100 years ago Amundsen and his Norwegian party became the first humans to reach this earth's farthest south. For all of us who love the unknown, seek out the empty spaces, and blind ourselves just a little to leave room for discovery, I take the milestone in human endeavor to be a bit bitter-sweet. I do raise a cheer to the man who so efficiently traveled in a realm so deadly to his less prepared companions. But leave some blank spots on the map for me...
Two articles:
UK Guardian, with original news clippings:
http://bit.ly/vnHgL4
Scientific American, a whole lot longer and more in depth:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=south-pole-discovered-december-14-1911
And in two weeks we travel south for our own bit of discovery :)
Happy holidays to all!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Invasion of the King Crabs!
Oh my oh my the crabs are coming the crabs are coming. Funny video, in a biology nerd kind of way: http://www.crabnet.tv/
Hang on for the talking penguins at the end....
:-)
Ted
One year ago today, scientists on a research ice breaker in Antarctica found conclusive proof that climate change was allowing predatory King Crabs to invade the fragile Antarctic continental shelf, threatening the unique flora and fauna that holds potential for cancer medicines and other cures. Today, Storyteller Film releases the short documentary film "Crabnet Antarctica: The Hunt for Invading Crab" that documents this disturbing discovery.
Hang on for the talking penguins at the end....
:-)
Ted
One year ago today, scientists on a research ice breaker in Antarctica found conclusive proof that climate change was allowing predatory King Crabs to invade the fragile Antarctic continental shelf, threatening the unique flora and fauna that holds potential for cancer medicines and other cures. Today, Storyteller Film releases the short documentary film "Crabnet Antarctica: The Hunt for Invading Crab" that documents this disturbing discovery.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Raise a glass for old Frank Wild
Today there's a bit the great Age of Exploration being laid to rest anew, as Frank Wild is being buried at Grytviken next to his travel companion of old, Sir Ernest Shackleton. Those of us headed south this season can look forward to toasting them both in January! Great story, eh?
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/news/antarctic-explorer-gets-polar-burial-frank-wild
Antarctic explorer gets polar burial (full story below)
Also, here's the most recent South Georgia Association newsletter
http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/(h)South_Georgia_News_and_Events --- highlight being a story about glacier retreat and one about fur seals. Glaciers: "...smaller glaciers are also experiencing huge collapses. An example is the Harker Glacier, at the head of Moraine Fjord, which is estimated to have lost a half kilometre of glacial tongue in the past year alone."
And fur seals: "Research conducted at Bird Island has shown the remarkable ability of female fur seals to return to breed in almost exactly the same spot where they were born.....most of them get within 12-metres of their birth place. Researchers do not know how the seals find their way back."
Happy holidays all,
Ted
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/news/antarctic-explorer-gets-polar-burial-frank-wild
Antarctic explorer gets polar burial
27th November 2011
Today, Antarctic explorer Frank Wild will finally have his last wish granted 72 years after his death, as his ashes will be laid to rest in a polar graveyard
A commemorative polar expedition is under-way to grant Antarctic explorer Frank Wild his final wish, to be buried on South Georgia Island alongside fellow pioneer Sir Ernest Shackleton. His ashes will be buried on the 27 November, 72 years after his death.
Wild was one of the great, yet unsung, Antarctic explorers and the right-hand man to Sir Ernest Shackleton. He had more experience in Antarctica than any of the other famed explorers, and although he came close to death many times on polar expeditions, his peaceful death may be the reason he did not get the same glorification as the others.
He met his death in 1939 in South Africa, and his final wish to be buried on South Georgia Island was never fulfilled because of the out-break of World War II. His body was presumed lost, and his name disappeared from the pages of history.
However, his adventurous lifestyle and relationship with South Africa caught the attention of polar historian and author Angie Butler, who became fascinated with his life, and made it her duty to find his ashes and commemorate his wish.
Angie told Wanderlust, “The story was that he was buried in Brixton cemetery in Johannesburg. There was hardly anyone at the funeral and a lone sea cadet playedThe Last Post. It sounded like this awful desultory affair.”
But early in her research Angie discovered that his funeral actually took place at Braamfontein cemetery, and that his wife had him cremated, not buried, so that his ashes could go to South Georgia. It was at this point that the trail went cold.
“I kept going though, for several years. Then I found an old paper cutting that had been written in 1966 that said Frank Wild's ashes were kept in an old chapel. It didn't say which chapel, but I just knew that it was the chapel in Braamfontein cemetery,” Angie continued.
“And they were there, in a wooden box, quite banged and scraped, so it looks like it has travelled around a bit. It hasn’t just been sitting on the shelf. It’s a greeny-gold colour that has been stippled and a little bronze plaque with his name and date of birth and death. So it’s definitely him."
The commemorative expedition set out on the 20 November, and will take his remains back to South Georgia, where his ashes will be buried today, on the 27 November, in a small intimate graveyard on Grytviken hill.....
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/news/antarctic-explorer-gets-polar-burial-frank-wild
Antarctic explorer gets polar burial (full story below)
Also, here's the most recent South Georgia Association newsletter
http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/(h)South_Georgia_News_and_Events --- highlight being a story about glacier retreat and one about fur seals. Glaciers: "...smaller glaciers are also experiencing huge collapses. An example is the Harker Glacier, at the head of Moraine Fjord, which is estimated to have lost a half kilometre of glacial tongue in the past year alone."
And fur seals: "Research conducted at Bird Island has shown the remarkable ability of female fur seals to return to breed in almost exactly the same spot where they were born.....most of them get within 12-metres of their birth place. Researchers do not know how the seals find their way back."
Happy holidays all,
Ted
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/news/antarctic-explorer-gets-polar-burial-frank-wild
Antarctic explorer gets polar burial
27th November 2011
Today, Antarctic explorer Frank Wild will finally have his last wish granted 72 years after his death, as his ashes will be laid to rest in a polar graveyard
A commemorative polar expedition is under-way to grant Antarctic explorer Frank Wild his final wish, to be buried on South Georgia Island alongside fellow pioneer Sir Ernest Shackleton. His ashes will be buried on the 27 November, 72 years after his death.
Wild was one of the great, yet unsung, Antarctic explorers and the right-hand man to Sir Ernest Shackleton. He had more experience in Antarctica than any of the other famed explorers, and although he came close to death many times on polar expeditions, his peaceful death may be the reason he did not get the same glorification as the others.
He met his death in 1939 in South Africa, and his final wish to be buried on South Georgia Island was never fulfilled because of the out-break of World War II. His body was presumed lost, and his name disappeared from the pages of history.
However, his adventurous lifestyle and relationship with South Africa caught the attention of polar historian and author Angie Butler, who became fascinated with his life, and made it her duty to find his ashes and commemorate his wish.
Angie told Wanderlust, “The story was that he was buried in Brixton cemetery in Johannesburg. There was hardly anyone at the funeral and a lone sea cadet playedThe Last Post. It sounded like this awful desultory affair.”
But early in her research Angie discovered that his funeral actually took place at Braamfontein cemetery, and that his wife had him cremated, not buried, so that his ashes could go to South Georgia. It was at this point that the trail went cold.
“I kept going though, for several years. Then I found an old paper cutting that had been written in 1966 that said Frank Wild's ashes were kept in an old chapel. It didn't say which chapel, but I just knew that it was the chapel in Braamfontein cemetery,” Angie continued.
“And they were there, in a wooden box, quite banged and scraped, so it looks like it has travelled around a bit. It hasn’t just been sitting on the shelf. It’s a greeny-gold colour that has been stippled and a little bronze plaque with his name and date of birth and death. So it’s definitely him."
The commemorative expedition set out on the 20 November, and will take his remains back to South Georgia, where his ashes will be buried today, on the 27 November, in a small intimate graveyard on Grytviken hill.....
Monday, November 7, 2011
Birth of a huge Antarctic iceberg (video)
There's a news story that's made many newspapers about this New York City-sized iceberg that is being formed by the Pine Island Glacier. Here's a link to what I think is the best article so far on the subject:
http://bit.ly/vxaJnv
Yet somehow, I think all the articles missed what is the most significant about this story, that it takes place on the face of the Pine Island Glacier, which is the focus point for one of this coming century's biggest question: how much will the sea rise with global warming? The flow of the Pine Island Glacier has been accelerating, and given that it is the central drainage point for a vast stretch of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the difference between it's flow rate remaining stable and it pouring out rapidly speak to a difference of something like 1 foot in global sea level rise vs 6 feet of global sea level rise over the coming 100 years.
Meanwhile, news from the north:
Summer 2011: Arctic sea ice near record lows
The summer sea ice melt season has ended in the Arctic. Arctic sea ice extent reached its low for the year, the second lowest in the satellite record, on September 9. The minimum extent was only slightly above 2007, the record low year, even though weather conditions this year were not as conducive to ice loss as in 2007. Both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route were open for a period during September.
More information: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaice-news/
http://bit.ly/vxaJnv
Yet somehow, I think all the articles missed what is the most significant about this story, that it takes place on the face of the Pine Island Glacier, which is the focus point for one of this coming century's biggest question: how much will the sea rise with global warming? The flow of the Pine Island Glacier has been accelerating, and given that it is the central drainage point for a vast stretch of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the difference between it's flow rate remaining stable and it pouring out rapidly speak to a difference of something like 1 foot in global sea level rise vs 6 feet of global sea level rise over the coming 100 years.
Meanwhile, news from the north:
Summer 2011: Arctic sea ice near record lows
The summer sea ice melt season has ended in the Arctic. Arctic sea ice extent reached its low for the year, the second lowest in the satellite record, on September 9. The minimum extent was only slightly above 2007, the record low year, even though weather conditions this year were not as conducive to ice loss as in 2007. Both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route were open for a period during September.
More information: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaice-news/
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Orcas migrate 10000 kilometers
Is anyone really surprised that whales go places we did not know? After a summer getting fat on toothfish around the ice in Antarctica, the waters off Brazil might be looking positively lovely to me as well. And consider, if you are the size of an Orca, swimming 50 miles in a day is virtually nothing, a casual stroll. The theory of shedding skin to lose a parasite load probably has merit; among Humpbacks we see a substantial parasite load on their summer feeding grounds, but when they travel to warmer waters in the winter they shed and lose the great majority of cridders that feed directly on them and/or hang around for the free ride.
Have a whale of a day,
Ted
Killer whales migrate, study finds, but why?
http://bit.ly/spwMBS
By Marlowe Hood (AFP) – 19 hours ago
PARIS — Some killer whales, a study published Wednesday shows for the first time, wander nearly 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) from Antarctica's Southern Ocean into tropical waters -- but not to feed or breed.
Rather, these fearsome predators at the apex of the marine food chain traverse the sea at top speed -- slowing as they reach warmer climes -- to exfoliate, the study speculates.
They are driven, in other words, by the urge or need to make their skin all shiny and new.
Despite our intense fascination with seal-chomping orcas, next to nothing was known about their long-haul movements, or whether they migrate at all.
To find out more, John Durban and Robert Pitman of the US National Marine Fisheries Service fitted a dozen so-called "type B" killer whales off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula with satellite transmitters.
In January 2009, the scientists used bolt-shooting crossbows to attached tags to the five-tonne mammals' dorsal fins from a distance of five to 15 metres (15 to 50 feet).
"Type B" orcas inhabit the inshore waters of Antarctica near pack ice, the better to feed on seals and penguins. Type A killer whales prefer open water and a diet of minke whales, and the smaller, fish-eating type C is most common in the eastern Antarctic.
Half the satellite tags stopped working after three weeks, but the remaining six revealed a remarkable and unexpected wanderlust over the following two years.
"Our tagged whales followed the most direct path to the nearest warm waters north of the subtropical convergence, with a gradual slowing of swim speed in progressively warmer water," the authors note.
The whales made a beeline, cruising at up to 10 km/hr (six mph), across the southwest Atlantic east of the Falkland Islands to the subtropical waters off the coasts of Uruguay and southern Brazil.
The study, published in the British Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, provides the first direct evidence of long-distance migration by killer whales.
But why they do it remains something of a mystery.
The speed and duration of the voyages, undertaken individually, did not leave enough time for prolonged foraging, and would have been too demanding for a new-born calf.
"Remarkably, one whale returned to Antarctica after completing a 9,400 kilometre (5,840 mile) trip in just 42 days," the study said.
The varied departure dates, between early February and late April, also suggested these expeditions were not annual migrations for feeding or breeding.
Which is where skin comes into the picture.
Durban and Pitman suspect that killer whales move into warmer waters in order to shed a layer -- along with an encrustation of single-celled algae called diatoms -- without freezing to death.
Orcas are the smallest cetaceans -- a group including whales and dolphins -- which live for extended periods in subzero Antarctic waters. Replacing and repairing outer skin in waters where the surface temperature is minus 1.9 degree Celsius (28.6 degree Fahrenheit) may be dangerous, even lethal.
Surface temperatures at the killer whales' tropical destinations, by contrast, were a balmy 20.9 to 24.2 C (69.6 to 75.6 F).
"We hypothesise that these migrations were thermally motivated," the authors conclude.
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are the most widely distributed cetacean -- and perhaps mammal species -- in the world.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
Have a whale of a day,
Ted
Killer whales migrate, study finds, but why?
http://bit.ly/spwMBS
By Marlowe Hood (AFP) – 19 hours ago
PARIS — Some killer whales, a study published Wednesday shows for the first time, wander nearly 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) from Antarctica's Southern Ocean into tropical waters -- but not to feed or breed.
Rather, these fearsome predators at the apex of the marine food chain traverse the sea at top speed -- slowing as they reach warmer climes -- to exfoliate, the study speculates.
They are driven, in other words, by the urge or need to make their skin all shiny and new.
Despite our intense fascination with seal-chomping orcas, next to nothing was known about their long-haul movements, or whether they migrate at all.
To find out more, John Durban and Robert Pitman of the US National Marine Fisheries Service fitted a dozen so-called "type B" killer whales off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula with satellite transmitters.
In January 2009, the scientists used bolt-shooting crossbows to attached tags to the five-tonne mammals' dorsal fins from a distance of five to 15 metres (15 to 50 feet).
"Type B" orcas inhabit the inshore waters of Antarctica near pack ice, the better to feed on seals and penguins. Type A killer whales prefer open water and a diet of minke whales, and the smaller, fish-eating type C is most common in the eastern Antarctic.
Half the satellite tags stopped working after three weeks, but the remaining six revealed a remarkable and unexpected wanderlust over the following two years.
"Our tagged whales followed the most direct path to the nearest warm waters north of the subtropical convergence, with a gradual slowing of swim speed in progressively warmer water," the authors note.
The whales made a beeline, cruising at up to 10 km/hr (six mph), across the southwest Atlantic east of the Falkland Islands to the subtropical waters off the coasts of Uruguay and southern Brazil.
The study, published in the British Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, provides the first direct evidence of long-distance migration by killer whales.
But why they do it remains something of a mystery.
The speed and duration of the voyages, undertaken individually, did not leave enough time for prolonged foraging, and would have been too demanding for a new-born calf.
"Remarkably, one whale returned to Antarctica after completing a 9,400 kilometre (5,840 mile) trip in just 42 days," the study said.
The varied departure dates, between early February and late April, also suggested these expeditions were not annual migrations for feeding or breeding.
Which is where skin comes into the picture.
Durban and Pitman suspect that killer whales move into warmer waters in order to shed a layer -- along with an encrustation of single-celled algae called diatoms -- without freezing to death.
Orcas are the smallest cetaceans -- a group including whales and dolphins -- which live for extended periods in subzero Antarctic waters. Replacing and repairing outer skin in waters where the surface temperature is minus 1.9 degree Celsius (28.6 degree Fahrenheit) may be dangerous, even lethal.
Surface temperatures at the killer whales' tropical destinations, by contrast, were a balmy 20.9 to 24.2 C (69.6 to 75.6 F).
"We hypothesise that these migrations were thermally motivated," the authors conclude.
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are the most widely distributed cetacean -- and perhaps mammal species -- in the world.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Antarctic ice flow mapped
There's a new map of Antarctic glaciers that has been around in the news lately, a map compiled from a vast trove of data that documents flow rates of all of Antarctica's glaciers. I hadn't posted about it because I found the coverage quite mundane. But here's a nice little video that tells the story with pretty pictures:
http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/08/25/antarctic-ice-flow-map-reveals-clues-to?videoId=218738420&videoChannel=6
http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/08/25/antarctic-ice-flow-map-reveals-clues-to?videoId=218738420&videoChannel=6
Monday, August 15, 2011
Survival in Limbo, and Frank Wild to be buried next to Shackleton at Grytviken
I've **always** wanted to hear this story and never knew that there was a documentary about it:
From the South Georgia Newsletter:
Explorer and broadcaster Duncan Carse made several expeditions and visits to South Georgia between the 1950s and 1980. His first three expeditions were to map the Island with small teams of men man-hauling equipment the length of the Island on sledges. His fourth expedition was very different indeed. It was to be an 18 month experiment in living alone in an extremely remote cove on the south coast of the Island at South Undine Harbour. He was landed there by a whaling vessel in 1961 with all his stores and equipment and materials to erect a hut to live in. He told the whalers not to return before the 18 months were up. Three months into the experiment, he and his hut were washed away by huge waves. Somehow he survived and had to salvage what he could to survive for months until a concerned whaling manger decided to ignore Carse's instructions and sent a vessel to check and see how he was faring. In 1976 Duncan Carse returned to make a documentary about the experience.
From the South Georgia Newsletter:
Explorer and broadcaster Duncan Carse made several expeditions and visits to South Georgia between the 1950s and 1980. His first three expeditions were to map the Island with small teams of men man-hauling equipment the length of the Island on sledges. His fourth expedition was very different indeed. It was to be an 18 month experiment in living alone in an extremely remote cove on the south coast of the Island at South Undine Harbour. He was landed there by a whaling vessel in 1961 with all his stores and equipment and materials to erect a hut to live in. He told the whalers not to return before the 18 months were up. Three months into the experiment, he and his hut were washed away by huge waves. Somehow he survived and had to salvage what he could to survive for months until a concerned whaling manger decided to ignore Carse's instructions and sent a vessel to check and see how he was faring. In 1976 Duncan Carse returned to make a documentary about the experience.
Here's a link to this documentary, in 7 short parts on YouTube:
http://bit.ly/ncoILS
AND in a most intensely interesting bit of Age of Exploration history, Frank Wild is to be buried next to Shackleton in the Grytviken cemetery. Full story: http://bit.ly/nm7Niz
AND in a most intensely interesting bit of Age of Exploration history, Frank Wild is to be buried next to Shackleton in the Grytviken cemetery. Full story: http://bit.ly/nm7Niz
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Texan Antarctica, and the Japanese tsunami caused ice shelf calving
Two bits here of Antarctic interest from a geological perspective. First, a good friend, Dr. Ian Dalziel, of the University of Texas at Austin, and colleagues has recently worked out that 1.1 billion years ago Texas and Antarctica were neighbors. Full article below.
Secondly, it appears that the Japanese tsunami caused a major calving on an Antarctic ice shelf. A short video from Nasa tells the story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPDuTzhNxvU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/11-48.htm
A Billion Year Old Piece of North America Traced Back to Antarctica
Boulder, CO, USA - An international team of researchers has found the strongest evidence yet that parts of North America and Antarctica were connected 1.1 billion years ago, long before the supercontinent Pangaea formed.
"I can go to the Franklin Mountains in West Texas and stand next to what was once part of Coats Land in Antarctica," said Staci Loewy, a geochemist at California State University, Bakersfield, who led the study. "That's so amazing."
Loewy and her colleagues discovered that rocks collected from both locations have the exact same composition of lead isotopes. Earlier analyses showed the rocks to be the exact same age and have the same chemical and geologic properties. The work, published online (ahead of print) in the September issue of the journal Geology, strengthens support for the so-called SWEAT hypothesis, which posits that ancestral North America and East Antarctica were joined in an earlier supercontinent called Rodinia.
The approximately 1.1 billion year old North American Mid-continent Rift System extends across the continent from the Great Lakes to Texas. Volcanic rocks associated with the rift, which appears to represent an aborted tectonic attempt to split the ancestral North American continent of Laurentia, are well exposed in the Keweenaw Peninsula of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from which they take their name, the Keweenawan large igneous province. The rift extends in the subsurface beneath Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to the Franklin Mountains near El Paso, Texas where related rocks are exposed. In this latest report, Loewy, Ian Dalziel, research professor at The University of Texas at Austin, Richard Hanson of Texas Christian University and colleagues from several overseas institutions, find that rocks barely peeking through the ice in Coats Land, a remote part of the Antarctic continent south of the Atlantic Ocean basin, reflect a former continuation of the North American rift system. Loewy began her collaboration with Dalziel several years ago as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.
Loewy et al. use new lead (Pb) isotopic data from the 1.1-billion-year-old rocks from Coats Land, to constrain the positions of Laurentia (ancestral North America) and Kalahari (ancestral southern Africa) in the 1-billion-year-old supercontinent, Rodinia. The Coats Land rocks are identical in age to both the Keweenawan large igneous province of the North American mid-continent rift and the contemporaneous Umkondo large igneous province of southern Africa. Comparison of the isotopic compositions, however, unequivocally links the Coats Land rocks with the Keweenawan province. Together with paleomagnetic data this suggests that the Coats Land block was a piece of Laurentia near west Texas 1.1 billion years ago. Furthermore, the Coats Land block collided with the Kalahari Precambrian craton of Africa during a 1-billion-year-old collision. Based on this reconstruction, Laurentia collided with Kalahari along Antarctica’s Maud mountain belt, which would represent a continuation of the 1-billion-year-old Grenville mountain belt of eastern and southern North America.
Thus the tiny Coats Land block of Antarctica is a ‘tectonic tracer’ providing critical clues to the geographic relationships between three of the major continents of the planet in the time interval 1.1 – 1.0 billion years ago, just prior to the opening of the Pacific Ocean basin, the hypothesized ‘Snowball Earth’ glaciations, and the rise of multi-cellular life.
Secondly, it appears that the Japanese tsunami caused a major calving on an Antarctic ice shelf. A short video from Nasa tells the story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPDuTzhNxvU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/11-48.htm
A Billion Year Old Piece of North America Traced Back to Antarctica
Boulder, CO, USA - An international team of researchers has found the strongest evidence yet that parts of North America and Antarctica were connected 1.1 billion years ago, long before the supercontinent Pangaea formed.
"I can go to the Franklin Mountains in West Texas and stand next to what was once part of Coats Land in Antarctica," said Staci Loewy, a geochemist at California State University, Bakersfield, who led the study. "That's so amazing."
Loewy and her colleagues discovered that rocks collected from both locations have the exact same composition of lead isotopes. Earlier analyses showed the rocks to be the exact same age and have the same chemical and geologic properties. The work, published online (ahead of print) in the September issue of the journal Geology, strengthens support for the so-called SWEAT hypothesis, which posits that ancestral North America and East Antarctica were joined in an earlier supercontinent called Rodinia.
The approximately 1.1 billion year old North American Mid-continent Rift System extends across the continent from the Great Lakes to Texas. Volcanic rocks associated with the rift, which appears to represent an aborted tectonic attempt to split the ancestral North American continent of Laurentia, are well exposed in the Keweenaw Peninsula of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from which they take their name, the Keweenawan large igneous province. The rift extends in the subsurface beneath Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to the Franklin Mountains near El Paso, Texas where related rocks are exposed. In this latest report, Loewy, Ian Dalziel, research professor at The University of Texas at Austin, Richard Hanson of Texas Christian University and colleagues from several overseas institutions, find that rocks barely peeking through the ice in Coats Land, a remote part of the Antarctic continent south of the Atlantic Ocean basin, reflect a former continuation of the North American rift system. Loewy began her collaboration with Dalziel several years ago as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.
Loewy et al. use new lead (Pb) isotopic data from the 1.1-billion-year-old rocks from Coats Land, to constrain the positions of Laurentia (ancestral North America) and Kalahari (ancestral southern Africa) in the 1-billion-year-old supercontinent, Rodinia. The Coats Land rocks are identical in age to both the Keweenawan large igneous province of the North American mid-continent rift and the contemporaneous Umkondo large igneous province of southern Africa. Comparison of the isotopic compositions, however, unequivocally links the Coats Land rocks with the Keweenawan province. Together with paleomagnetic data this suggests that the Coats Land block was a piece of Laurentia near west Texas 1.1 billion years ago. Furthermore, the Coats Land block collided with the Kalahari Precambrian craton of Africa during a 1-billion-year-old collision. Based on this reconstruction, Laurentia collided with Kalahari along Antarctica’s Maud mountain belt, which would represent a continuation of the 1-billion-year-old Grenville mountain belt of eastern and southern North America.
Thus the tiny Coats Land block of Antarctica is a ‘tectonic tracer’ providing critical clues to the geographic relationships between three of the major continents of the planet in the time interval 1.1 – 1.0 billion years ago, just prior to the opening of the Pacific Ocean basin, the hypothesized ‘Snowball Earth’ glaciations, and the rise of multi-cellular life.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sex on the High Seas!
Fellow elephant seal lovers,
Isn't it wonderfully rare to be a biologist and get to use a catchy subject line like that?
I find this very interesting, that in one instance at one site at least many females are avoiding the big bull squashing scene. It surely sounds more romantic to find a Valentino bull in the waves than to mate with and be smothered by Brutus on the beach. But what do we really know? Does this happen everywhere and often? If a female mates with a smaller bull in the waves instead of big bad Brutus on the beach, is she as successful pupping the following season?
Let's not forget the value of the "double-mother-sucker-superweaner", the absolute best biological term on the planet. I'm sure you are dying to know what a 'double-mother-sucker-superweaner' is. First, a dominant, territory holding elephant seal bull is almost always a superweaner as a pup, which is to say a very large weaner. To be that very large weaner, one probably will have to be a double-mother-sucker, which is a pup that is both bold and stealthy enough to suckle from multiple mothers, both his own and parasitizing other mothers. So there you have the double-mother-sucker-superweaner :)
I hope I've put a smile on your face.
Seals Mating at Sea Give Beachmaster the Slip
Some female elephant seals won't play opt to mate offshore instead of beachside
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/07/29/seals-mating-at-sea-give-beachmaster-the-slip
By Joel N. Shurkin, ISNS Contributor
(ISNS)—Life for elephant seals is nasty and brutish—but their sex lives are legendary.
Only the biggest and most brutish males are believed to reproduce. During the annual breeding season, huge males, called beachmasters, rule harems of much smaller females. The beachmaster drives off all male competitors until another big, aggressive male comes along and dethrones him. It is believed to be one of nature's purest examples of polygyny.
In this case, evolution favors the strongest and biggest.
It turns out those helpless females may not be so helpless, at least in one colony. Large numbers of female Southern elephant seals at the edge of Antarctica are ignoring the polygyny system in favor of sex in the high seas.
But evolution may also favor the wisest.
Researchers from Australia and South Africa have found that large numbers of female seals skip the yearly breeding interval at Marion Island, approximately located between the two continents of Africa and Antarctica. When they finally do show up, they are pregnant, and the beachmaster had nothing to do with it. Almost three-fourths of the males skip the violence and frustration as well.
955 miles off the African coast, Marion Island is a wildlife preserve full of seals, penguins and seabirds that is administered by South Africa. According to Nico de Bruyn, a marine mammal ecologist at the University of Pretoria, the seals come to land twice a year: once to molt, the other to reproduce. Both tasks are much easier to do on solid land than in the tossing ocean.
Male bull elephant seals are enormous, some measuring 16 feet long and weighing more than 3 short tons.They have a proboscis, or trunk, almost a foot long, hence the elephant in their name. They are loud, smelly and mean-tempered.
Female elephant seals are one-fourth the weight and up to 6 feet shorter than males.
The seals employ delayed implantation, meaning the fertilized egg does not implant itself and begin development until the timing is exactly correct for the pup to be born on land, a 12-month gestation period including the delay. On Marion Island, that is in October, de Bruyn said. All the pups are born within days of each other.
Females nurse the young for only about three weeks and are then ready to reproduce again. The bulls, alpha males, are so large many females and pups are killed when an amorous or bellicose bull lands on them. On the crowded beach there is no place to escape.
But the researchers, reporting in Animal Behaviour, have found that as many as half the females refuse to play along, staying in the ocean and mating with whom they chose rather than joining the chaos on the beach.
"For a male, even if he is huge in comparison to the female—which they are—coercing a female is so much more difficult in the water because she has more options," de Bruyn said.
The researchers began their work of marking and capturing animals because of concern about a dramatic decline in Southern elephant seals noted in the 1980s. The population at Marion Island was down 80 percent for reasons unknown, although de Bruyn said that it has stabilized now and is even showing a slight increase.
De Bruyn does not think this evasion of is new behavior.
Oddly, that behavior is not seen in other elephant seal colonies. Daniel Costa, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studies the Northern elephant seals that breed at Ano Nuevo on the California coast.He doesn't think that behavior is common.
"We have no evidence that it occurs in Northern elephant seals.I'm not even sure how prevalent the observation is for Southern elephant seals," Costa said. "We know that our females do not hang out in the water. I can say this because we track them onto the beach from sea, or at least the 300-plus females we have tracked don't spend a lot of time offshore. They just come in and land on the beach."
And then end up in some beachmaster's harem.
Isn't it wonderfully rare to be a biologist and get to use a catchy subject line like that?
I find this very interesting, that in one instance at one site at least many females are avoiding the big bull squashing scene. It surely sounds more romantic to find a Valentino bull in the waves than to mate with and be smothered by Brutus on the beach. But what do we really know? Does this happen everywhere and often? If a female mates with a smaller bull in the waves instead of big bad Brutus on the beach, is she as successful pupping the following season?
Let's not forget the value of the "double-mother-sucker-superweaner", the absolute best biological term on the planet. I'm sure you are dying to know what a 'double-mother-sucker-superweaner' is. First, a dominant, territory holding elephant seal bull is almost always a superweaner as a pup, which is to say a very large weaner. To be that very large weaner, one probably will have to be a double-mother-sucker, which is a pup that is both bold and stealthy enough to suckle from multiple mothers, both his own and parasitizing other mothers. So there you have the double-mother-sucker-superweaner :)
I hope I've put a smile on your face.
Seals Mating at Sea Give Beachmaster the Slip
Some female elephant seals won't play opt to mate offshore instead of beachside
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/07/29/seals-mating-at-sea-give-beachmaster-the-slip
By Joel N. Shurkin, ISNS Contributor
(ISNS)—Life for elephant seals is nasty and brutish—but their sex lives are legendary.
Only the biggest and most brutish males are believed to reproduce. During the annual breeding season, huge males, called beachmasters, rule harems of much smaller females. The beachmaster drives off all male competitors until another big, aggressive male comes along and dethrones him. It is believed to be one of nature's purest examples of polygyny.
In this case, evolution favors the strongest and biggest.
It turns out those helpless females may not be so helpless, at least in one colony. Large numbers of female Southern elephant seals at the edge of Antarctica are ignoring the polygyny system in favor of sex in the high seas.
But evolution may also favor the wisest.
Researchers from Australia and South Africa have found that large numbers of female seals skip the yearly breeding interval at Marion Island, approximately located between the two continents of Africa and Antarctica. When they finally do show up, they are pregnant, and the beachmaster had nothing to do with it. Almost three-fourths of the males skip the violence and frustration as well.
955 miles off the African coast, Marion Island is a wildlife preserve full of seals, penguins and seabirds that is administered by South Africa. According to Nico de Bruyn, a marine mammal ecologist at the University of Pretoria, the seals come to land twice a year: once to molt, the other to reproduce. Both tasks are much easier to do on solid land than in the tossing ocean.
Male bull elephant seals are enormous, some measuring 16 feet long and weighing more than 3 short tons.They have a proboscis, or trunk, almost a foot long, hence the elephant in their name. They are loud, smelly and mean-tempered.
Female elephant seals are one-fourth the weight and up to 6 feet shorter than males.
The seals employ delayed implantation, meaning the fertilized egg does not implant itself and begin development until the timing is exactly correct for the pup to be born on land, a 12-month gestation period including the delay. On Marion Island, that is in October, de Bruyn said. All the pups are born within days of each other.
Females nurse the young for only about three weeks and are then ready to reproduce again. The bulls, alpha males, are so large many females and pups are killed when an amorous or bellicose bull lands on them. On the crowded beach there is no place to escape.
But the researchers, reporting in Animal Behaviour, have found that as many as half the females refuse to play along, staying in the ocean and mating with whom they chose rather than joining the chaos on the beach.
"For a male, even if he is huge in comparison to the female—which they are—coercing a female is so much more difficult in the water because she has more options," de Bruyn said.
The researchers began their work of marking and capturing animals because of concern about a dramatic decline in Southern elephant seals noted in the 1980s. The population at Marion Island was down 80 percent for reasons unknown, although de Bruyn said that it has stabilized now and is even showing a slight increase.
De Bruyn does not think this evasion of is new behavior.
Oddly, that behavior is not seen in other elephant seal colonies. Daniel Costa, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studies the Northern elephant seals that breed at Ano Nuevo on the California coast.He doesn't think that behavior is common.
"We have no evidence that it occurs in Northern elephant seals.I'm not even sure how prevalent the observation is for Southern elephant seals," Costa said. "We know that our females do not hang out in the water. I can say this because we track them onto the beach from sea, or at least the 300-plus females we have tracked don't spend a lot of time offshore. They just come in and land on the beach."
And then end up in some beachmaster's harem.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Emperor Penguins and their orderly, civilized huddle
We all know and are amazed by the behavior and biology of the male Emperor Penguin, each prospective father incubating his one egg through the most brutal winter on this planet by protecting it atop his feet for months while not eating or drinking, only able to shuffle slowly as the winter ebbs and flows. It turns out that these elegant gentlemen are at the same time very polite and orderly as they stand incubating, rotating through huddles where each animal gets a turn amid a warming group of birds. This is so very civilized and orderly of these fine birds. I read somewhere some years ago that in the midst of the emperor penguin huddle temperatures can reach as high as 70°F. If so, the birds in the middle would need to rotate out just to not overheat. I suspect that as well they pack tighter or looser depending on how story, windy or cold it is.
There is a time lapse video of the huddle along with the article:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/penguins-shuffle-warm/
Emperor Penguins Rotate Through Giant Huddle for Warmth
Massive huddles of male Emperor penguins are crucial to keeping warm during Antarctica’s brutal winter while they incubate their eggs.
These tightly packed penguins shuffle en mass every 30 to 60 seconds, reordering themselves so every individual gets to cycle through the warm, central part of the huddle.
The trick with these groups is to get the packing just right. If the penguins are too loosely arranged, they won’t stay warm enough, said Daniel Zitterbart, Barbara Wienecke, James Butler and Ben Fabry in a June 1 study in PloS One. But if they’re too tightly jammed together, they can’t rearrange themselves, and animals on the edge of the huddle won’t get a chance to warm up.
By taking small, 2- to 4-inch steps every minute or so, the penguins achieve maximum packing density. It’s like tapping on a can of flour to jiggle everything into the bottom.
But the shuffling also results in a wave of movement that rolls through the group and rotates every bird through the warmest parts of the huddle. Penguins can join the group on one end, cycle through the huddle and exit on the other end.
This creeping movement also means that different groups can merge into larger huddles.
The international team of researchers kept track of emperor penguin groups near a German research station in Antarctica using time-lapse photography. While charting the path of individuals over a four-hour period, the authors found that when the huddles remained still, they were tightly jammed. But once the shuffling wave started through the group, individuals ended up creeping their way through the huddle.
The authors found that individual penguins don’t change their position relative to their neighbors, nor do they force their way into or out of a huddle. The small steps the birds take are sufficient to move everyone around in a coordinated fashion.
The scientists still don’t know if one or more penguins start these waves of movement, or whether they follow any kind of hierarchy among individuals.
There is a time lapse video of the huddle along with the article:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/penguins-shuffle-warm/
Emperor Penguins Rotate Through Giant Huddle for Warmth
Massive huddles of male Emperor penguins are crucial to keeping warm during Antarctica’s brutal winter while they incubate their eggs.
These tightly packed penguins shuffle en mass every 30 to 60 seconds, reordering themselves so every individual gets to cycle through the warm, central part of the huddle.
The trick with these groups is to get the packing just right. If the penguins are too loosely arranged, they won’t stay warm enough, said Daniel Zitterbart, Barbara Wienecke, James Butler and Ben Fabry in a June 1 study in PloS One. But if they’re too tightly jammed together, they can’t rearrange themselves, and animals on the edge of the huddle won’t get a chance to warm up.
By taking small, 2- to 4-inch steps every minute or so, the penguins achieve maximum packing density. It’s like tapping on a can of flour to jiggle everything into the bottom.
But the shuffling also results in a wave of movement that rolls through the group and rotates every bird through the warmest parts of the huddle. Penguins can join the group on one end, cycle through the huddle and exit on the other end.
This creeping movement also means that different groups can merge into larger huddles.
The international team of researchers kept track of emperor penguin groups near a German research station in Antarctica using time-lapse photography. While charting the path of individuals over a four-hour period, the authors found that when the huddles remained still, they were tightly jammed. But once the shuffling wave started through the group, individuals ended up creeping their way through the huddle.
The authors found that individual penguins don’t change their position relative to their neighbors, nor do they force their way into or out of a huddle. The small steps the birds take are sufficient to move everyone around in a coordinated fashion.
The scientists still don’t know if one or more penguins start these waves of movement, or whether they follow any kind of hierarchy among individuals.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Penguins manage muscle oxygen supplies while diving
Penguins are clever creatures --- turns out they adjust their oxygen consumption based on how they are diving. Great stuff!
Penguins' Oxygen Trick: How They Survive Deep Dives
Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer ~ 12 May 2011
http://www.livescience.com/14117-penguin-diving-feat-oxygen-trick.html
And a very nifty graphic:
http://www.livescience.com/14125-deepest-divers-emperor-penguins-ocean-life.html
Penguins are the acrobatic athletes of the seas, and they can keep diving for long periods of time because they have exquisite control over how and when their muscles use oxygen, new research indicates.
The penguins can switch between two modes of oxygen use — either starving their muscles or giving them an extra shot of oxygen to keep them working — to achieve their amazing dives.
"It appears that there's a little bit of plasticity or variability in what they do when they are diving," said study researcher Cassondra Williams of the University of California in San Diego. "It's much more complicated than we thought."
To figure out how penguins survive deep dives on a single breath of air, the researchers designed special probes to monitor the levels of oxygen in the penguins' muscles during their dives off McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The results are based on three emperor penguins and 50 dives, which ranged from 23 to 210 feet (7 to 64 meters) in depth, which lasted from 2.3 to 11.4 minutes.
"They have two different patterns they can opt for while they are diving," Williams told LiveScience. "In one, they appear to cut off blood flow completely to the muscle, leaving it to rely on its own supplies, which leaves the blood oxygen for the rest of the body, like the brain and the heart."
In other dives, the researchers saw a plateau after the initial oxygen drop. They believe that the penguin is selectively sending extra oxygen from the blood into the muscles, so they don't get tired. They can only do this for a limited time, though, until blood oxygen levels become too low for the rest of the body. Eventually the penguins need to come up for air.
Cutting off the oxygen supply to the muscles forces them to start making energy using "anaerobic" respiration, which is done without oxygen. It has a downfall, though; it produces abyproduct called lactic acid that can be toxic in high doses.
If the penguins let the lactic acid accumulate in their muscles, it takes longer to recuperate after a long dive, the researchers believe. This may be why on some dives the penguins send extra oxygen. For example, an extra oxygen shot might be beneficial if the penguins are taking several dives during a short stint to, say, chase down a school of fish and don't want to lose the feeding opportunity while they spend additional time on the ice recuperating.
"They don't want to hit their aerobic limit and accumulate lactic acid, but it's not clear how or why they do that," Williams said.
The study was published May 12 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Penguins' Oxygen Trick: How They Survive Deep Dives
Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer ~ 12 May 2011
http://www.livescience.com/14117-penguin-diving-feat-oxygen-trick.html
And a very nifty graphic:
http://www.livescience.com/14125-deepest-divers-emperor-penguins-ocean-life.html
Penguins are the acrobatic athletes of the seas, and they can keep diving for long periods of time because they have exquisite control over how and when their muscles use oxygen, new research indicates.
The penguins can switch between two modes of oxygen use — either starving their muscles or giving them an extra shot of oxygen to keep them working — to achieve their amazing dives.
"It appears that there's a little bit of plasticity or variability in what they do when they are diving," said study researcher Cassondra Williams of the University of California in San Diego. "It's much more complicated than we thought."
To figure out how penguins survive deep dives on a single breath of air, the researchers designed special probes to monitor the levels of oxygen in the penguins' muscles during their dives off McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The results are based on three emperor penguins and 50 dives, which ranged from 23 to 210 feet (7 to 64 meters) in depth, which lasted from 2.3 to 11.4 minutes.
"They have two different patterns they can opt for while they are diving," Williams told LiveScience. "In one, they appear to cut off blood flow completely to the muscle, leaving it to rely on its own supplies, which leaves the blood oxygen for the rest of the body, like the brain and the heart."
In other dives, the researchers saw a plateau after the initial oxygen drop. They believe that the penguin is selectively sending extra oxygen from the blood into the muscles, so they don't get tired. They can only do this for a limited time, though, until blood oxygen levels become too low for the rest of the body. Eventually the penguins need to come up for air.
Cutting off the oxygen supply to the muscles forces them to start making energy using "anaerobic" respiration, which is done without oxygen. It has a downfall, though; it produces abyproduct called lactic acid that can be toxic in high doses.
If the penguins let the lactic acid accumulate in their muscles, it takes longer to recuperate after a long dive, the researchers believe. This may be why on some dives the penguins send extra oxygen. For example, an extra oxygen shot might be beneficial if the penguins are taking several dives during a short stint to, say, chase down a school of fish and don't want to lose the feeding opportunity while they spend additional time on the ice recuperating.
"They don't want to hit their aerobic limit and accumulate lactic acid, but it's not clear how or why they do that," Williams said.
The study was published May 12 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Whale wars in the courts and on the Seas --- Australia is suing Japan over Antarctic Whaling
Australia is upping the ante here; with the recent 'failed' Antarctic whaling season that Japan ended early due to Sea Shepherd's efforts, plus legal action against them, it hasn't looked better to be a cetacean since humans started using tools.
Australia Takes Case To Stop Japan Whaling To International Court
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201105082137dowjonesdjonline000099&title=australia-takes-case-to-stop-japan-whaling-to-international-court
SYDNEY - Australia's government Monday will lodge a written submission at the International Court of Justice calling for an end to Japan's whaling program in the Antarctic ocean and setting the Pacific allies up for a prolonged legal spat.
Japan says it engages in whaling for scientific research and rejects Canberra's charges that the country is breaching the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and a ban on whaling inthe Southern Ocean Sanctuary.
Legal action between the two countries became a reality in 2010 after years of agitation failed to win a breakthrough, prompting Australia's then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to opt for the Hague-based ICJ in an effort to end Japan's Southern Ocean whaling program and win support for a global ban on whaling.
"Despite Australia repeatedly calling on Japan to cease its illegal whaling activities, Japan has refused to do so. That is why the Australian Government has taken this case in the ICJ," the Australian government said in a statement.
The Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, stretches from the continent of Antarctica in the south but does not have a clearly defined northern limit.
Killed for their oils, five whale species in Australian waters are listed for protection by the government, including the humpback and blue whales.
Australia has been monitoring Japan's activity in the waters in recent years and there have been frequent clashes between anti-whaling protesters such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Japanese whaling boats.
Australia's submission will not be publicly released until the International Court of Justice decides on it. Japan has until March 2012 to respond. "The Government believes the whaling carried out by Japan is commercial, not scientific, and does not fall within that narrow exception," the Australian statement said.
-By Enda Curran, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4687; enda.curran@dowjones.com
Australia Takes Case To Stop Japan Whaling To International Court
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201105082137dowjonesdjonline000099&title=australia-takes-case-to-stop-japan-whaling-to-international-court
SYDNEY - Australia's government Monday will lodge a written submission at the International Court of Justice calling for an end to Japan's whaling program in the Antarctic ocean and setting the Pacific allies up for a prolonged legal spat.
Japan says it engages in whaling for scientific research and rejects Canberra's charges that the country is breaching the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and a ban on whaling inthe Southern Ocean Sanctuary.
Legal action between the two countries became a reality in 2010 after years of agitation failed to win a breakthrough, prompting Australia's then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to opt for the Hague-based ICJ in an effort to end Japan's Southern Ocean whaling program and win support for a global ban on whaling.
"Despite Australia repeatedly calling on Japan to cease its illegal whaling activities, Japan has refused to do so. That is why the Australian Government has taken this case in the ICJ," the Australian government said in a statement.
The Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, stretches from the continent of Antarctica in the south but does not have a clearly defined northern limit.
Killed for their oils, five whale species in Australian waters are listed for protection by the government, including the humpback and blue whales.
Australia has been monitoring Japan's activity in the waters in recent years and there have been frequent clashes between anti-whaling protesters such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Japanese whaling boats.
Australia's submission will not be publicly released until the International Court of Justice decides on it. Japan has until March 2012 to respond. "The Government believes the whaling carried out by Japan is commercial, not scientific, and does not fall within that narrow exception," the Australian statement said.
-By Enda Curran, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4687; enda.curran@dowjones.com
Saturday, April 30, 2011
This is why we wash our boots when going to Antarctica
Invasive species aren't necessarily the stuff of banners and headlines but for Antarctica, keeping them at bay is critical to keeping the continent pristine. For anyone who wonders why we make such a big deal about vacuuming bags, washing boots and not taking food ashore in Antarctica, here's why: http://www.livescience.com/13945-antarctica-invasive-species-food-transport.html
Antarctica Threatened by Invasion of Alien Species
Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
29 April 2011
It's unforgivingly cold and isolated, but stowaways are arriving in Antarctica in a steady stream. Seeds, fungi and insects go where people -- in this case researchers and tourists -- take them. These arrivals all create the potential for invasive species to establish themselves in the world's most pristine continent and its islands.
"We are still at the stage when Antarctica has fewer than 10 non-native species, none of which have become invasive," said Kevin Hughes, an environmental scientist with the British Antarctic Survey. "Unless we take steps now to minimize the risk of introduction, who knows what will happen."
Invasive species are non-native species that flourish in a new habitat, where they often kick out native organisms and harm human interests by disrupting crops, clogging waterways and causing a myriad of other problems.
Hughes and other researchers have set out to determine just what is being carried unintentionally into some of the international research stations in the Antarctic. In one study, he and others examined more than 11,250 pieces of fresh produce arriving at nine research stations in the Antarctic and the sub-Antarctic islands located farther north in the Southern Ocean to see what came along with it.
The produce, which included everything from apples to pawpaw trees to turnips, was shipped from around the world. Its stowaways were similarly diverse, and included at least 56 invertebrates -- slugs, butterflies, aphids and so on. Twelve percent of the produce carried soil, and 28 percent had rot caused by microbial infection. [Taking a Bite Out of Invasive Species]
"Are these numbers surprising, or does it mean this is likely to be a problem? It’s pretty hard to say," said Daniel Simberloff, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who was not involved with the research. "The upshot is that there's just enough people going to some parts of Antarctica nowadays that lots of organisms are carried there. I have to think this isn't good, and some subset of them are going to pose environmental problems."
This study was part of a larger effort to assess what is actually arriving. In another project, Hughes and colleagues looked at dirt carried in by construction vehicles and found a menagerie of tiny non-natives that included about 40,000 seeds.
"To be quite honest, the only way we are going to stop the introduction of nonnative species is to stop going to Antarctica, to cut off all the pathways," Hughes said. "What we can do is try and minimize the risk of introduction and we can do that by relatively simple steps."
The study includes recommendations that begin with considering where the food comes from, all the way to how to dispose of food waste.
So far, alien species have made little headway on the continent itself. A rare, but limited success came for a tiny fly, the black fungus midge, which has managed to keep a toehold inside Casey Research Station, a British station located on mainland Antarctica. And Kentucky blue grass has also been established on the Antarctic Peninsula, Simberloff said.
The Antarctic islands have received more non-natives than the continent. For instance, another alien grass has been spreading on King George Island, which is just off the peninsula.
But further north, the sub-Antarctic islands have fared much worse, receiving approximately one new species every year since humans began visiting them 200 years ago, according to Hughes.
Invaders may get a helping hand from global warming, which is lessening the severity of the climate, possibly making conditions less harsh.
Antarctica Threatened by Invasion of Alien Species
Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
29 April 2011
It's unforgivingly cold and isolated, but stowaways are arriving in Antarctica in a steady stream. Seeds, fungi and insects go where people -- in this case researchers and tourists -- take them. These arrivals all create the potential for invasive species to establish themselves in the world's most pristine continent and its islands.
"We are still at the stage when Antarctica has fewer than 10 non-native species, none of which have become invasive," said Kevin Hughes, an environmental scientist with the British Antarctic Survey. "Unless we take steps now to minimize the risk of introduction, who knows what will happen."
Invasive species are non-native species that flourish in a new habitat, where they often kick out native organisms and harm human interests by disrupting crops, clogging waterways and causing a myriad of other problems.
Hughes and other researchers have set out to determine just what is being carried unintentionally into some of the international research stations in the Antarctic. In one study, he and others examined more than 11,250 pieces of fresh produce arriving at nine research stations in the Antarctic and the sub-Antarctic islands located farther north in the Southern Ocean to see what came along with it.
The produce, which included everything from apples to pawpaw trees to turnips, was shipped from around the world. Its stowaways were similarly diverse, and included at least 56 invertebrates -- slugs, butterflies, aphids and so on. Twelve percent of the produce carried soil, and 28 percent had rot caused by microbial infection. [Taking a Bite Out of Invasive Species]
"Are these numbers surprising, or does it mean this is likely to be a problem? It’s pretty hard to say," said Daniel Simberloff, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who was not involved with the research. "The upshot is that there's just enough people going to some parts of Antarctica nowadays that lots of organisms are carried there. I have to think this isn't good, and some subset of them are going to pose environmental problems."
This study was part of a larger effort to assess what is actually arriving. In another project, Hughes and colleagues looked at dirt carried in by construction vehicles and found a menagerie of tiny non-natives that included about 40,000 seeds.
"To be quite honest, the only way we are going to stop the introduction of nonnative species is to stop going to Antarctica, to cut off all the pathways," Hughes said. "What we can do is try and minimize the risk of introduction and we can do that by relatively simple steps."
The study includes recommendations that begin with considering where the food comes from, all the way to how to dispose of food waste.
So far, alien species have made little headway on the continent itself. A rare, but limited success came for a tiny fly, the black fungus midge, which has managed to keep a toehold inside Casey Research Station, a British station located on mainland Antarctica. And Kentucky blue grass has also been established on the Antarctic Peninsula, Simberloff said.
The Antarctic islands have received more non-natives than the continent. For instance, another alien grass has been spreading on King George Island, which is just off the peninsula.
But further north, the sub-Antarctic islands have fared much worse, receiving approximately one new species every year since humans began visiting them 200 years ago, according to Hughes.
Invaders may get a helping hand from global warming, which is lessening the severity of the climate, possibly making conditions less harsh.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Chinstrap Penguins suffering at the hands of global warming
We've been watching Adelie Penguin populations crash along the western Antarctic Peninsula, down something like 50 to 90% at the colonies I know the best. This is pretty clearly due to disappearing ice cover...... but now, apparently, Chinstrap Penguins are following the same course. I haven't seen this myself.... anyone have access to the original paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences to see where the documented Chinstrap decline is happening?
Not happy news. Thanks to Mary for brining this to my attention.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/11/penguin-decline-linked-warming-antarctic/
Penguin decline linked to warming in Antarctica
BY MIKE LEE ~ MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011 AT 1:25 P.M.
Climate change appears to be harming a population of penguins that some researchers figured would benefit from warming temperatures, according to a new study by scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla.
Instead of enjoying a reduction of sea ice, the ice-avoiding chinstrap penguins may be among the most vulnerable to temperature changes that threaten their staple food source, said a paper published online Monday in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The findings may indicate more profound changes in the Antarctic ecosystem than previously thought. Antarctica is among the fastest-warming spots on the planet and a focus of studies by local researchers for decades.
One hypothesis about global warming is that it will create a variety of "winners" and "losers" in Antarctica. Under that scenario, ice-loving Adélie penguins would suffer but chinstrap penguins would benefit as the temperatures moderate and sea ice shrinks.
Adélie populations in the study area have fallen by an average of 2.9 percent per year for 10 years or more, while chinstrap numbers have decreased by even more -- an average of 4.3 percent per year over the same period, the study authors said.
“When we see steep declines in populations, as we have been documenting with both chinstrap and Adélie penguins, we know there’s a much larger ecological problem,” said Wayne Trivelpiece, the lead author of the study a seabird expert for the fisheries service.
“Penguins are excellent indicators of changes to the biological and environmental health of the broader ecosystem because they are easily accessible while breeding on land, yet they depend entirely on food resources from the sea," he said. "In addition, unlike many other krill-eating top predators in the Antarctic, such as whales and fur seals, they were not hunted by humans."
The La Jolla scientists link the shrinking penguin population to the decline of shrimp-like food source called krill, which penguins rely on heavily. Sea ice is a necessary part of the krill reproductive cycle and warming temperatures have undermined the population. The researchers said krill fishing also may play a role in krill numbers, which have plummeted by as much as 80 percent since the 1970s.
Adélie penguins are hampered by shrinking habitat and food shortages, but they have more breeding populations than chinstrap penquins and therefore researchers said they may not be as threatened by environmental changes.
"Long thought to be ecological winners in the climate-warming scenario, the chinstrap penguin instead may be among the most vulnerable species affected by a warming climate," the paper said.
Not happy news. Thanks to Mary for brining this to my attention.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/11/penguin-decline-linked-warming-antarctic/
Penguin decline linked to warming in Antarctica
BY MIKE LEE ~ MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011 AT 1:25 P.M.
Climate change appears to be harming a population of penguins that some researchers figured would benefit from warming temperatures, according to a new study by scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla.
Instead of enjoying a reduction of sea ice, the ice-avoiding chinstrap penguins may be among the most vulnerable to temperature changes that threaten their staple food source, said a paper published online Monday in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The findings may indicate more profound changes in the Antarctic ecosystem than previously thought. Antarctica is among the fastest-warming spots on the planet and a focus of studies by local researchers for decades.
One hypothesis about global warming is that it will create a variety of "winners" and "losers" in Antarctica. Under that scenario, ice-loving Adélie penguins would suffer but chinstrap penguins would benefit as the temperatures moderate and sea ice shrinks.
Adélie populations in the study area have fallen by an average of 2.9 percent per year for 10 years or more, while chinstrap numbers have decreased by even more -- an average of 4.3 percent per year over the same period, the study authors said.
“When we see steep declines in populations, as we have been documenting with both chinstrap and Adélie penguins, we know there’s a much larger ecological problem,” said Wayne Trivelpiece, the lead author of the study a seabird expert for the fisheries service.
“Penguins are excellent indicators of changes to the biological and environmental health of the broader ecosystem because they are easily accessible while breeding on land, yet they depend entirely on food resources from the sea," he said. "In addition, unlike many other krill-eating top predators in the Antarctic, such as whales and fur seals, they were not hunted by humans."
The La Jolla scientists link the shrinking penguin population to the decline of shrimp-like food source called krill, which penguins rely on heavily. Sea ice is a necessary part of the krill reproductive cycle and warming temperatures have undermined the population. The researchers said krill fishing also may play a role in krill numbers, which have plummeted by as much as 80 percent since the 1970s.
Adélie penguins are hampered by shrinking habitat and food shortages, but they have more breeding populations than chinstrap penquins and therefore researchers said they may not be as threatened by environmental changes.
"Long thought to be ecological winners in the climate-warming scenario, the chinstrap penguin instead may be among the most vulnerable species affected by a warming climate," the paper said.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
South Georgia rat eradication phase I complete - and successful?
The first year of the hugely ambitious South Georgia Rat Eradication Programme has now been completed. After years of preparation and consultation, the first season of work, to clear four distinct areas of South Georgia of rats, has been achieved in only 26 days. Eight weeks had originally been allowed for 'Phase 1' to allow for the erratic weather conditions on the Island. Greene Peninsula, Thatcher Peninsula and Mercer Bay were baited first. The recently infested Saddle Island (on the North West of the Island) was the final area to be baited during this phase.
As for how effective the attempt to eradicate rats in these areas has been - the signs are good. There has been no evidence of live rats in the last few weeks and the team are optimistic the trial has been 100% successful.
For details on baiting and phase 2
Read the South Georgia Newsletter, March 2011
http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/(h)South_Georgia_News_and_Events
As for how effective the attempt to eradicate rats in these areas has been - the signs are good. There has been no evidence of live rats in the last few weeks and the team are optimistic the trial has been 100% successful.
For details on baiting and phase 2
Read the South Georgia Newsletter, March 2011
http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/(h)South_Georgia_News_and_Events
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Penguin-guided robots invade Antarctica
Well, maybe 'invade' is the wrong word but it goes so well with 'robots'...
This is a nifty cool story, though sadly the research is motivated by that dramatic population crash we're seeing in Adelies on the western Antarctic Peninsula:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/penguins-robot-surveys/
Swimming Penguins Guide Autonomous Underwater Robots
By Jane J. Lee ~ April 5, 2011
Autonomous robots that follow the routes of swimming penguins are collecting information that could help scientists understand why the birds’ populations are dropping rapidly.
The underwater robots, called gliders, are programmed to record ocean conditions as they follow the tracks of Adelie penguins swimming in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.
The penguins have been dying off in large numbers for decades, and scientists suspect that warming of the seawater could be to blame. Part of the problem may be disappearing sea ice, which grows algae that attracts the krill the birds prefer to eat.
“They’re probably starving to death,” said Bill Fraser, a penguin biologist and president of the Polar Oceans Research Group.
Adelie penguins spend hours, and even days, on feeding trips. But once they dive below the surface, it’s hard to know what the birds are dealing with. So Fraser and oceanographers Alex Kahl and Oscar Schofield, both of Rutgers University, turned to robots to find out what ocean conditions are like when Adelie penguins are in the water.
Fraser has been sticking radio tags on the penguins for a decade to keep track of where they go. But the equipment that could tell researchers whether there is krill or algae in the water with the penguins is still too big to put on a 9-to-10-pound bird.
Research ships have sampled areas over deep underwater canyons where Adelies hang out, but this only yielded snippets of what was going on. The gliders can provide a potentially continuous stream of information.
Schofield has been using gliders all over the world for years to gather data on ocean physics and chemistry to study plankton ecology.
Fraser and Schofield got together in 2008 to test whether they could program the gliders to collect information on the presence or absence of algae and krill in the the underwater canyons.
The gliders discovered blooms of microscopic algae, which krill eat. And because Adelies eat krill, this supported the scientists’ hypothesis that the penguins were feeding in these areas.
“With the radio tags on the penguins, we could see where they foraged and how deep they were,” said Schofield. But with the addition of the gliders, “for the first time, now we know why they’re there,” he said.
In subsequent studies, the researchers started using near real-time penguin-location data to direct the gliders. “We can get location data on the penguin in the evening and design a mission for the glider for the next day,” said Schofield.
In January, Schofield and Fraser used acoustic sensors on the glider to map the patches of krill that Adelies were eating.
“The concept of using animals to study oceanographic features isn’t new,” said Dan Costa, a marine-mammal and seabird researcher at the University of California–Santa Cruz, who wasn’t involved in the research. “But this is 9,000 times better than what we’ve been able to do” in the past.
The next step is to eliminate the middleman.
“My goal in five years is to have an automated network where you have penguins foraging, and my gliders are adjusting their tracks automatically,” said Schofield.
Citation: “Autonomous Gliders Reveal Features of the Water Column Associated With Foraging by Adelie Penguins.” By L. Alex Kahl, Oscar Schofield and William R. Fraser. Integrative and Comparative Biology, Vol. 50 August 2010.
This is a nifty cool story, though sadly the research is motivated by that dramatic population crash we're seeing in Adelies on the western Antarctic Peninsula:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/penguins-robot-surveys/
Swimming Penguins Guide Autonomous Underwater Robots
By Jane J. Lee ~ April 5, 2011
Autonomous robots that follow the routes of swimming penguins are collecting information that could help scientists understand why the birds’ populations are dropping rapidly.
The underwater robots, called gliders, are programmed to record ocean conditions as they follow the tracks of Adelie penguins swimming in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.
The penguins have been dying off in large numbers for decades, and scientists suspect that warming of the seawater could be to blame. Part of the problem may be disappearing sea ice, which grows algae that attracts the krill the birds prefer to eat.
“They’re probably starving to death,” said Bill Fraser, a penguin biologist and president of the Polar Oceans Research Group.
Adelie penguins spend hours, and even days, on feeding trips. But once they dive below the surface, it’s hard to know what the birds are dealing with. So Fraser and oceanographers Alex Kahl and Oscar Schofield, both of Rutgers University, turned to robots to find out what ocean conditions are like when Adelie penguins are in the water.
Fraser has been sticking radio tags on the penguins for a decade to keep track of where they go. But the equipment that could tell researchers whether there is krill or algae in the water with the penguins is still too big to put on a 9-to-10-pound bird.
Research ships have sampled areas over deep underwater canyons where Adelies hang out, but this only yielded snippets of what was going on. The gliders can provide a potentially continuous stream of information.
Schofield has been using gliders all over the world for years to gather data on ocean physics and chemistry to study plankton ecology.
Fraser and Schofield got together in 2008 to test whether they could program the gliders to collect information on the presence or absence of algae and krill in the the underwater canyons.
The gliders discovered blooms of microscopic algae, which krill eat. And because Adelies eat krill, this supported the scientists’ hypothesis that the penguins were feeding in these areas.
“With the radio tags on the penguins, we could see where they foraged and how deep they were,” said Schofield. But with the addition of the gliders, “for the first time, now we know why they’re there,” he said.
In subsequent studies, the researchers started using near real-time penguin-location data to direct the gliders. “We can get location data on the penguin in the evening and design a mission for the glider for the next day,” said Schofield.
In January, Schofield and Fraser used acoustic sensors on the glider to map the patches of krill that Adelies were eating.
“The concept of using animals to study oceanographic features isn’t new,” said Dan Costa, a marine-mammal and seabird researcher at the University of California–Santa Cruz, who wasn’t involved in the research. “But this is 9,000 times better than what we’ve been able to do” in the past.
The next step is to eliminate the middleman.
“My goal in five years is to have an automated network where you have penguins foraging, and my gliders are adjusting their tracks automatically,” said Schofield.
Citation: “Autonomous Gliders Reveal Features of the Water Column Associated With Foraging by Adelie Penguins.” By L. Alex Kahl, Oscar Schofield and William R. Fraser. Integrative and Comparative Biology, Vol. 50 August 2010.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Whaling is finished?
I've wondered what impact the tsunami had on the Japanese whaling fleet. No word on if the government fleet that operates in Antarctica sustained any damage, but Ayukawahama, one of four communities from which coastal whaling is based, suffered heavy damage.
Japanese Town Mulls Future Without Whaling Industry ~ By MARTIN FACKLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/world/asia/25whale.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
Published: March 24, 2011 ~ The New York Times
AYUKAWAHAMA, Japan — At first glance, it seemed like just one more flattened building in a seaside town where a tsunami had leveled hundreds of homes. But survivors gathered at this one to stand and brood.
Ayukawahama was close to the epicenter of Japan’s quake.
They came to what had been the headquarters of Ayukawa Whaling, one of only a handful of companies left in Japan that still hunted large whales. Those who gathered on a chilly recent Thursday spoke as if the company’s destruction two weeks ago had robbed the town of its soul.
“There is no Ayukawa without whaling,” said Hiroyuki Akimoto, 27, a fisherman and an occasional crewman on the whaling boats, referring to the town by its popular shorthand.
Japan’s tsunami seems to have succeeded — where years of boycotts, protests and high-seas chases by Western environmentalists had failed — in knocking out a pillar of the nation’s whaling industry. Ayukawahama was one of only four communities in Japan that defiantly carried on whaling and eating whales as a part of the local culture, even as the rest of the nation lost interest in whale meat.
So central is whaling to the local identity that many here see the fate of the town and the industry as inextricably linked.
“This could be the final blow to whaling here,” said Makoto Takeda, a 70-year-old retired whaler. “So goes whaling, so goes the town.”
The damage was particularly heavy here because Ayukawahama sits on the tip of a peninsula that was the closest land to the huge undersea earthquake 13 days ago. The resulting tsunami tore through the tiny fishing towns on the mountainous coastline, reducing Ayukawahama to an expanse of splintered wood and twisted cars. Three out of four homes were destroyed, forcing half of the town’s 1,400 residents into makeshift shelters.
At the offices of Ayukawa Whaling, only a light green harpoon gun — which once proudly decorated the entrance — and an uprooted pine tree were left standing. Across a parking lot stood the skeletal frame of the factory where whale meat was processed. A beached fishing boat and crumpled fire truck lay on the raised platform where the whales were hoisted ashore to be butchered.
The company’s three boats, which had been sucked out to sea, washed up miles down the coast with remarkably little damage. But they remain grounded there.
Ayukawa Whaling’s chairman, Minoru Ito, said he was in the office when the earthquake struck, shattering windows and toppling furniture. He led the employees to higher ground.
All 28 of them survived, he said, though he later had to lay them off. He said he fully intended to rebuild, hopefully in time for an autumn hunt off the northern island of Hokkaido, though he acknowledged the recovery might take more time. He said the most costly part would be getting the whaling ships back in the water, an undertaking that the company cannot afford without government help.
Once the ships are ready, he wants to hire back the employees. However, he admitted that the waves might have scared some employees away, from both whaling and Ayukawahama.
“If we can fix the ships, then we’re back in business,” said Mr. Ito, 74, whose father was also a whaler. “They should not be afraid, because another tsunami like that won’t come for another 100 years.”
Other residents were similarly undaunted. Mr. Akimoto, the occasional whaler, who came with a friend to see the ruined company, said the town needed to resume whaling as soon as possible to lift its spirits.
He said the year would be a sad one because the town would miss the April hunting season, during which coastal whalers like Ayukawa Whaling are allowed to take 50 minke whales under Japan’s controversial whaling program, which is ostensibly for research.
Ayukawahama and the other three whaling communities — among them Taiji, made infamous by the movie “The Cove” — hunt only in coastal waters. Japan’s better-known whaling in the Antarctic is conducted by the government.
Mr. Akimoto said April was usually the town’s most festive month, especially when large whales were brought ashore. He said he would miss that feeling this year.
Added his friend, Tatsuya Sato, 20, “We are so hungry that if they brought a whale ashore now, the whole town would rush down to eat it.”
Many older residents compared the food shortages created by the tsunami with the hard-tack years after World War II, when Japan’s whaling industry boomed as a provider of scarce protein.
Those were the glory days of Ayukawahama, when the population swelled to more than 10,000 and whaling crews swaggered down streets that bustled with crowds drawn by cabarets and movie theaters. Today, Ayukawahama plays up its whaling history for tourists. Smiling cartoon whales adorn shop fronts and even manhole covers. The town also built its own whaling museum, which was gutted by the tsunami.
While no one expects a return to Ayukawahama’s postwar golden era, some wistfully hoped that whale meat could once more come to the rescue.
Seiko Taira said that food shortages here were particularly acute because the tsunami washed out roads, cutting off Ayukawahama for several days. She said she had neglected to store her own food, and was reduced to feeding her four children and one grandchild a single cup of instant ramen noodles and a few pieces of bread per day.
Ms. Taira, 54, said she had grown so desperate that she scavenged the tsunami wreckage for food. On Thursday, picking through the debris near the site of Ayukawa Whaling’s office, her 17-year-old daughter, Yumi, found a can of whale meat. She proudly held up the prize to her mother.
“I wish we could eat whale meat every day,” said Ms. Taira, who worked as caregiver for the elderly before the wave hit. “But the whalers are so old, I think they’ll just quit or retire after what happened.
“I think whaling is dead here,” she added.
Shin Okada, an official in the disaster-response office, said the town had its hands full bringing in more food and finding shelter for the homeless. He said officials had not had time to think about steps to revive the fishing and whaling industries.
On a plaza in front of the whaling museum, Shinobu Ankai struggled to remove the wheels from his overturned car, which had been deposited there by the tsunami. He did not want them to be stolen by the same people who drained the gas tank.
Like many older men in town, he is a retired whaler, and he spoke of hunts that once ranged from Alaska to the Antarctic. However, he said, whaling was in a terminal decline even before the tsunami.
“There was Sea Shepherd, and now this,” he said, referring to the American environmental group, which has sought to block Japan’s whaling in the Antarctic. “Whaling is finished.”
Japanese Town Mulls Future Without Whaling Industry ~ By MARTIN FACKLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/world/asia/25whale.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
Published: March 24, 2011 ~ The New York Times
AYUKAWAHAMA, Japan — At first glance, it seemed like just one more flattened building in a seaside town where a tsunami had leveled hundreds of homes. But survivors gathered at this one to stand and brood.
Ayukawahama was close to the epicenter of Japan’s quake.
They came to what had been the headquarters of Ayukawa Whaling, one of only a handful of companies left in Japan that still hunted large whales. Those who gathered on a chilly recent Thursday spoke as if the company’s destruction two weeks ago had robbed the town of its soul.
“There is no Ayukawa without whaling,” said Hiroyuki Akimoto, 27, a fisherman and an occasional crewman on the whaling boats, referring to the town by its popular shorthand.
Japan’s tsunami seems to have succeeded — where years of boycotts, protests and high-seas chases by Western environmentalists had failed — in knocking out a pillar of the nation’s whaling industry. Ayukawahama was one of only four communities in Japan that defiantly carried on whaling and eating whales as a part of the local culture, even as the rest of the nation lost interest in whale meat.
So central is whaling to the local identity that many here see the fate of the town and the industry as inextricably linked.
“This could be the final blow to whaling here,” said Makoto Takeda, a 70-year-old retired whaler. “So goes whaling, so goes the town.”
The damage was particularly heavy here because Ayukawahama sits on the tip of a peninsula that was the closest land to the huge undersea earthquake 13 days ago. The resulting tsunami tore through the tiny fishing towns on the mountainous coastline, reducing Ayukawahama to an expanse of splintered wood and twisted cars. Three out of four homes were destroyed, forcing half of the town’s 1,400 residents into makeshift shelters.
At the offices of Ayukawa Whaling, only a light green harpoon gun — which once proudly decorated the entrance — and an uprooted pine tree were left standing. Across a parking lot stood the skeletal frame of the factory where whale meat was processed. A beached fishing boat and crumpled fire truck lay on the raised platform where the whales were hoisted ashore to be butchered.
The company’s three boats, which had been sucked out to sea, washed up miles down the coast with remarkably little damage. But they remain grounded there.
Ayukawa Whaling’s chairman, Minoru Ito, said he was in the office when the earthquake struck, shattering windows and toppling furniture. He led the employees to higher ground.
All 28 of them survived, he said, though he later had to lay them off. He said he fully intended to rebuild, hopefully in time for an autumn hunt off the northern island of Hokkaido, though he acknowledged the recovery might take more time. He said the most costly part would be getting the whaling ships back in the water, an undertaking that the company cannot afford without government help.
Once the ships are ready, he wants to hire back the employees. However, he admitted that the waves might have scared some employees away, from both whaling and Ayukawahama.
“If we can fix the ships, then we’re back in business,” said Mr. Ito, 74, whose father was also a whaler. “They should not be afraid, because another tsunami like that won’t come for another 100 years.”
Other residents were similarly undaunted. Mr. Akimoto, the occasional whaler, who came with a friend to see the ruined company, said the town needed to resume whaling as soon as possible to lift its spirits.
He said the year would be a sad one because the town would miss the April hunting season, during which coastal whalers like Ayukawa Whaling are allowed to take 50 minke whales under Japan’s controversial whaling program, which is ostensibly for research.
Ayukawahama and the other three whaling communities — among them Taiji, made infamous by the movie “The Cove” — hunt only in coastal waters. Japan’s better-known whaling in the Antarctic is conducted by the government.
Mr. Akimoto said April was usually the town’s most festive month, especially when large whales were brought ashore. He said he would miss that feeling this year.
Added his friend, Tatsuya Sato, 20, “We are so hungry that if they brought a whale ashore now, the whole town would rush down to eat it.”
Many older residents compared the food shortages created by the tsunami with the hard-tack years after World War II, when Japan’s whaling industry boomed as a provider of scarce protein.
Those were the glory days of Ayukawahama, when the population swelled to more than 10,000 and whaling crews swaggered down streets that bustled with crowds drawn by cabarets and movie theaters. Today, Ayukawahama plays up its whaling history for tourists. Smiling cartoon whales adorn shop fronts and even manhole covers. The town also built its own whaling museum, which was gutted by the tsunami.
While no one expects a return to Ayukawahama’s postwar golden era, some wistfully hoped that whale meat could once more come to the rescue.
Seiko Taira said that food shortages here were particularly acute because the tsunami washed out roads, cutting off Ayukawahama for several days. She said she had neglected to store her own food, and was reduced to feeding her four children and one grandchild a single cup of instant ramen noodles and a few pieces of bread per day.
Ms. Taira, 54, said she had grown so desperate that she scavenged the tsunami wreckage for food. On Thursday, picking through the debris near the site of Ayukawa Whaling’s office, her 17-year-old daughter, Yumi, found a can of whale meat. She proudly held up the prize to her mother.
“I wish we could eat whale meat every day,” said Ms. Taira, who worked as caregiver for the elderly before the wave hit. “But the whalers are so old, I think they’ll just quit or retire after what happened.
“I think whaling is dead here,” she added.
Shin Okada, an official in the disaster-response office, said the town had its hands full bringing in more food and finding shelter for the homeless. He said officials had not had time to think about steps to revive the fishing and whaling industries.
On a plaza in front of the whaling museum, Shinobu Ankai struggled to remove the wheels from his overturned car, which had been deposited there by the tsunami. He did not want them to be stolen by the same people who drained the gas tank.
Like many older men in town, he is a retired whaler, and he spoke of hunts that once ranged from Alaska to the Antarctic. However, he said, whaling was in a terminal decline even before the tsunami.
“There was Sea Shepherd, and now this,” he said, referring to the American environmental group, which has sought to block Japan’s whaling in the Antarctic. “Whaling is finished.”
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