The Ocean Turnover

What’s Next for the World’s Most Trafficked Mammal?

Earlier this week, a U.S. agency announced that it will consider giving greater protection to pangolins.

What’s a pangolin, you might ask?

Pangolins are creatures found in Asia and Africa that have a pinecone-esque appearance. They’re about the size of house cats, are covered in scales, and have very long tongues for slurping up ants and termites.

These pest controllers are a hot commodity on the black market, poached for nearly all their body parts. Their meat is considered a delicacy in Asia. Their scales, made of keratin (the main ingredient in fingernails), are fashioned into jewelry or used as traditional medicine, even though they don’t have any curative value. Even their blood, a supposed aphrodisiac, is dried and used in potions.

Considered the most trafficked mammals in the world, tens of thousands of pangolins are believed to be poached annually—bad news for an animal whose females reproduce only once a year.

That’s why in July 2015, conservation groups such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list seven pangolin species under the Endangered Species Act, a law that seeks to conserve endangered or threatened species throughout their range (an eighth species, the Temnick’s ground pangolin, found in southern and eastern Africa, is already protected under the act).

And on March 15, the agency said the organizations made a good enough case that it’s now  willing to invite the public to weigh in on the proposal for 60 days.

No one knows exactly how many pangolins remain in the wild, but researchers are pretty sure the animals’ numbers are shrinking. Two of the four Asian species, the Sunda and the Chinese pangolins, are considered to face a high risk of extinction and the other two are “endangered,” according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which sets the conservation status of wildlife. With the depletion of the Asian pangolins, smugglers have targeted their cousins in Africa, which are faring better but are nonetheless described as “vulnerable.”

U.S. Involvement

If the seven species gain protection under the U.S. law, it would be illegal for people to import the animals or their parts into the country—unless they’re being brought in to promote conservation. Same thing for sales across state lines. 

Keep Reading

How do you disentangle a humpback whale?

Very, very carefully – and without getting in the water. The Hawaiian Islands Large Whale Entanglement Response Network has it down to a science.

Photo: J. Moore/NOAA Permit #15240

Each year, numerous whales and other marine animals become entangled in a variety of materials, such as fishing gear, rope and plastic bags. Entanglement can physically harm animals while also impairing their movement. An entangled animal can find it difficult or impossible to feed, and at times the entanglement can drown them.

That’s where the Hawaiian Islands Large Whale Entanglement Response Network comes in. These highly-trained professionals from Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, working closely with and under authority of NOAA Fisheries’ Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, know how to safely rescue creatures like humpback whales from entanglement.

Humpback whales can hold their breath for much longer and swim faster than a human can, and an entangled whale is often stressed or panicked. Trying to free a 40-ton whale that likely doesn’t realize rescuers are there to help can be dangerous for the animal and for humans. Rescuers never enter the water to free an entangled whale.

Instead, rescuers grab hold of the entangled lines using a grappling hook, then attach a series of buoys to the lines. This keeps the whale at the surface and slows it down enough for the disentanglement team, following the whale in a small inflatable boat, to gain access to the animal and the lines it’s tangled in. However, even with the buoys attached, the inflatable boat may still get towed behind the animal. Humpback whales are strong animals that can move rapidly through the water, so this can be quite dangerous. It is important that the disentanglement team be trained and prepared to respond to the whale’s movements.

As the whale grows tired, the rescuers work their way closer. Once they’re close enough, they use a custom-designed knife attached to a long pole to cut away the gear entangling the whale. These knives are specially designed to cut the rope but not the whale. Typically, after several passes, the whale is free!

Once the whale is untangled, the team uses the grappling hook once again to collect and remove the debris from the water so that other animals don’t become trapped in the future.

Photo: Ed Lyman/NOAA, under NOAA permit #15240

Entanglement is a problem around the globe, and sanctuary staff can only help a small percentage of entangled whales. Since 2002, Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary has received more than 100 confirmed reports of entangled humpbacks, representing at least 70 different animals — and more entanglements go unseen and unreported.

With that in mind, prevention is the ultimate objective: by reducing the amount of derelict fishing gear and other debris in the ocean and making actively fished gear more “whale safe,” we can reduce the number of whales and other animals that get entangled and hurt or killed.

Watch the Disentanglement Response Network in action:

GIFs via NOAA’s Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, under NOAA permits 932-1905, 15240 932-1489, and 932-1905-01/MA-009526-1, and Hawaii State Permit PMAL-2015-206.

Microfilter allows non-invasive diagnosis of fetal abnormalities

A new method could allow physicians to diagnose fetal genetic abnormalities during pregnancy without the risks involved in current techniques.

A team of scientists at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Institute of Microelectronics (IME) has fabricated a microchip that can filter fetal red blood cells from the mother’s circulation. Retrieving these isolated fetal cells could allow the early diagnosis of fetal genetic abnormalities.

The technique, which would require drawing only a few millilitres of blood from an expecting mother, could be used from the eighth week of pregnancy; earlier than current prenatal diagnostic procedures.

Found this on my social media… It’s time for Australians to respect sharks as sentient creatures that can contribute to GDP as shark tourism that does not include hooking, netting or sport and trophy fishing. The Bahamas has done this and together with Ocean Ramsey (pictured with great white shark) I have experienced first hand what it means to Bahamians to have their sharks bring valued income for local businesses whether they love, hate or remain fearful of sharks. The animals pictured in the catch and release photos that went viral are likely to have been killed soon after release by healthier sharks in the area. As sentient sharks for human-shark interaction, both sharks pictured could generate over $5 million for a charter operator. That does not include accommodation, dining, car hire and regional products and services for coastal communities that defy the existing JAWS affected paradigm and do as The Bahamas has done for tigers, hammerheads, bull sharks, Caribbean reefies, nurses and all shark species in their territorial waters. Be a champion for sharks and flag your disapproval of angling trips of this kind. If these guys really have what it takes to be heroes, have them join me and Ocean Ramsey for a photo with creatures acting naturally in their company in their element. Unfortunately we would need to do this in Hawaii, Mexico, Florida or The Bahamas for the fact that there is no place that I know of in Australia to do this in 2016.

Untitled by twyscape

Shark finning is the gruesome act of catching sharks, slicing off its fins, then throwing the body back into the ocean to drown or bleed to death. Without fins, sharks cannot balance or move, so it slowly sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where it suffocates or bleeds to death.

Sharks kill only 6 people each year. Over 100 million sharks are killed yearly, and 11,480 hourly. Because of this, shark populations are plummeting very, very fast. Some shark species are close to extinction, with some populations being dropped by 99%.

Sharks are greatly misunderstood, and are absolutely crucial to healthy ocean ecosystems. But some species of shark are in danger due to hunting and over fishing. There’s a lot to be done to make sure these vital predators have a secure position in the oceans. As a starting point, here are seven small ways you can help the cause.

A Deep Sea Squid Cares for Her Eggs

In recent years, submersibles have allowed scientists to explore the lives of deep-sea animals in ways that were not possible before. One of the many exciting discoveries was that a mother of the deep-sea squid species Gonatus onyx broods her eggs by holding them in her arms, a behavior that had never been previously reported for squids.

This shocking discovery was the first time scientists had evidence of parental care in squids. In 2012, a team of researchers led by Stephanie Bush, reported finding another species of deep-sea squid that broods eggs, Bathyteuthis berryi, suggesting that this form of parental care may be a common solution to a reproductive problem for deep-sea squids.

Watch a video about this amazing deep-sea discovery:

http://ow.ly/ZS9jc

(via: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)

Bacteria use their own pumps to collect magnesium

Researchers at UiO and NCMM have discovered that the system used by bacteria to transport magnesium is so sensitive that it can detect a pinch of magnesium salt in a swimming pool.

Researchers at NCMM, the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway at UiO and Oslo University Hospital have shown exactly how sensitive the bacteria’s transport system is.

Researcher Jens Preben Morth tells us ‘We have identified a nano-sized magnesium pump.’

The researchers manipulated an E. coli bacterium so that it overproduced using its own magnesium pump. 'The pump was isolated in the bacterium’s cell membrane.’ There are different methods of achieving this type of isolation. We could either divide up the proteins according to size, or we could examine the positive or negative electric charges of the proteins on the surface of the pump. 'As soon as the pump was isolated, we were able to work with the pure protein without disruption from other proteins,’ Morth explains. With the aid of enzyme kinetics, a special method of analysing chemical reactions, the researchers were able to obtain a calculation of the sensitivity to magnesium.

Saranya Subramani, Harmonie Perdreau-Dahl, Jens Preben Morth. The magnesium transporter A is activated by cardiolipin and is highly sensitive to free magnesium in vitro. eLife, 2016; 5 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.11407

The bacteria are shown in green. The multi-coloured area shows how the pump rests on the bacterial membrane (pink). The ‘machine’ itself inside the membrane is shown in orange. The grey dots are magnesium atoms. Credit: Jens Preben Morth, UiO

How do you think they'll dispose of Tillikums body? :/

They’ll probably do a necropsy after he dies to determine the exact cause of death. After that, I’m not sure what they’ll do. Normally they don’t tell anyone what happens to the animal’s body after they die. Perhaps since Tilikum is so well-known they’ll give him a proper burial/memorial? I’ve heard somewhere before (but for the life of me cannot remember where, so don’t take this as a fact) that Kalina is buried somewhere on the property of SeaWorld Orlando.

I know I’ve read that in Kamogawa Sea World they bury the dead orcas in a cherry blossom garden, which I think is very nice and respectful.