June 2011 - MARMAM - devlists.uvic.ca

Humpback Whale stranding, French Mediterranean coast, 13/06/2011
by Frank DHERMAIN 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

Dear colleagues, A freshly dead 7.80m young female Humpback Whale was found stranded at the mouth of Carry-le-rouet harbour, 10 km west of Marseille, France. It is the second data for the French Mediterranean Strandin data base, the former being also a young 7 m female, in Cavalaire, 8 km south of Saint-Tropez, on May 22nd, 1993. Pictures of the tail and samples of skin and muscles have been taken and can be sent to compare with the photo-ID catalogue (as the young 8m Megaptera seen in Savona by the end of March), or to determine the genetic affinities with known populations. We hope it will be possible to perform a complete necropsy tomorrow, though there is a lack of suitable facilities in the vicinity. Frank Dhermain frank.dhermain(a)wanadoo.fr GECEM Groupe d'Etude des Cétacés de Méditerranée / French Mediterranean Cetacean Study Group Réseau National d'Echouage (Méditerranée) / French Stranding Network

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New paper on behavioral diagnosis of domoic acid toxicosis in California sea lion
by nicola pussini 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

Interesting paper on auditory habituation as a diagnostic measure in California sea lions with domoic acid toxicosis . P.Cook, C. Reichmuth, F. Gulland (2010). Rapid behavioral diagnosis of domoic acid toxicosis n California sea lion. Biology Letters, Animal Behavior; doi:10.1098/rsbl.2011.0127. Published online Abstract: Domoic acid is a neurotoxic metabolite of widely occurring algal blooms that has caused multiple marine animal stranding events. Exposure to high doses of domoic acid, a glutamate agonist, may lead to persistent medial temporal seizures and damage to the hippocampus. California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) are among the most visible and frequent mammalian victims of domoic acid poisoning, but rapid, reliable diagnosis in a clinical setting has proved difficult owing to the fast clearance of the toxin from the blood stream. Here, we show that the behavioural orienting responses of stranded sea lions diagnosed with domoic acid toxicosis habituate more slowly to a series of non-aversive auditory stimuli than do those of sea lions with no apparent neurological deficits. A signal detection analysis based on these habituation measures was able to correctly identify 50 per cent of subjects with domoic acid toxicosis while correctly rejecting approximately 93 per cent of controls, suggesting potential diagnostic merit. If interest please email me directly for pdf. Nicola Pussini DVM NOAA-AMLR pussinin(a)gmail.com

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New abstract deadline: Ambient Noise in North-European Seas Conference
by Peter Dobbins 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

Ambient noise in north-European seas: Monitoring, impact and management 3 - 5 October 2011 National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK. New Abstract Deadline. Ambient (background) noise levels in the sea are increasingly influenced by man-made activities, which are gradually changing the sound-scape of European waters. Rising levels of ambient noise pose increasing pressures on marine life, and this has led to underwater noise being classified by the EC as a pollutant in connection with the assessment of Good Environmental Status (GES) under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Member states will be asked to provide information on trends in ambient noise levels, which requires representative measurements made at appropriate monitoring stations. This in turn requires agreed methodologies for measuring and analysing ambient noise. There is a relative lack of data for ambient noise in coastal waters, for example around the North Sea, and such data that exist suggest levels higher than those observed in deep ocean experiments. The potential impracticalities and expense of large scale monitoring programs motivates the need to learn lessons from existing data and to make use of modelling techniques where feasible. The aim of this two-and-a-half-day meeting is to address the above issues within a scientific conference, and papers are invited on the following topics: * Methodologies and standards for ambient noise monitoring and reporting; * Technology for ambient noise monitoring; * Characterisation of anthropogenic sources contributing to noise; * Modelling ambient noise, * Trend identification in ambient noise (seasonal diurnal long term etc) * Analysis of existing data sets and data-basing of noise records, * Formulation of noise policy and regulation Deadline for abstract submission Friday 17 June 2011 Deadline for extended abstracts (3 pages) Friday 19 August 2011 For abstract submission and more information see http//www.ioa.org.uk/events/event.asp?id=119 Technical contacts Stephen Robinson, NPL, Tel 020 8943 7152, email stephen.robinson(a)npl.co.uk Rolly Rogers, NOC, Tel 023 8059 6314, email rxr(a)noc.soton.ac.uk Admin contact: Linda Canty, institute of Acoustics, Tel: 01727 848195, email: linda.canty(a)ioa.org.uk The meeting is jointly organised by the Institute of Acoustics and the Underwater Sound Forum of the Marine Science Co-ordination Committee. Please note that our email address has changed to firstname.lastname(a)ultra-sonar.com. This is to reflect the change in name to Ultra Electronics Sonar Systems, a business name of Ultra Electronics Limited. All other contact details remain the same. DISCLAIMER This e-mail from Ultra Electronics Limited and any attachments to it are confidential to the intended recipient and may also be privileged. If you have received it in error please notify the sender and delete it from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy it or use it for any purpose nor disclose or distribute its contents to any other person. All communications may be subject to interception or monitoring for operational and/or security purposes. Please rely on your own virus checking as the sender cannot accept any liability for any damage arising from any bug or virus infection. Ultra Electronics Limited is a company registered in England and Wales, registration number 2830644. The address of its registered office is 417 Bridport Road, Greenford, Middlesex, UB6 8UA.

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Postponement of Living Whales Symposium
by Simon Childerhouse 09 Jun '11

09 Jun '11

Dear MARMAM, Earlier in the year I submitted an email to MARMAM detailing the first announcement of the Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP) Symposium *'* *Living Whales in the Southern Ocean: advances in methods for non-lethal cetacean* *research'* planned to be held later in the year. Unfortunately, due to unexpected complications, we have had to postpone the Symposium and workshop from 8-10 September 2011 to 27-29 March 2012.The venue has also been amended to Puerto Varas, Chile. My apologies for the postponement but we will keep you advised with updates as they develop. Further information is available at http://www.marinemammals.gov.au/sorp/living-whales-symposium<https://cas.aad.gov.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=1bae40a9ba66405db222db88b3a11f29&UR…> or if you have any questions please email sorp(a)aad.gov.au<https://cas.aad.gov.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=1bae40a9ba66405db222db88b3a11f29&UR…> . Simon Childerhouse SORP Coordinator For the Symposium Steering Committee Australian Marine Mammal Centre, Australian Antarctic Division Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities 203 Channel Highway, Kingston 7050, Tasmania, Australia Ph. +61-3-6232-3146 Mob. +61-439-317-605 Email. simon.childerhouse(a)aad.gov.au Web. www.marinemammals.gov.au<https://cas.aad.gov.au/owa/redir.aspx?C=1bae40a9ba66405db222db88b3a11f29&UR…>; www.aad.gov.au

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Three southern right whale captured in a GeoEye1 satellital image
by Daniel Pérez Martínez 09 Jun '11

09 Jun '11

Dear colleagues We found three whales in a satellite image in the Golfo Nuevo, Peninsula Valdes, Argentina. It was a chance discovery while we were made in developing planning process for the protected area The Doradillo. The whales were found in GeoEye-1 image acquired for the project. Three whales are within 100 meters coast. The first whale is with his head out of water. The second whale silhouette is submerged under water and breathing. The third whale is swimming south to Puerto Madryn city. The satellite imagery, if from a GeoEye-1 product Line Geo. Image Type: PAN / MSI. Pixel size: 0.5 meters. Multispectral Files: BGRN. The image was taken 23/09/2009, a nice day, calm water, sunny, hide tide.We believe that this material may be useful for projects that are working with this type of sensors. If anyone is interested in details of the images may contact us. Images can be seen in this link: <http://bioreporte.com/bahia/2011/06/09/southern-right-whales-seen-from-a-sa tellite-image/> http://bioreporte.com/bahia/2011/06/09/southern-right-whales-seen-from-a-sat ellite-image/ Kind Regards and please could you be so kind to respond directly to our E-mail address, Daniel Pérez Martínez. Independent consultant. <mailto:Daniel.reporte@gmail.com> Daniel.reporte(a)gmail.com Domec García Norte 1142 (9120) Puerto Madryn (Chubut) Argentina Maria Cabrera. Coordinador. Doradillo Protected Natural Area. Secretaria de Turismo, Municipalidad de Puerto Madryn, Argentina. mcabrera(a)madryn.gov.ar

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New Publication: A review of ancient DNA studies on marine mammals
by Andy Foote 09 Jun '11

09 Jun '11

Dear colleagues, I'm pleased to announce the recent publication of a review of ancient DNA studies on marine mammals, which is part of a special edition of Annals of Anatomy on aDNA edited by Michi Hofreiter. This journal might be off most of your radars so I thought it was worth flagging. It can be accessed here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0940960211001166 or by contacting FooteAD(a)gmail.com Abstract Marine mammals have long generation times and broad, difficult to sample distributions, which makes inferring evolutionary and demographic changes using field studies of extant populations challenging. However, molecular analyses from sub-fossil or historical materials of marine mammals such as bone, tooth, baleen, skin, fur, whiskers and scrimshaw using ancient DNA (aDNA) approaches provide an opportunity for investigating such changes over evolutionary and ecological timescales. Here, we review the application of aDNA techniques to the study of marine mammals. Most of the studies have focused on detecting changes in genetic diversity following periods of exploitation and environmental change. To date, these studies have shown that even small sample sizes can provide useful information on historical genetic diversity. Ancient DNA has also been used in investigations of changes in distribution and range of marine mammal species; we review these studies and discuss the limitations of such ‘presence only’ studies. Combining aDNA data with stable isotopes can provide further insights into changes in ecology and we review past studies and suggest future potential applications. We also discuss studies reconstructing inter- and intra-specific phylogenies from aDNA sequences and discuss how aDNA sequences could be used to estimate mutation rates. Finally, we highlight some of the problems of aDNA studies on marine mammals, such as obtaining sufficient sample sizes and calibrating for the marine reservoir effect when radiocarbon-dating such wide-ranging species. cheers, Andy Foote Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, ØsterVolgade 5-7, DK-1350 Copenhagen, Denmark E-mail: FooteAD(a)gmail.com

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Recent publication: Polyparasitism Is Associated with Increased Disease Severity in Toxoplasma gondii-Infected Marine Sentinel Species
by Jessie Huggins 08 Jun '11

08 Jun '11

Dear list members, The following paper has been recently published online in PLoS NTD: Gibson AK, Raverty S, Lambourn DM, Huggins J, Magargal SL, et al. 2011 Polyparasitism Is Associated with Increased Disease Severity in Toxoplasma gondii-Infected Marine Sentinel Species. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5(5): e1142. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001142 For information about the study and a link to the publication, please see http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2011/Pages/MarineMammalsParasite… Sincerely, Jessie Huggins Stranding Coordinator Cascadia Research 218 1/2 West 4th Ave Olympia, WA 98501 360-943-7325 (office) 360-791-9555 (cell) www.cascadiaresearch.org<http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/>

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publications on the impact of noise on marine mammals
by Thomas Gotz 08 Jun '11

08 Jun '11

I would like to draw your attention to the following recent publications which should be of interest to anyone working on the impact of anthropogenic noise on the behaviour of marine mammals (abstract below). Götz, T & Janik, V.M. (2011): Repeated elicitation of the acoustic startle reflex leads to sensitisation in subsequent avoidance behaviour and induces fear conditioning. BioMedCentral Neuroscience 12:30. doi:10.1186/1471-2202-12-30 The article and all supporting video material can be accessed through: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/12/30 The paper also refers to an earlier publication that used a similar methodology. Please email: tg45(a)st-andrews.ac.uk<mailto:tg45@st-andrews.ac.uk> for a pdf (see abstract below). Götz, T & Janik, V.M. (2010): Aversiveness of sounds in phocid seals: psycho-physiological factors, learning processes and motivation. Journal of Experimental Biology 213, 1536-1548. Best, Thomas Dr Thomas Goetz Research Fellow Sea Mammal Research Unit University of St Andrews KY16 8LB, St Andrews Scotland/UK Götz, T & Janik, V.M. (2011): Repeated elicitation of the acoustic startle reflex leads to sensitisation in subsequent avoidance behaviour and induces fear conditioning. BioMedCentral Neuroscience 12:30. doi:10.1186/1471-2202-12-30 Abstract Background: Autonomous reflexes enable animals to respond quickly to potential threats, prevent injury and mediate fight or flight responses. Intense acoustic stimuli with sudden onsets elicit a startle reflex while stimuli of similar intensity but with longer rise times only cause a cardiac defence response. In laboratory settings, habituation appears to affect all of these reflexes so that the response amplitude generally decreases with repeated exposure to the stimulus. The startle reflex has become a model system for the study of the neural basis of simple learning processes and emotional processing and is often used as a diagnostic tool in medical applications. However, previous studies did not allow animals to avoid the stimulus and the evolutionary function and long-term behavioural consequences of repeated startling remain speculative. In this study we investigate the follow-up behaviour associated with the startle reflex in wild-captured animals using an experimental setup that allows individuals to exhibit avoidance behaviour. Results: We present evidence that repeated elicitation of the acoustic startle reflex leads to rapid and pronounced sensitisation of sustained spatial avoidance behaviour in grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). Animals developed rapid flight responses, left the exposure pool and showed clear signs of fear conditioning. Once sensitised, seals even avoided a known food source that was close to the sound source. In contrast, animals exposed to non-startling (long rise time) stimuli of the same maximum sound pressure habituated and flight responses waned or were absent from the beginning. The startle threshold of grey seals expressed in units of sensation levels was comparable to thresholds reported for other mammals (93 dB). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that the acoustic startle reflex plays a crucial role in mediating flight responses and strongly influences the motivational state of an animal beyond a short-term muscular response by mediating long-term avoidance. The reflex is therefore not only a measure of emotional state but also influences emotional processing. The biological function of the startle reflex is most likely associated with mediating rapid flight responses. The data indicate that repeated startling by anthropogenic noise sources might have severe effects on long-term behaviour. Future, studies are needed to investigate whether such effects can be associated with reduced individual fitness or even longevity of individuals. Götz, T & Janik, V.M. (2010): Aversiveness of sounds in phocid seals: psycho-physiological factors, learning processes and motivation. Journal of Experimental Biology 213, 1536-1548. Abstract Aversiveness of sounds and its underlying physiological mechanisms in mammals are poorly understood. In this study we tested the influence of psychophysical parameters, motivation and learning processes on the aversiveness of anthropogenic underwater noise in phocid seals (Halichoerus grypus and Phoca vitulina). We compared behavioural responses of seals to playbacks of sounds based on a model of sensory unpleasantness for humans, sounds from acoustic deterrent devices and sounds with assumed neutral properties in different contexts of food motivation. In a captive experiment with food presentation, seals habituated quickly to all sound types presented at normalised received levels of 146 dB re. 1 mPa (r.m.s., root mean square). However, the fast habituation of avoidance behaviour was also accompanied by a weak sensitisation process affecting dive times and place preference in the pool. Experiments in the wild testing animals without food presentation revealed differential responses of seals to different sound types. We observed avoidance behaviour at received levels of 135-144 dB re. 1 mPa (sensation levels of 59-79 dB). In this experiment, sounds maximised for 'roughness' perceived as unpleasant by humans also caused the strongest avoidance responses in seals, suggesting that sensory pleasantness may be the result of auditory processing that is not restricted to humans. Our results highlight the importance of considering the effects of acoustic parameters other than the received level as well as animal motivation and previous experience when assessing the impacts of anthropogenic noise on animals.

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Contents - Journal of Cetacean Research and Management, Volume 12, Supplement (April 2011)
by Dagmar Fertl 07 Jun '11

07 Jun '11

Dear Marmam and ECS-mailbase subscribers, Apologies to those of you who will receive duplicate emails due to cross-posting. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) publishes The Journal of Cetacean Research and Management thrice yearly (Spring, Autumn, and Winter), with at least one supplement that will contain the full report of the IWC Scientific Committee. The following is posted on behalf of the IWC and the journal editor. Further information can be found at: http://www.iwcoffice.org/publications/JCRM.htm. A guide for authors is included in the first volume of each issue and on the IWC website: http://www.iwcoffice.org/publications/authorsguide.htm. Contact information is provided for the corresponding author for each article. Please do not contact the listserve editors or me for pdfs or copies of the articles. Thank you for your continued interest in the journal and abstract postings. With regards, Dagmar Fertl ************************************* The latest publication of JRCM is the supplement to Volume 12 (April 2011). The editor notes that Volume 12 Supplement is required for the IWC’s Annual Meeting in July, so this volume had to be published before Volume 11(3) which will follow next month; apologies for the inconvenience caused by the delay. This supplement to JCRM contains the Report of the Scientific Committee from its Annual Meeting held from 30 May – 11 June 2010 in Agadir, Morocco. The supplement also contains the reports of five intersessional meetings: (1) the Southern Right Whale Die-Off Workshop held in March 2010 in Puerto Madryn, Argentina; (2) the Third Intersessional Workshop on the Review of MSYR for Baleen Whales held in April 2010 in Seattle, USA; (3) the Intersessional Meeting on the North Pacific Survey Programme held in September 2009 in Tokyo, Japan; (4) the IWC POLLUTION 2000+ Phase II Workshop held in February 2010 in Sausalito, CA, USA; and (5) the Third AWMP Workshop on Greenlandic Hunts held in December 2009 in Roskilde, Denmark. The supplement includes information on a review of the taxonomy, population structure and status of small cetaceans off northwestern Africa and the Eastern Tropical Atlantic. Contents also contains a review of whalewatching off North Africa.

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Cetacean Observer qualification short courses
by POWELL STRONG 07 Jun '11

07 Jun '11

Nationally recognised qualification in Cetacean identification, biology, sampling and recording. Pembrokeshire College and SeaTrust have been running the 3 day WOW (Wildlife Observer Wales) Cetacean course since 2007. The 3 day course provides an introduction to Cetacean identification, biology , sampling and recording, with the option of boat survey. Courses are based in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, with approximately half the course is spent in the class room and half in the field, using land based observation platforms as well as an optional boat survey day. Courses cost £95 per person Courses running in 5- 7 July and 23-25 August 2011 with a maximum of 14 person per course. WOW Seal and Marine Life courses also running through August, September and October 2011. See attached flier and for more information see http://www.pembs.ac.uk/marine/marinebiology/ or http://seatrust.org.uk/site/News.aspx or Powell Strong 01437 753 166. Powell Strong Coastal & Marine Environment Research Unit Pembrokeshire College Haverfordwest, UK. SA61 1SZ 44 (0)1437 753 166 mob 07917752207 http://www.pembs.ac.uk/marine/czresearch

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