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In Chapter One, Gumbs writes, "I will remember you [the hydrodamalis gigas]. Not by the name (written in the possessive) of the one they say “discovered you” after generations of Indigenous relationship.” I thought this article detailing the extinction of the hydrodamalis gigas was interesting and provided more context on their story and how they went extinct, but I felt that Gumbs' ability to tell the story of their extinction was extremely powerful and took a more metaphorical stance.

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Abstract

Steller's sea cow, a giant sirenian discovered in 1741 and extinct by 1768, is one of the few megafaunal mammal species to have died out during the historical period. The species is traditionally considered to have been exterminated by 'blitzkrieg'-style direct overharvesting for food, but it has also been proposed that its extinction resulted from a sea urchin population explosion triggered by extirpation of local sea otter populations that eliminated the shallow-water kelps on which sea cows fed. Hunting records from eighteenth century Russian expeditions to the Commander Islands, in conjunction with life-history data extrapolated from dugongs, permit modelling of sea cow extinction dynamics. Sea cows were massively and wastefully overexploited, being hunted at over seven times the sustainable limit, and suggesting that the initial Bering Island sea cow population must have been higher than suggested by previous researchers to allow the species to survive even until 1768. Environmental changes caused by sea otter declines are unlikely to have contributed to this extinction event. This indicates that megafaunal extinctions can be effected by small bands of hunters using pre-industrial technologies, and highlights the catastrophic impact of wastefulness when overexploiting resources mistakenly perceived as 'infinite'.

Bering Island, historical extinction, Keywords: Hydrodamalis gigas, megafauna, overhunting, population viability analysis

1. Introduction

Few studies are able to address the full course of an extinction event, from first population decline to death of the last individual of a species, because an epistemological gap exists between neontological and palaeontological data. Extant threatened species can reveal factors responsible for declines and general patterns of range collapse, but are typically uninformative about decline duration or potential persistence of remnant populations. Prehistoric extinctions are instead informative about temporal, geographical and taxonomic patterns of extinction, rather than the build-up to these events. Historical data alone can potentially reveal both last-occurrence dates for recently extinct species and information about drivers, speed and magnitude of declines, and permit evaluation of the efficacy of primitive hunting practices in driving a species to extinction.

Steller's sea cow ( Hydrodamalis gigas) was a giant dugongid sirenian, and possibly the largest Recent non-cetacean mammal ( ca 750 cm, 4500-5900 kg; Anderson & Domning 2002). It was the only Quaternary representative of a North Pacific Neogene sirenian radiation, and fossil material indicates a wide distribution across this region during the Pleistocene ( Domning 1978). However, by the late Holocene it was restricted to shallow waters around the uninhabited Commander Islands (Bering and Copper Islands), probably because of prehistoric human hunting elsewhere across its range ( Domning 1978). These relict populations were discovered in 1741 and studied by a single scientist, Georg Steller, before the islands became regular stopping-off points for Russian fur hunters until 1762-1763 ( Steller 1751). The last sea cow was killed ca 1768 on Bering Island ( Stejneger 1887; Domning 1978), making it one of the few truly megafaunal mammals (≥44 kg; sensu Martin 1984) to have become extinct during the historical period.

It is often considered that the Commander Islands sea cow populations were rapidly exterminated by direct overharvesting ( Stejneger 1887; Domning 1978), following the 'blitzkrieg' model for prehistoric Quaternary megafaunal extinctions ( Martin 1984). However, fur hunters also overexploited local populations of sea otters ( Domning 1978), a keystone species responsible for structuring nearshore communities ( Estes et al. 1978). Sea otter extirpation generates an alternate stable nearshore community dominated by Strongylocentrotus sea urchins, which largely eliminate shallow-water kelps ( Simenstad et al. 1978). Several authors have proposed that hunting alone was insufficient to wipe out sea cows, and their extinction was instead driven largely by this removal of their food source ( Haley 1980; Anderson 1995; Anderson & Domning 2002).

Although Steller provided no numerical population or life-history data on the sea cows he observed, a 1741 population of less than or equal to 1500 animals was suggested by Leonhard Stejneger (1887), who visited Bering Island and collected records of all Russian hunting and trading expeditions known to have overwintered there, including crew numbers and duration of stay ( table 1 ; figure 1 ). One report, reproduced by Domning (1978), states that one sea cow could feed 33 men for a month, and it was customary to store sea cow meat to provision ongoing voyages of at least 12 months. Such provisioning also helped eradicate other insular vertebrates, notably the dodo and several giant tortoise species ( Strickland & Melville 1848; Townsend 1925). These records also suggest that five times as many animals were killed as were actually utilized, through wasteful hunting methods. Using Stejneger's historical data, and life-history data extrapolated from the dugong, the sea cow's closest living relative ( Anderson 2002), sea cow extinction dynamics can be investigated using Population Viability Analysis (PVA) in Vortex 9.42 ( Lacy et al. 2005), to examine whether recorded hunting levels were actually sufficient to drive the species to extinction.

Table 1

year

men

months

provisioning

estimated sea cows hunted

2. Material and methods

Three approaches were taken: historical data were used to compare three alternative hunting regimes; the maximum sustainable hunt was calculated; and a sensitivity analysis was undertaken (see electronic supplementary material). Each simulation entailed 10 000 iterations of the model. The first approach compared the estimated real level of hunting and two counterfactual regimes, one with efficient (non-wasteful) hunting, the other without provisioning for ongoing voyages but with wasteful hunting. Mean annual hunt was calculated per regime, and hunting was continued beyond the period of historical data at this mean rate until extinction if it had not already occurred. Maximum sustainable sea cow catch was calculated by simulating 11 scenarios, where hunting varied in steps of one from 15 to 25 animals per year, and outputting extinction probability (i.e. what proportion of the 10 000 populations was extinct) each year.

Exponential growth is only checked in the Vortex default model by reducing the population to K (carrying capacity) each year it is exceeded. As natural populations conversely usually increase more slowly as K is approached, we entered a density-dependent function of breeding based on the logistic ( Miller & Lacy 2005). Percentage animals breeding per year ( B) was given by

where γ is the interbirth interval and α is the adjustment factor. The α was chosen by simulating populations in the absence of hunting and varying α until the average equilibrium value equalled K. Note that in these simulations extinction never occurred (i.e. P[extinction]<0.0001). A fixed annual hunt may be specified in Vortex, but as our hunt estimates varied between years a survival-only catastrophe function was created for each scenario to simulate required hunting level.

Vortex outputs the mean population size per simulation, when the median is preferable for exponential processes and information on percentiles is useful. The 10 000 iterations were therefore simulated as different Vortex scenarios and subsequently manipulated by Excel macros to obtain the median population size and 2.5 and 97.5% percentiles.

Sea cow life-history parameters were taken from Anderson (2002), using estimate range mid-points where appropriate. In all simulations except sensitivity analyses, life expectancy was 90 years, based on extrapolation from living sirenians, with annual mortality rates (age) of 10% (0-1), 5% (1-2), 3% (2-10), 2.5% (10-16) and 1.37% (17+). Standard deviations were half these rates. Calves per birth=1. Other parameter values are given in the electronic supplementary material.

3. Results

PVA indicates that sea cow r max is 1.35%, within the lower range of dugong r max values given by Marsh et al. (2004), and similar to this range when it is scaled appropriately for body size (0.53-3.40%; cf. Savage et al. 2004, using dugong data from Anderson 2002). The maximum sustainable catch of sea cows, where P [extinction after 100 years]≤0.1 (i.e. maximum probability of extinction that does not qualify the species for any of the IUCN 'threatened' categories, according to Red List Criterion E; IUCN Species Survival Commission 2001), was 17 individuals per year. By Stejneger's estimates, a mean of 123.30 individuals per year were killed between 1743 and 1763, so that historical hunting was carried out at 7.25 times the sustainable limit for the species. Hunters would have killed 47.15 individuals per year (2.77×sustainable limit) with wasteful hunting but without provisioning, and 24.95 individuals per year (1.47×sustainable limit) with provisioning but without wastage.

The species could not have survived the persecution levels of any of these possible hunting regimes ( p<0.001; figure 2 ). Given a pre-human population of 1500 animals, median sea cow extinction date is 1756 (95% CI, 1754-1757); without provisioning, this terminal date is 1778 (95% CI, 1770-1786), and without wastage it is 1817 (95% CI, 1799-1841). The species' known extinction date (1768) falls later than the 95% CI for simulated maximum hunting; as hunters relied almost exclusively on sea cows for food, it is unlikely that hunting intensity could have decreased in response to declining sea cow numbers, and sensitivity analysis indicates that most variation in extinction date is explained by initial population density. A pre-human population of 2000 animals, suggested by some researchers ( Domning 1978; Anderson & Domning 2002), gives an alternative median extinction date of 1760, with a 95% CI (1756-1763), including the date of the last major sea cow hunt. A starting population of 2900 animals is necessary for the species to persist until 1768. However, this surplus may represent the additional small population found around Copper Island, not considered by Stejneger or later researchers.

4. Discussion

This quantification of the historical hunting regime of an extinct megafaunal mammal highlights the vulnerability of K-selected species, and the potential for their massive overexploitation using even pre-industrial hunting technologies-in this case, harpooning from the shore or small boats ( Stejneger 1887; Domning 1978). Indeed, hunting pressures on the Commander Islands populations are likely to have been even stronger than estimated here, because Stejneger (1887) considered that his historical data were 'very defective', and additional unrecorded eighteenth-century expeditions may also have stopped at Bering Island. Extinction risk among other Quaternary mammals is directly related to body size ( Lessa & Fariña 1996) or slow reproductive rate ( Johnson 2002), characteristics positively associated in other vertebrates with extinction risk via human persecution, but negatively correlated with extinction risk via habitat loss ( Owens & Bennett 2000). Studies on extant sirenians indicate that these species are declining primarily through unsustainable anthropogenic mortality from direct overharvesting ( Heinsohn et al. 2004; Marsh et al. 2004) or accidental boat collisions ( Marmontel et al. 1997), rather than diminishing food sources. This suggests that effects of sea otter removal on sea cow decline were minimal-hunting was more than sufficient to exterminate the sea cow without invoking a further collapse of offshore ecosystems.

This study thus supports the hypothesis that earlier Quaternary megafaunal extinctions could have been effected by small bands of hunters with primitive hunting technologies ( Martin 1984; Fiedel & Haynes 2004). This hypothesis is increasingly plausible if, like Commander Islands sea cows, target species were periodically restricted to environmental refugia or had patchy distributions in habitat mosaics. There is considerable evidence that this was indeed the case for many Quaternary megafaunal species, especially immediately prior to their extinction ( Stuart 1999; Fiedel & Haynes 2004; Stuart et al. 2004).

Modelling sea cow extinction also highlights the catastrophic impact of wastefulness when overexploiting resources mistakenly perceived as 'infinite'. Similar short-term intensive slaughter with abundant wastage also characterizes historical overexploitation of other extinct species, such as the passenger pigeon ( Schorger 1955), and exploitation by Polynesian settlers of New Zealand's moa, the only extinct megafaunal species for which extensive archaeological information on human hunting is available ( Trotter & McCulloch 1984; Holdaway & Jacomb 2000). Wasteful hunting practices may therefore constitute a general model for prehistoric human exploitation of vertebrate resources, as well as remaining a pervasive problem in marine and terrestrial systems today. However, sea cows had such a low maximum population growth rate and sustained yield that the species would unfortunately have become extinct even under a careful and conservative hunting regime.

Acknowledgments

We thank P. Anderson, B. Collen, G. Mace, P. White and W. Hanage for useful discussion.

References

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Holdaway R.N, Jacomb C. Rapid extinction of the moas (Aves: Dinornithiformes): model, test and implications. [[PubMed] Google Scholar]

IUCN Species Survival Commission . IUCN; Gland/Cambridge, UK: 2001. IUCN red list categories and criteria: version 3.1. [Google Scholar]

Johnson C.N. Determinants of loss of mammal species during the Late Quaternary 'megafauna' extinctions: life history and ecology, but not body size. [[PMC free article] [PubMed] Google Scholar]

Lacy R.C, Hughes K.A, Miller P.S. Vortex: a stochastic simulation of the extinction process. Version 9.42. Chicago Zoological Society; Brookfield: 2005. [Google Scholar]

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Articles from Biology Letters are provided here courtesy of The Royal Society

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Modelling the extinction of Steller's sea cow

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Steller's sea cow, a giant sirenian discovered in 1741 and extinct by 1768, is one of the few megafaunal mammal species to have died out during the historical period. The species is traditionally considered to have been exterminated by 'blitzkrieg'-style ...

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In Chapter Two, Gumbs writes that the "beluga shapeshifts, evolved to look like ice itself, and congregates in the shallow estuaries, singing”. Like humans, the beluga whale chooses to adapt in order to make blend in in order to survive. They also are intelligent enough to learn to mimic human speech- similar to how we, as humans, learn to effectively communicate with others (for example, mirroring the way someone communicates or speaks, or picking up on their tendencies). This is done both purposefully and unintentionally among humans.

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Millions of years before we humans came along, the earth's oceans were a vast, unbroken web of whale song. The complex courting arias of humpbacks, the distinct clicking dialects of migrating sperm-whale clans, the congalike poundings of Pacific grays, the multi-thousand-mile moans and blips of massive blue and fin whales conversing across oceans at octaves well below our range of hearing, the nearly nonstop Arctic chatter of belugas: All of them are being drowned out now by our clamor.

And yet a single beluga managed to make his voice go global again, and in the only medium left him: the worldwide web. The extraordinary history of Noc (pronounced no-see) resurrects a captive who somehow has found a way to speak to us, both literally and figuratively, of the true nature of his kind.

Since the early 1960s the United States had been deploying marine mammals, beginning with dolphins, for tasks including mine detection and recovery of test torpedoes. By the mid-1970s, the locus of the naval cold war had shifted to the Arctic, where the latest Soviet submarines were secreting themselves under the ice cap, an environment off-limits to animals including dolphins and sea lions used in the Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP). Experiments commenced on weaponry that could function in such extreme conditions. The Navy needed marine mammals with built-in sonar, capable of locating and retrieving sunken experimental torpedoes in the frigid waters and low visibility of the Arctic.

In August 1977, with Canadian government consent, Sam Ridgway, a Texas-born veterinarian and a co-founder of NMMP, dispatched a team to the northern coast of Manitoba. There, the Navy would procure the first belugas for a new Arctic initiative, known as "Cold Ops." Belugas typically travel in pods of approximately 25 whales, led by a dominant male but bound by close ties between mothers and their calves. Newborns nurse for about two years and, living within a multitiered matriarchal society very similar to that of elephants, are also raised by an extended group of females.

Belugas make for obliging quarry, their affable, curious natures often leading them directly up to divers and boats. As for the vessel Ridgway had deployed that summer 37 years ago, it also contained two Inuit hunters hired to expedite the recruitment process. When a beluga approached their boat, one hunter would jump on the whale's back and slip a lasso around its neck, like a high plains mustang. The other would then slide a floating stretcher under the whale and lead it ashore. Once there it was placed in a leak-proof crate containing a few centimeters of water and loaded onto a transport jet for immediate transfer to a netted underwater enclosure at the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, off Point Loma, California.

Six belugas were caught between 1977 and 1980. Among them was the 2-year-old male calf named Noc, after the tiny biting summer flies known as no-see-ums. The youngest of the Cold Op's recruits, Noc lived virtually his entire life in captivity, working side by side with human trainers. He ended up being deployed for two top-secret Navy surveillance and retrieval programs before succumbing to meningitis in 1999 at the age of 23 while still in the Navy's care.

Then Noc suddenly re-emerged in the form of a 20-odd-second recording, included as a mere supplement to a research paper by Ridgway, "Spontaneous Human Speech Mimicry by a Cetacean," in the October 23, 2012, edition of the journal Current Biology.

Within days Noc's voice was burbling from computers around the globe. He sounds, on first hearing, at least, less like a person talking than a delirious drunk humming an atonal tune through a tissue-covered comb. A goofy quotient only heightened by the photo of Noc that ran with most of the breaking news stories about him: his duck-billed and dumbstruck mouth; his deep-set, frontally fixed eyes. But the science behind Noc's mimicry and its apparent motives reveals something far more urgent and haunting: the spectral outpourings of a young white whale calling to us across both time and the vast linguistic divide between humans and the other animals.

***

"I'd never worked with belugas before," Ridgway recalled as we sat in a Point Loma coffee shop one morning in March 2013. In semi-retirement now at age 77, his naturally high-pitched voice further thinned and perforated by age, he did his best at first to compete with the coffee shop's blaring music. And then one of the world's leading experts on the auditory powers of cetaceans stood, made his way to the service counter, and shouted at the young woman there: "I'm sorry. I'm an old man. Could you please turn that down?"

"So..." he continued upon shuffling back to our table, "when the Navy contacted me and said we're going to start doing some stuff up in the Arctic, our program decided, well, we'll get belugas. They spend most of their lives in those conditions. And we'd done similar work with dolphins for years, so we kind of figured belugas would be comparable."

In one e-mail I'd received from Ridgway he enclosed some extraordinary footage of Noc and another beluga captive, Muk Tuk (after the Inuit word for whaleskin and blubber), in the course of deep-diving training tests off San Clemente Island, 70 miles west of the Southern California coast: recurring images of the two whales dutifully reporting to the side of the Navy training vessel, receiving both spoken and hand-signaled instructions, and then disappearing under the water surface.

The new Cold Ops recruits proved not only to be remarkable divers, ultimately reaching preset platforms at depths of over 2,000 feet, but pinpointing retrievers as well. Belugas evolved their precisely honed echolocation powers in order to both navigate the Arctic's dark waters and to find available pockets of breathing air between the ocean surface and the underside of the ice cap. Pinging on mud-embedded test torpedoes proved, by comparison, an easily dispatched task. They would also learn to wield a mouthpiece with a special "grabber assembly" for retrieval of the torpedoes from the ocean floor.

Still, the most critical factor for Ridgway and his team was that the new Cold Ops trainees willingly returned to their trainers. The darker undercurrent of such fidelity, of course, was that the animals had nobody else to turn to. During training sessions at a special weapons testing range, a jointly operated Canadian-U.S. facility in Nanoose Bay off the east coast of Vancouver Island, a group of animal rights activists managed to infiltrate the base there and release Noc and Muk Tuk from their enclosure. Both whales headed at first for open water, but Noc returned of his own volition a short time later. Muk Tuk swam some 14 miles south along the coast before willingly following a pursuing Cold Ops training vessel back to base.

"They come to think of us as family," Ridgway said. "And that's the reason they stay with us. We have no way of completely controlling them, and yet they do their job and come back. They kind of view themselves as part of a team. Or at least we view them as seeing themselves as part of a team."

Ridgway said he didn't remember there being anything particularly strange or different about Noc over the course of the first seven years preceding his sudden speech episodes. He did describe him as being somewhat lazy and unfocused at first during open-sea training sessions, often delighting in purposely delaying the proceedings through an avoidance behavior known as "mucking" (diving down to suck invertebrates from the seafloor). Sometimes he'd just bow out completely, swimming the 70 miles back to his enclosure in San Diego Bay.

"I do remember Noc would often kind of sit back and watch Muk Tuk," Ridgway offered at one point. "And then he'd get all jealous when Muk Tuk did her job and got her reward. Suddenly he'd want to have his turn. But he had to wait for Muk Tuk to finish first."

Michelle Jeffries, one of Noc's early trainers, presented a decidedly different picture of her young whale charge. A zoological manager of the Oakland Zoo and a co-author of the Current Biology paper on Noc, Jeffries began working with the Cold Ops belugas in 1981. Noc was 6 at that point and had, it seemed, evolved by then into the consummate team player.

"Noc really warmed my heart," Jeffries said over lunch one afternoon in Los Angeles, where she'd just moved to assist her ailing mother. "He was very easygoing. He wanted people's attention. He wanted you to stay around and interact with him and rub him. He didn't try to bullshit you like some of the dolphins did. He was just glad for your time, and he was very patient. Plus being the younger one, he was a little bit more reactive, eager. Noc was the kid who was willing to try. I think that was part of the thing behind him mimicking speech. He liked watching people. He liked being around people. The connection. He wanted to make a connection. I think that was his thing. He liked the interface."

In May 1984 Ridgway and his fellow Cold Ops personnel began hearing strange noises emanating from the whales' enclosure-sounds they would liken in the Current Biology paper to "two people conversing...just out of range for our understanding."

"My office was on the end of a pier in San Diego Bay," Ridgway recalled over coffee that morning. "Noc had his home enclosure next to the pier. I would hear these 'talking sounds' late in the day as I headed down the pier toward the parking lot. I assumed these talking sounds resulted from a conversation on one of the two adjacent piers about 150 feet away from me."

Also that May, two Navy divers were making underwater repairs on the Point Loma whale enclosures. Throughout these sessions they would talk with their onshore dive supervisor through an audible underwater communications device known as a "wet phone." In the middle of that day's outing, one of the divers, a Navy veteran in his late 30s, Miles Bragget, abruptly surfaced and asked a puzzled supervisor: "Who told me to get out?" Informed of the incident later, Ridgway and his team decided to start keeping a closer eye and ear on their beluga recruits.

"After a set period of time," Ridgway explained, "or after the divers completed a task, the supervisor would typically order them out. It was also not uncommon for Noc to be in the vicinity when the underwater communications systems were being used. But Bragget had come up at a point when the supervisor had said nothing. It turns out that Bragget heard Noc. The 'out' he thought he'd heard, we realized, had come from Noc. He repeated the word several times."

"I didn't observe Miles' initial interaction," Jeffries said of Bragget, who died in 1990, "but I was at the facility that day. I remember when Miles got out of the water he was sure the dive monitor and the guys around the pens were kidding him when they said they did not call him out of the water. He thought they were pulling his leg. But we realized pretty quickly what was going on, maybe because of the way Noc reacted to the divers, watching them from his pen, following them, focusing on Miles in particular. Belugas are very aware of people and their actions, especially Noc, and Miles had a nice touch with Noc. He was a gentle man. And once we figured out that it was Noc, we were all excited, laughing, and, I think, completely humbled by this amazing animal."

Once Noc had been identified as the source of Bragget's perceived evacuation order, Ridgway and his Marine Mammal Program cohorts began recording their precocious white whale's by-then irrepressible speech episodes. He spoke both underwater and in open air, either spontaneously or on command, and yet only when around humans or off by himself, never with his fellow whales. Before long, Jeffries told me, she had only to point at Noc and say the word "out," and he would start rambling away, sometimes as much as 30 or more unbroken seconds of his surreal juice-harp oratory.

There had been numerous claims in the past about the naturally vociferous beluga talking in our language as well. Until Noc, however, no one had ever had an opportunity to do the repeated observations, acoustic recordings and audio analysis required to verify what people had long believed they were hearing.

Subsequent spectrum analysis of Noc's utterances soon revealed just how skilled a speaker he was. The rhythm and amplitude of his vocal bursts and the intervals between them were found to pattern those of human speech. His fundamental frequencies, meanwhile, also matched those of humans, registering around 200 to 300 hertz, roughly the octave of middle C, and several octaves below the white whale's usual sounds. Noc would even yield to the repeated insertion of a device known as a "rapid response pressure catheter" into the nasal cavities and air sacs beneath his blowhole. This allowed Ridgway to get a clearer understanding of just how Noc was accomplishing his bizarre vocal acrobatics.

Belugas produce sounds by building up air pressure in the nasal cavities within their melon, the echolocation organ at the front of their heads, and then forcing the air through a set of "phonic lips" atop each cavity. The vibrations of the lips result in the whale's typical repertoire of echolocation clicks, pulse bursts and chirp-like whistles and squeaks. Noc, Ridgway discovered, was so over-inflating his nasal cavities during his mimicry episodes that his melon would visibly distend, seemingly to the point of bursting, and all to wrench his natural speech into the precise tenor and sonic topography of our own.

"We do not claim that our whale was a good mimic compared to such well-known mimics as parrots or myna birds," Ridgway's Current Biology paper concludes. "However, the sonic behavior we observed is an example of vocal learning by the white whale. It seems likely that Noc's close association with humans played a role in how often he employed his human voice, as well as in its quality."

Episodes of animal mimicry have long been dismissed as "mere parroting," a disparagement that recent research on the intelligence of parrots and a number of species, including whales, reveals to be rather narrow-minded on our part. Through a process known as "parallel evolution," whales-some 55 million years our seniors-first developed a brain comparable to our far more recently evolved one. It's a brain that has structures involved in functions such as self-recognition, memory, advanced socialization and language, enabling a fluency in some forever other and yet deeply parallel parlance.

"Vocal imitation, vocal learning, is a very sophisticated cognitive process," says Lori Marino, a senior lecturer in the department of psychology at Emory University who specializes in cetacean intelligence and brain evolution. "For an animal to imitate another species takes a level of self-awareness, a level of understanding of their body and your body and the acoustics of it. Manipulating one's vocal tract to produce a desired effect is very, very sophisticated."

"Yes, their brains are different," Marino adds. "The cortex is completely different. And that's what makes them so fascinating. The old line was that their brains are just these big masses of tissue for hearing, just giant audio receivers. But there's so much integrative cortical tissue there that does more than just receive. It brings things together, synthesizes and does complex processing in ways we obviously don't understand yet. But it's not as though we have this huge complex whale brain and no commensurately complex behavior. They are individuals. They have lives to lead and social relationships. They have families, and they have really good memories. And that's something places like SeaWorld don't want to touch because then you start getting into issues that people can really relate to."

***

Ruby, the last surviving member of the Cold Ops belugas, now resides at SeaWorld San Diego, one of five belugas in the theme park's "Wild Arctic" exhibit, situated just across San Diego Bay from the Point Loma enclosure where she, Noc and their fellow Cold Ops belugas spent their early years. Ruby is 36 now, exceptionally old for a captive beluga, contrary to the claim that SeaWorld trains their guides to repeat to patrons: Whales in their care live longer than those in the wild. It had long been thought that wild belugas had a life span of 20 to 35 years. But a 2006 study has now shown that they can live as long as 70 to 80 years, if not longer.

The challenge of confining such long-lived creatures accustomed to roaming as much as 100 miles of icy ocean a day in extensive, multi-tiered social groups is daunting. Recent advancements on such fronts as water circulation, tank hygiene and nutrition have vastly increased life expectancy for the likes of Ruby, and yet most captive belugas rarely live past their teens or early 20s, typically succumbing to one of various fungal and bacterial infections such as pneumonia or meningitis. Or to a noxious surfeit of human noise.

Once inside SeaWorld San Diego's front gates, one is immediately subsumed by sound. Calypso Muzak clashes with rock 'n' roll and these with the blaring triumphal trumpets and 60-foot-boat-slide screams from the popular water ride, Journey to Atlantis. Loudspeakers issue repeated reminders of the fast dwindling seats for upcoming shows at the Shamu and Dolphin stadiums. It's impossible to imagine what all that sounds like to whales: creatures who can hear one another across oceans.

Only four belugas were visible in the tank as I approached, circling in the same direction before breaching, and then doing that same circuit, over and over again: a classic pathology of life in captivity or, per the SeaWorld training manual, "controlled environment."

Down one level, there was a rare, uncontested spot at the exhibit's underwater viewing glass. Allua, Ferdinand and Nanuq-I'd gotten their names from the guide-all swam by, as did Pearl, Ruby's 4-year-old calf by Nanuq. But there was still no sign of Ruby.

And then, as though she'd been waiting for her own uncontested moment at the glass, a wide-smiling gray-spotted melon appeared before me. She just hovered there, her body straight upright, her head-belugas are unusual among whales in the number of unfused neck vertebrae, permitting a high degree of vertical neck movement-assuming a strangely dazed and asking tilt, like that slow-blinking alien standing on the open spaceship ramp at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

***

"Belugas in captivity actually mute their senses," Samantha Berg, a trainer at SeaWorld from 1990 to 1993, told me recently. "It's so loud around them, and they don't need to use their echolocation because they've been in the same tank every day and already know all the boundaries of their world. When I was working with them, my impression was that they weren't all there, as though they were deeply bored, disinterested. They were like people with post-traumatic stress disorder. I don't know what belugas are like in the wild, but it was almost as though they were staring at me through a veil. Like they weren't really home."

Diana Reiss, a professor of biopsychology at Hunter College, has spent much of her career studying cetacean cognition and communication, mostly in dolphins. "Noc had other female belugas around, but he was the only male, like the odd guy out," Reiss told me. "And the question often asked: Is this an attempt to communicate or is this just mindless mimicry? I suspect that for these animals there is something very reinforcing about what they're doing. They're not doing it for food. But if they can get the attention of those around them by sounding like them, it may give them the social reinforcement they need. It has some social function."

For 16 years, Toni Frohoff, a marine mammal behaviorist based in Santa Barbara, California, has studied a subset of the beluga population in the St. Lawrence estuary known as "solitary sociables": whales separated from their families, usually because of a mother's death at the hands of hunters or from effects of pollution, who end up gravitating to people for companionship.

Most orca and dolphin vocalizations, Frohoff has found, occur underwater. But solitary sociable wild belugas rise up out of the water when they speak to us, purposefully orienting their bodies and voices in our direction. "Wild, free-ranging belugas," says Frohoff, "do not initiate this kind of vocal behavior, no matter how many boats and people may be around. So there's an obvious analogy between these geographically isolated and socially deprived animals in the wild and captive belugas like Noc. We're talking about social deprivation here, a lack of any reasonable normal interaction with his own kind. So what may seem amusing to us, or an attempt to communicate with us, is in a sadder vein a coping mechanism for him, both an outgrowth and avoidance of his own boredom."

Samantha Berg, who now runs an acupuncture clinic with her husband in Palmer, Alaska, vividly remembers the time she heard the recording of Noc.

"It gave me chills," she said. "There's something about the quality of the sound that's deeply disturbed. Like if you woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning and heard somebody screaming in distress. Whether such a sound comes from another human or not, I think there is some part of us that is able to recognize distress. I've heard a lot of beluga noises, and I've never heard a beluga sound like that."

Four years after Noc launched into his talking spree, he just as abruptly stopped, reverting in 1999 to "Beluga" for the rest of his days in captivity. In the early 1990s, with the end of the cold war and cutbacks in defense spending, the Marine Mammal Program was greatly downsized. By then only three belugas remained in the Point Loma enclosure, Muk Tuk, Noc and Ruby. Lyl had succumbed to pneumonia only two years into his training. Chr died of a lung infection in 1984. Churchill died in 1987 of pneumonia. In April 1997, Ruby was transferred to SeaWorld, though she remains the property of the U.S. Navy.

Muk Tuk and Noc, however, were retained for a new operation, dubbed Deep Hear. It was developed to test the potential effects on marine mammals of a new type of low-frequency active sonar (LFAS), which has since been cited by more than 100 scientists as the cause of massive whale strandings. The noise often induces entire pods to surface so rapidly in an attempt to escape it, they die of a condition to which scientists had assumed whales to be immune: the bends. In 2001, Muk Tuk joined Ruby behind the glass at Wild Arctic. She died of a lung infection in 2007.

Language, however we might define it, is everything to whales. They see with it, navigate, hunt, socialize, sing, grieve and-according to one Russian scientist's study-likely dream in it as well. Scientists in France recently recorded captive dolphins talking in their sleep. And they weren't speaking dolphin but rather doing perfect imitations of humpback whales. Briefly trying on our babble for a time is a trifle for a young whale, like a cat batting about a ball of yarn.

Noc's long-ago speech episodes are perhaps best thought of in that way now, the years of his outbursts having coincided-as they do in most documented instances of animal mimicry-with the period of adolescence. It's as though he was a deeply bored teenager at once mocking us and sounding a desperate plea for help. The extraterrestrial intelligences we humans have so long sought contact with turn out to have been right here beside us all along. It's only fitting then, somehow, that all we have left now of Noc is his human voice.

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The Story of One Whale Who Tried to Bridge the Linguistic Divide Between Animals and Humans

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Millions of years before we humans came along, the earth's oceans were a vast, unbroken web of whale song. The complex courting arias of humpbacks, the distinct clicking dialects of migrating sperm-whale clans, the congalike poundings of Pacific grays, the multi-thousand-mile moans and blips of massive blue and fin whales conversing across oceans at octaves well below our range of hearing, the nearly nonstop Arctic chatter of belugas: All of them are being drowned out now by our clamor.

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I loved this example in Chapter Three. Personally, I feel like the name Amazon should belong with The Amazon Rainforest, as it has existed for much longer than Amazon the Corporation. Gumbs writes, "there is a battle for the domain name ‘amazon’ in which a huge corporation has more leverage than the ancient rain forest, a whole region of the planet”. I felt like this example, although it is a problem on its own, is symbolic to the unprotected/underprivileged groups being taken advantage of, something that happens all too often. Renamed, stolen from, and abused- we need to advocate for these groups, because if we don’t, who is there to protect them? This concept also reminds me of the balance between cultural appropriation and appreciation. If Amazon the corporation were using the name respectfully, they would not be in a dispute with the actual rainforest. To me, it appears they are profiting off of the name, with no respect to where the name originated from, meaning they fall more toward the appropriation side of things.

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Amazon has provisionally won the right to the ". amazon" domain name, following a years-long dispute with eight Latin American governments.

After a seven-year argument, the international body that monitors internet addresses sided with the tech giant against the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation, a coalition of Latin American governments that had argued the name referred to their geographic region and should belong to them. The decision is pending a 30 day public comment period.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) said it had found Amazon's most recent compromise terms acceptable, in light of the fact that the two parties had been unable to reach a "mutually acceptable solution".

In the terms, proposed in April, Amazon promised not to include in domain names words with "a primary and well-recognised significance to the culture and heritage of the Amazonia region". The company said it would block the use of up to 1,500 such sensitive names. Additions to the list of terms, which would be overseen by a joint advisory committee, would be allowed for up to two years.

It said it would also provide up to nine domain names for ACTO member states to use for "non-commercial purposes" and to "highlight the region's culture and heritage through sites we host".

However, ACTO member states would not have the right to veto specific names, since that would give them "authority over global naming decisions for Amazon's new, not-yet-launched products and services," Amazon said. In April, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the proposal "does not address important concerns" raised by ACTO.

Brazil's foreign ministry on Monday said it "lamented" Icann's decision.

"It is concerning that a decision by that entity fails to adequately consider the public interest identified by eight governments, in particular the need to defend the natural, cultural and symbolic heritage of the countries and peoples of the Amazon region," the ministry added. Brazil is home to the largest chunk of the Amazon rainforest.

Amazon first requested the use of the domain name in 2012, when Icann began expanding its list of generic top-level domains and allowing companies to apply for new, personalised extensions. The Amazonian countries objected, and were told by the arbitrator they must reach an agreement with the retailer.

Icann's final decision is a disappointment for ACTO. The coalition had rejected what it called "the monopoly of one company" and the "appropriation" of the "geographical names of the states, without their due consent", and argued the nations had a right to participate in the domain's governance.

During negotiations, Amazon had reportedly offered the governments of Brazil and Peru, who informally led ACTO's resistance, $5m worth of Kindles and Amazon Web Services in an effort to appease them. The company had also suggested it could give countries specific extensions, such as permitting Brazil to use br.amazon, and promised to prevent the use of "names that touch national sensitivities".

The Ecuadorean ambassador to the US hit back in earlier this March, saying the coalition was "not looking for financial compensation", since the matter was one of "sovereignty".

In outlining its terms, Amazon said it could not share the ownership or management of. amazon, as Brazil had proposed, since "a brand must continually control how its trademark is used in connection with its business."

The domain name has no price tag - since Icann is creating a new extension, not selling an existing address - although there is a fixed quarterly fee of $6,250.

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Amazon wins domain name dispute with Latin American governments

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Amazon has provisionally won the right to the ". amazon" domain name, following a years-long dispute with eight Latin American governments. After a seven-year argument, the international body that monitors internet addresses sided with the tech giant against the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation, a coalition of Latin American governments that had argued the name referred to their geographic region and should belong to them.

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In Chapter Three, Gumbs writes, “Remember this feeling, there is something called love. I would say remember, there is something called freedom, even if you can’t see it. There is me calling you, in a world I don’t control. There is something called freedom, and you know how to call it. Even here in the holding pattern, here in the hold, remember remember. You are. You are held. Named.” Regardless of their confinement, the dolphins Gumbs writes about still behave like a family, with the babies swimming around their mothers. I felt like this quote was extremely powerful as it shows that despite the normal life that was taken from them, these creatures still nurture one another like they would in the wild. However, it broke my heart reading about what short lives they live in captivity. I appreciated Gumbs bringing up this topic- dolphins are extremely intelligent creatures, and as sad as it is, these deaths in captivity do not surprise me- a creature of this complexity will never thrive or be happy in confinement like this.

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Following the death of a baby dolphin at Festa Dolphinarium in Varna, Bulgaria last August, The Last Cage and ProWal, have launched a joint investigation into the dolphinarium's activities.

We have found data on over 27 dolphins that have died or "disappeared" at Festa Dolphinarium since its opening - these cases have been documented in the press. How many more there are is yet to be seen. Approximately every year, a dolphin is born and dies in Festa Dolphinarium. The death rate of dolphins in captivity in the first year after birth is extremely high, and therefore the average life expectancy of prisoners in tanks is between 3 and 4 times shorter than their wild counterparts.

Dolphins are particularly intelligent animals and suffer intensely from life in captivity. The only way they can be forced to perform pointless and unnatural movements over and over again for the show is through starvation, so they are fed only during performances and workouts. Hunger, noisy performances, invasive attractions such as "swimming with dolphins", the artificial environment, tight space, and frequent deaths make life in the tank an underwater hell. The dolphins in Varna show signs of distress typical of captive animals. The tank is extremely small, with a size of only 12×15 meters and 6 meters deep. 5 dolphins are held captive in there, this makes 36 square meters of surface area per animal. For life.

The cruel business of dolphin captivity is particularly detrimental to the youngest audience because it teaches children the profoundly inhumane notion that it is acceptable to imprison wild animals and forcing them to do tricks against their will is a fun activity.

The Law

In Bulgaria, dolphins are the only wild animals that are outside the protection of the law prohibiting the use of wild mammals for public show programs / Animal Protection Law (ЗЗЖ) Art. 27 /. The law states that the exception to the ban applies only to dolphins, "that are at least third generation captive-bred".

All dolphins currently imprisoned in Varna are NOT "at least third generation captive-bred". Dolly and Kimbo - the oldest dolphins - were caught from in the Caribbean sea and brought to Bulgaria about 35 years ago. The other 3 dolphins - Joanna, Bimbo and Flipper - are children of Dolly and Kimbo, i.e. first generation captive.

More violations of the law, with other marine mammals

In October 2019, we documented how a sea lion was used commercially despite the fact this is prohibited by law. In fact, Festa Dolphinarium has been illegally keeping two sea lions for over two years, even breeding them - so far with the same success as the dolphins: in 2017, their baby Bochko died at the age of a little over a month after drowning in an unsecured tank shaft due to staff negligence. Meanwhile, earlier this year, there was a very discreet attempt to make an amendment to the Animal Protection Law that would also remove sea lions from the protected wildlife list. This would magically make Festa's illegal sea lions legal and enable them to perform in the show. According to Yavor Gechev from Four Paws Bulgaria quoted in Dnevnik, this is the second such attempt. The first was last year, but the amendment was not accepted at the time. Both times, it was proposed by the 3 GERB MPs Nelly Petrova, Krasimir Valev and Luchezar Ivanov.

Outrage on an international level: "The world's smallest dolphinarium is in Bulgaria!"

Also in October, the Festa Dolphinarium was visited by Andreas Morlock, CEO of the German whaling organization ProWal. He is an expert in the protection of mammalian cetaceans and deals with dolphinariums around the world. His experience in this industry is over 20 years. He was shocked by what he saw in Varna:

Andreas Morlock: "I already investigated this dolphin prison in October. There are 334 facilities around the world, in which more than 3,000 dolphins are held captive and used for purely commercial purposes. I have visited more than 70 dolphinariums in over 30 countries in the last 12 years and through my experience I can claim that the Festa Dolphinarium is the smallest dolphin prison in the world. The dolphins are in a terrible state there. Some of them have bites, which are caused by disputes between them. No wonder, they cannot be avoided in this narrow space. It is so unscrupulous that the dolphin Yoanna, who lost her child in August, is forced to participate in all show programs and the trainer does not give her time to go through her grief. Captive dolphins are desperate: I have seen with my own eyes and documented how a dolphin attempted suicide at a dolphinarium in China. Deliberately hit its head on the hard concrete floor! Prisoner dolphins are simply a source of profit for their owners.

A dolphin in captivity makes a profit of 8 to 20 million leva.
Any animal lover can help remove this shame from Varna. Just don't buy any more tickets! We have launched an online campaign calling on the Bulgarian government to ban imports, captive breeding and the use of dolphins for entertainment in Bulgaria.

In Western Europe, about 60 dolphinariums have already closed out of 90. Now Bulgaria has the opportunity to become internationally known in regards to animal welfare! "

Illegal Construction Project in the Sea Garden

The planned expansion of the Dolphinarium's facility is also causing great indignation among the citizens of Varna. It is envisaged within the municipal Maritime Park in Varna (also known as Sea Garden), where there is an active ban on all construction. We have been contacted by citizens who are worried and alarmed because for years, dolphinarium managers have been talking about their intentions to expand the facility, which include the construction of an aqua park and restaurant on nearly 3 acres of the Sea Garden. The plan was approved by the Expert Council on Planning on the Territory of Varna Municipality on September 25, 2018.

"Naturally, they have in mind the thermal water sources nearby, which they want to use commercially. In our opinion the water belongs to the public, not greedy individuals. Any construction in the Sea Garden would be illegal. We hope the city administration adheres to the laws and prevents this planned expansion! "

The public demonstration for a ban on the import, breeding and holding dolphins in captivity for entertainment was registered in the Municipality of Varna and will be held this Sunday, December 1st, from 12:00 to 15:30 in front of the Dolphinarium Festa in Varna.

We appeal to all those who care about the fate of prison animals to come on Sunday and stand with us in front of Festa Dolphinarium to show that we will not remain indifferent, because cruelty is NOT entertainment! This is the only way we will be heard and by being heard we will achieve change:
together for the animals!

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A dead baby every year at Festa Dolphinarium in Bulgaria | The Last Cage

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We have found data on over 27 dolphins that have died or "disappeared" at Festa Dolphinarium since its opening - these cases have been documented in the press. How many more there are is yet to be seen. Approximately every year, a dolphin is born and dies in Festa Dolphinarium.

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Physical Detriments of Captivity

Because tanks lack the depth of the open ocean to permit deep diving, dolphins in captivity frequently experience overexposure to the sun, which can result in sunburn and blistering. Zinc oxide must be applied to their backs. Tanks are often heavily chlorinated, burning the eyes of dolphins and causing permanent damage to eyesight.

In some facilities, the water is improperly treated and maintained, with litter from park customers thrown into tanks, or bacterial growths which lead to lesions and open sores. Other dolphin facilities in sea lagoons near cruise ports collect fuel runoff from ship motors and other marine waste.

Dolphins who participate in swim with interactions are regularly observed with persistent wounds and abrasions from being handled by customers, their beaks raw from pushing guests through the water or being grasped for kisses and photo ops. Other wounds are observed as the result of aggressive outbursts from tank companions, as bullying has been regularly documented. Dolphin and whales in captivity are often documented with compromised teeth, often the result of frustrated chewing on their tank walls.

In their orca counterparts, confinement in small tanks leads to the well-documented "fin flop" in male orcas, a condition noted in 100% of captive male orcas and 0% in wild male orcas.

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Facts About Dolphin Captivity | Dolphin Project

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Physical Detriments of Captivity Because tanks lack the depth of the open ocean to permit deep diving, dolphins in captivity frequently experience overexposure to the sun, which can result in sunburn and blistering. Zinc oxide must be applied to their backs. Tanks are often heavily chlorinated, burning the eyes of dolphins and causing permanent damage to eyesight.

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In Chapter Three, Gumbs writes, the “[indus susu and Ganges susu] (also known as the two subspecies of the South Asian river dolphin) often swim sideways… sometimes they spiral through the water like a drill. They often quickly change directions. And you can see them swimming sideways, one flipper stirring up the sediment to find what they need to feed themselves, echolocating all along.” This quote made me wonder- what are some examples of swimming sideways in real life? What strategies do we adopt in order to survive and succeed? In this article I found, the author, Cameron West-Johnson, writes that the dolphins "have come to terms with their environment and use [their abilities] to [their] full potential". Like humans, these dolphins have learned to adapt and become resourceful in their environments. These dolphins appear to be a symbol of resilience.

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Search for Bottlenose Dolphins on The Indian River Lagoon

Thus, when we are searching for these dolphins we look out for any explosions of water. Along with water splashing, we make sure to keep an eye on the birds in the sky. Birds such as pelicans and anhinga track dolphins, because where dolphins are fish are. Birds use the dolphin as a larger target in the water that shows them where the fish are.

So, if you see birds looking really interested in the water and flying from spot to spot there is a good chance there is a dolphin nearby. When on the search for dolphins you can't solely rely on your vision. Many times, while kayaking you won't see the dolphin but you will hear it either splashing or taking a breath of air.

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Thus, when we are searching for these dolphins we look out for any explosions of water. Along with water splashing, we make sure to keep an eye on the birds in the sky. Birds such as pelicans and anhinga track dolphins, because where dolphins are fish are.

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In Chapter Five, Gumbs writes, “Dolphin schools are organizational structures for learning, nurturance, and survival, both intergenerationally and within generations.” Just like humans often do, dolphins work in a team- they group up and work together to build each other up, teach each other, and support one another. Lessons are taught throughout family trees, and traditions are shared among groups. As we know, dolphins are smart enough to learn tricks from humans, but what I find to be even more fascinating is their ability to work together in the wild. They can learn from one another even more effectively than they can from humans, because where they truly thrive is in groups of their own kind (just like we do).

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Dolphins learn from each other to walk on water | University of St Andrews news

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In Chapter Six, Gumbs writes, "The scars on dolphins and whales also tell their would-be benefactors who they are. It is how observing scientists tell them apart. It is useful for getting an accurate count, for tracking behavior across expeditions. A dolphin with scars is more likely to be known, recognized, named by the watchers. Mentioned in funding reports.  Do I do that too? Are my wounds the most convenient ways for you to know me? Why do they shape so much of how I know myself? And the whole dynamic of recognition, how does it shape and scar us?" Our experiences and what we learn from them shape us. Although we may carry battle scars, these are the lessons that define us and change us as people. This is how we learn. Regardless of how much they may have hurt to receive, they shape "so much of how we know [ourselves]", like Gumbs writes.

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Using Physical Features for Dolphin Photo Identification

Dolphins are air-breathing mammals, this means that about 99.9% of the time, when they surface to breathe, their dorsal fin is visible. For our photo-identification efforts, this makes capturing a photo of a fin relatively easy. Let's consider, however, how one would identify bottlenose dolphins if a dorsal fin was not visible.

Tail Flukes

Flukes are made up of dense tissue similar to that of a dorsal fin. Further, like the dorsal fin, the tail flukes help a dolphin thermoregulate. Being similar extremeties, flukes, like the dorsal fin, also acquire nicks and notches. Hypothetically, this means that tail flukes could be used for photo identification. However, unlike the dorsal fin, tail flukes are more rarely seen above the water and often it can be difficult to differentiate dolphins in a group using the flukes.

Tail flukes with markings belonging to Mako, a dolphin in our study.

Scarring

Like all animals, dolphins are subject to injuries both natural and man-made. In some instances, scars persist as a result of certain interactions between a dolphin and something in its environment. For some animals, scar patterns may be the only way to confirm an animal has been re-sighted. For example, there are some animals in the population with very similar dorsal fins. In cases such as this, subtle features, such as a peduncle scar, allow us to tell one animal from its ''twin."

Scars visible on wild dolphin, Mako.

Shark Bites and Other Scars

Many scars are a result of predatory shark interactions like that of the large scar seen below on Pirate's right lateral side.

Pirate, a dolphin in our study, with a large shark bite scar on its side.

Most animals in the population have at least one shark bite scar, however, with individuals known to beg (i.e. go to boaters and fishers for food), we suspect some scars have been acquired from human interaction.

Hei Hei, a dolphin in our study, with scars on its side suspected to be due to human interaction.

It is important to never approach or feed a dolphin in the wild. This can potentially be dangerous and will encourage behavior that can harm the animal in future encounters. It is also illegal to harass or get near wild dolphins without a permit under the authority of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Remember to responsibly view dolphins in the wild and only book excursions with Dolphin SMART partners.
Learn more about our local wild dolphin population on a Dolphin Adventure Tour.
Contributed by Savannah Gandee & Chelsea Carter, CMA Education Team. Research conducted and photographs collected under the NMFS Scientific Research Permit No. 19749.

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How Scars and Other Body Features Help Identify Dolphins - Clearwater Marine Aquarium

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Dolphins are air-breathing mammals, this means that about 99.9% of the time, when they surface to breathe, their dorsal fin is visible. For our photo-identification efforts, this makes capturing a photo of a fin relatively easy. Let's consider, however, how one would identify bottlenose dolphins if a dorsal fin was not visible.

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In relation to the scars that we as humans use to identify different dolphins and whales, I wanted to include this article. Although I was aware of how intelligent dolphins were prior to reading Undrowned, I never knew just how cognitively-aware they were until doing my external research, post-Undrowned. The fact that they are able to recognize themselves in a mirror is astounding- I'm pretty sure my dog doesn't even know what she is looking at when she comes face-to-face with a mirror.

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Dolphins Show Self-Recognition Earlier Than Children (Published 2018)

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Dolphins develop the ability to recognize themselves in a mirror at an earlier age than children, which fits with how fast they develop generally.

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In Chapter Seven, Gumbs writes, "According to the scientists who have been counting the endangered Indus river dolphin population since 1972, their population has steadily increased every year. From 132 when they first started counting to 1,419 this year. Here. Here. Here. In the language I was raised in, “here” means “this place where we are,” and it also means “here” as in “I give this to you.” Could I learn from the Indus river dolphin a language of continuous presence and offering? A language that brings a species back from the brink, a life-giving language? Could I learn that? Could we learn that? We who click a different way, on linked computers day and night?" In the case of the Indus river dolphin, effective communication, a willingness to adapt, and resourcefulness assisted in their ability to survive. Is this something we could replicate as humans? Would developing our language/the way we communicate with each other be as effective and productive as this?

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The Indus River Dolphin: A Redefined Species

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In Chapter Eight, Gumbs writes, "whereas the Miami Seaquarium says that an orca named “Lolita” is a beloved attraction for all ages, and is safer in the smallest cell to ever hold an orca than she would be in her resident home in the Salish Sea, I add my voice to the voices of her Lummi relatives and say, that’s not her name. And it never was. This summer the Lummi had a naming ceremony for this whale, who is sometimes known as Tokitae. Her new and sacred name is Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, a name that refers to a native village near the range in which she would live if she had never been captured; a group of people with whom she could have been in tangible sacred relationship; a name, which as I read it, means home. The possibility of home for the last surviving member of her generation, who were captured by scores for the “love” of orca fandom." Lolita the orca (whose given name is Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut) was violently torn away from her family and taken from the ocean 50 years ago, when she was only 4 years old. The disrespect of the Miami Seaquarium to rip Lolita from her habitat but to also refer to her by a name that does not represent where she came from is absolutely absurd and heart-wrenching. To deny Lolita of not only her environment but her history is awful.

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Lolita the orca was violently torn away from her family and taken from the ocean 50 years ago, when she was only 4 years old. The rest of her life has been a living nightmare at the Miami Seaquarium, while her family pod continues to swim freely in the ocean, where they're protected by the Endangered Species Act.

In a lawsuit brought by PETA and others, the Miami Seaquarium designated all of its records regarding Lolita's health and behavior confidential and fought to keep them from the public, but the judge wouldn't allow all the court filings to stay sealed.

Here's what the Miami Seaquarium tried to hide from the public:

1. Lolita lives in the smallest orca tank in the world.

For 50 years, she has been unable to dive, swim any meaningful distance, or feel ocean currents during her imprisonment in the world's smallest orca tank.

She's confined to a space that is, at its longest dimension, just four times the length of her body. The tank is only 20 feet deep at its deepest point and only 12 feet deep at many others, creating an absolutely abysmal experience for a mammal who would swim up to 140 miles per day and dive down thousands of feet in the ocean. She has nothing to do but swim in endless circles or float listlessly.

2. Sometimes Lolita's living space is made even smaller.

According to Miami Seaquarium records, the water level in the tank is often dropped, and Lolita is left with even less depth. At one point, the tank reached a maximum depth of only 11 feet.

Lolita's historically small tank contains a concrete platform that she must swim around to access the rear portion of the enclosure. And she doesn't even have access to this back area at all times, as gates on either side of the platform are often closed.

3. Dolphins attack her.

Lolita is incompatible with the dolphins confined with her, and she's regularly injured by them. They routinely engage in "raking" behavior, scraping her skin with their teeth. Records show that the dolphins raked her at least 52 times in 2015, sometimes so severely that she apparently needed to be medicated with antibiotics to prevent infection. She was also documented many times appearing anxious or agitated.

4. Lolita has had eye problems for decades.

In the 1980s, she was diagnosed with pterygium in her right eye, which causes inflammation, a foreign body sensation (a feeling that something is in her eye), tearing, and itchiness. This condition can significantly alter visual function and is further exacerbated by ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, which Lolita has no protection from. The daily use of eye drops and occasional steroid drops suggest that her eyes are in a constant state of irritation, and she has been documented on many occasions closing one or both eyes during shows.

5. Lolita's lack of shade causes her skin to burn.

Records show that Lolita has dry, wrinkly, and cracked skin, which could be caused by her constant exposure to solar radiation and total absence of shade during portions of the day when the sun is strongest. A former trainer even stated that Lolita's skin would often crack and bleed. In the wild, orcas are able to escape the sun's rays by diving deep into the ocean, an opportunity that Lolita is denied at the Miami Seaquarium.

6. Trainers fail to provide her with adequate enrichment.

In one recent year, Lolita was only given four "toys" as enrichment: a wetsuit, ice, a hose, and a ball. Most times, she was given only one or two of the items. These are woefully inadequate for a week, let alone an entire year. Orcas are extremely intelligent and complex animals, and this blatant disregard for Lolita's well-being is neglectful.

7. Trainers have failed to create and maintain a meaningful relationship with Lolita.

Of all recorded sessions in a one-year period, only 243 play sessions were documented. And only 138 "relationship" sessions-where Lolita isn't required to perform-were recorded, the lowest number of all documented categories, even though it's the most important, according to the Miami Seaquarium's training manual.

8. Drugs are commonplace.

Lolita was administered antibiotics, antifungals, pain medication (including narcotics), steroids, hormones, and antacids to treat ulcers. Many times, she was given drugs without any clinical evidence that they were required, such as being given an antacid when repair work was being done to the area surrounding her tank or in preparation for "the busy season." Records show that she was given at least one medication virtually every single day. The sheer volume of medications that she is given indicates that she isn't healthy. All the treatment that she receives is for ailments caused by her captivity.

9. Her teeth have been drilled.

Lolita, like many orcas in captivity who are frustrated and desperate to escape, has developed permanent damage to her teeth, likely from gnawing at the sides and gates of the tank. Marine-mammal veterinarians recommend avoiding any deliberate cutting and drilling of the teeth to expose the pulp cavity, but that didn't stop the Miami Seaquarium from drilling into Lolita's sensitive teeth more than a dozen times, likely exposing nerve tissue and causing her considerable pain.

10. The show must go on.

Despite Lolita's declining health and neurotic behavior, the Miami Seaquarium continues to put on show after show with its money-making star. Sometimes, she's forced to perform two or three times a day, and there were several instances when shows went on even though she wasn't able to keep her eyes open or had recently undergone invasive procedures.

11. Her environment distresses her.

Lolita often exhibits signs of distress and frustration in the form of actions toward the trainers that are recognized as precursors to aggressive behavior. The long list in the Miami Seaquarium's own animal behavior records covers almost every warning sign, including head-bobbing, a tense body, an open mouth, slapping with her flukes (tail) or pectoral fins, jaw-popping, wide-open eyes, ignoring signals, unusual vocalizations, avoidance, sinking under the surface, and deliberate, slow movements.

Lolita has been documented as having scratches, rake marks, scrapes, blisters, rubs, cuts, bumps, bites, bruises, cracks, sores, wrinkles, abrasions, discolorations, and more.

12. She is going crazy.

As is the case with many captive animals, Lolita shows signs of "zoochosis" (obsessive, repetitive behavior). Pattern swimming and rubbing against the sides of the tank-rubs on various body parts were documented several hundred times by her trainers, including "all over her body"-are two examples of such behavior displayed by an animal whose life is entirely unnatural and revolves only around being fed.
Lolita deserves better than this. Won't you help her?

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12 Things Lolita Would Want Miami Seaquarium Visitors to Know | PETA

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Lolita the orca was violently torn away from her family and taken from the ocean 50 years ago, when she was only 4 years old. The rest of her life has been a living nightmare at the Miami Seaquarium, while her family pod continues to swim freely in the ocean, where they're protected by the Endangered Species Act.

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It is heartbreaking to hear that "Lolita" is only now retired as of this year. She has been forced to work and perform for the gain of the aquarium (and not her own) for almost all of her life, and now she will never be able to return to her home, where she belongs. She was taken advantage of, and stripped of her roots and culture- I hope this stops happening in the near future. "Lolita" represents something greater- she is a symbol for cultural appropriation, and what the Miami Seaquarium did to her is the furthest thing from appreciation.

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MIAMI - The new owners of the Miami Seaquarium will no longer stage shows with its aging orca Lolita under an agreement with federal regulators.

MS Leisure, a subsidiary of The Dolphin Company, said as it announced the completion of its Seaquarium acquisition that Lolita and a companion white-sided dolphin Lii will no longer be exhibited under its new license with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"Today marks a new day for the Miami Seaquarium and all of the creatures within its care," Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a statement.

The 56-year-old orca was initially named Tokitae or Toki when it was captured five decades ago in the Puget Sound near Seattle. Animal rights activists including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals say she's the oldest orca in captivity and should live her final years back home in a controlled setting.

"PETA is calling for this to be the first step toward releasing Lolita (and Lii) to a seaside sanctuary, before this long-suffering orca ends up dying in the same cramped tank she's been confined to for over half a century," said Jared Goodman, PETA Foundation Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Animal Law.

For now, Lolita will remain at the Seaquarium, where officials said she's healthy and eating well despite her advanced age.

"As with any animal who has exceeded their anticipated life span, we will continue to monitor and care for her closely," the Seaquarium statement said.

The Dolphin Company operates 27 other parks and habitats in Mexico, Argentina, the Caribbean, Italy and Florida, a company news release said.

Company CEO Eduardo Albor said it wants Seaquarium to become "an educational opportunity for new generations, educating our community about the value of aquatic species and the sustainability of oceans."

The Seaquarium first opened in 1955 on Virginia Key east of downtown Miami. It features a variety of sea creatures including dolphins, sea lions, manatees, reef fish, sharks, and was the location for filming of 88 episodes of the "Flipper" TV series as well as movies in the 1960s.

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The Miami Seaquarium is ending shows with Lolita, its 56-year-old orca

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MIAMI - The new owners of the Miami Seaquarium will no longer stage shows with its aging orca Lolita under an agreement with federal regulators. MS Leisure, a subsidiary of The Dolphin Company, said as it announced the completion of its Seaquarium acquisition that Lolita and a companion white-sided dolphin Lii will no longer be exhibited under its new license with the U.S.

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MIAMI - Patrick Pearson, general manager of the Miami Seaquarium -- the home of Lolita, a 56-year-old orca -- says her health continues to improve.

Lolita, also known as Tokitae or Toki, is still recovering from a health crisis and infection that caused her to stop eating earlier this month, but Pearson says she's bouncing back.

"She's doing great," said Pearson. "She was very playful yesterday; her diet is back to almost normal levels again."

What's not clear is how many pounds of fish she's actually eating now.

This new information comes as concern grows by animal rights activists who were outraged by a recent USDA inspection report that found that the diets of nine dolphins at the park were cut by 60 percent to get the dolphins to perform better during guest interactions.

"She can't stay at the Miami Seaquarium, quite frankly, for another day, but certainly not for another two or three years. She needs a new home," said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal specialist at the Animal Welfare Institute.

The recent USDA report does not mention Toki. The orca was retired from performing and from even being exhibited as per the new licensing deal between the USDA and the Seaquarium's new owners, the Dolphin Company.

In turn, the USDA gave up its oversight over her care.

"The USDA has effectively abandoned Lolita after last year's report with the various citations that the facility received for the poor conditions in which all of these animals were being held," said PETA general counsel member Jared Goodman.

According to the June 2021 inspection report of the Seaquarium, then owned by Palace Entertainment, USDA inspectors deemed Toki's whale stadium a safety hazard and said the pool was in serious disrepair with paint and pieces of concrete chipping and peeling into the habitat.

Local 10 News recently asked Pearson if any improvements had been made.

"Our veterinarians have come and weighed in on that issue and we do believe that that was a cause and precursor to some of her illnesses," he said. "When some work was done on the stadium, it caused her to be agitated and then eventually ill."

The non-profit Friends of Lolita is now working with the Dolphin Company to provide Toki with the care and attention she needs.

FOL directors say improvements have been made to her tank's water quality.

"All of the filters have been changed, a new chiller is being put in there. A lot of attention is being paid, a lot of effort and money is being spent, and has been spent, on the water quality," said Pritam Singh, the co-founder of Friends of Lolita.

Now, the Seaquarium says a pending announcement regarding Toki's future will happen soon.

"We're working on an announcement," said Pearson. "I can tell you that much with the Friends of Lolita and that should be coming soon."

When asked by Local 10′s Louis Aguirre if the announcement was a plan to send her to a seaside sanctuary in the Pacific Northwest, Peterson said, "I can't comment on that, Louis, at this point."

According to Friends of Lolita, the Dolphin Company is on board with that plan.

"They have said bluntly that they believe that Toki should never have been there," said Singh. "They also have said to us that Toki, all things being equal, should go back to the Salish Sea -- they support that."

Because of the Endangered Species Act and oversight from regulatory agencies, Rose cautions it would take years to approve and set up a sea pen for Toki in the Pacific Northwest.

The more likely scenario is that Toki will be moved to a bigger tank, perhaps in the northeast by the ocean, which would give her more room, time to re-acclimate to colder weather and cooler water and give her time to regain her strength.

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Captive orca Lolita's health 'bouncing back,' giving hope she could be moved

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MIAMI - Patrick Pearson, general manager of the Miami Seaquarium -- the home of Lolita, a 56-year-old orca -- says her health continues to improve. Lolita, also known as Tokitae or Toki, is still recovering from a health crisis and infection that caused her to stop eating earlier this month, but Pearson says she's bouncing back.

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In Chapter Ten, Gumbs writes, "Amazon river dolphins have not done well in captivity. Less than 20 percent have been able to survive in aquariums worldwide. The record in the United States is even worse. According to the Audubon Society, out of seventy Amazon river, aka boto dolphins captured and housed in US aquariums between 1956 and 1966, only one survived into the mid-1980s. What’s the problem? First of all, freedom is a basic need and a divine imperative. As former poet laureate Tracy K. Smith said on her daily poetry podcast The Slowdown, “All animals allowed to live free and wild protect something holy in the world.”31 I agree. All animals. Including us." This quote not only reminded me of Lolita, but also of the former-prisoners who now struggle to adapt in the real world and to society. It seems extremely cruel- like Gumbs states of the river dolphins, no species fares well in captivity.

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When prisoners in the United States are released, they face an environment that is challenging and actively deters them from becoming productive members of society. Within three years of release, 67.8 percent of ex-offenders are rearrested, and within five years, 76.6 percent are rearrested. With more than 2 million people incarcerated in the United States, recidivism harms both the families of inmates and society in general, as taxpayers continue to support a broken system that sets ex-offenders up to fail once they are released.

The Congressional Research Service defines recidivism as "the re-arrest, reconviction, or re-incarceration of an ex-offender within a given time frame." Because of systemic legal and societal barriers, once ex-offenders are released, it is more difficult for them compared to the general populace to find gainful employment, secure a consistent source of housing, and generally function in society. Often viewed as sub-citizens, ex-offenders are perpetually punished for crimes. The causes of these restrictions are systemic and affect ex-offenders at all levels of society.

Interconnected Challenges Contributing to the Cycle of Recidivism

Before diving into where and how ex-offenders are affected, it is important to understand micro, mezzo, and macro levels of analysis. Put simply, micro level of analysis refers to individuals; mezzo level of analysis refers to families or small groups; and macro level of analysis refers to organizations, agencies, communities, and large groups of people, including nations. In almost any social change context, these levels are interconnected and affect one another.

Former prisoners face challenges at every level. These challenges come in many forms, but Ann Jacobs, director of the Prisoner Reentry Institute at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, succinctly summarizes them "A person's successful re-entry into society can be viewed through how adequately they are able to meet six basic life needs: livelihood, residence, family, health, criminal justice compliance, and social connections." Attaining each life need presents unique challenges, many of which are interconnected.

Micro Challenges

Livelihood

While data on post-incarceration employment in relation to recidivism is famously limited,it seems clear that it is much less likely for ex-inmates to find employment than a member of the general population. A 2002 study of more than 200 employers in the Milwaukee area found that formerly incarcerated candidates with nearly identical professional experience as non-offenders were less than half as likely to receive job offers. According to the Bureau of Justice, only 12.5 percent of employers said they would accept an application from an ex-convict. Ironically, getting back to work decreases recidivism, but there are barriers for ex-convicts finding work.

Many prisoners have limited education and work experience, which makes it difficult for them to secure employment after they are released. According to several studies, "about 70 percent of offenders and ex-offenders are high school dropouts." As a result of incarceration and involvement in the criminal justice system, many former prisoners are viewed negatively by former employers or by individuals within their former professional networks, if they previously had one. The combination of a limited professional network and a conspicuous résumé gap can make it very difficult for ex-convicts to get an interview with a prospective employer.

According to the Urban Institute, around 75 percent of formerly incarcerated men have a history of substance abuse, and a significant percentage suffer from physical and mental health issues (i.e., 15 percent to 20 percent report emotional disorders). That limits their employability in that employers may not view them as "job ready."

Many employers worry about being sued for damages resulting from "negligent hiring." An employer can be held liable for exposing the public to a potentially dangerous individual, so many balk at the idea of hiring someone with a criminal record. In 72 percent of negligent hiring cases, employers have lost and faced an average settlement of $1.6 million - powerful disincentive to hire potentially "risky" individuals.

Race is also a factor, particularly when combined with a history of incarceration. In the 2002 study of Milwaukee employers mentioned above, African-American offenders were two-thirds less likely to receive offers, and African-American non-offenders were half as likely as white non-offenders to receive an offer. So African-Americans ex-offenders face a huge double-challenge: Even if they hadn't committed a crime, racism significantly restricts their job opportunities; since they have committed a crime, they must somehow overcome the racism and convince the employer that their ex-con status does not make them a risky hire.

Fortunately for many former inmates, employer interest in an ex-offender rises when they find out that the crime was nonviolent or drug-related. So long as the individual remains drug-free and has gained relevant work experience (either inside or outside of prison), there is more employer interest in hiring.

Mezzo Challenges

Studies have shown that prisoners who maintain consistent contact and connection with their families during their sentences have a lower recidivism rate than those who do not. Over half of incarcerated adults are parents of minor children, which means they may miss out on many of their children's critical and formative years. Unfortunately, there are obstacles to maintaining consistent contact with family, and challenges for ex-offenders once released.

Once ex-offenders return home, they are dependent on family members and must overcome years of limited contact, potential resentment, and a change in the household dynamic. According to the Urban Institute Justice Policy Center, just before release, 82 percent of ex-offenders thought it would be easy to renew family relationships; after returning home, over half reported it was more difficult than expected. Family members often assume a new financial and emotional burden when ex-offenders return home, having to support a dependent adult.

To ease reconnecting with family and lost years of parenting experience, some prisons have programs to improve parenting skills. Although there is evidence that such prison-based programs are effective and beneficial for prisoners and their families, participation in such programs has declined in recent years. It is not completely clear why, but a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study found many prisoners who couldn't get the other parent to co-participate were less likely to continue participation. That prompted some prisons to create new incentives for prisoner participation, including increased video chat privileges and gas coupons for spouses to encourage more visitation.

Society, Social Connections, and Expectations Upon Release

When ex-offenders are released from prison, they tend to find that their expectations for returning to normal life are not always realistic. This is especially true for prisoners who serve lengthy incarcerations because they are likely to face advances in technologies that are essential in new job markets and lack training that makes them viable candidates.

According to an Urban Institute study of Baltimore-area prisoners, offenders who re-enter the prison system tend to come from a concentrated set of communities, which have "above-average rates for unemployment, percent female-headed households, and percent of families living below the poverty level." Ex-offenders face massive obstacles when searching for employment anywhere, so to return with this disadvantage to an area that likely has low job prospects increases the likelihood of unemployment.

The same Urban Institute study also found that 54 percent of prisoners about to be released thought that they would be able to rely on their own jobs for financial support, and 82 percent expected that their parole officers would help in their transition home. After release, 51 percent reported that they relied on their families to a much greater extent than expected, and only about half reported that their parole officers were helpful during their transitions.

According to the study, it is not clear why parole officers were not considered helpful post-release (they were often given high marks for professionalism and accuracy of shared information, but still not considered "useful"). The data suggests that many prisoners who received parole supervision did not expect it and may have entered the relationship with their parole officers with pre-engendered negative feelings toward them.

They also may need to learn new ways of living. One of the most unexpected adjustments can be learning new technologies that replaced traditional systems. For example, prisoners with medium- or long-term sentences may have never used a smartphone or metro card.These may seem like minor adjustments to most of us since we experienced these changes gradually, but to learn them all at once, and to have them replace old routines, can be both difficult and disorienting.

Macro Challenges

Collateral Consequences

Collateral consequences are legal restrictions unrelated to the original crime that apply to ex-offenders after their release from prison. This includes thing like a lack of access to food stamps and an inability to vote.

At the time of this writing, The American Bar Association's National Inventory of the Collateral Consequences of Conviction lists 47,442 collateral consequences of incarceration. This statistic highlights the tens of thousands of legal restrictions imposed on ex-offenders that they didn't face before their convictions. Some are explicit and permanent, such as an inability to apply for federal grants. Others are vaguely worded, and administrators often assume the strictest interpretation. For example, ex-offenders are not banned from public housing, although housing administrators can use a criminal record as cause to reject a candidate. Many housing administrators incorrectly think that they are required to turn down applicants with a criminal record, creating a widespread de facto ban on public housing. (For more of such myths, see the Reentry Councils Reentry MythBusters fact sheets).

In theory, parole gives offenders a chance to prove that they can re-enter society without serving their maximum sentences. Paradoxically, parole conditions can create extra, unintended readjustment challenges for ex-offenders. For example, one common collateral consequence is difficulty in re-obtaining a driver's license. Many ex-offenders are not given a new driver's license simply because of their criminal record, but yet must drive to work, or drive to see their parole officers. They receive fines for driving without a license, which contributes to their debt and complicates their access to a license. Many such examples exist, with little or no evidence that these restrictions deter crime.

What Can Be Done

Systemic Changes

Many of the challenges facing ex-offenders are systemic and require policy changes and a shift away from the attitude of some that punishment should continue after sentences have been served. " Ban the Box" is a national campaign against continued punishment in hiring that calls for employers to remove the box on job applications that requires applicants to disclose criminal records. In a November 2015 speech at Rutgers University, President Barack Obama called on the federal government to support the campaign:

"[The federal government] should not use criminal history to screen out applicants before we even look at their qualifications ... . It is relevant to find out whether somebody has a criminal record. We're not suggesting ignore it. What we are suggesting is that when it comes to the application, give folks a chance to get through the door. Give them a chance to get in there so they can make their case."

Grassroots Changes

In addition to lobbying for policy changes, many nongovernmental organizations are leading grassroots efforts to help ex-offenders with recidivism. Programs like The Prison University Project help inmates earn college degrees while incarcerated. A 2013 National Criminal Justice Reference Service study found that when inmates complete degrees before re-entering society, recidivism rates substantially decrease.

The " Ride Home Program" in California employs ex-offenders to pick up inmates on the day of their release so they can get them home, but also help facilitate their transition to life on the outside. A new startup, Pigeon.ly, makes it significantly cheaper and easier for inmates to stay in contact with loved ones - an important part of decreasing the chances of returning to prison once released.

Conclusion

In the United States, after serving time in prison, ex-offenders are released with significant and ongoing economic and societal obstacles that often prevent them from thriving, thus indirectly pushing them back to crime, and back into the prison system. Many employers refuse to hire ex-cons, and systemic collateral consequences restrict tens of thousands of ex-offenders' legal rights, which essentially extends their punishment and inhibits their ability to function as normal citizens. While there are many organizations working to remove these obstacles, revisions in policy must occur before ex-offenders can have real opportunities that promote success and help to reduce recidivism. There are few systems in the United States that are more broken than the post-prison environment that ex-offenders face. With a major election this year, there is a perfect opportunity for social workers, advocates, politicians, and citizens to push for the necessary policy-level changes.

James, Nathan. Offender Reentry: Correctional Statistics, Reintegration into the Community, and Recidivism. Rep. no. 7-5700. N.p., 12 Jan. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

Pager, Devah. NCJRS Abstract. Rep. no. NCJ 198320. National Institute of Justice, 2002. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

Holzer, Harry J., Steven Raphael, and Michael A. Stoll. "Employment Barriers Facing Ex-Offenders." PsycEXTRA Dataset (n.d.): n. pag. Urban.org. New York University Law School, 20 May 2003. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

Visher, Chreisty, Nancy Lavigne, and Jeremy Travis. "Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry: Maryland Pilot Study: Findings from Baltimore." PsycEXTRA Dataset (n.d.): n. pag. Urban.org. Urban Institute, Jan. 2004. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

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The Challenges of Prisoner Re-Entry Into Society

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When prisoners in the United States are released, they face an environment that is challenging and actively deters them from becoming productive members of society. Often viewed as sub-citizens, ex-offenders are perpetually punished for crimes. The causes of these restrictions are systemic and affect ex-offenders at all levels of society.

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Uncrunching – Wellbeing: Community Reflections

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(Text in italics drawn from the meditation “practice” in Undrowned.)

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"Hair is perhaps our most powerful symbol of individual and group identity- powerful first because it is physical and therefore extremely personal, and second because, although personal, it is also public rather than private."

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In Chapter Eleven, Gumbs writes, "Her first coat is white and woolly. The one she is born in. And almost no one sees it, because her mother is hiding her in ice. And then, in a few weeks, she sheds to become Black and silver. Capable of depth and diving. Glistening and dark like the cold sea. It is only after her first annual molt that she gets her beautiful rings, and starts to pose, as if Mickalene Thomas was going to paint her. Iridescence of skin. Collage and mirage. The Iñupiat call her natchek. The Yupik-speaking Inuit people of the Bering Strait call her niknik. Or sometimes my favorite, netsiavinerk, meaning silver jar. Because it’s magical to be so textured and Black, so sleek and silver, so sharp to the touch." This quote reminded me of the beautiful hair of black women, so often misunderstood by other races who cannot fathom their hair type. It's disheartening, as this beautiful black hair is an iconic feature of a black woman's beauty, and is something unique to her. Just because her beauty may be misunderstood or confusing to those who are unfamiliar, does not make it any less beautiful. These defining traits should be embraced, showed off, and admired.

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When it comes to hair, all women can relate. Whether you are white, black or Asian we all agonize over how to wear it; toss and turn about what colour it should be; and, cringe at the thought of cutting it too short. Dermatological research (see Browne, 2006; Loussouarn and Rawadi et al., 2005; McMichael, 2003; 2007; Wolfram, 2003) has shown that we are all born with approximately 150,000 hair follicles on the scalp but when it comes down to it, not all hair is created the same. Visually, black hair is thicker, curlier, and often frizzier as compared to Caucasian and Asian hair. And, from a grooming standpoint, it is also more sensitive to excessive manipulation, requiring a different set of styling techniques.

For me, hair has always been a constant battle. Sure, as a child it was long and healthy, but after over a decade of using a chemical straightener, it grew increasingly damaged - a tale that rings true for millions of black women - and I became tired of repeating the "process" every six to eight weeks. Why am I doing this, I wondered? What does my thick, curly, frizzy hair actually look like? And, is there a way I can take care of my hair without using a chemical, a hot comb, or having to wear a wig? Fortunately, both my sisters have worn their hair natural for several years, so I have seen firsthand how to care for that style, but so many women are not as lucky. And so last January, I sought to share my story with whoever would listen, and that is when my hair journey and that of Strictly Roots (SR)owner, Ruth Smith, collided.

One gloomy morning in February, 2008, I walked into SR, a natural hair care studio - which means no measures are taken to alter the natural state of black hair - located in Toronto. Open since 2002, I had been a client of SR for months; however, this morning was different. As I entered the shop, Ruth was on the phone doing an interview about an article that was published in the Toronto Star, entitled, "Why Do Black Women Fear the 'Fro?," which I had written a few weeks prior. As I waited (and eavesdropped), I realized that that article had just opened a Pandora's box on the whole black hair issue. And, it is an issue. Outside of the black community, most people are totally baffled by the discussion. "Who knew?", some of my non-black friends said in response to "the 'fro". While black hair might seem like fun to outsiders, given the plethora of styling options at a woman's disposal, beneath each style there is a deeply personal hair story and a lot of scalp damage that for some is irreversible. When you consider the history of black hair, its complexity becomes clear.

In 15 th century Africa, hairstyles were used to indicate a person's marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth and rank within the community (see Byrd & Tharps, 2001; Jacobs-Huey, 2006; Mercer, 1994; Patton, 2006; Rooks, 1996). Once enslaved, hair became more a matter of the labour one was forced to do. For instance, field slaves often hid their hair, whereas house slaves had to wear wigs similar to their slave owners, who also adorned wigs during this period. In the early 1900s, Madam C.J. Walker received a patent for developing the "hot comb" also known as a "pressing comb". This device was the first of its kind to be marketed by a black woman to other black women, and it completely changed the hair game. Once the straightened hair was exposed to moisture, however, it would revert back to its original state. In the 1960s, George E. Johnson's chemical straightener, also known as a "relaxer" was promoted as a less damaging product to the hair and scalp; it was a more convenient way to straighten hair since it could be applied at home and it was more permanent - only requiring re-application every two to three months. Today, it is estimated that 70% to 80% of black women chemically straighten their hair. In the 1980s, weaves raised the black beauty bar even higher to hair that is not just straight, but also very long (Banks, 2000; Byrd & Tharps, 2001; Tate, 2007). Hair weaving is a process by which synthetic or real human hair is sewn into one's own hair. Celebrities like Janet Jackson, Diana Ross, Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell have openly admitted to wearing weaves. There are many different ways to wear a weave. A woman may braid her hair and then sew "tracks" (strips of hair) onto the braided hair, or using a bonding method, tracks can be glued to the hair at the root. Braid extensions are similarly a method where synthetic hair is braided into a person's own hair, thereby creating the elusion of long hair with braids that can stay in for a long period of time. In her book, Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women, Noliwe Rooks (1996) recalls a memory from her childhood that underscores the relationship between hair and identity for black women. She writes, "When I went South for the summer, my grandmother could not get me to Miss Ruby's beauty parlor and a straightening comb fast enough....She reasoned that because no one was ever going to mistake me for having anything other than African ancestry due to the dark color of my skin ...straightening my hair would give me an advantage in the world. It was one less battle that would have to be fought," (p. 3-4).

For young black girls, hair is not just something to play with, it is something that is laden with messages, and it has the power to dictate how others treat you, and in turn, how you feel about yourself. As Rooks (1996) affirms, "Hair in 1976 spoke to racial identity politics as well as bonding between African American women. Its style could lead to acceptance or rejection from certain groups and social classes, and its styling could provide the possibility of a career" (p. 5-6). While this quote is an historical one, the issues revealed throughout this article are eerily current. Prior to examining these tensions, it is imperative that the topic is placed in context with prior works from scholars who have explored it from ethnographic standpoints (Banks, 2000; Jacobs-Huey, 2006; Tate, 2007), and with those who have provided varying perspectives on hair alteration, ritual, and community through textual analysis of media texts, advertisements, and case law (Byrd & Tharps, 2001; Caldwell, 1991; Patton, 2006; Rooks, 1996).

In her study, Ingrid Banks (2000) used interviews and focus-group methods to explore how black women and girls of diverse ages and socioeconomic class feel about their hair choices, and in turn, their identities, community, gender, sexuality, and cultural authenticity. Anthropologist Lanita Jacobs-Huey (2006) took a slightly different ethnographic approach to her study by examining the role of language in negotiating the social meaning of hair for African American women. As she explains, "black hair as a window into African American women's ethnic and gender identities, and black hair as a linguistic and cultural engagement with these identities ... presents opportunities for learning and change, thus offering insights into the discursive and corporeal dynamics of African American women's being and becoming"(p. 4-5). Similar to Jacobs-Huey, in this article, I present a cross-section of black hair, and am concerned with women's everyday conversations about hair care, but my intent is to extend the discussion beyond black women's lives, the beauty parlor, and "kitchen beauticians" to the wider black hair care industry and the external pressures (e.g. from the media and in the workplace). Further, while in Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair In America, Ayana D. Byrd and Lori I. Tharps (2001) provide a detailed survey of black hair from its historical roots to the business and politicization of black hair, and they describe the ritualistic nature of black hair, and how "straightening" serves as a rite of passage for most young black girls from childhood into adolescence and womanhood (see p. 137-152), I attempt to move beyond surveying ritual and community to examining the damage that years of hair alteration can cause, as well as the socio-psychological issues that underpin the ritualistic practice of altering one's hair, and it serving as a rite of passage. Ruth's hairstory is the perfect tipping off point to the discussion.

Born in Trinidad, Ruth immigrated to Canada in 1970. Soon thereafter, she became very self-conscious about her hair. "My hair was short and it was natural and I begged my mother to buy me a wig," she recalls. "I begged and begged and harassed her until she actually bought me a wig, it was an Afro wig, but still a wig. I remember one day we were playing jump rope in the yard and my wig fell off. I was in grade six or seven and all the kids were laughing at me. Looking back on it now, I would have been laughing, too." Her decision to wear dreadlocks did not happen because of her love of reggae music, or a conversion to Rastafari. A self-dubbed "weave queen," she used to straighten her hair (since age 15) and wear weaves and braids until excessive damage, among other things, led her to rethink her hair choices. "I recognized the fact that the reason I was perming and weaving my hair was because of self-hatred," she says. Self-hatred seems like such a harsh word. Other women wear their hair in various hairstyles, too; short hair, long hair, shaven, dyed, spiked, even wigs and weaves, and no one attributes their hairstyling choices to self-hatred. "I think it would be unfair to say that you can compare another race's hair issues with ours," argues Ruth. "People don't understanding that we have to re-learn how to take care of our hair," says Ruth about the history of hair alteration. It seems almost hard to believe. How is it possible that millions of black women do not know how to care for their hair? And, why do so many feel they have to hide their natural hair? As a professional who sees the end result of years of hair alteration, Ruth believes that women in large part see no option but to alter their hair because of the images we are inundated with of women whose hair is very long, silky, flowing and mostly blonde. In the media, many of the black women who are glorified for their beauty tend to be women who also have long, wavy hair (Patton, p. 39-40, 2006). Further, when you consider that for the past 100 years manufacturers have almost exclusively only promoted the idea that natural black hair needs to be altered, it all begins to make sense. When was the last time short, curly, kinky black hair was celebrated or promoted as equally as beautiful? As sociologist Ann DuCille notes, "We have yet to see Miss America or Black Miss Universe with an Afro or cornrows or dreadlocks" (cited in Byrd & Tharps, 2001, p. 125). To no surprise, there have been several instances over the past few years where natural black hair has been under attack.

In 2007, when an editor from Glamour Magazine spoke to a group of lawyers at the offices of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Manhattan, she affirmed why so many black women hesitate to wear their hair natural. There to offer a "dos and don'ts" of corporate fashion, the editor allegedly showed a slide of a black woman wearing an Afro, which read "Just say no to the 'fro," and she said that dreadlocks were "truly dreadful," and that the office was not a place for such "political" hairstyles. Whether they are casual comments about texture or blatant insults, many black women feel that there is a price to pay for sporting a natural do. Even corporations like MCI Communications and American Airlines have been sued because black women were allegedly fired for wearing their hair in braids or dreadlocks (Caldwell, 1991). "To me, it's about education," says Ruth. "It's about educating people, it's about educating the government, it's about educating everybody, it's not a black power thing, it's got nothing to do with that. It's got to do with individual acceptance of self." When black women straightened their hair during C.J. Walker's time, it was because they felt they had no choice. "It was the difference between whether you ate or you didn't," says Ruth. "When a black woman goes to apply for a job (today) and she doesn't get that job because her hair is natural you need to take a step back and say something serious is going on here," she adds.

Janet Campbell, owner of Nanni's Natural Hair Salon, believes that more women are going natural, despite the possible CLM (career limiting move). A stylist for 14 years, she has been operating a fully-licensed hair salon out of her home in the west end of Toronto for five years. "I'm an optimist," she says. "I used to see only straight hair and all that but it's not where I'd like it to be because women are still under the impression that the European way is real beauty," she adds. Like SR, Nanni's is not just a place women (and men) go to get their hair done, it is a place where they learn to embrace their true selves, and re-learn that natural hair is normal; relaxed hair is not. "I see positive things for the future. I see more women cutting off their perm hair and going natural, it doesn't even have to be locs. It just might be even seeing what their natural hair is. I see more people kind of testing and experimenting, and that's the key," she says.

"The ethnic market has never really been given a lot of respect and support from manufacturers in that they treat us all like we're in the US," asserts Gordon, creative director and co-owner of Ragga Hair Studio and Beauty Store. "Because of the bilingualism requirements on Canadian packaging, it creates a big problem. With the market being very small and so diverse they say, 'why should I spend the extra three cents on packaging just to accommodate that small market in Canada?'" While Gordon believes that it is not a matter of natural versus relaxed hair, he agrees that too many black women do not know how to care for their natural hair, and the latest trend - lace front wigs - is evidence of that. He states, "I have this friend of mine, she was into the lace front and she wore lace front for a year, now she's got depigmentation around the first inch of her face all around the hairline from gluing that stuff on in order to look like Tyra Banks. It's sad." Lace front wigs are tied individually strand by strand to the hair cuticle to create a hair line that gives the appearance of hair that looks more "real" than a weave. There's just one problem - they cause more damage than they hide. "I think it's about getting back to an education and what's good about black hair," says Gordon, adding that "black hair is the best hair to have. It could be straight today, kinky tomorrow, and curly the next day."

It is important to note that there are no race-based statistics in Canada on black hair care, but in the United States, the numbers are staggering. In America, black hair care (non-natural) is an estimated $1.8 billion to $15 billion industry. Market research firm Mintel reports that although blacks make up 13 percent of the population, they account for 30 percent of hair care spending. Black hair is such a topic of interest that in 2008, Ebony Magazine ran a feature story on the topic. The article was not about natural versus altered hair; instead, it was an attack on Koreans, who have monopolized the distribution and sale of black beauty products, weaves, and braid extensions, controlling approximately 90% of the US market. Aron Ranen's 2006 documentary, Black Hair: The Korean Takeover of the Black Hair Care Industry, also highlights how much of an issue non-black control of the industry is for African Americans. Abena Holder, a Montreal beauty products distributor, attests to the increasing non-black ownership and control of Canada's black hair care market. "A Korean based out of Toronto has gotten in on [the product that I distribute] and now he's coming into the Montreal market trying to get the product into stores," she says. Whether or not Koreans have a right to monopolize the black hair care industry is a moot point because the real issue is, as Ruth asserts, hair alteration. "When you have a Jewish man making a documentary because the black hair care industry is taken over by Koreans you have to understand that there's a lot more involved in this.... [Koreans] are simply taking advantage of a business opportunity that exists; they are filling a need created by [blacks]." In truth, the black hair care industry's woes lie in what is underpinning the industry in the first place; that is, a belief that straight, long, flowing hair is a more "acceptable" choice than one's natural tress. Just as "hair can be a badge of cultural pride, as well as simply an indicator of style ...hair can be used as a medium to maintain the status quo" (Banks, 2000, p. 147).

While black hair care professionals are on the front lines trying to help women save their hair from years of relaxing, wearing weaves, tight braids, and even improper wear of dreadlocks, dermatologists see the end result of it all. Yvette Miller-Monthrope and Renee Beach, for instance, are 20-something dermatology students doing research on black hair. "Just walking in the mall you see so much traction alopecia," says Renee. Traction alopecia is caused by chronic pulling on the hair follicle. It is a form of scarring that is most noticeable along the hairline. While it is reported in women of many races, traction alopecia is most frequently seen in black women, and very rarely in black men. The unfortunate part of black hair care is the disconnection between one's styling choices and subsequent hair loss. As Yvette explains: "If you get a scar from traction or from some kind of hair process that causes the hair to be damaged that hair is gone for good but you could have just [non-scarring] hair loss where the hair itself is broken and damaged but the scalp is ok. If the scalp is ok, there is the potential to grow the hair back in a good way." There is no monolithic hair experience; however, the argument being put forth is that very few black women are even aware of the medical ramifications of altering their hair or wearing wigs.

Dr. Dina Strachan, a New York City board certified dermatologist, whose patients are mostly African-American women, says that the biggest complaints she receives from her patients are a lack of hair growth, breakage, and hair loss. However, the root cause of these complaints is not internal problems, but a lack of what Dr. Strachan calls "gentle hair care." "A lot of women chemically treat their hair either to change the texture or to colour or both and no matter how good the product is, altering your hair makes it more brittle and fragile," she says. "Even the gentle relaxers can dry out the hair and cause damage that makes the hair break. You're altering the structure of the hair and the hair is designed to protect itself and when you straighten it out you change the cuticle." According to dermatological researcher Amy McMichael (2003), chemical relaxers cause hair shaft dryness, and increased fragility of the hair cuticle, which is why users are required to treat their hair with oils and other products - in most part to lessen the potentially damaging effects of the chemicals on the hair. Further, Dr. Strachan says that there is research to suggest that wearing a weave or tight braids may set off a dermatological condition known as central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA) or "hot comb" alopecia (also see McMichael, 2007). CCCA develops at the crown portion of the scalp. The hair loss is in a circular pattern, and the damage occurs to the hair follicles and leads to hair loss that is progressive.

"When you have millions of black women that don't like the way they look," says Ruth, and "they can't feel good leaving their house with their own hair, you have a serious issue." The issue is actually not about whether a woman weaves or relaxes her hair; it is about why that woman feels she has to weave or relax her hair in the first place, and a lack of knowledge about the long-term effects of such practices. The question that people often pose to Ruth is "Why do you care what another black woman chooses to do with her hair?" Does a black woman, like other women, not have the freedom of choice to wear her hair how she chooses? The mission of natural hair care providers is not to pass judgment on those who are not (yet) similarly minded; it is about sharing their insights on how beautiful natural hair is, despite all the negative messages suggesting that it is not.

For example, Patricia "Deecoily" Gaines, founder of Nappturality.com, the largest natural hair website on the net, receives hundreds of emails a year from black women around the world who are on their own individual hair journey. "It is often a very personal epiphany," says Gaines. "It took me a long time, a very long time to see this in myself, but when I did, I finally felt free of the chains that had bound me for so long." Gaines recalls a memory from her childhood, which exemplifies just how much hair is a social-psychological issue for black women:

I remember when I was a teenager overhearing a conversation happening among a group of elder black women. They were talking about black women dating white men. One woman remarked, 'Well, I wouldn't want him to find out about my hair (getting it relaxed). I'd have to keep that a secret.' They all agreed and laughed about it. I have never forgotten that and even today I think about it a lot.

"Napptural" stands for Afro-type hair that is natural, without straightening or relaxing, that is owned and worn out proudly for all to see, not under a wig or a weave. Through her website, Gaines tries to promote a positive image of napptural hair by dispelling what she calls the "3-U myth" - the myth that black hair is ugly, unmanageable and undesirable; the truth that black hair is underestimated, undervalued, and unloved; and, the goal to have black hair recognized as unique, urbane, and utopian. As she concludes:

"I believe the 3-Us represent us caring for and respecting our hair for its beauty without comparison and without denigrating another hair type. Caucasian hair is a beautiful hair type in its own right, and our hair type should be recognized as beautiful in its own right, too."

It has been the intent of this paper to highlight how hair is an Achilles' heal for many black women, and ultimately, why it does not (and should not) have to be. No matter what position is taken on the matter - there are always going to be people who believe that hair is just hair - Ruth's concluding comments solidify the crux of the matter. She states, "When you can look in the mirror and you can see your natural kinky Afro or locs and it's yours and you can say, 'you know what, I like that' and you know why you have to like it, because that's what it is; when you get to the point, that's when you start to see your true beauty." Black hair is not just about hair; it is about identity. It is about the juxtaposition of hegemonic norms and black subjectivity; as Judith Butler (1990) reminds us, "the body gains meaning within discourse only in the context of power relations" (p. 117). Black women have the right to wear their hair however they please; but given the damaging effects of hair alteration, tight braids, and wigs, it is incumbent that hair choices be critically examined within the context of hegemonically defined beauty standards. The challenge for black women, as Shirley Tate (2007) sullenly notes, is realizing "the ways in which we are inextricably immersed within ... essentialism's identity, and to acknowledge that this bind is one that is not merely prohibitive, but also enabling" (p. 317; also see Kirby, 1997). Hair alteration should be viewed as unequivocally damaging to an individual (and collective) physical, psychological and cultural well-being, or it will continue to be predicated on the belief that nappy, kinky, Afro hair is wrong, and long, straight, (i.e. White and Asian) hair is right.

Bibliography

Banks, I. (2000). Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Woman's Consciousness. New York: New York University Press.

Browne, R. (2006). Most Black Women Have a Regular Source of Hair Care - But Not Medical Care. Journal of the National Medical Association, 98, 10, 1652-1653.

Butler, Judith. (1990). Gender Trouble. Great Britain: Routledge.

Byrd, A. & Tharps, L. (2001). Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Caldwell, P. (1991). A Hair Piece: Perspectives on the Intersections of Race and Gender. Duke Law Journal, 2, 4, 365-396.

Jacobs-Huey, L. (2007). From the Kitchen to the Parlor: Language and Becoming in African American Women's Hair Care. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kirby, V. (1997). Telling Flesh: the Substance of the Corporeal. London: Routledge.

Loussouarn, G. and Rawadi, C., et al. (2005). Diversity of Hair Growth Profiles. The International Society of Dermatology, 44, 6-9.

McMichael, A. (2003). Hair and Scalp Disorders in Ethnic Populations. Dermatologic Clinics, 629-644.

McMichael, A. (2007). Hair Breakage in Normal and Weathered Hair: Focus on the Black Patient. Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium Proceedings, 12, 6-9.

Mercer, K. (1994). Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies. London: Routledge.

Patton, T.O. (2006). Hey Girl, Am I More than My Hair?: African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair. NWSA Journal, 18, 2, 24-51.

Rooks, N. (1996). Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Tate, S. (2007). Black beauty: Shade, hair and anti-racist aesthetics. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30, 2, 300-319.

Wolfram, L. (2003). Human Hair: A Unique Physicochemical Composite. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 48, 6, 106-114.

1. SR is unique in that it offers a free ½ hour-long consultation for people to come in and talk about their hair. SR's primary service is dreadlocks. A "loc start" as they call it, will likely run around $300 and can take anywhere from 6 to 12 hours, subsequent touch-ups (wash, condition, re-twist or interlock) every four to six weeks will run between $55 and $95, and usually take about an hour or two, in addition to take-home products (shampoos, scalp treatments, etc.) that range from $12 to $20. However, these prices pale in comparison to the wider black hair care market.

2. Available at www.thestar.com/living/article/298814.

3. Other key players in the black hair care industry include Dark & Lovely, which is owned by SoftsheenCarson, which is owned by L'Oreal. Just For Me, TCB Naturals and Motions are owned by AlbertoCulver. Affirm and Keracare are manufactured by Avlon Industries. Vitapointe is created by Sara Lee Household but is licensed to Helen of Troy, who also markets and distributes Gold 'N Hot, Revlon, Vidal Sassoon and Dr. Scholl's.

4. Jacobs-Huey (2006) continues, "The terms being and becoming ... refer to Black women's self-perceptions as individuals and members of a collective (being), as well as their transition into different dispositions, ideological stances (or positions), professional statues, and phases of life (becoming)" (p. 5).

5. Term used to describe women who do hair out of their home on an informal basis.

6. This is a term used to describe black hair that has been "relaxed" or "straightened".

7. This is an abbreviated term for dreadlocks.

8. An economics graduate of Carleton University, Gordon has an interesting perspective. He held a management position in Revlon's ethnic hair division for several years, before the company downsized; he subsequently opened Ragga in 1997.

9. While these are US-based figures, it is fair to assume that similar proportional numbers would be applicable in a Canadian context

10. Adrienne, S. (2005, May 1). Guess who sells your weave? Koreans capitalize on Black beauty's big business. Ebony Magazine. Retrieved May 15, 2008, from http://encylopedia.com.

11. Even this argument should not be construed as being "representative" of all black women, as many women chemically relax their hair for years and do not suffer from hair loss or traction alopecia.

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Black Women and Identity: What's Hair Got to Do With It?

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When it comes to hair, all women can relate. Whether you are white, black or Asian we all agonize over how to wear it; toss and turn about what colour it should be; and, cringe at the thought of cutting it too short.

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In Chapter Twelve, Gumbs writes, "maybe you already know something about this. About how a deadly system doesn’t have to seem like it’s targeting you directly to kill you consistently. How, for example, long after the era of photographed lynchings where picnickers sliced off body parts and kept them as keepsakes, a system can still cut off parts of you daily, steal parts of yourself that you need, just in its daily functioning in the legacy of its original purpose. Maybe you think this is not about you (if so, that’s a part that already went numb)." It is difficult to abolish capitalism because the people who benefit from the system, and may have the abilities to help end it, know they benefit from it, and thus have little to no interest in doing anything to solve the problem. I liked this separate article of Gumbs'.

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To mark International Women's Day 2022 we invited students to submit an article addressing this year's theme #BreakTheBias. We're delighted to announce Elias Khoury as our first place winner.

On International Women's Day 2020, sociologist Nicole Aschoff declared that "feminism and capitalism are both in crisis." Specifically, Aschoff argued, they're suffering crises of legitimacy. Capitalism, and the economic status quo it defines, are increasingly targets of disgust. A rigged system of global commerce siphons vast sums of wealth from poor countries to rich ones. And even those rich countries aren't doing so well. In many of them, quality of life is either stagnant or declining.

The state of modern feminism also leaves much to be desired. The movement's core goals - pay parity, equal representation, robust abortion rights, etc. - have yet to be realised in most places. This is despite decades if not centuries of dedicated organising and activism by huge masses of people. And in the few places where those goals have been realised, reactionaries are working hard to undo them.

These concurrent crises are particularly threatening to a certain brand of feminist thought which Aschoff dubs "neoliberal feminism." Philosopher Nancy Fraser calls it "the feminism of the 1 percent." Whatever label you choose, the basic idea is the same: gender equality is best achieved through women ascending to positions of power within the capitalist state and economy.

Currently, this strand of feminism is the dominant one. And that's bad news. Feminism and capitalism shouldn't be synthesised because the two ultimately cannot coexist.

Capitalism runs on exploitation. The mechanism is simple: workers are paid less than they generate and their bosses keep the difference. Capitalism is also based on perpetual growth. Its emphasis on capital accumulation creates an endless drive for ever-increasing profits. A steady rate just won't do. Capitalism always demands more.

One common way this demand has been met over the years is through the creation of oppressed classes. An obvious example is the transantlantic slave trade, one of history's greatest atrocities. White Europeans abducted black Africans and paid them nothing but whippings for generations of unimaginably onerous labour. Through this racist brutality, European capitalism accumulated superprofits via maximal exploitation.

Oppressed classes can also be created along gendered lines. Patriarchal norms assign women the role of domestic labourer, which capitalism insists should be uncompensated. A wide range of socially necessary work is thereby devalued. It's also rendered virtually invisible due to its omission from national accounts as measured by Gross Domestic Product. None of this, however, changes the fact that unpaid domestic labour fuels the capitalist economy.

A wife keeping the house clean means that her husband doesn't have to. After a long day of work, he can instead recharge his batteries to avoid becoming less productive. Wives cooking, and keeping their husbands well-fed, serves the same purpose.

All of this is great for corporations. The maintenance of their productive workforce is subsidized by women's unpaid labour. Corporations similarly benefit from reproduction and childcare, which create the next generation of productive workers.

Even when female labour does make its way onto official balance sheets, it's systematically shortchanged. Women globally earn just 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. In some countries, the gap is much larger. And it persists even when adjusting for industry, position, and hours worked.

This too is a feature - not a bug - of capitalism. Profit-driven firms meet excess labour demand by recruiting members of oppressed classes and paying them less. For capitalists, this has the added benefit of putting downward pressure on wages generally.

In the case of women, underpayment is often justified by appealing to sexist stereotypes. Women, it is said, just aren't focused, diligent, assertive, etc. enough to command wages equal to men. These lies strengthen capitalist domination by blaming deep economic inequalities on individual workers rather than the system at large.

Capitalism therefore depends on keeping women in a subordinate and exploited role. Why, then, should modern feminism be tied to such a system? It has an interest in their exploitation! A truly liberatory feminism must demand a break from capitalism and the establishment of fairer economic relations.

And we're at a unique point in history to do just that. Only three days after Aschoff made her declaration, the World Health Organization made one of their own: COVID had become a pandemic. Aschoff, for all of her wisdom, couldn't possibly have foreseen what followed.

The COVID pandemic has exposed capitalism's many weaknesses. Everything from the system's short-term temporal logic to its tendency toward inequality have deepened this once-in-a-century public health crisis. The need for a new model is evident. Feminism should be leading the charge.

Activists understand this. Groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have found ways to marry their anti-sexism to a labour-oriented class politics. The second sentence of the DSA's political programme states the organisation's unequivocal commitment to feminist ideals. And their Socialist Feminist Working Group, which operates at the national level, "provides resources... for local chapters... to organize around feminist issues such as reproductive justice... that especially impact working class and poor women."

On the other side of the world, Pakistan's Women Democratic Front is organising in a similar vein. The self-described "mass resistance movement" mobilises working-class women in both rural and urban Pakistan to fight against capitalist and patriarchal oppression. While their priorities are primarily domestic in scope, the Women Democratic Front has sought to take their struggle global through their membership in the Progressive International - a transnational collective of left-wing organisations aspiring to a post-capitalist, feminist world "bound by radical love."

These groups show the way forward. The future of feminism must be anti-capitalist. Neoliberal feminism can, at best, empower only a small stratum of women who succeed at climbing economic and/or organisational hierarchies. The rest will face an all-too-familiar fate of powerlessness and financial precarity. To illustrate, while the United States recently elected its first female vice president, women are still considerably overrepresented in American poverty statistics.

This year, the theme for International Women's Day is #BreakTheBias. The event's organisers are calling on people everywhere to imagine a world free of discrimination. Achieving such a world will require a very different feminism from the current, dominant form. Only through an anti-capitalist feminism can we win freedom and equality for all women - from Vice President Kamala Harris down to the millions of working-class women who voted for her.
Note: this article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the LSE Department of Government, nor of the London School of Economics. Image credit: main image contains elements of 'Bride Manufacturing' by spDuchamp, 'Fabric Rolls' by Phillip Knall and 'Money' by 401(K)
About the author

Posted In: Gender | IWD 2022 | Postgraduate | Students

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The Future of Feminism is Anti-Capitalist

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To mark International Women's Day 2022 we invited students to submit an article addressing this year's theme #BreakTheBias. We're delighted to announce Elias Khoury as our first place winner. On International Women's Day 2020, sociologist Nicole Aschoff declared that "feminism and capitalism are both in crisis." Specifically, Aschoff argued, they're suffering crises of legitimacy.

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In Chapter 12, Gumbs writes, "one female North Atlantic right whale was stabbed by a propeller as a baby and didn’t die until fourteen years later when she was pregnant. As she expanded to hold life, her wound reopened, got infected, and killed her. Or think of Punctuation (this is what the researchers who have been studying this whale for forty years call her), a grandmother North Atlantic right whale who died in the summer of 2019. She had given birth eight times, survived entanglement five different times, and had scars from multiple boat strikes and propellers. And at least three of her children died from entanglement before she died. Maybe you know something about what it means to bear the constant wounding of a system that says it’s about something else entirely. It might sound hollow to you too when you hear these deaths are not the point, that these deaths are just a by-product that cannot be prevented for the sake of the system. Surely there must be some way to improve the system that already exists." I thought this example was extremely powerful. Although you may have been wounded from the system that is targeted against you and may have healed, there still remains a wound that threatens to re-open. The propellers that hurt these whales are symbols of the never-ending cycle of capitalism, the ever-spinning wheel that comes around, viciously shaking things up when it crosses your path. Nothing will make that propeller stop spinning, all we can do is try our best to tread water to survive and avoid it's rapid movements.

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Why Capitalism and Feminism Can’t Coexist

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Feminism is about fighting for a good life for everyone, regardless of gender, race, or income. We can’t achieve that under capitalism.

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In Chapter Thirteen, Gumbs writes, "like too many great artists and most beaked whales, the Antillean/Gulf Stream beaked whale is only recognized after its death. Scientists have never “positively identified” one at sea, but it’s the most likely toothed whale to strand on western North Atlantic shores. So all scientific study of this species of whale is based on dissections of found dead bodies." I felt like this was a sad example of us, as humans, not respecting what exists until it's gone. Why couldn't we have tried to preserve this species while it still existed? Why do we only care when it is too late? As Gumbs mentioned in an earlier chapter, "it is dangerous to be discovered".

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In Chapter Thirteen, Gumbs writes, "There is a quiet whale who doesn’t jump or show tail. Who breathes softly and speaks low. Balaenoptera acutorostrata (the winged whale with the sharp face, called minke for bad reasons) is so low-key scientists once called them the “silent whale.” They don’t show themselves much at the surface, they change direction underwater and frustrate trackers. But bioacoustic researchers have been listening. In the Pacific and in the West Indies, microphones await any sound." I included a photo of a Minke whale I saw this summer. They are indeed low-profile, and extremely quick- they're difficult to keep track of and even photograph.

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In Chapter Sixteen, Gumbs writes, "over time, the young narwhal will look more like the ice that surrounds her, but right now she is Black like the depth from whence she came. She is sharp as she needs to be and determined to breathe even in frozen places. Not every Black unicorn is showing you her horn. But some of us are here reorganizing your daydreams. You are welcome. How I love us, Black unicorns, I love the youth of our adaptation. I love every way our bodies tell us not to blend in to what surrounds us, but instead to break through with brave sensitivity. Though we are hunted for exactly what makes us strong, may we always be embraced in the words of the Lorde. May we ever attune ourselves and support each other in this breakthrough. I have always believed in us." Like the narwhals taking to blending in with their environments to survive, black women may be faced with the same obstacle. Although they may appear to change, they still remain to true to themselves and where they came from. Their individual cultures, their unique beauty, and the identities of the ones who loved them and knew their name first.

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In Chapter Seventeen, Gumbs' writes, "there are layers of myself I need to shed now. And rest is the only way to be renewed. One month of summer I’ll be home, becoming something iridescent, vulnerable, older and new." In a world where we do everything but slow down, rest is more than just a routine- it's an act of self-care and self-respect.

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Black Women Are Turning to Radical Rest As a Feminist Practice

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We explore contemporary Black-women led movements emphasizing rest as a form of resistance.

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As a kid, I loved being in the water. It didn't matter if it was a pool, the ocean or a lake. And I spent as much time as possible swimming or diving under the waves at the beach. I just didn't want to get out of the water, so my mom called me a fish. There are so many times I wished I was a fish, or a mermaid, so I could stay underwater, exploring the wonders under there!

It turns out, unlike me, there are very few aquatic animals that are as comfortable on land as they are in the water. Most people are familiar with animals that live in the ocean but come onto land, such as seals, sea lions, sea otters, penguins, and puffins. However, you can't go inland and see one of those. Most folks are also probably familiar with the cute and fuzzy sea otters of the West Coast of the U.S. (think "cuddle party" from Finding Dory). But there are otters in the Central and Eastern U.S. that are sleek and adorable too!

River otters (the scientific name is Lontra canadensis) live in lots of different waterways, including freshwater streams, ponds, estuaries and along the coast. They like undisturbed wooded habitat along water that has enough trees and brush to provide cover for their dens and for coming out to rest and groom. If you live along the water or have visited often and are wondering why you have never seen river otters, it's because they are primarily nocturnal, meaning they are awake at night and sleep during the day. They're also generally very shy.

As I've come to discover, there are many reasons to study river otters. One of the most important is that they are apex predators, at the top of the food chain. By learning about what otters are eating, scientists can figure out what other animals are in the area. As a bonus, we can also learn about the parasites that are present too. Parasites are my passion and main topic of research in the Marine Disease Ecology Laboratory at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Have you ever heard of something being "zoonotic" (pronounced zoo-knot-ick)? This word comes from the Greek, zoo meaning animals and notic meaning diseases. There are diseases, caused by parasites, that can impact both wild animals and humans, which scientists refer to as zoonotic diseases (caused by zoonotic parasites).

Otters can get zoonotic parasites like worms from the fish that they eat, just like humans. If otters become infected with parasites from fish, then there is the potential for humans to get those parasites if they eat the same fish. All this means that scientists can study one animal, like the river otter, to learn about the other animals and parasites that live in the same area. This can help inform how to keep human food sources safe. If you are curious about how scientists might study the diet of river otters, stay tuned for the sequel post later this week!
Read Part 2: River Otters Take "Party Pooping" To A New Level

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The Secret Lives of River Otters (And Their Parasites)

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As a kid, I loved being in the water. It didn't matter if it was a pool, the ocean or a lake. And I spent as much time as possible swimming or diving under the waves at the beach. I just didn't want to get out of the water, so my mom called me a fish.

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In Chapter Nineteen, Gumbs writes, "Lutra felina, the marine otter, lives on the rockiest shoreline with the roughest of waves. She keeps secrets. Like how long she will live, what she does at night. She has not let you measure her children. I think she is smart, this cat of the ocean. The guidebooks say she is secretive, but I wonder if you are just scared to go where she lives, where the rocks are so sharp and the waves beat the shoreline.  They say sometimes she screams a high-pitched scream. Swims usually with her head barely out of the water.  Sometimes she floats on her back, makes herself into a raft for her babies, usually twins, sometimes triplets, quadruplets. She lives in a hard place and in between rocks. She puts her back to the future and her face to her children. I think she is smart to take care of her secrets. When you live in a hard place, precious cargo on your chest. When you say with your whiskers and claws “do not go there,” there should be some respect.  And I offer my love to your nails and your secrets, your teeth and technology, your heaviness of hair, your float and your leap. I can hardly believe that the waves did not break you. And your scream? It is scripture and wall. It is map. And you teach me to keep my treasures on my heart where I can feel them. And to keep my eyes on them too. And my body a boat balanced starboard and port. And my face facing aft after float. And my scream too a scripture as sacred as love. And my choice." Like Toni Cade Bambara, the marine otter knows how to "Take Care of [her] Blessings". She is protective of her loved ones and of her tactics of survival, yet she is resourceful and smart. She conceals the things she knows best and keeps them to herself, which is what aids in her success to survival in the wild. These are tactics we adopt too- we often protect our trade secrets and our favorite things and people in order to survive and maintain our well-being. "Taking Care of Your Blessings" also reminds me of the Evil Eye- protecting what you value most from the perceptions of the envious.