MARB 403 Lab 8

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Conservation Efforts

Originally started with hunting industry

Didn't start until 1970s
Prized animals became scarce, so limitations were enacted
Whaling industry just shifted species

Conservation: the preservation of wild populations so that they continue to replicate themselves in a natural context for an indefinite, but long, time into the future (i.e. at least hundreds of generations).

3 Perspectives:

biocentric: emphasizes intrinsic value of all life forms
economic: regards wild animal populations as resources for human benefit (allows killing for sustainability)
ecologic: maintenance of natural systems and processes

"Sustainable Use and Development" Assumptions:

problem between human wishes and wildlife needs

International Conservation Efforts:

scale determined by range/distribution of organisms
IWC (est. 1946) in response to exploitation of whales
Conv. on Intl Trade in Endang. Spp. of Wild Fauna and Flora
UN Conv. on Law of Sea (each country has control over the 200 nautical miles of sea adjacent to country)
IUCN: Intl Union

Bans pelagic drift nets

Regional Conservation Agreements:

Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission
Iintl ageement on cons. of polar bears and their habitat (circumpolar countries)
Treaty for the preservation andprotection of fur seals (GB, USA, RU, JP)

National

Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972
European Community/Union
Often met with disputes (as with all agreements)

Local/Individual

Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission: est. 1977 due to IWC's ban on bowhead whaling

Threats

Marine debris Toxins caused decline of North Pacific Fur Seals Beach cleanups Panama tuna footage

Protected Areas

New Zealand (1988): Protection of Hector's dolphins MX: (1971 1979): Gray whales HI: (1993): Humpback Whales Norway Svalbard Achipelago: 1/2 area considered ??: harbor porpoises

Enhancing Survival and Reproduction

Rescue marine mammals for rerelease (rate low)

Test new study methods and monitor after release

River dolphins' habitats dammed up.

US Nat'l Marine Fisheries relocate endg. monk seals

Reduction of Pollution (Chemical and Acoustic)

Banned release of chemicals into environment

Fisheries

UN banned pelagic nets

Yangtze River

Illegal to fish with electricity and explosives
No regulation

Vessel Traffic

Florida (manatees): 20 protected areas

US and CA protection of Right whales

Economic Value

Tourism: whale/dolphin watching, seals (pop. in CA)

Zoogeography

NA, EU, S Africa, AU, and NZ

Limited list to recognized species and subspecies

only 55 maui dolphins left

Culture and conservation of non-humans with reference to whales and dolphins: review and new directions

Authors:

Richard W. Osborne
Luke Rendell
Hal Whitehead
Bernd Würsig

Conservation: many definitions

Culture: also many definitions, but we'll use the same one as in lecture.

affects behavior
group trait
can be genetic
received from non-relative individuals
adopt any culture

Confirmed culture in humpback, bottlenose dolphin, sperm whale, and orca

Horizontal cultural transmission

orca fad to carry dead salmon

Vertical cultural transmission

foraging, matrilineal hierarchy
social levels of orcas

Conserving Horizontal Cultures

Elephatnts, starlings, and sperm whales (fish stealing) have used cultures to deal with environmental change

Orca resident pod seen stealing fish, and then taught another pod to do the same

Helps deal with change

Vertical and Oblique

Stable, enhanced by conformity

Can influence genetic evolution

Wants to avoid change

might be detrimental to population

Conservation usually relates to whaling

some populations are growing, others remain deserted
have to relearn to use other geographic areas
Seen in N. Atlantic Right Whales

Maladaptive (Conformist) Culture

Mass strandings: blind loyalty?

Reintroduction

Introducing captive animals into the wild

Success depends on whether animal knows how to survive

Baiji didn't work, but finless porpoise did...

Sympatric Cultural Variants

Animals respond to threats in different ways: junk-food dolphins branched from other population

Galapagos sperm whales differ by "codas", and El Niño affects

ESU: what is the smallest level that should be conserved?

Conservation should be subspecies
Culturally and genetically unique

Different orca ecotypes are threatened non-uniformly:

Conclusion

"moral obligation" to conserve cultural diversity, so culture should be some roots of conservation biology