excitedly) expecting a copy of Hoyt’s Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, it should be here tomorrow. I’ve been wanting to read it because it’s new and looks to be a great compilation of/reference for info; I can’t speak to what in it focuses on orca, yet, but I’m expecting good stuff. You should also go follow @flukeprintphotography, she’s studying killer whales and often posts a lot of really good write-ups about various aspects of them. Awesome knowledge about the Alaska orca populations as well. I can try to answer any specific questions you have, but I’m no expert. I’d encourage any of the above avenues instead since you’re on a research mission.
flukeprintphotography
Currently, the majority of my cetacean books are boxed away in storage so I’ll have to go off of memory, but some of my favorite killer whale books (in addition to the ones mentioned above) are:
- An Observer’s Guide to the Killer Whales of Prince William Sound
- Into Great Silence: A Memoir of Discovery and Loss Among Vanishing Orcas
- Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us
- Of Orcas And Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us
Some of these are told from a more narrative perspective but they are great reading if you are interested in killer whales. Now, if you are a marine mammal nut like me and are willing to spend some money, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing the following books:
- Marine Mammals of the World, Second Edition: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification
- Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, Third Edition
- Marine Mammals, Third Edition: Evolutionary Biology
These are essentially must-haves for any student/biologist. In fact, these are actually required books for my marine mammalogy class that I am currently taking. They contain the most up to date information available and are extremely comprehensive (especially the encyclopedia; it’s over 1,000 pages and weighs nearly as much as I do!).
If you don’t want to buy books but are still in need of reliable sources for your writing, I recommend perusing some research papers from the primary literature. That’s where all of the stuff you see published in books is originally sourced from. Check out Google Scholar and type in “killer whale” with any other key words (i.e. diet, range, behavior, ect.) to find some original research papers. If you’re not familiar with scientific papers the jargon can sometimes be hard to get through but generally the abstract and the conclusions will tell you the gist of the papers in easy terms without having to get through sometimes confusing methods.
The only catch is that if you’re not a student at a university/a researcher with a subscription, a lot of these journals and papers are behind paywalls. However, I am a university student access to most of them, so if you find a paper you’d like to read but can’t access it for free, send me a message and I can see if I can get it to you (this goes for everyone, not just anon! Research should always be shared freely and widely).
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Never-before-seen photos of orcas at the ‘Chimelong Killer Whale Holding Facility’ on Hengqin Island in China. These photos were posted publicly in December 2017 on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform.
Anonymous asked:
Studying dolphin welfare is good and all, but am I the only one seriously put off by how the woman in the article's video straight up said they want to assure everyone that dolphins in captivity are doing great? This is not the mindset a scientific study should be designed with. It should be 'what factors have what impact on dolphin welfare and how can we measure it?', not 'how can we prove everything's fine?'. I guess it may be just poor wording/the wrong person for the interview, but ugh.
Yep you’re totally right and I agree. Its impossible to be completely impartial in science but it’s all too easy to start predicting results before the data is complete or interpreting results with heavy bias.
I’m really hoping that the wording was wrong and the science will be sound. Its so important for the animals that this is done right. It doesn’t matter if either pro-caps or anti-caps don’t like the results if it finds ways to improve the welfare of the animals.
But then the study might be conducted with bias and I’ll be screaming with uncontrollable rage along with everyone else. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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Orcas work together to become a mighty herring-herding team, using their tails to create shockwaves that stun the fish and make them easier to catch.
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Alex Stuckey - Jan. 12, 2018
The Texas State Aquarium is joining a worldwide quest to improve the health and living conditions of dolphins in captivity. The goal is pretty simple: determine how physical habitat, animal training and environmental enrichment impact the welfare of aquatic animals such as dolphins and whales.
The effort comes in the form of a study, funded by a $740,000 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Corpus Christi-based aquarium is one of 44 facilities in seven countries that will participate and get a chunk of the money.
Now Playing: Researchers at Brookfield Zoo are trying to find out if dolphins in captivity are actually happy. Researchers at Brookfield Zoo are trying to find out if dolphins in captivity are actually happy.
“We can’t ask a dolphin how it’s doing, so we have to look at indicators of welfare” such as stress level and social behaviors, said Lance Miller, principal investigator on the study and the Chicago Zoological Society’s senior director of animal welfare research.
Finally.
This sort of research should have been done 20 years ago
Anonymous asked:
omg malia's skin :( if the skin disease really is a symptom of a much worse disease that is slowly killing her then for the love of god euthanize her now. What is the point of dragging her through a slow and painful death? I just don't understand Seaworld when it comes to this. Clearly they will get a lot of bad press over this plus Malia is suffering. It would be in everybody's best interest to put her to rest, wouldn't it? (if she is terminally ill)
At the moment we have no idea how serious the infection is, if its just a skin infection or if its more systemic. I think its a bit premature to be thinking along these lines as Malia is young and as far as we know has no other health conditions. Its not the same situation that Kasatka was in as she also had her chronic lung condition which would have complicated things and weakened her. Other whales have exhibited skin problems similar to Malia and have recovered so we have to hope its nothing more serious.
However if it ever does get to the state where Malia is seriously ill (and its not curable) I agree with you and think its cruel for SeaWorld to fight to keep them alive for so long. Unna, Tilikum and Kasatka all suffered long and presumably painful illnesses, they left Unna and Tilli to die and waited until Kasatka was at deaths door to end her pain.
I suppose they keep them alive for so long is because they’re so valuable and they’ll do almost anything to protect their assets.
I’m just hoping Malia starts to recover.
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