MARB 403 Lecture 9
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Last lecture 
Surprize lecture 
by Mari Smultea
Isolating sound production...
Picture with Prof
Cetacean Management and Conservation Efforts
Study behavior in response to sonar development
Off southern California: Southern California Range Training complex
Regulatory Requirements
US Navy Training exercises use mid-freq active sonar (~1-10 kHz) and underwater detonation
- Monitor cetaceans before, during, and after exercises
Marine species monitoring plan
- Protect and manage species
- identify and assess impacts
- increase public awareness
- reduce impacts
Little known about behavior, need to establish a baseline (compare response to activities)
Civilian observers to watch for cetaceans coming into range
- On ships
- Small boats
- Observation in planes
- Tagging
- Acoustic analysis
- Biopsy of skin, blubber, etc.
Aerial Survey Monitoring
- Increased visibility "bird's eye view" and through water to some degree
- Focal following
- Covering large area
- Disturbance can be avoided
5-yr Aerial Study
Longest S. CA. behavior study
- Up-to-date population estimates
- Established Protocol
- Behavior
Priority Species
Endangered and Deep-diving animals
- Fin
- Blue
- Humpback
- Sperm whale
- Gray whale
- Risso's Dolphin
- bottlenose
- beaked whale (known sonar-related stranding)
Density and Abundance
Must follow systematic lines
Find animals, observe behavior, and continue on lines
Warm and Cold season estimates:
- Most common are commond dolphins
Examined
- Group Size (smallest species are in largest groups)
- Travel direction (compass heading)
- Max dist. between individuals (in body lengths)
- Larger animals tend to be farther apart
- Exception: gray whale which stays relatively close
- might be related to body size
- Behavior state
Risso's Dolphin Behavior
- Nocturnal feeders
- rest and socialize during day
- changes by season
Milling behavior by region:
- Milling = foraging
- Fast travel over flat basins
- Slow travel over upwelling/feeding areas
Significant Variables
- Subregion (east vs. west of San Clemente Island)
- Time of year
- Time of day
- Slope aspect (compass direction of undersea slope faced; might have something to do with current direction)
- Presence of calf
Hybrid species:
- Cross between Fin and Sei whale
Acoustics - Sonobuoys
- Hydrophones attached to buoys
- Dropped from plane
- Listen and record
- Programmable depth, direction, etc.
Detected "counter calling"
- fin whales call each other and take turns
- don't vocalize at surface
Risso's were copying sonar
Proposed sighting of Mating/courtship behavior (never seen before)
Conclusion
Behavior, Distribution, abundance differ by
- species
- time of day / year
- calf presence
- underwater topography / depth
Why?
- Prey distribution?
- behavior: migration, reproduction, feeding?
- predator avoidance?
Tease out potential sonar impacts over next 5 years
The Cognitive Social Dolphin
Environmental impacts
- Hunger
- find food
- work for food (contain, dive down for it)
- Danger
- Sharks
- Bigger cousins
- Weather: seem to get out of the way, but how do they breathe in a storm?
- Oh yes, Humans
Sociality
Few dozen to several thousands (lone dolphin is rare)
Sociality and long life:
- Long-term associations
- Complex relationships
Male sexual characteristics in spinner dolphins:
- trailing edge of fin grows faster
- post-anal keel
These features seem to indicate polygynous society.
Large and Complex Brains
- Neocortical folding
- best to look at neocortex
- Encephalization quotients
- Bilateraly of function
- "stop sign" between two hemispheres
- Microstructure organization
- looks primitive, but not stupid
- brain evolved very differently from terrestrial mammals
- Amazing convergent evolution
- Intelligence (or "brightness")
- Mental capabilites
- how easy is it to solve (new) problems?
- Problem solving
- Rapidity of behavioral response
- Cognition
- "Inner workings of the mind"
- Information processing
- Planning actions (thinking ahead)
- Indicators of insight
Humans have great variability in intelligence. Does this same variance exist in dolphins and other animals? (no evidence)
River dolphins and open ocean dolphins: completely different habitats
Donald Griffin
Dolphins (later work), Chimps, Dogs, Ants, Bees
"A window into their minds"
- Communication may be the best window
- coordination and cooperation may be cool
- Deception and manipulation cited (requires preplanning)
- controversial at the time: animals were thought to have preprogrammed reactions
Humans, great apes, and some dolphins and other toothed whales have highly complex brains
- Expanded horizon to include insects, corvids (blackbirds), and parrots
Dolphins in Captivity
Very good imitation; play
Some species (bottlenose, rough tooth, and orcas) posess abstract learning
- Abstract deuterolearning [1]
- Batzon: learning to learn
- Very different from operant conditioning [2]
- Make professor walk around with hand under arm
- Humans take a while to learn to be creative (come up with something new)
- Rough tooth dolphin are very good at deuterolearning
Language acquisition
- "Fetch hoop ball" = verb, direct object, indirect object
- understand syntactical construct
Dolphins in Nature
Where they evolved...
- Social lives
- Matriarchy and learning
- "political" intrigues
- foraging cooperation
- play
- culture
- limitations of intelligence
Political Intrigue
Niccolo Machiavelli
- Chimpanzee politics (males capture young as ransom for sex)
- Male dolphin alliances (forced copulation with females)
- Concept of Machiavellian intelligence
- how to sequester the most resources for one's self while keeping subjects satisfied
- planning ahead to some degree
Foraging Cooperation
- Killer whales help each other; teach young?
- self-beaching to capture prey
- Bait ball herding
Play
Even into adulthood
- ride bow and stern waves
- pull on gull legs
- leap for no apparent reason
- socialize with kelp leaves; toys
Culture and Conservation
Southern resident fish-eating orcas
78 animals and declining: salmon decline? noise? (ENDANGERED)
Limits
- Avoid nets
- Do not jump over obstructions
- evolutionary argument?
Why don't we just capture and train a few dolphins to jump over? Then they'll teach everyone else.
Critically Endangered Cetaceans
- Baiji (China)
- Vaquita (Mexico)
- Svalbard bowhead whales (Norway, Greenland, Russia)
- Mahakam River population of Irrawaddy dolphins (Indonesia)
- North island population of Hector's dolphins, now called Maui Dolphins (New Zealand)
Endangered
- Blue whale
- Sei whale
- Fin whale
- N Atlantic, N Pacific Right whale (should be CE)
- and quite a few others
Statuses
- Not Evaluated (NE)
- Data Deficient (DD)
- Least Concern (LC)
- Near Threatened (NT)
- (Threatened)
- Vulnerable (VU)
- Endangered (EN)
- Critically Endangered (CE)
- Extinct in Wild (EW)
- Extinct (EX)
Threats and Solutions
- Unsustainable killing (directed and on purpose; incidental by-catch)
- Habitat Loss and degradation (pollution, more sound, climate change?)
Solutions
- Use hook and line instead of netting
- Use something else other than dolphins as bait
- rescue/release
- Habitat protection and restoration
- Limited use of pesticides
- Education and grassroots movements (capacity building)
Special conservationist: Brian D. Smith
Special Case: Vaquita
- main problem is gill-net entangling
Conclusion
- More info is better, but we know enough to say that something has to change
- resist (scientific) call for more info
We are in a consumer society, nd reap what we sow in environmental degradation. We need a change in attitude, in Weltanschauung ("ideology or philosophy") and Zeitgeist ("spiritual feeling of the population at moment")
Successes
- Cuyahoga river
Scientist of the Day
Mari Smultea
Smultea Environmental Sciences and Texas A&M