[MARMAM] Arctic Frontiers Moving North Conference

2022-09-06 Thread Jenny Turton
Dear Marmam community,

Arctic Frontiers is a non-profit organisation based in Tromsø, Norway, and has 
been organising conferences and workshops on Arctic themes since 2007. Our 2023 
conference is January 30th to February 2nd in Tromsø and digitally.
Our abstract submission deadline is coming up (September 16th) and we have 
seven exciting, interdisciplinary sessions for you to submit to. One session 
specifically calls for megafauna research in the Arctic, whilst three sessions 
are of interest to the mammal research community.

  *   Impacts and adaptations in response to Atlantification of the Arctic Ocean
  *   Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using 
interdisciplinary and system-science approaches
  *   Plastic pollution, priorities and perspectives in the Arctic
For more information and to submit an abstract see here: 
https://www.arcticfrontiers.com/arctic-frontiers-2023-moving-north/science-sessions-for-arctic-frontiers-2023-announced/

For any questions, please email 
je...@arcticfrontiers.com.
Thanks!

Jenny Turton
Senior Adviser
Email: je...@arcticfrontiers.com
Phone: +4741236783
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Jenny Turton
Senior Adviser


Arctic Frontiers, Fram Centre, PO Box 6606 Stakkevollan, 9296 Tromsø, Norway, 
Phone (+47) 777 50 300

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[MARMAM] New publication: Ecological interactions between Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and baleen whales in the South Sandwich Islands region

2022-09-06 Thread Mick Baines
Dear MARMAM list subscribers,

Together with my co-authors, we are pleased to announce the following new
publication in Deep Sea Research Part 1:

*Ecological interactions between Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and
baleen whales in the South Sandwich Islands region – Exploring
predator-prey biomass ratios.*

Authors:

Mick Baines, Jennifer Jackson, Sophie Fielding, Vicky Warwick-Evans, Maren
Reichelt, Claire Lacey, Simon Pinder and Phil Trathan.

Abstract:

Following the cessation of whaling, the southwest Atlantic humpback
whale (*Megaptera
novaeangliae*) population is thought to be close to pre-exploitation size,
reversing 20th century changes in abundance. Using a model-based approach
applied to concurrently collected data on baleen whale abundance and
Antarctic krill (*Euphausia superba*) biomass in the South Sandwich Islands
(SSI) region, we explore ecological interactions between these taxa. Krill
biomass and baleen whale density were highest to the north and northeast of
the SSI, where the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is deflected around
the island chain. Humpback whale density was elevated at locations of krill
biomass density >150 gm-2. Krill consumption by baleen whales was estimated
at 19–29% of the available krill standing stock. We used historic whaling
data to confirm the plausibility of these consumption rates and found
evidence of rapid weight gain in humpback whales, such that blubber
depleted during the breeding season could be restored in a much shorter
period than previously assumed. Little is known about krill replenishment
rates in the flow of the ACC, or about niche separation between recovering
baleen whale populations; both factors may affect species carrying
capacities and further monitoring will be required to inform the management
of human activities in the region.

The paper is published as an open source article, currently available as a
journal pre-proof through the following doi :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2022.103867


Mick Baines
www.wildscope.com
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[MARMAM] Fisheries interviews in Baltic Germany

2022-09-06 Thread Fiona Read
Dear Marmamers,

Whale and Dolphin Conservation have a grant from ASCOBANS to interview fishers 
on fishing gear and their perceptions of alternative gear(s). The interviews 
are currently being undertaken in SE England and NW Spain. We have translated 
the interview form into German and are looking for someone to undertake the 
interviews in the German Baltic.

All travel expenses will be covered and there will be a small stipend to do the 
work.  It is essential that the person speaks fluent German and is willing to 
speak to fishers in fishing harbour during unsociable hours (generally very 
early mornings). The interviews need to be conducted by the end of 2022. The 
interview does not contain controversial questions, although we have found that 
morale in the industry is very low so interviewers need to be sympathetic to 
the fisher’s current situation.

Please contact me on Fiona.read@whales if you are 
interested in conducting the German interviews. If you prefer to message in 
German, please contact 
fabian.rit...@whales.org in WDC’s German 
office.

Best wishes,

Fiona

Dr ​​
Fiona Read
Research coordinator
Mobile:
+44 (0)791 869 3023
WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation
Scottish Dolphin Centre
Spey Bay
Moray
IV32 7PJ
United Kingdom
whales.org
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Whale and Dolphin Conservation (“WDC”) is a company registered in England and 
Wales (No. 02737421) and a registered charity (in England and Wales No. 
1014705, in Scotland No. SC040231)
​WDC Shop is a trading name of WDC (Trading) Ltd, a company registered in 
England and Wales (No. 02593116)
Registered office : Brookfield House, 38 St. Paul Street, Chippenham, 
Wiltshire, SN15 1LJ.  Tel: +44 (0)1249 449 500
This message is private and confidential.  If you have received this message in 
error, please notify us and remove it from your system.

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[MARMAM] New publication: Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features (James Fahlbusch)

2022-09-06 Thread James Fahlbusch
Hello everyone,

On behalf of my coauthors, I am pleased to share our recently published
paper
titled “Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features”.

Fahlbusch, J. A., Czapanskiy, M. F., Calambokidis, J., Cade, D. E.,
Abrahms, B., Hazen, E. L., & Goldbogen, J. A. (2022). Blue whales increase
feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features. *Proceedings of the Royal
Society B*, 289(1981), 20221180.

Abstract:
Marine predators face the challenge of reliably finding prey that is
patchily distributed in space and time. Predators make movement decisions
at multiple spatial and temporal scales, yet we have limited understanding
of how habitat selection at multiple scales translates into foraging
performance. In the ocean, there is mounting evidence that submesoscale
(i.e., <100 km) processes drive the formation of dense prey patches that
should hypothetically provide feeding hot spots and increase predator
foraging success. Here we integrated environmental remote-sensing with
high-resolution animal-borne biologging data to evaluate submesoscale
surface current features in relation to the habitat selection and foraging
performance of blue whales in the California Current System. Our study
revealed a consistent functional relationship in which blue whales
disproportionately foraged within dynamic aggregative submesoscale features
at both the regional and feeding site scales across seasons, regions, and
years. Moreover, we found that blue whale feeding rates increased in areas
with stronger aggregative features, suggesting that these features indicate
areas of higher prey density. The use of fine-scale, dynamic features by
foraging blue whales underscores the need to take these features into
account when designating critical habitat and may help inform strategies to
mitigate the impacts of human activities for the species.


The paper is open access and can be downloaded here:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2022.1180

Code and documentation can be found on my github page:

https://github.com/physalus/Blue-Whales-and-Lagrangian-Features

A knitted R-Markdown with the analysis and results for this manuscript
(including the code to produce them) can be found at:

https://physalus.github.io/Blue-Whales-and-Lagrangian-Features/


Please contact me at muscu...@stanford.edu if you have any questions.

Best regards,

James Fahlbusch

PhD Candidate

Hopkins Marine Station

Stanford University
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[MARMAM] New publication on bottlenose dolphin acoustic communication

2022-09-06 Thread Alessandro Gallo
Dear Colleagues, 
I am happy to announce the publication of a new paper in which we present a new 
promising low-cost and safe recordings acoustic tag to identify individual 
emitters of bottlenose dolphins under human care. 
It can be accessed and downloaded in open access on Frontiers in Marine 
Science: ( [ 
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.915168/full | Frontiers 
| Identification of individual bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) 
emitters using a cheap wearable acoustic tag (frontiersin.org) ] 

ABSTRACT 

Study of animal communication and its potential social role implies associating 
signals to an emitter. This has been a major limitation in the study of 
cetacean communication as they produce sounds underwater with no distinctive 
behavioral signs. Different techniques have been used to identify callers, but 
all proved to have ethical or practical limitations. Bio-logging technology has 
recently provided new hopes, but tags developed so far are costly and do not 
allow sufficiently reliable discrimination between calls made by the tagged 
individual and those made by the surrounding individuals. We propose a new 
device developed at reasonable cost while providing reliable recordings. We 
tested caller identification through recordings of vocal production of a group 
of captive bottlenose dolphins under controlled and spontaneous contexts. Our 
device proved to identify callers through visual examination of sonograms and 
quantitative measures of amplitudes, even if tagged emitters are 0.4 m apart 
(regardless of body orientations). Although this device is not able to identify 
emitters in an entire group when all individuals are not equipped, it enables 
efficient exclusion of individuals who were not the caller, suggesting that 
identification of a caller would be reliable if all the individuals were 
equipped. This is to our knowledge the first description of a promising 
low-cost safe recording device allowing individual identification of emitters 
for captive dolphins. With some improvements, this device could become an 
interesting tool to increase our knowledge of dolphin acoustic communication. 

Gallo, A., Thieffry, A., Boye, M., Monmasson, K., Hausberger, M., & Lemasson, 
A. (2022). Identification of individual bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops 
truncatus ) emitters using a cheap wearable acoustic tag. Frontiers in Marine 
Science , 1599. 

Best regards, 
Alessandro Gallo 



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