Since Lyne brought up whaling I'm curious whether anyone has a (professional
or personal/professional) opinion on the International Whaling Commission
upcoming vote on opening the world oceans to whaling again. Are people aware
that this is on the table this June's IWC meeting in Morocco? It hasn't
received much press. It surely will if it passes! Apparently the US is
supportive. Yep.
But this is the thing. Save the Whales has been touted as perhaps the most
successful environmental campaign of all time. Most people loathe the
thought of killing the gentle giants. But we eat all kinds of other
creatures. So... if some species of whales have sufficiently recovered (have
any? It seems they have recovered, if not to the numbers they once were
pre-modern era) then is it actually a possibly viable idea to hunt them IF
it helps better regulate things like the "scientific" whaling of Japan?
I'm at the beginning of my research here, but it's quite an interesting
topic. What do whale ecologists think? Would it be good or bad for the
marine ecosystem? Hunting and hunting enthusiast passion has helped to
save/manage many species of terrestrial animal (ducks and elk comes to mind)
but whales?
Wendee
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wendee Holtcamp, M.S. Wildlife Ecology ~ @bohemianone
Freelance Writer * Photographer * Bohemian
http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com
http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com
~~ 6-wk Online Writing Course Starts May 15 or Jun 19 ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Im Animal Planets news blogger - http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news
-----Original Message-----
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
[mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of Lyne Morissette
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 10:56 PM
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] New paper published: whales and fisheries
Dear colleagues,
The following article has just been published in this month's issue of
Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS):
Ecosystem models clarify the trophic role of whales off Northwest Africa
ABSTRACT: There is global concern about the interaction between whales
and fisheries, and in some countries, great whales are viewed as a
threat to fisheries by potentially eating fish species that could be
exploited for human consumption. We developed an ecosystem model to
explore the trophic interactions between cetaceans and fisheries off
Northwest Africa and to examine the potential impact of a reduction in
the abundance of baleen whales on fishery yields. This allowed us to
characterize the structure and function of the ecosystem in terms of
biomass, mortalities, consumption rates, food habits, and fisheries.
Faced with sparse data for our study area, we explicitly accounted for
uncertainty in ecosystem structure, model accuracy, and input data and
conducted an extensive sensitivity analysis. We tested model
performance with time series of biomass and catches for important
species of the system. Our results indicate that the overlap between
prey species consumed by cetaceans and species targeted in fisheries
is low. Furthermore, for a wide range of assumptions about whale
abundances, diet composition, and food consumption in breeding areas,
we found that whale consumption is several orders of magnitude lower
than total fishery catches and 2 orders of magnitude lower than the
amounts taken by other trophic groups. Finally, simulations of
substantial reductions of whale populations did not influence the
biomass of commercially important fish, nor any other species of the
foodweb. These results suggest that fisheries yields would not benefit
from the removal of whales in this area.
The article can be downloaded from MEPS website
(http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v404/p289-302/
) or you can contact the first author for PDF copies
(lyne.morisse...@globetrotter.net
)
Lyne Morissette, Ph.D.
Institut des Sciences de la Mer de Rimouski (UQAR-ISMER)
email: lyne.morisse...@globetrotter.net
Tél. 418-723-1986 #1981 | Sans-fil 418-750-5685
