Dedicated to the oceans, the wonderful creatures that live there, and the amazing Sea Shepherd crews that protect them. None of the pictures are mine, all used from the internet. Please let me know if they're yours so I can give proper credit or remove...
I AM THE OCEAN
@dp4k.m_reincarnated
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I AM THE OCEAN. I’m most of this planet. Every living thing here needs me.
Humans? They’re not different. I suggest they listen close, I’m only gonna say this once.
If nature isn’t kept healthy, human won’t survive. _
That’s all I have to say.
_
Performed by Harrison Ford @Harrison.fordofficial for Conservation International @conservationorg
#naturedoesntneedpeople #peopleneednature
https://www.instagram.com/p/BojWN3Kh8kg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16u7fjy2l4ew1
#Repost @conservationorg _
“I AM THE FOREST. I take in your pollution and give you clean air. Purify your water and protect your shores. Yet you continue to cut me down. Releasing carbon into the air and heating this planet. While some of you stand with me, most of you turn your backs on me. But I am resilient. Let me grow. We can solve your climate problem, together.”
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The world has lost nearly half of its forests due to agriculture, development or resource extraction. Yet the importance of the benefits that standing forests provide is immense. We are teaming up with conservationist @ShaileneWoodley to give a voice to one of the best defenses we have in the fight against climate change – the forest. #NatureIsSpeaking and the time to listen is NOW. Link in @conservationorg bio to learn more.
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Everything we thought we knew about killer whales has been shaken up.
Today, the article “Infanticide in a mammal-eating killer whale population” by Towers et al. was published in the journal Nature. It documents the very first case of infanticide (the killing of an infant) in killer whales. It is also the first case of a mother-assisted infanticide in a species other than humans.
Up until now, aggressive interactions between killer whales (in the wild, at least) were virtually unheard of. Just the other day I was pondering the lack of violence in killer whale society. But just as killer whales tend to do, they upturned everything we thought we knew about them.
The attack involved the T068s and T046Bs, two families of West Coast Transient killer whales.
Post-reproductive female T068 and her son, T068A, attacked mother T046B and her offspring. A previously undocumented neonate, dubbed T046B5, was present, and it became clear that this calf was the target of the attack.
Figure caption from the article: “Observations leading to infanticide. (A) Fresh wounds on left flank and kinked spine anterior to dorsal fin on T046B4. (B) T046B with offspring T046B2 and (neonate) T046B5. (C) T068A surrounded by T046B, T046B1 and T046B1A. (D) T046B ramming T068A from below sending spray and blood into the air.”
T046B attempted to protect her calf by ramming the male T068A. Other members of the T046B family also appeared to try and get the calf back. At one point, T068A had grabbed the neonate by the flukes and likely had drowned it. He paraded the calf’s carcass around in his mouth. Both he and his mother took turns carrying the calf around while the T046Bs trailed behind them. The researchers recording this attack were also using a hydrophone to listen to the whales’ calls, and they documented highly erratic vocalizations that have never been heard before.
Figure caption from the article: “Observations following infanticide. (A) T068A with the fluke of T046B5 in the left side of his mouth. Fresh scars from the teeth of another whale can be seen on his left flank and rostrum. (B) T068 surfacing with the fluke of T046B5 visible in the left side of her mouth. (C) T068A surfacing with the dorsal fin of T046B5 visible off the left side of his melon. (D) T068 rostrum to rostrum with T046B5 approximately 215 minutes after its death.”
Eventually, the light was dim and researchers had to leave the group.
This leaves us all wondering: what is going on? Why did the T068s kill a neonate calf? In other species, infanticide is fairly common as the killing of an infant often brings the mother back into estrus and males can mate with her. It’s likely this is what was going on as other explanations, such as competition for resources, do not adequately explain it.
This is a major discovery in killer whale behavior and I have no doubt we’ll learn more as the years go by.
I just read the article and there are so many interesting tidbits. For instance, I found this really fascinating:
“…T068A, T068 and T046B had only been documented together on two previous occasions – once in 2005 and again in 2007. The apparent low levels of association between these individuals suggest that they are not well known to each other and this may be reflective of inherent sexual conflict between their differing sex and age classes.”
What’s also really interesting (though not necessarily surprising) is that this attack was highly coordinated between T068, a post-menopausal female, and her adult son. The paper essentially concludes that the infanticide was conducted in order to bring T046B back into estrus, and that T068 would serve to benefit by having her son’s genes passed on should he mate with T046B.
Regardless, this is still an incredible discovery. Who knows if this is a somewhat regular occurrence in WCTs (or other orca populations), or if this was an aberrant or unusual encounter…
If you follow the link to the paper, there are several recordings of the vocalizations as well as some footage (underwater and above water) of the attack in the supplementary material section.
ORCAS IN TOWN!! Capt Chuck spotted this Eastern Tropical Pacific population of orcas a few miles offshore of Dana Point. Very rarely seen, little known about them. They are not one of the regular eco-types we see (transients and offshores). 🎬 : Craig DeWitt @captdaveswhalewatching
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoHeILkBe-R/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=q67z78q0ot4z
“Taiji”
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This post, translated from Portuguese, comes from one of One Ocean Global @oneoceanglobal Ambassadors, Passionate Marine Conservationist and Environmentalist, Good Friend, Aline @bluepurpose - Today, September 1, is happening in Taiji (Japan), the massacre of thousands of dolphins.
We need to talk about it, we need to put our energy into what is happening right now.
Briefly, thousands of dolphins are drawn to a beach in this small Japanese city and the sea is painted red.
Those who are eligible for water park shows and entertainment with humans are taken to be exploited and those who are not, are slaughtered for the meat to be marketed.
Both situations, money is speaking louder than anything else, you see?
Not even if we want to eat dolphin meat because as far as I know there is a high content of mercury and this is extremely bad for our health.
But for money, they go over anything.
Many do not even know they’re eating dolphin meat right now.
The situation is more complicated than it seems, because for some Japanese residents of Taiji, this is a cultural food tradition.
But I’m sorry, Taiji fishermen, I’d rather fight for the culture of dolphins than to support a culture that involves death, torture, blood, and the suffering of another species.
There are already groups of people fighting for them, like the @
But many do not even know it happens in the world.
Therefore, I think that the force of any movement lies in the diversity of its approaches.
Let’s spread this information out there, let’s press Taiji.
If you are viewing this post now, it’s because you care.
And if you care, you have the power to help in this cause.
Use your creativity, informed you are already there.
#STOPTAIJI @maestro320
PS: Yesterday I spoke with a little in the stories, who did not see I left safe in Emptythetanks. 🎧 The shortchange - Thomston
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnO9JMqhSfn/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=oiiq6hm988s
While not the best photo (thanks autofocus!), this snapshot shows a very cool behavior that is observed in killer whales called alloparenting, and more informally, babysitting!
In this photo we see adult male AP18 in the background with a younger juvenile, probably around 3 years old, in the foreground. This calf belongs to AP3, a reproductive female in the pod (and has not been assigned a formal alpha-numeric designation by researchers yet). When I was documenting the whales during this encounter, I noted that AP3′s calf was not with her. I became worried as I had just seen this calf a week prior. Then, the massive male AP18 showed up with the calf in tow! She was zipping around AP18 (who is probably either her brother or uncle) while her mother lazily followed her from behind several hundred yards away.
Studies on social behavior in male resident killer whales show that males often “babysit” their younger relatives. Mother killer whales may pass off their youngsters to their brothers or sons in order to take a break. Raising a calf is energetically costly to a mother. Calves are bouncy, energetic, and like all kids, don’t want to sit still when mom needs a break. By handing her calf off to a relative, the mother can gain some much needed rest.
What do the males gain in return? The males may receive inclusive fitness benefits by babysitting their younger siblings and nieces/nephews. There is some evidence that when a female has available alloparents, she may be more reproductively successful. Males stand to benefit from their female relatives reproducing frequently as this also spreads some of their genes around (and in the eyes of evolutionary biology, the ultimate driver of all behaviors is the passing on of genetic information).
Reference:
Rose, Naomi A. 1992. The social dynamics of male killer whales, (Orcinus orca), in Johnstone Strait, British Columbia. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Perhaps the most famous of the Southern Resident killer whales, J1 ‘Ruffles’ and J2 ‘Granny’, leisurely swim through a kelp forest. Ruffles, long thought to be Granny’s son, was well known by whalewatchers for his enormous waved dorsal fin that gave him his name. Last seen in 2010, the big bull is considered deceased. At the time of painting this piece Granny still had several more years to go. But late 2016 her time was done, and she quietly disappeared. And so the ‘passing’ in the title is a double one: not only do these whales pass by in the image, both of them have sadly passed away as well.
On a more technical note, I tried my hardest to get all markings (down to the last rake mark) correct, which was quite a challenge. Not in the least because neither whales were frequent breachers and both had the harrowing tendency to be photographed from their right side instead of the left. Even so all markings, except for Ruffles’ flank patch and fluke undersides, and the latter half of Granny’s flank patch, are true to the real whales. The kelp in the painting, bull kelp, a species that occurs in the Southern Resident’s home range.
This painting was a commission for Britannia-Orca on deviantart.
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