I have shamefully neglected this blog for far far to long. I have had plenty of ideas for great posts but they never quite make it to the blog. Some stories that I want to share are just waiting for the right day so don't despair (or at least that is what I tell myself). But today, today I want to write about something that has been bothering me for a while and my social media streams remind me that today is the "right day" to write this post.

Today is apparently 'International save the vaquita day' but who of you have heard of the vaquita? what is a vaquita I hear many of you say as you look at me with blank faces. My friends and colleagues in the marine mammal world will likely raise an eyebrow at that question; who doesn't know what a vaquita is and the problems that they face?? Well, I can tell you most people probably don't know what a vaquita is.  As an example, I was at BBQ the other weekend with friends, many of whom have (and continue) to spend much time in Mexico (I have never been to Mexico, but the importance of Mexico will become clear shortly). They did indeed look at me with confused expressions on their faces as I mentioned the plight of this little marine mammal. Then they asked 'what is a vaquita?'

I see plenty of posts in my social media streams calling for the conservation of this little mammal, bemoaning it's plight and calling it criminal that this species will be allowed to go extinct. But the reality is that these well meaning posts are really only going out to those who already know about the problem. You may feel good about sharing a post, spreading the word on the vaquita's plight but what are you really doing? Who are you getting the message to and how does it really help? (and I am guilty of this too, don't get me wrong). But should we really be so surprised that those not in the conservation world, or the marine mammal science world don't know about the vaquita?

To be fair there are more focused efforts to save the vaquita, both from within Mexico and further afield. This past December the Society for Marine Mammalogy awarded the Conservation Merit Award to acknowledge the efforts of Mexico's scientists, government officials, environmentalists and fishermen in their efforts to save the little porpoise. There is the group Viva Vaquita whose mission is to raise awareness through public education

But bringing back the vaquita from the brink of extinction will be an impossible feat. While their main threats may be through bycatch (being caught in fishing nets), in the totoba fishery, this is not the sole problem. There are deep underlying issues linked to the regions' ecosystem degradation that have resulted wider social issues. My colleague at UBC, Dr. Andres Cisneros-Montemayor pointed this out earlier this year that the problems of overfishing, and hence bycatch cannot be addressed through banning fishing. The problems of the vaquita are explicitly linked to the socio-economic conditions of the region within which the vaquita lives.

At present there is no incentive for local people to conserve the vaquita, what is in it for them? Andres gets to the point that most, if not all the other media and conservation campaigns to save the vaquita have failed to highlight. This is a socio-economic problem that cannot be solved through ecology and conservation. We need to instead focus our efforts on addressing the underlying problems. For the vaquita this will likely be too late but for other species threatened with extinction perhaps not. Perhaps the vaquita will be our canary in the coal mine to shift how we address conservation problems around the world, and see governments and conservation groups working with local communities to empower them to manage their own resources and ultimately conserve both their resources and their regions as a whole.

I strongly encourage you to both find out about the vaquita as well as read the Nerus Program press release and Andres' article on why we must consider social and economic factors in our bid to save endangered species. 

• Nerus Program Press Release: The impending extinction of the vaquita is not just a fishing problem - it's a social and ecological one too.

• Cisneros-Montemayor, A. M., and A. Vincent. 2016. Science, society, and flagship species: social and political history as keys to conservation outcomes in the Gulf of California. Ecology and Society 21(2):9. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08255-210209
  

It has been an age and a day since I wrote on this blog. I could blame trying to get my thesis finished up (it is on track by the way) or numerous other things. OK, so I am going to blame my thesis after-all because it has been all engrossing and I haven’t really left my computer or thought about much else during this time! 

But I have decided that it is time for me to escape the thesis induced black-hole and re-enter the world of my blog. I do happen to have a plethora of ideas to write on –the issues surrounding self-promotion in science or last month’s Alaska Marine Science Symposium, and minke whales could always do with more attention. But instead I have decided to start a series of blog posts entitled “Sunday Science Somethings”. I have adapted and borrowed the Sunday Something idea from my sister, who wrote a fun blog about all things pretty and beautiful. My adaptation will also talk about beautiful things, however, you will have to expand your definition of beautiful because I plan to share amazing, exciting, and fun science stories –most of which I suspect will be marine focused as that is my thing. But science itself is a beautiful thing so borrowing the title from my sister’s blog on beautiful things seemed appropriate –and as an added bonus she is happy to let me use it!

This week has been full of fun, fascinating and significant science. Many scientists, science communicators and journalists converged on Chicago for the Annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS ) this week. My twitter feed has been filled with all sorts of interesting snippets’ –you can check some of these out by looking up #aaasmtg. But for me the most exciting science story to come up this week was that of study that has shown how it is possible to count whales from space. Yes, I did just write “count whales from space”.  In fact the paper, published in PLoS One this week is entitled just that: Whales from Space: Counting  southern right whales by satellite. 

This might seem like a completely outlandish exercise to many, who on earth thought one could count whales from space? But as I saw links to the article appear in my twitter and facebook feeds and the story highlighted by the likes of the BBC, I remembered the time I was checking out the Beaufort Sea with Google Earth –I had a short lived moment of over excitement as I discovered what I thought was a whale’s tail fluke.... on a closer inspection in turned out to be boat.  Needless to say the fact that scientists have now been able to show that high resolution satellite imagery (obviously Google Earth is not quite high tech enough. Yet.) can be used to count whales is utterly cool and I feel just a little bit vindicated for my Google Earth “discovery”. 

So how is it possible to count whales from space? And what are the practical uses for such methods? Or is it all just a bit of a news grabbing gimmick? First off, this is far from a gimmick. The implications for such a tool are widespread for both management and conservation of large whales. The methods presented in the paper provide the first successful attempt to use satellite imagery to count whales at and near the sea surface. Additionally, the authors attempts at automation means that whale counts can be made relatively efficiently and, importantly more quickly. The ability of this tool to help assess large areas for the presence of whales will provide an attractive alternative to the costly and risky aerial or vessel based surveys that are currently used for this purpose.

One of the reasons that I am so excited about this paper is because I can see the potential for using satellite imagery to count whales in areas that are subject to human activities –such as oil and gas activities or commercial shipping. While this approach would not be an effective tool for real-time mitigation it could provide useful for baseline data on the presence of large whales in coastal areas subject to these human activities. 

As with aerial surveys the methods presented in this paper can only count whales that are at or near the surface and so will always be subject to a bias –because whales only spend a small proportion of their at the surface. But with an understanding of how much time whales spend at the surface and how long they dive for we can try to overcome this bias. For aerial and ship based sightings this is achieved by calculating correction factors –essentially these are the probability that a whale will be at the surface when that patch of sea surface is in view of an observer. The number of whales detected in the survey –or image is then multiplied by this correction factor to give a better estimate of how many whales are actually present in the area.    My thesis work has developed availability correction factors for aerial surveys that are recording bowhead whales in the Beaufort Sea and these methods could also be adapted to help correct the counts of whales achieved through the use satellite imagery. Essentially this idea of counting whales from space is advancing aerial survey techniques into the next sphere... the exosphere and even beyond that into space. 

This time last year I was on standby. I was awaiting the call to head north to Alaska to join my aerial survey team. This year I am not on standby because I am not heading north and I am more than a little melancholy about it. Alaska, the Arctic has a way of getting under your skin. I’m really not sure why this happens, especially as I am always stationed in Prudhoe Bay – the largest oil field in the US. Instead I am spending the summer at my desk working to finish my thesis, and wondering what I would have seen had we been up there flying surveys this summer.

I was based in Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay, perched on Alaska’s North Slope. With its gravel roads and trucks, it is an industrial hive serving the largest oil field in the US, floating on gravel pads atop the Arctic tundra. This is not your typical remote field work experience. The real experience begins when I board the survey plane, a sturdy de Havilland Twin Otter, specifically outfitted with specialized bubble windows for the purpose of marine mammal surveys.  We fly a series of pre-determined transects perpendicular to the coast recording all marine mammals that we see, but we are particularly interested in seeing  bowhead whales.

My PhD research focuses on how bowhead behavioural responses to industry operations influence the ability of aerial observers to detect whales; and how this may impact density estimates of whales in the vicinity of offshore industry activities. Working on these surveys provides me with first-hand experience and a better understanding of the data that I use in my research.

Shell, Alaska produced a pamphlet on marine mammal research in the Alaskan Arctic -includes our aerial survey work

This is the week of the 64th IWC (International Whaling Commission) meeting, held this year in Panama City.  Delegates from ~63 countries are present to discuss and vote on a series of proposals that are due to be put forward this week, while countless representatives from NGOs all over the world are present to witness and report on the proceedings as well as to lobby delegates for the continued protection and conservation of whales and small cetaceans around the world.

During this intense 5 day meeting (of which we are on Day 2) a number of key items will be up for vote, some of them for a second attempt.  One such proposal is that of the South American countries for a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary.  This is the second attempt to introduce this proposal and unfortunately yesterday the vote failed to achieve a 2/3 majority.   Other key issues that are on the table include the Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling quotas, that include those of the bowhead whale for the Alaskan Inupiat and Russian subsistence groups.  The US have been fighting hard to get these quotas approved and many would argue have resorted to some interesting politics to obtain the support of Japan.  However, it is not news that the politics of the IWC is interesting to say the least!  But I have only brushed the surface and the week is packed with items including whale-watching, small cetacean conservation, ship strikes, small type coastal whaling (this one is of keen interest to the Japanese), the revised management plan and many more.

The IWC website has provided access to the meetings schedule as well as key reports of the scientific committee (that met in the weeks prior to this 64th meeting).  http://iwcoffice.org/meetings/meeting2012.htm

Another good source of information from an NGOs perspective is the ACS (American Cetacean Society).  Cheryl McCormick (Executive Director of the ACS) is currently at the IWC meeting in Panama and actively blogging, posting detailed reports of the proceedings (often with a rather witty slant).  Check out her blog 'IWC: The World is Watching!'

I will post a summary of this weeks events in Panama early next week and highlight the key developments and outcomes.  I'll also save and post any interesting news articles that I find related to this years' meeting. 

Cheers
F

Oceans Inc. A multimedia channel dedicated to the sharing news about our oceans will be broadcasting from this years Rio +20.  The UN conference on sustainable development brings global leaders and representatives from around the world.  This video has been produced by the Pew Environmental Group and the Zoological Society of London to tell us why global leaders should seize this opportunity for action to protect our oceans.

Dr. Alexis Rogers gives an overview on some of the solutions to key problems currently affecting the oceans today