Right Whales

Scientists from NOAA and its state and nonprofit partners have applied at-sea chemical sedation to successfully free a young North Atlantic Right Whale off the coast of Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA.

This is only the second time a free-swimming whale has been successfully sedated to enable disentanglement. The first case also concerned a whale spotted off the coast of Florida and occurred in March 2009.

In the most recent case, a female Right Whale born during the 2008-2009 calving season had roughly 200 feet (60 meters) of rope wrapped through her mouth and around the flippers when an aerial survey team spotted her on December 25. Five days later a disentanglement team from Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was able to remove about 150 feet (45 meters) of rope from her. Unfortunately, they couldn’t safely get the rest of the rope off her and this is why NOAA decided to sedate her, after having tracked her via satellite tag for half a month to see if the remaining rope would come off on its own.

“Our recent progress with chemical sedation is important because it’s less stressful for the animal, and minimizes the amount of time spent working on these animals while maximizing the effectiveness of disentanglement operations,” says Jamison Smith, Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Coordinator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “This disentanglement was especially complex, but proved successful due to the detailed planning and collective expertise of the many response partners involved.”

On January 15, researchers deemed that the Right Whale wouldn’t be able to free herself from the remaining 50 feet (15 meters) of rope without assistance. The weather was favorable for a rescue mission and a disentanglement team comprised of scientists from NOAA, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of Florida, EcoHealth Alliance , and Coastwise Consulting (was dispatched into the Atlantic. Back on shore, the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and the New England Aquarium got ready to provide off-site assistance.

The entangled Right Whale was fitted with a temporary satellite tag that would record her behavior before, during and after sedation. She was then sedated and had ropes as well as mesh material removed from her. The mesh resembled mesh used to catch fish, crabs and lobsters along the Atlantic coast and NOAA’s Fisheries Service is currently examining it in an effort to determine its geographic origin.

Once the whale had been freed from the garbage, the researchers administered a drug that reversed the sedation. The whale also received some antibiotics to threat the wounds caused by the debris. She will now be tracked for up to 30-days through the temporary satellite tag.

If you see an entangled or otherwise injured whale you are encouraged to report it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (1-888-404-FWCC or 1-888-404-3922) or the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (1-800-2-SAVE-ME or 1-800-272-8366).

Photo by: L. Brian Stauffer.

‘A species of giant crayfish native to Tennessee in the United States has been scientifically described and given the name Barbicambarus simmonis.

Barbicambarus simmonis can reach a size of at least 5 inches (12,5 cm) which is twice the size of an average North American crayfish.

The researchers behind the paper in which Barbicambarus simmonis was described are Christopher Taylor from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Guenter Schuster from Eastern Kentucky University.

The first specimen was found by Tennessee Valley Authority scientist Jeffrey Simmons in 2010, and that is why the species bears his name. This specimen, as well as the specimen encountered by Taylor and Schuster, lived in Shoal Creek, a stream in southern Tennessee that ultimately drains into the Tennessee River. The creek has attracted the attention of researchers for at least half a century, which makes it reasonable to assume that Barbicambarus simmonis is either rare or very difficult to find.

You can find out more about Barbicambarus simmonis in the paper “Monotypic no more, a description of a new crayfish of the genus Barbicambarus Hobbs, 1969 (Decapoda: Cambaridae) from the Tennessee River drainage using morphology and molecules”  published in the journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.

Barbicambarus simmonsi

Barbicambarus is a genus of freshwater crayfish that up until now had only one member: Barbicambarus cornutus. Barbicambarus cornutus is known only from the Barren River and Green River systems of Tennessee. The largest known specimens are 23 cm (9 inches) long, so this crayfish is even larger than Barbicambarus simmonis and one of the largest species of crayfish in North America*. It was scientifically described in 1884, but not seen again by scientists until the 1960s.

North America is rich in crayfish and also a comparatively well explored part of the world. Of the roughly 600 scientifically described species of crayfish, roughly 50% are native to North America. However, even though North America is such a well surveyed part of the world, new species are regularly described by scientists. The Pearl Map Turtle, Graptemys pearlensis, was for instance described in the summer of 2010. Just like Barbicambarus simmonis, this turtle is native to the southern part of the U.S. It lives in the Pearl River in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has declared March 8 through April 17 hunting season for Burmese pythons living on state lands in South Florida.

If you wish to hunt pythons, you’ll need a hunting license and you must also purchase a $26 management area permit for reptiles. Centerfire rifles mustn’t be used, but shotguns, pistols and ordinary rifles will be permitted. All kills must be reported to FWC within 36 hours.

You will not be allowed to remove living pythons from state lands.

The Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus) is the largest subspecies of the Indian Python and is native to south and south-eastern Asia. During recent years populations of Burmese Python has managed to establish themselves in Everglades, Florida. Since the python is a popular pet, these feral snakes are believed to hail from pets set free by their owners, e.g. because the snakes grew too large to handle or expensive to feed. Hurricane Andrew also released an unknown number of pets, including exotic fish and reptiles, into the wild when it wrecked havoc with homes and establishments along the coast back in 1992.

Over 1300 Burmese Pythons have been captured in the Everglades so far and local authorities now feel that it’s time to enlist civilians in the struggle against this invasive species. The Burmese python competes with the native alligator for food and is also known to eat birds, including several endangered species. Although the alligators seem to fend off the pythons pretty well, it is impossible to tell what long-term effects the introduction of such an efficient top-predator could have on the unique ecosystem of the Everglades.

FWC official Chuck Collins said government isn’t always the best solution to stopping the spread of invasive, exotic species.

”Better solutions are developed when we work with people closest to the issue — in this case, the hunters,” Collins said.

Roughly 50 hunters have already participated in ”Pythons 101” courses arranged by FWC officers and local experts, courses where hunters get to know more about python behavior, biology, habitat and diet as well as capture techniques and how to handle a python in safe way. The participants were also offered a chance to practice in the L-67 canal system.

“The quickest and easiest way to euthanize them is with a sharp instrument like a machete,” said Cole, a snake breeder from Haines City who instructed the hunters to kill rapidly and cause as little stress and suffering as possible. “The veterinary association recommends swift decapitation or a bullet. Don’t club these snakes to death”, he added.

The Burmese python is a semi-aquatic species that likes to stay near water but it can also be encountered in trees. Wild individuals normally stay below 4 meters in length but large specimens are nearly 6 meters long. Within its local range it is a popular source of food and Burmese python parts are also utilized by traditional healers.

Florida anglers are being sharply criticized after a video of them free-gaffing a Mako shark off South Florida this week was made public on the Internet.

In the video, which was uploaded to Youtube and also displayed on the website of a Florida TV station (can be seen below), the anglers can be seen trying to gaff a free-swimming shark. The shark ventured close to the boat after being attracted to a swordfish that the anglers had alongside their vessel.

Since no rods or reels appear to have been used by the anglers as they captured the 748-pound Mako shark, they may have acted in violation of state and federal law. “I’d hazard that I’m not the first to pick up on these fine points of the law but if the video does indeed tell the full tale then these laws need to be enforced,” said Luke Tipple, a marine biologist and director of the Shark-Free Marina Initiative. “If however the fishermen can provide video evidence of them using PRIMARY tackle (i.e. hook and line) to initialize the capture then they would be within their rights to have landed the shark. If this turns out to be the case then I will instead turn this report into a cautionary tale of how the media should be more responsible in reporting on shark harvests, particularly when dealing with species considered by some to be globally threatened.”

Fancy, a four-year-old Chihuahua, survived for more than 24 hours under water after being left inside a capsized riverboat. She was onboard a houseboat that sunk in the river near Toledo, USA after hitting a stump.

As the 44 foot houseboat went under, none of the four passengers remembered to take the Chihuahua with them to dry land. When she was missed, they thought it was too late to save her and didn’t return to the wreck until 24 hours.

But Fancy wasn’t dead, she was stuck in an air-pocket with her body – but not her head – submerged under water.

“Over to my right side I heard her little feet go too,too, too, too. I was almost like a whale going offthe side of the boat,” said Rebel Barrett, the owner of the dog. “I just got in the water and I grabbed her and I was crying, and screaming, and hugging her and kissing her and shewas happy to see her mama.”

The owner of the houseboat, who happened to be a scuba diver, went down and rescued Fancy from the air wreck.

“I just turned my head slightly, and I looked in and I saw her sitting there with her head on her paws, just shaking and quivering,” said the astounded boat owner. “The air pocket was maybe two or three inches, just a little bitty pocket, but she was sittin up there in it. It’s a miracle.”

Tens of thousands of crab pots litter the ocean floor, forming lethal obstacle courses of plastic lines and weighed-down metal cylinders. Lost crab pots are responsible for killing a long row of air breathing ocean dwellers, such as whales, sea lions and turtles. In addition to their effect on marine wildlife, stray crab pots also inflict costly and potentially dangerous damage to passing vessels.

The basic type of crab pot is a squat cylinder consisting of steel mesh and rubber, and with heavy iron that helps it sink to the bottom. Fishermen lose track of their crab pots due to various reasons, including storms, tousling kelp banks, and passing motor vessels that snaps of the line between the pot and the buoy.

In the past five years, two dead whales have washed up on the Oregon Coast entangled in the fatal combination of metallic pots and durable synthetic lines, but a federal stimulus grant of $700,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has now been assigned to pay Oregon fishermen for cleaning up their crab pots – or at least a fraction of them.

As the crab season ends in August, the federal money will be used to charter 10 boats and hire 48 people — including the 31 fishermen who make winning bids. The aim is to recover 4,000 pots over two seasons.

Each year, Oregon fishermen lose 10 percent of the 150,000 pots they put out, according to a statement from Cyreis Schmitt, marine policy project leader at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Shark tours have become increasingly popular in Hawaiian waters, but tour operators that feed shark to assure their presence are now facing opposition from several different directions.

Sharks are an integral part of Hawaiian folklore and some Native Hawaiians consider sharks to be ancestral gods, aumakua, who helps fishermen by chasing fish into nets and guiding canoes safely back to shore. Tour boats feeding sharks for entertainment is therefore viewed as disrespectful by many.

“The disrespect of the aumakua, that’s what hurts us the most,” said Leighton Tseu, a Native Hawaiian who considers sharks ancestral gods.

Surfers and swimmers are on the other hand more worried about the potential hazards of teaching sharks to associate people with food. There are also fears that shark feeding will attract larger numbers of sharks to these waters and that the practise of feeding them will lure them closer to shore than before.

A third concern has been raised by environmentalists – how does daily shark feedings affects the ecological balance of Hawaiian waters? George Burgess, shark researcher at the University of Florida, says shark populations are likely to increase in areas where tours feed sharks daily, and that an inflated shark population might consume more prey, depleting other marine life. Burgess also fears that the feedings may attract so many sharks to those spots that sharks become scarce in other regions. This is naturally a large problem, since sharks are apex predators necessary for the overall balance of the ecosystems in which they exist.

Carl Meyer of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology does not share Burgess’s concerns, at least not for Hawaiian waters. Research carried out by Meyer shows that a majority of the sharks found at Haleiwa, a popular tour site, are Galapagos and Sandbar sharks – two types of sharks rarely documented attacking humans. Most of Hawaii shark attacks are carried out by Tiger sharks, and these sharks only account for 2 percent of the tour site’s sharks. Meyer’s research also shows that sharks at the North Shore tour site have not made any changes to their seasonal breeding and migration cycles since the feedings started.

Legal matters
Feeding sharks in Hawaiian waters is prohibited by state law, while federal law – which governs waters between 3 miles to 200 miles from the coast – prohibits the feeding of sharks off Hawaii and Pacific island territories like American Samoa. Fishermen are however allowed to bait sharks, and scientists engaging in government-funded research are also exempt from the ban.

The National Marine Fisheries Service in Honolulu is currently investigating Hawaiian tour operators offering shark safaris.

The Nature Conservancy and its partners’ staghorn and elkhorn coral recovery project, including Lirman’s nursery in Biscayne National Park, will receive $350,000 to help save U.S. reefs.

The news was announced yesterday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who also said that the money, which will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will be used to further develop large-scale, in-water coral nurseries and restore coral reefs along the southern coast of Florida and around the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Nature Conservancy will serve as coordinator of the overall project; a project which will include the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, as well as other academic, government and private entities.

The project goal is to grow approximately 12,000 corals in Florida and use them to enhance coral populations in 34 different areas.

Rocky, a snakehead living with its keeper Chris Deverso in New York State, might get a new lease on life.

Snakeheads are Asian predatory fishes capable of breathing oxygen from the air and move over land. They have been banned in the USA since they might wreck havoc with North American ecosystems if introduced to the wild.

Channa marulius caught by fisherman.
Copyright www.jjphoto.dk

Due to this regulation, the Department of Environmental Conservation wanted to euthanize the pet snakehead, but Deverso – who has owned the fish since before the ban was put into action in 2004 – refused to give up his pet and has therefore been back and forth to court and fined for owning the illegal fish.

The Department of Environmental Conservation has now offered a compromise; they will grant Deverso an educational permit, provided that he fulfils the educational permit requirements. He must:

– Install a lock on the top of the aquarium.

– Holds an open house or lecture in his home for groups interested in learning about snakehead fish.

– Pay an annual permit fee of $500.

“I never went to college; I never made much. I’m just an average guy who stood up for what I believed in and hopefully in time I’ll be granted the permit and it’ll all be worth it,” said Deverso. “I’ve taken care of him for 11 years, it’s my family pet; $500 is a lot of money but if it saves his life, it’s worth it.”

Just like dolphins, sharks can be trained to roll over to be cuddled by humans. In experiments carried out in the United States, several species of shark allowed themselves to be picked up from the water and cuddled by their trainers.

The U.S. trainers used coloured boards and sounds to train their sharks to respond to commands. No one had attempted to train sharks in this way before and the results are truly ground breaking. Shark keepers now hope that the new technique will give sharks a higher quality of life in captivity. When sharks ned to be moved, the normal practise is to chase them around, but a trained shark could instead be thought to just gently swim to a certain spot.

“The US team has shown that many varieties of sharks can quickly learn to respond to a combination of audible and visual signals”, says Carey Duckhouse of UK’s Sea Life Centres.

Keepers at the UK’s Sea Life Centres are planning to use the methods developed in the U.S. to train sharks kept in British facilities. Colour boards and sounds will be used to show each shark when it is his or her turn to receive food. If everything goes according to plan, the fastest learners in the shark tanks will grasp the idea within three months.

When a shark have learned to associate particular colours and sounds with food, the signals will make it approach its keeper who will be holding a “target stick” against which the shark will rub its nose in hope of getting a tasty treat.

”Some species, such as zebra sharks, will even roll over to have their tummies scratched or allow themselves to be lifted from the water without any kind of struggle,” says Dickhouse.