Right Whales Research Articles

A whale of a tale: whale cells evade the driving mechanism for hexavalent chromium-induced chromosome instability.

Chromosome instability, a hallmark of lung cancer, is a driving mechanism for hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] carcinogenesis in humans. Cr(VI) induces structural and numerical chromosome instability in human lung cells by inducing DNA double-strand breaks and inhibiting homologous recombination repair and causing spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) bypass and centrosome amplification. Great whales are long-lived species with long-term exposures to Cr(VI) and accumulate Cr in their tissue, but exhibit a low incidence of cancer. Data show Cr(VI) induces fewer chromosome aberrations in whale cells after acute Cr(VI) exposure suggesting whale cells can evade Cr(VI)-induced chromosome instability. However, it is unknown if whales can evade Cr(VI)-induced chromosome instability. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that whale cells resist Cr(VI)-induced loss of homologous recombination repair activity and increased SAC bypass and centrosome amplification. We found Cr(VI) induces similar amounts of DNA double-strand breaks after acute (24 h) and prolonged (120 h) exposures in whale lung cells, but does not inhibit homologous recombination repair, SAC bypass, or centrosome amplification, and does not induce chromosome instability. These data indicate whale lung cells resist Cr(VI)-induced chromosome instability, the major driver for Cr(VI) carcinogenesis at a cellular level, consistent with observations that whales are resistant to cancer.

Archaeological evidence of resource utilisation of the great whales over the past two millennia: A systematic review protocol.

Archaeological faunal remains provide key insights into human societies in the past, alongside information on previous resource utilisation and exploitation of wildlife populations. The great whales (Mysticete and sperm whales) were hunted unsustainably throughout the 16th - 20th centuries (herein defined as the modern period) leading to large population declines and variable recovery patterns among species. Humans have utilised whales as a resource through carcass scavenging for millennia; however, increasing local and regional ethnographic and archaeological evidence suggests that, prior to the modern period, hunting of the great whales was more common than previously thought; impacts of earlier hunting pressures on the population ecology of many whale species remains relatively unknown. Hunting guided by traditional ecological knowledge may have been sustainable and likely originated in societies that also incorporated opportunistic use of stranded individuals. The collation of georeferenced zooarchaeological data of the great whales between the 1st - 20th centuries CE worldwide will provide insight into the timescale and distribution of resource utilisation of the great whales and how this varied within and between societies, and may have changed over time. By comparing regions of known resource utilisation and breeding and feeding grounds of current-day whale populations, this information will subsequently be used to infer regions where whale populations were possibly lost or extirpated prior to detailed historical records. This systematic review protocol also provides a template for archaeologists, ecologists, and historians interested in using faunal remains to infer historical ecology and resource use of wild animal populations. The transparency of our data collection approach provides opportunities for reproducibility and comparability with future datasets.

Documenting the Endangered North Atlantic Right Whale: Policies, Conservation Efforts, and Stakeholders Depicted in Entangled and Last of the Right Whales

Wildlife documentaries are a form of environmental media widely used in public engagement around sustainability and conservation issues, including biodiversity loss. Two recently released wildlife documentaries, Entangled (2020) and Last of the Right Whales (2021), are the first to tell stories focused on the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) through film, despite the species having been imperiled for more than a century and experts sounding the alarm about the population’s decline for decades. While whales are highly regarded worldwide and their conservation has strong public support, the NARW case study is a complicated one due not only to biological and ecological challenges, but also to sociopolitical ones. Without drastic policy actions and changes to industry practices throughout its migratory range, the NARW may disappear within decades, becoming the first great whale species to reach extinction since the industrial whaling era. In this article we address a gap in current environmental media and documentary studies by engaging critically with Entangled and Last of the Right Whales and considering them within the socioecological contexts they showcase and aim to influence. Our findings indicate that these two films share an important environmental problem with their viewers but fail to overcome some important pitfalls that limit the ability of environmental films to achieve collective action and policy change. We use this case study to highlight opportunities and challenges associated with wildlife documentaries more broadly, specifically, their role in biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene. We conclude with opportunities for future interdisciplinary research and collaborative practice that can help wildlife films to achieve more than accolades for filmmakers and mere general awareness of conservation challenges.

Diversity of mitochondrial DNA in 3 species of great whales before and after modern whaling.

The 20th century commercial whaling industry severely reduced populations of great whales throughout the Southern Hemisphere. The effect of this exploitation on genetic diversity and population structure remains largely undescribed. Here, we compare pre- and post-whaling diversity of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences for 3 great whales in the South Atlantic, such as the blue, humpback, and fin whale. Pre-whaling diversity is described from mtDNA extracted from bones collected near abandoned whaling stations, primarily from the South Atlantic island of South Georgia. These bones are known to represent the first stage of 20th century whaling and thus pre-whaling diversity of these populations. Post-whaling diversity is described from previously published studies reporting large-scale sampling of living whales in the Southern Hemisphere. Despite relatively high levels of surviving genetic diversity in the post-whaling populations, we found evidence of a probable loss of mtDNA lineages in all 3 species. This is evidenced by the detection of a large number of haplotypes found in the pre-whaling samples that are not present in the post-whaling samples. A rarefaction analysis further supports a loss of haplotypes in the South Atlantic humpback and Antarctic blue whale populations. The bones from former whaling stations in the South Atlantic represent a remarkable molecular archive for further investigation of the decline and ongoing recovery in the great whales of the Southern Hemisphere.

Men Becoming Gods in “Style”

Men Becoming Gods in “Style”

Size-Fractionated Microbiome Structure in Subarctic Rivers and a Coastal Plume Across DOC and Salinity Gradients.

Little is known about the microbial diversity of rivers that flow across the changing subarctic landscape. Using amplicon sequencing (rRNA and rRNA genes) combined with HPLC pigment analysis and physicochemical measurements, we investigated the diversity of two size fractions of planktonic Bacteria, Archaea and microbial eukaryotes along environmental gradients in the Great Whale River (GWR), Canada. This large subarctic river drains an extensive watershed that includes areas of thawing permafrost, and discharges into southeastern Hudson Bay as an extensive plume that gradually mixes with the coastal marine waters. The microbial communities differed by size-fraction (separated with a 3-μm filter), and clustered into three distinct environmental groups: (1) the GWR sites throughout a 150-km sampling transect; (2) the GWR plume in Hudson Bay; and (3) small rivers that flow through degraded permafrost landscapes. There was a downstream increase in taxonomic richness along the GWR, suggesting that sub-catchment inputs influence microbial community structure in the absence of sharp environmental gradients. Microbial community structure shifted across the salinity gradient within the plume, with changes in taxonomic composition and diversity. Rivers flowing through degraded permafrost had distinct physicochemical and microbiome characteristics, with allochthonous dissolved organic carbon explaining part of the variation in community structure. Finally, our analyses of the core microbiome indicated that while a substantial part of all communities consisted of generalists, most taxa had a more limited environmental range and may therefore be sensitive to ongoing change.

O vorvaních (Physeter macrocephalus) ve sbírce Národního muzea v Praze (Mammalia: Artiodactyla)

A complete skeleton of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) from an animal ca. 13–14 m long is here reported as a new acquisition to the collection of mammals of the National Museum in Prague. This large new specimen was transferred to Prague museum from the Zoological museum of Senckenberg Natural History Collection Dresden, Germany, where a space enough was not available in the collection depositary rooms for its storage (the skull was stored outdoors, the rest of the skeleton in a taxidermy workshop). The skeleton originates from a stranded individual of the sperm whale discovered (along with two others) on the North Sea shore at Friedrichskoog (Holstein, Germany) on 15 January 2002. Selected measurements of the skull of this sperm whale are as follows: condylobasal length of skull 418 cm, orbital width of skull 196 cm, basal width of rostrum 144 cm, length of left mandible 374 cm, mandible height at the ramus mandibulae 58 cm. An annotated review of museum specimens of the great whales (= baleen whales and the sperm whale) in collections in the Czech Republic and a detailed description of the sperm whale specimens in the National Museum are added.

New sperm whale remains from the late Miocene of the North Sea and a revised family attribution for the small crown physeteroid Thalassocetus Abel, 1905

In spite of a continuously expanding physeteroid fossil record, our understanding of the origin and early radiation of the two modern sperm whale families Kogiidae Gill, 1871 (including the pygmy and dwarf sperm whales, Kogia spp.) and Physeteridae Gray, 1821 (including the great sperm whale, Physeter Linnaeus, 1758) remains limited, especially due to the poorly resolved phylogenetic relationships of a number of extinct species. Among those, based on fragmentary cranial material from the late early to middle Miocene of Antwerp (Belgium, North Sea basin), the small-sized Thalassocetus antwerpiensis Abel, 1905 has been recognized for some time as the earliest branching kogiid. The discovery of a new diminutive physeteroid cranium from the late Miocene (Tortonian) of Antwerp leads to the description and comparison of a close relative of T. antwerpiensis. Thanks to the relatively young ontogenetic stage of this new specimen, the highly modified plate-like bones making the floor of its supracranial basin could be individually removed, a fact that greatly helped deciphering their identity and geometry. Close morphological similarities with T. antwerpiensis allow for the reassessment of several facial structures in the latter; the most important reinterpretation is the one of a crest-like structure, previously identified as a sagittal facial crest, typical for kogiids, and here revised as the left posterolateral wall of the supracranial basin, comprised of the left nasal (lost in kogiids for which the postnarial region is known) and the left maxilla. Implemented in a phylogenetic analysis, the new anatomical interpretations result in the new Belgian specimen and T. antwerpiensis being recovered as sister-groups in the family Physeteridae. Consequently, the geologically oldest kogiids are now dated from the Tortonian, further extending the ghost lineage separating these early late Miocene kogiid records from the estimated latest Oligocene to earliest Miocene divergence of kogiids and physeterids.

Protist communities along freshwater–marine transition zones in Hudson Bay (Canada)

One of the most striking ecological divides on Earth is between marine and nearby freshwater environments, as relatively few taxa can move between the two. Microbial eukaryotes contribute to biogeochemical and energy cycling in both fresh and marine waters, with little species overlap between the two ecosystems. Arctic and sub-Arctic marine systems are relatively fresh compared to tropical and temperate systems, but details of microbial eukaryote communities along river-to-sea transitions are poorly known. To bridge this knowledge gap, we investigated three river-to-sea transitions (Nelson, Churchill, and Great Whale Rivers) in sub-Arctic Hudson Bay through 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing to identify microbial eukaryotes along the salinity and biogeochemical gradients. Salinity acted as the principal dispersal barrier preventing freshwater microorganisms from colonizing marine coastal waters, with microbial eukaryote communities of the three rivers clustering together. Just offshore, communities clustered by coastal regions associated with nutrient concentrations. Analysis of indicator species revealed that communities in the nitrate-depleted coastal water off the Churchill and Great Whale Rivers were dominated by heterotrophic taxa and small photosynthetic protists. In contrast, the Nelson offshore community was characterized by a high proportion of the diatom Rhizosolenia. A distinct community of heterotrophic protists was identified in the three estuarine transition zones, suggesting specialized estuarine communities. Such specialization was most marked in the Nelson River system that was sampled more intensely and showed estuarine circulation. The autochthonous community was composed of the bacterial grazers Katablepharis, Mataza, and Cryothecomonas, as well as brackish species of the diatoms Skeletonema and Thalassiosira. These findings suggest that flow regulation on the Nelson River that modifies estuarine circulation would affect estuarine community composition and distribution in the transition zone.

Sidney Holt, a giant in the history of fisheries science who focused on the future: his legacy and challenges for present-day marine scientists

Abstract Sidney J. Holt (1926–2019) was more than a founding father of quantitative fisheries science, and the man who “helped save the great whales.” His accomplishments, over a career spanning seven decades, run deeper: he was a champion of reductionism (i.e. able to identify the factors essential for management) and a systemic thinker who inspired scientists to think critically about marine conservation and management. This article draws on first-hand experiences with Sidney over the last 15 years, when he regularly collaborated with scholars of the ICES Working Group on the History of Fish and Fisheries and the Oceans Past Initiative. Four main themes emerged from our reflections on Sidney’s life and legacy, which constitute ongoing scientific challenges: (1) the suitability of maximum sustainable yield as a target reference point for fisheries management; (2) the future of marine mammal conservation; (3) successful implementation of ecosystem-based marine management; and (4) the value of historical perspectives for conservation and management. We consider Sidney’s work across these themes, in which he readily collaborated, focused on evidence-based solutions, and, where evidence was lacking, he advocated for the “precautionary principle.” We posit there is much that we, and future generations of scientists, can learn from his example.

Conservation status of North Pacific right whales

The North Pacific right whale (Eubalaena japonica) is among the most endangered of all great whales, having been subject to intensivecommercial whaling in the 19th century. All available 20th century records of this species in the North Pacific were reviewed. There hasbeen a total of 1,965 recorded sightings since 1900; of these, 988 came from the western North Pacific, 693 from the eastern North Pacificand 284 had no location specified. Thirteen strandings (all but one from the western North Pacific) were recorded. Known catches forcommercial or scientific purposes totalled 742 (331 in the western North Pacific, 411 in the eastern North Pacific). Most of the reportedSoviet ‘sightings’ in the eastern North Pacific were actually catches, as may be the case for Soviet sightings in the Okhotsk Sea. In addition,the impact of known Soviet illegal catches in the Okhotsk Sea may be reflected in an apparent decline in sightings after the 1960s (althoughthis may be partly explained by low observer effort). Overall, the data support the hypothesis that at least two stocks of right whales existin the North Pacific. Any recovery in the western North Pacific population was compromised by the Soviet catches in the Okhotsk region,although recent sightings suggest that this population is still large enough to sustain reproduction. By contrast, Soviet catches in thenow-smaller eastern North Pacific population have severely reduced its prospects for recovery. Although the prognosis for this populationis poor, a long-term monitoring programme is required to better understand its conservation status and to determine whether it may beaffected by human-related problems that would require mitigation.

Bill Dawbin, Tasman Diplomacy, and the Great South Pacific Humpback Collapse of 1959–62

ABSTRACT The history of industrial whaling in Oceania, along with crucial moments in the diplomatic histories of Australia and New Zealand, sometimes turned on questions of whale behaviour. So did individual human lives. This article puts together the histories of whale communities and the history of cetacean science in order to unravel the meaning of some key moments in the environmental history of the South Pacific, including Oceanian attempts to increase their share of post-war whaling and the subsequent great humpback whale collapse of 1960–62. In the middle of these histories were the efforts of cetologist Bill Dawbin to understand humpback whale migrations in the late 1950s. Interwoven throughout was the crucial fact of humpback whales’ historical split into several different populations and their migratory choices, and the difficulties humans face in understanding these complex and mobile creatures.

On Valuing Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change: A Framework with Application to Elephants and Whales

We develop a framework for natural resource valuation that directly addresses the fundamental collective action problem in environmental protection. Our framework uses the lessons of behavioral economics to create values that individual decision makers find credible and relatable, in addition to stimulating excitement or concern that is essential to prompting action. We then apply this framework to value forest elephants in Africa and great whales that are found off the coasts of Brazil and Chile. The values we estimate for individual members of these species are significant: $1.75 million per forest elephant and an average of $2 million per whale. We discuss how our valuations lead to new designs for environmental preservation and restoration policies.

In the Image of Lucifer

The image of Judge Holden evokes the image of a sinister seven-foot-tall, completely hairless man, who is the arch-nemesis of humanity. A man of vast erudition, Holden is also the most savage of the lot riding alongside John Joel Glanton. The figure of Judge Holden has drawn comparisons to the character of Captain Ahab and the great white whale, Moby Dick.
 But Judge Holden also brings to mind the character of Lucifer. Both of them emerge as enemies of humanity and appear awe-inspiring even in their fallen state. It must not be forgotten that they had possibly glorious pasts. But they made choices that led them to become sinister and malevolent characters. Their depravity and fallen state are in stark contrast with their intellectual refinement. Lucifer features prominently across the myths of different cultures. In most representations, he appears as the “bearer of light.” A celestial figure, close to God, Lucifer becomes a damned and fallen figure, the avowed enemy of humanity.

Note on a snow mold and a fungus-like microbe from Kuujjuarapik-Whapmagoostui, Quebec, subarctic Canada

An isolate of a novel fungus and an isolate of a novel fungus-like microbe were obtained during field research conducted in Kuujjuarapik-Whapmagoostui, Quebec, in subarctic Canada, located on the southeastern coast of Hudson Bay, from August to September 2016. The isolates were identified as a Typhula sp. and Globisporangium sp. (syn. Pythium sp.), respectively. Mycelia with clamps connections were isolated from small sclerotia (0.2–0.7 × 0.5–1.2 mm in size) collected from dead leaves of sea pea (Lathyrus japonicus) on the banks of the Great Whale River in Kuujjuarapik-Whapmagoostui. The isolate was found to be closely related with T. japonica based on sclerotium morphology and hyphal growth under different temperatures. The Globisporangium sp. isolate was found to be most closely related to G. okanoganense based on phylogenetic analyses using rDNAITS. G. okanoganense is known as an important pathogen causing snow rot on wheat and other winter crops. Further investigation is needed to determine whether the novel fungus and fungus-like microbe found in Kuujjuarapik-Whapmagoostui are phytopathogenic like the snow rot pathogens to which they are closely related.

Re-activation of landslide in sub-Arctic areas due to extreme rainfall and discharge events (the mouth of the Great Whale River, Nunavik, Canada)

Climate change is impacting surficial geomorphic processes, especially in sensitive areas such as the sub-Arctic. One of the most common examples involves landslides, which often develop in glacio-isostatically raised marine clays in northeastern Canada. One of these sites, an expansive area of complex landslide terrain located at the mouth of the Great Whale River in Nunavik, has already been studied due to its age and morphology. We present new data, based on the multidisciplinary research including geomorphic, dendrochronological, and hydroclimatological analyses, allowing us to determine how contemporary climate change has affected landslide reactivation during the last 80 years. Our research included collecting 60 cores from Picea glauca trees, growing on the marginal zone of a landslide deposit, as well as from a reference site. The tilted trees formed eccentric growth-ring patterns, which provided us with reliable dates on the landslide events. In addition to these dendrochronological data, we studied these landslides using repeated aerial photography, which showed changes in river channel constrictions in the period 1969–2019. Based on the eccentricity index of the tree ring data, we recognized disturbance events due to landslides. We compared these data with the hydroclimatological conditions and found clearly visible correlations between heavy rainfall and discharge (>95th percentile) of the Great Whale River. The increased landslide activity over the past several years can be linked to an increase in extreme summertime rainfall events. Increased landslide activity poses a real threat, through its input of large amounts of fine-grained sediment to the river, causing it to narrow.

Universal metabolic constraints shape the evolutionary ecology of diving in animals.

Diving as a lifestyle has evolved on multiple occasions when air-breathing terrestrial animals invaded the aquatic realm, and diving performance shapes the ecology and behaviour of all air-breathing aquatic taxa, from small insects to great whales. Using the largest dataset yet assembled, we show that maximum dive duration increases predictably with body mass in both ectotherms and endotherms. Compared to endotherms, ectotherms can remain submerged for longer, but the mass scaling relationship for dive duration is much steeper in endotherms than in ectotherms. These differences in diving allometry can be fully explained by inherent differences between the two groups in their metabolic rate and how metabolism scales with body mass and temperature. Therefore, we suggest that similar constraints on oxygen storage and usage have shaped the evolutionary ecology of diving in all air-breathing animals, irrespective of their evolutionary history and metabolic mode. The steeper scaling relationship between body mass and dive duration in endotherms not only helps explain why the largest extant vertebrate divers are endothermic rather than ectothermic, but also fits well with the emerging consensus that large extinct tetrapod divers (e.g. plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs) were endothermic.

Sidney Holt (1926-2019).

Influential fisheries scientist and savior of whales

The policy relevance of Southern Ocean food web structure: Implications of food web change for fisheries, conservation and carbon sequestration

Southern Ocean food webs provide ecosystem services with significant global value including carbon sequestration, fisheries and the existence of iconic wildlife. These services are underpinned by different energetic pathways including those dominated by Antarctic krill, fishes and squids, or gelatinous zooplankton (salps). Climate change is likely to impact Southern Ocean food webs by affecting their foundations — both primary producer communities and ice habitats. However, the implications of these changes for ecosystem services – including wildlife populations, fisheries and carbon sequestration – are unclear, as are the implications for policy and management. Here, we use a generalised representation of Southern Ocean food webs and qualitative network modelling to investigate the consequences of five simple but plausible scenarios of future change for ecosystem services and the conservation of important taxa: (i) a shift in primary producer communities with decreasing large diatoms and increasing small flagellates; (ii) increasing salps; (iii) increase (recovery) of the Great whales; and unregulated and unsustainable fisheries for (iv) krill or (v) toothfish. Strikingly, our results suggest that increases in salps might not have negative consequences for ecosystem services and could enhance carbon export potential. Simulated increases in unregulated krill and toothfish fisheries affect predatory wildlife and could also reduce carbon export potential. Our results emphasise the important policy implications of understanding the structure and change of whole food webs, and highlight that improved quantitative understanding and modelling of the relative importance of different energy pathways will be important for developing robust management responses to climate change impacts.

A metapopulation model for whale-fall specialists: The largest whales are essential to prevent species extinctions

The sunken carcasses of great whales (i.e., whale falls) provide an important deep-sea habitat for more than 100 species that may be considered whale-fall specialists. Commercial whaling has reduced the abundance and size of whales, and thus whale-fall habitats, as great whales were hunted and removed from the oceans, often to near extinction. In this article, we use a metapopulation modeling approach to explore the consequences of whaling to the abundance and persistence of whale-fall habitats in the deep sea and to the potential for extinction of whale-fall specialists. Our modeling indicates that the persistence of metapopulations of whale-fall specialists is linearly related to the abundance of whales, and extremely sensitive (to the fourth power) to the mean size of whales. Thus, whaling-induced declines in the mean size of whales are likely to have been as important as declines in whale abundance to extinction pressure on whale-fall specialists. Our modeling also indicates that commercial whaling, even under proposed sustainable yield scenarios, has the potential to yield substantial extinction of whale-fall specialists. The loss of whale-fall habitat is likely to have had the greatest impact on the diversity of whale-fall specialists in areas where whales have been hunted for centuries, allowing extinctions to proceed to completion. The North Atlantic experienced dramatic declines, and even extirpation, of many whale species before the 20th century; thus, extinctions of whale-fall specialists are likely to have already occurred in this region. Whale depletions have occurred more recently in the Southern Hemisphere and across most of the North Pacific; thus, these regions may still have substantial "extinction debts," and many extant whale-fall specialists may be destined for extinction if whale populations do not recover in abundance and mean size over the next few decades. Prior to the resumption of commercial whaling, or the loosening of protections to reduce incidental take, the impacts of hunting on deep-sea whale-fall ecosystems, as well as differential protection of the largest whales within and across species, should be carefully considered.