[MARMAM] Guadalupe fur seal status review

[Christina Fahy - NOAA Federal]

Dear MARMAM--

On behalf of my co-authors, I am pleased to announce that NOAA's National
Marine Fisheries Service has reassessed the status of Guadalupe fur seals
after 30+ years.  We are so grateful for all of the research conducted by
our U.S. and Mexican counterparts over many years and for contributing to
this report.

You can find the report at:
https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/2021-07/guadalupe-fur-seal-status-review-2021.pdf?null

McCue, L.M., Fahy, C.C., Greenman, J., and K. Wilkinson. 2021. Status
Review of the Guadalupe Fur Seal (Arctocephalus townsendi). 95 pp. National
Marine Fisheries Service, Protected Resources Division, West Coast Region,
501 West Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, California, 90802.

Thank you-

Christina Fahy
Fishery Biologist
National Marine Fisheries Service
Long Beach, CA


Guadalupe fur seals (*Arctocephalus philippii townsendi*) once had a
population size of as many as 200,000 animals before they were hunted to
near extinction for their fur in the 19th century, although
pre-exploitation population estimates vary greatly. This species was
thought to be extinct until a Guadalupe fur seal was sighted on San Nicolas
Island, California in 1949, and an expedition to Guadalupe Island, Mexico
(their primary rookery) in 1954 confirmed the survival of the species.
Since the 1950s, the species has recovered from an estimated population of
200-500 animals to a minimum estimate of 31,019 animals in 2013, with an
estimated annual population growth rate of 5.9% from 1984-2013. The
Guadalupe fur seal was listed as threatened in 1985 under the U.S.
Endangered Species Act (ESA). The status of this species was reviewed more
than 30 years later, with NOAA Fisheries publishing their report in 2021.
After a thorough review of the best available scientific and commercial
information and an assessment of threats to the species, NOAA Fisheries
determined whether the identified threats were likely to cause Guadalupe
fur seals to become or remain in danger of extinction in the foreseeable
future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Guadalupe fur
seals have only one main rookery (Guadalupe Island, Mexico), and major
threats that impact these seals directly and/or indirectly through their
primary prey (squid) include warm water events, storms/hurricanes, sea
level rise, ocean acidification, disease, and oil spills.  Here, we provide
an update on the status of the Guadalupe fur seal under the ESA and NOAA
Fisheries’ next steps, including conservation and management
recommendations for recovery of this protected species.
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[MARMAM] Cascadia Research is seeking volunteers for fall 2021, winter and spring 2022

[Sabre Mahaffy]

Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington is now accepting interns 
and volunteers for U.S. west coast and Hawaiʻi research for fall 2021 and 
winter and spring 2022!

Cascadia Research Collective (CRC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit research and 
education organization founded in 1979. Most of our research is focused on 
whale and dolphin populations along the west coast of North America and in 
Hawaiʻi.


CRC is currently filling positions for:


Fall 2021 (September-December); deadline to apply is July 31, 2021

Winter 2022 (January-March); deadline to apply is November 15, 2021

Spring 2022 (April-June); deadline to apply is February 15, 2022



Volunteer positions are unpaid, office-based positions in Olympia, WA and 
housing is not provided.

International applicants will also be considered, but it is the responsibility 
of the applicant to acquire necessary visas and documentation.

Volunteer Position Details:

CRC gives priority to juniors or seniors with a science background who are 
seeking academic credit as well as those enrolled in (or planning to attend) 
graduate school in a marine science-related field. A full time commitment (40 
hours per week) is preferred. Volunteer positions are generally three months in 
length, although exceptions can be made depending on the academic calendar of 
the college or university.

Much of CRC’s work involves photo identification, using natural markings unique 
to each individual to catalog and track individuals over time. This allows us 
to study association patterns and movements over extended periods of time, 
revealing information on population structure and social organization. 
Volunteers will spend a large portion of their time comparing new photographs 
to those in our existing catalogs, and may additionally be involved in digital 
image processing and data entry.

Additionally, volunteers may have opportunities to participate in Washington 
state stranding response, which may include beach surveys, data and specimen 
collection, data entry, and assisting in necropsies of pinnipeds & cetaceans.


US West Coast Research: Volunteers will assist staff on our long-term photo-ID 
studies of baleen whales, including humpback, blue, and gray whales off the US 
West Coast and the inside waters of Washington state.  For more information, 
see www.cascadiaresearch.org


Hawaiʻi Research: Volunteers will assist staff on our long-term photo-ID 
studies of a variety of species of odontocetes (e.g., rough-toothed dolphins, 
false killer whales, beaked whales) found in Hawaiian waters. For more 
information, see 
www.cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii.htm


For a full description of the volunteer opportunities available, please visit: 
www.cascadiaresearch.org/interns.htm



Photo identification requires a high degree of focus and attention to detail, 
and volunteers can expect to spend the majority of their time comparing 
photographs.

Successful applicants should have the following skills:

- strong communication skills

- focus and attention to detail

- willingness to spend long hours in front of a computer

- ability to work independently

If you are interested in volunteering with Cascadia, please visit our website 
and send a CV, two professional letters of recommendation, and a letter stating 
your interest, what you would like gain to from this experience, relevant 
background experience, the time period you are interested in, the number of 
hours you can work, and if you would be seeking credit from your college or 
university.

For a US west coast project volunteer position please send the information to:

Kiirsten Flynn: kfl...@cascadiaresearch.org

For Hawaiʻi project volunteer position please send the information to:

Sabre Mahaffy: 
mahaf...@cascadiaresearch.org

If you would like to be considered for either, please indicate that in your 
letter and send to both.


-
Sabre Mahaffy, M.Sc.
Research Biologist
Cascadia Research Collective
218 1/2 W. 4th Ave.
Olympia, WA 98501

www.cascadiaresearch.org
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[MARMAM] Flukebook.org: Release v.2021-06-30

[Jason Holmberg]

We are pleased to announce the Wildbook software release v.2021-06-30,
which is reflected in the Flukebook.org platform for cetacean photo ID.

 Wildbook DOI:
10.5281/zenodo.5093667

 Wildbook Image Analysis (WBIA):
10.5281/zenodo.4784646

For an overview of Flukebook's multi-species, multi-modal machine learning
for photo ID, please see:

https://docs.wildme.org/docs/researchers/ia_pipeline

Community support for Wildbook is provided at:

https://community.wildme.org

*Release Notes for June 2021*

*Flukebook Release Notes*

- IndoCet custom import form has been updated.

- WB-1696: EXIF rotation in IA results is now more consistent.

 - WB-1691: Hierarchical matching job tasks are now correctly associating
with annotations

- WB-1687: Manual annotations species are getting the needed reference IDs
for MediaAssets and Annotations for the catalog to build correctly

- WB-1672: Bulk imports can be deleted.

- WB-1665: Users are informed of query with no match-against set when
filters reduce potential match candidates to 0

 - WB-1648: Single-asset uploads handle special characters.

 - WB-1632: Manual annotation no longer shrinks and offsets the annotation
display.

 - WB-1593: Country database field propogates to cloned encounters.

 - WB-1580: Usernames can be updated by admins and the account retain
access to owned encounters.

 - WB-1568: Sightings search by species has several fields fixed and
improved.

 - WB-1519: IA Results are correctly filtering by project again.

 - WB-1505: Match results take the user to the correct annotation.

 - WB-1455: Manual annotation page now handles image filename paths with
unsupported characters.

 - WB-1392: Manual annotation tool correctly displays existing annotations.

 - WB-775: Bulk import processes special characters.

- WB-668: Required fields in manual submissions have been clarified.

- Computer vision support for Indopacific humpback dolphin (Sousa
chinensis) added

*Wildbook-IA Release Notes (Computer Vision and Machine Learning)*

The following updates were made to WBIA last month.
- SAGE-293: Presented two posters at CVPR workshop “CV 4 Animals” on 1) the
continual ID curation problem and 2) CurvRank V2

- SAGE-20: New CurvRank V2 and PIE V2 support for gray whales added to WBIA
and deployed to Flukebook

Jason Holmberg (he/him/his)

Executive Director, Wild Me >

A.I. and humans combating extinction together.
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[MARMAM] New publication: Unusual Behaviour of Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Mothers and Calves

[Nicoli Eiras]

Dear MARMAM subscribers,


I am pleased to write this email to let you know about my last publication 
"Unusual Behaviour of Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Mothers and 
Calves" in the most recent issue (Volume 47, issue 4, 2021) of Aquatic Mammals 
Journal. It is a short note describing unusual behaviours displayed by humpback 
whales mothers and calves on the Brazilian breeding ground, involving 
separation between mothers and calves and also a first description, as far as 
we know, of a postmortem attentive behaviour in which the calf was the attender 
towards an adult whale.


For those who are interested in the article, it is possible to find it online 
through the link:


Nicoli Eiras, Samira Costa-Silva, Thais H. M. Melo, Luciana Ver?ssimo, and 
Milton C. C. Marcondes. (2021). Unusual Behaviour of Humpback Whale (Megaptera 
novaeangliae) Mothers and Calves. Aquatic Mammals, 47(4), 330-336. 
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1578%2FAM.47.4.2021.330&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cf22fb3af25eb4e87fd2608d947c3d01a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435%7C1%7C0%7C637619728613948804%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=Lhjw%2FSMSN71SWCGXh3NkyLGnytf%2B1%2B8kQUAwFbQa5bI%3D&reserved=0
 



Otherwise, feel free to contact me requesting a copy through the e-mail: 
nicoli.ei...@gmail.com.


Best regards,


Nicoli Eiras
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
- - - - - - -
Graduada em Ciências Biológicas - UNESP - Campus Assis 
(http://http://www.assis.unesp.br/)







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