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Dolphin Echolocation

The chapter talks about echolocation which is a process used by many marine mammals to navigate parts of world through sounds. I was curious to know more about this process as this sounded interesting to me as how mammals use a technique to talk or navigate. A quote that stood out to me was "Listening is not only about the normative ability to hear, it is a transformative and revolutionary resource that requires quieting down and turning in" (Gumbs, 15). In my opinion, it could also be applied in real world.

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Echolocation or biosonar is a sense that evolution provided dolphins to help them navigate, hunt and detect dangers.

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Whales Breathing

The chapter talks about how breath is a practice of presence and how it is a common thing humans and marine mammals share. It was interesting to know how different species of whales have different ways to breathe in the arctic ocean. It was surprising to know about the lies that humans used to justify their own violence. It presents a new perspective to both mammal's life and human's life.

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How Do Whales Breathe? - Respiration Process and Evolutionary Adaptations

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While humans breathe through their nose, whales have a blowhole on their head. Whales’ breathing is very efficient and they have conscious control over the whole process, even while sleeping.

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Memory

The chapter talks about the concept that basically memory is survival. This article talks about how blue whales use their memory to find productive feeding sites rather than responding to the emerging prey patches in real time. This is interesting to know who mammals use their memory to survive or to respond to each other's whistles.

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Migrating blue whales rely on memory more than environmental cues to find prey

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Blue whales reach their massive size by relying on their exceptional memories to find historically productive feeding sites rather than responding in real time to emerging prey patches, a new study concludes.

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Learning

The chapter mainly explores the idea that learning happens with a repetition action of something. Like how dolphins evolved dorsal fins from practice across generations. Similarly other mammals learn the skills of hunting like dolphins learn how to jump or make twirls.

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Dolphins, those playful and intelligent marine mammals, have a unique talent for dazzling us with their breathtaking acrobatics and tricks. Whether you've witnessed their graceful leaps, synchronized flips, or impressive jumps at marine parks or in the wild, it's hard not to be captivated by their performances. In this blog post, we'll dive into the world of dolphin acrobatics and tricks, exploring the reasons behind these stunning displays, the science that makes them possible, and the conservation considerations associated with these performances.

The Elegance of Dolphin Acrobatics

Dolphin acrobatics are a testament to the agility, strength, and intelligence of these remarkable marine mammals. They engage in a wide range of breathtaking maneuvers that leave audiences in awe. Some of the most iconic dolphin acrobatics include:

1. Leaping and Breaching: Dolphins are known for their spectacular leaps out of the water, often reaching impressive heights. This behavior, known as breaching, serves various purposes, from communication to dislodging parasites. In captivity, it's also a crowd-pleaser.

2. Spins and Twirls: Dolphins exhibit graceful spins and twirls in the air, showcasing their agility and control. These maneuvers are often performed in synchrony with other dolphins.

3. Flips and Barrel Rolls: Dolphins can execute flips and barrel rolls with astonishing precision. These acrobatic feats highlight their ability to navigate and interact with their environment.

4. Surfing Waves: In the wild, dolphins are known to surf waves, riding the crest of the ocean's energy. It's a captivating display of their mastery over the ocean's dynamics.

5. Synchronized Swimming: Dolphins often engage in synchronized swimming, moving in perfect harmony with their pod members. This behavior is a testament to their social bonds and coordination.

The Science Behind the Spectacle

While dolphin acrobatics may appear purely whimsical, there's a scientific foundation that explains their ability to perform these remarkable feats:

1. Muscular Power: Dolphins have strong muscles, particularly in their tails, which provide the thrust needed for powerful jumps and spins. Their streamlined bodies reduce water resistance, enabling them to achieve high speeds.

2. Hydrodynamics: Dolphins' bodies are well-adapted to the aquatic environment. Their sleek shape minimizes drag, allowing them to move through the water efficiently and with agility.

3. Echolocation: Dolphins use echolocation to navigate and locate prey. This sophisticated sensory ability helps them judge distances accurately, aiding in their acrobatic maneuvers.

4. Social Behavior: Many of the acrobatic displays seen in the wild are part of social interactions within dolphin pods. These behaviors strengthen bonds, facilitate communication, and enhance cooperation among pod members.

5. Play and Enrichment: Dolphins are known for their playful nature, both in the wild and in captivity. Engaging in acrobatic displays is a form of play, which helps them maintain mental and physical health.

Dolphin Tricks: The Art of Training

In addition to their natural acrobatics, dolphins are also known for performing tricks when under human care in marine parks, aquariums, and educational facilities. These tricks are the result of training programs that harness the dolphins' intelligence and adaptability. Some popular dolphin tricks include:

1. Tail Walk: Dolphins can balance on the water's surface and walk forward using their tails, creating a captivating illusion of "walking on water."

2. Water Rings: Trainers often encourage dolphins to create and play with water rings by blowing air through their blowholes. This behavior showcases their intelligence and coordination.

3. High Jumps: Dolphins can leap through hoops or over obstacles, demonstrating their impressive vertical jumps.

4. Vocalization Tricks: Dolphins are skilled at mimicking sounds and can perform tricks that involve vocalizations and responses to verbal cues.

5. Ball Games: Dolphins are known to enjoy playing with balls, both in the wild and in captivity. They can push, catch, and balance balls on their noses or other body parts.

Conservation Considerations

While dolphin acrobatics and tricks are undeniably captivating, they come with important conservation considerations and ethical discussions:

1. Welfare Concerns: The welfare of dolphins in captivity has been a topic of debate. Critics argue that keeping dolphins in confined spaces may lead to stress and behavioral issues.

2. Conservation Education: On the other hand, proponents of dolphin shows assert that they play a vital role in raising awareness about marine life and conservation efforts. These shows can inspire the public to support conservation initiatives.

3. Ethical Training: Ethical training methods that prioritize positive reinforcement and minimize stress are crucial for the well-being of captive dolphins. Organizations and facilities are increasingly adopting these approaches.

4. Captive Breeding: Some facilities breed dolphins in captivity, raising ethical questions about the purpose and implications of captive breeding programs.

5. Responsible Tourism: Tourists who engage in dolphin-watching tours in the wild should prioritize responsible practices that minimize disturbance to wild dolphin populations.

Appreciating Dolphin Acrobatics and Tricks

Dolphin acrobatics and tricks offer us a window into the extraordinary world of these marine mammals. While their performances can be awe-inspiring, it's essential to approach them with a nuanced perspective, considering both the wonder they evoke and the ethical and conservation considerations they entail.

Ultimately, our appreciation for dolphin acrobatics and tricks can be a gateway to a deeper understanding of marine life, the importance of conservation, and the need for responsible interactions with these magnificent creatures, both in the wild and in captivity. By striking a balance between entertainment and conservation, we can ensure that future generations will have the privilege of witnessing these remarkable displays while also protecting the well-being and natural habitats of dolphins worldwide.

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Dolphin acrobatics and tricks - Dolphin World (800) 667-5524

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The Dolphin has incredible agility and capabilities of dolphins of their aquatic prowess for their acrobatics and tricks.

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Working Together

The chapter talks about how working in groups can be beneficial to anyone. A quote that stood out to me was "Collectively echolocating for food, they would be impossible to ignore" (Gumbs, 53). I think it meant that working in group is powerful in order to achieve something. I like this article as it talks about how dolphins could teach us teamwork and trust.

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How Dolphins Teach Us About Teamwork and Trust - Joy Dolphins

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Dolphins are not just playful creatures of the ocean; they are also profound teachers of teamwork and trust. When you observe a pod of dolphins swimming in

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Exposure

The chapter talks about how we easily categorize mammals based on their scars instead of their traits like dorsal fins. The article breakdowns the identification of a dolphin though fins and how the scars could be result from them being a prey and saving themselves.

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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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Focus

The chapter mainly talks about how being present at the moment is also a key to survive. The article talks about how dolphins move in pods and pay attention to the group and their protection.

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Dolphins are highly sociable mammals that establish close links with other individuals of the same species and even with dolphins of other species sometimes. They seem to show empathic, cooperative, and altruistic behaviors.

Most species live in groups called pods composed of 2 to 30 dolphins as the number varies, but in some areas with abundant food, many pods can merge forming superpods with more than 1,000 members.

Dolphins depend on this interaction for hunting, mating and defending themselves. In some cases, these superpods include more than one species of cetaceans that seem to interact well together.

PODS, THE REASON

Why do dolphins group? They have several reasons to join, besides following a sample learned since they born. Small dolphin species gather into multi-member pods as a way to compensate for their size when facing predators.

In this sense, these groups provide protection to an animal that does not have large jaws or razor sharp teeth. When Dolphins are together, it is easier for them to survive if they cooperate with each other, either through communication or intimidating the predator if it is a large number of individuals.

DYNAMIC OF THEIR SOCIAL STRUCTURES

It seems that dolphins are free spirits. Studying the dynamic of the social composition of the pods, scientists discovered that when dolphins belong to a group, nothing binds them to it in a matter of space and time, this means that they can move freely to different pods that are in their vicinity, then the movement of members is continuous.

This type of social network is flat and open, and scientists found no evidence of a rigid, closed or semi-closed structure, so dolphins do not have permanent "membership" in any pod.

These open associations are another indication of their high intelligence since these actions require a lot of brain capacity. Likewise, the hydrodynamic shape of their body supports the need to move continuously between several groups of different environments.

Even though pods do not lack social hierarchy, this depends on the species. For example, bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) establish dominance biting, chasing and striking their tails or fins against the surface of the water. The marks of teeth remain in the skin of the dolphins and are practically in all the species meaning that confrontations are also part of their life. That is why, when they want to demonstrate "who rules here," they may not be so charming as usual but more aggressive than we think.

On the other hand, the composition and structure of the groups depend on certain circumstances: age, sex, family ties, reproductive condition and even the history of associations. Studies on the behavior of dolphins indicate that dolphins can have preferences for meeting with particular individuals and that they can be remembered and recognized after experiencing extended periods of separation. Amazing, right?

Dolphin social structure.

TYPES OF PODS

The characteristics of the groups differ according to the number of members and the circumstances mentioned above. Dolphins do not behave the same when they change from one pod to another.

There are three types of pods:

Nursery groups (mothers-offspring).
A calf stays with its mother from birth up to a few years after weaning. Usually, the mother's bond with her son is very close and continues until the young dolphin is 6 or 8 years old. Since offspring are vulnerable, the females with calves join and form groups where they help each other to feed and protect their offspring. If a young female gets pregnant, she can return to her natal pod to give birth and care for her calf along with her female relatives, forming a multigenerational group.

The males usually do not get close to these groups.

Juvenile pods.
When reaching a certain age, both males and females leave their breeding group and join with other young dolphins, but curiously, they go to the group of their mothers occasionally for a while and then return to their youth group.

Two male dolphins can stay together for 10, 15 or 20 consecutive years.

The members of these groups are engaged in socializing with others and establishing a preamble to mating. Genres, however, are not intimately related for extended periods of time and once a female becomes pregnant, she joins the nursery group.

Adult males.
The structure of the male pods is very complex and similar to a human male group, you will see why.

Often males are related to 2 or 3 individuals of the same gender and create partnerships for cooperation purposes. Two male dolphins can stay together for 10, 15 or 20 consecutive years. The smaller groups have the objective of cooperating to ensure the mating of the others with a specific female. The larger groups make alliances with other herds of males to defend themselves but also to compete. They continue moving from pod to pod throughout their lives.

INTERNAL SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Males are dominant in all groups, but there is no evidence of strong social bonds between them and females. An example of social interaction and their high intelligence is the regular playing activities they perform. Juvenile and adult dolphins often chase each other and toss items such as seaweed back and forth.

Most experts believe that the social relationships formed by dolphins are long lasting.

Dolphins often have close body contact with other dolphins through rubbing, petting, and even hitting each other.

COMMUNICATION, THE GROUND FOR SOCIALIZATION.

Dolphins communicate with their pods usually through whistles. Each dolphin has a unique whistle that identifies it with other members of its group. If an individual is in distress, it uses a particular sound that indicates help is needed, so the pod responds quickly.

SOCIAL ACTIVITY BEYOND LIMITS.

Although it would be normal that dolphins socialize only with their kind, the interest of some species of dolphins to interact with humans is evident. In the wild, dolphins are extremely curious, and they will often engage in contact with people if a chance comes up. In captivity, dolphins are very attached to the people that usually interact with them, like trainers or researchers.
References
William F. Perrin, Bernd Würsig, J.G.M. 'Hans' Thewissen. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press, 2009.

Karen Pryor, Kenneth S. Norris. Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles. University of California Press, 1998.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4757-9909-5_7#page-1

http://www.cbmwc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Social-structure-of-bottlenose-dolphins-in-Cardigan-Bay-by-Cally-Barnes.pdf

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Dolphins are highly sociable mammals that establish close links with other individuals of the same species and even with dolphins of other species sometimes. They seem to show empathic, cooperative, and altruistic behaviors.

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Courage

The chapter mainly explores the idea of standing up for yourself and your community and defending them. I like how the article explains the different ways a whale protects themselves and others.

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hanhanpeggy/iStock/Getty Images

Whales are some of the largest animals in the sea - in fact, the blue whale is the biggest animal on the planet! However, the blue whales' massive size doesn't exclude them from being hunted by blue whale predators. One of the biggest whale predators is actually other whales - namely killer whales, or orcas.

Though popular as a tourist attraction for whale-watching ships, killer whales live up to their name and are just as deadly as great white sharks. Unlike great whites, orcas use their intelligence to work together as a group, which gives them the upper hand for hunting prey as massive as a whale.

Fight or Flight

Fight or Flight

Like almost every other animal, whales have a "fight or flight" response to being attacked. When being hunted by killer whales in arctic waters, belugas will use sea ice to evade their fellow cetaceans and provide barriers to help them escape. In coastal regions, such as Cook Inlet in Alaska, the smaller belugas can also flee to shallow waters where the killer whales cannot easily pursue them.

Gray whales, on the other hand, have been known to fight back against whale predators when fleeing just won't cut it. Though an adult gray whale might be able to flee from a pod of orcas, their young calves cannot, so the mother often takes the offensive. In fact, the gray whale earned the nickname "devilfish" during whaling times because it had a reputation for ramming vessels that attacked the whale itself or its calves.

Banding Together

Banding Together

Both anecdotal evidence and scientific research have indicated that whales also band together when they feel threatened.

In 1997, a group of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration witnessed a group of nine sperm whales being attacked by a pod of killer whales. The scientists said the sperm whales attempted to beat back these sperm whale predators by arranging in a circular formation, with their heads pointed inward, and using their tail fins to swipe at the orcas. They were ultimately unsuccessful.

A 2013 study in the journal Scientific Reports by a team of European scientists found male sperm whales become increasingly social and vocal upon hearing killer whale songs. Interception of the killer whale songs have allowed the sperm whales to change their behavior and avoid potential predation.

Blubber Layers

Blubber Layers

A whale's thick layer of blubber also affords some additional protection from predators. Attacks on the whale result in more superficial injuries to the blubber, rather than reaching vital organs. In addition to being a protective layer against would-be predators, blubber affords all whales protection against hypothermia.

Heat loss in water is 27 times greater than on land, and blubber helps to keep a whale's body heat inside the animal. This fatty layer comprises 27 percent of the massive blue whale's total body weight.

Blubber is actually comprised of three layers: the dermis, epidermis and hypodermal tissue. While the ​ dermis​ and ​ epidermis​ of a blue whale are similar to what is found in other mammals, the ​ hypodermal tissue ​ is mostly made up of fat cells and is similar to the layer of fat found underneath the skin of a pig.

The Bizarre Defense Mechanism of Pygmy Sperm Whales

The Bizarre Defense Mechanism of Pygmy Sperm Whales

Any discussion about the defense mechanisms of whales is not complete without mentioning the pygmy sperm whale. Only about twice the size of the average human when fully mature, pygmy sperm whales tend to live their entire lives offshore at depths of between 1,300 and 3,000 feet.

When these modestly sized whales are under attack, they defend themselves by releasing fecal material into the water and swirling it around with their fins. The whales are undoubtedly banking on the notion that swimming through a cloud of feces will put off any predator's appetite.

Cite This Article

MLA

Smith, Brett. "How Do Whales Protect Themselves?" sciencing.com, https://www.sciencing.com/whales-protect-themselves-4566498/. 30 September 2021.

APA

Smith, Brett. (2021, September 30). How Do Whales Protect Themselves?. sciencing.com. Retrieved from https://www.sciencing.com/whales-protect-themselves-4566498/

Chicago

Smith, Brett. How Do Whales Protect Themselves? last modified March 24, 2022. https://www.sciencing.com/whales-protect-themselves-4566498/

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Despite the immense size of many species, whales still face predators. Though most whale predators target newly-born whales, some animals can certainly attack injured or sick adult whales as well. Whales' primary protection is their size and speed, social nature and thick, protective blubber.

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Self-Growth

The chapter explores that some conflicts can result in a deeper understanding of something. Whales often slap their tails to scare their predators and to warn other whales.

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One of the whales’ most striking behaviors is slapping their tails on the water. It is an incredible sight, but the sound is unforgettable too. Whales slap their tails to communicate with other whales in their mating rituals. Whales also slap their tails to scare off predators or males and remove parasites and barnacles. Whales […]

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Enough

It talks about how sometimes saying enough is resistance and everyone should respect the boundaries you create. Similarly, interacting with marine mammals without their consent can result in a disruption of their social structures.

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Seals belong to the family Phocidae.

The family Phocidae encompasses true seals, which are characterized by their lack of external ear flaps. These sleek marine mammals are further divided into different species, each with its own distinct characteristics and habitats.

Seals possess a streamlined body.

Seals have evolved to have a streamlined body shape that allows them to glide effortlessly through the water. Their torpedo-like bodies, combined with their powerful flippers, make them excellent swimmers.

Seals have a thick layer of blubber.

Underneath their skin, seals have a thick layer of blubber that acts as insulation and provides buoyancy. This layer helps them stay warm in cold waters and also serves as an energy reserve during periods of fasting.

Seals are carnivorous.

Seals primarily feed on fish, squid, and other marine invertebrates. Their diet varies depending on their habitat and the availability of prey in their surroundings.

Seals are excellent divers.

Seals can dive to impressive depths in search of food. Some species, like the elephant seal, can dive up to 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) deep and hold their breath for extended periods.

Seals are social animals.

Many seal species are known for forming large colonies during breeding season. These colonies can consist of thousands of individuals and provide protection and social interaction for the seals.

Seals communicate through various vocalizations.

Seals use a range of vocalizations to communicate with each other. These vocalizations include barks, growls, and even songs, which can vary in pitch, duration, and intensity.

Seals have excellent underwater vision.

Seals have adapted to see well in both air and water. Their eyes have a specialized structure that allows them to focus and see clearly underwater, aiding in their hunting and navigation.

Seals can sleep in the water.

Seals have the ability to sleep in the water while floating. They can partially shut down their brain activity and still rise to the surface to breathe without waking up fully.

Seals have thick whiskers.

Seals have specialized long whiskers, known as vibrissae, on their snouts. These whiskers are extremely sensitive and help them navigate and detect prey in murky waters.

Seals have a diverse range of habitats.

Seals can be found in a variety of environments, including the Arctic and Antarctic regions, temperate coastal waters, and even freshwater lakes and rivers.

Seals have high metabolic rates.

Seals have adapted to efficient energy usage to sustain their high metabolic rates. They can maintain an optimal body temperature even in cold water by minimizing heat loss.

Seals have few natural predators.

Due to their size and ability to defend themselves, seals have few natural predators in the wild. However, large sharks and killer whales are known to prey on seals.

Seals are skilled at camouflage.

Seals have various markings and patterns on their fur that help them blend in with their surroundings. This camouflage provides them with some protection against predators.

Seals go through molting.

Seals experience molting, where they shed their old fur and grow a new one to maintain optimal insulation and hydrodynamics.

Seals have evolved to regulate their heart rate during dives.

Seals have the remarkable ability to lower their heart rate during dives, conserving oxygen and allowing them to stay submerged for longer periods.

Seals can have long lifespans.

Depending on the species, seals can live up to 30 years or more in the wild. Factors such as predation, disease, and habitat degradation can influence their lifespan.

Seals display playful behavior.

Seals are known for their playful nature, often seen engaging in games, acrobatics, and social interactions. These playful behaviors help them strengthen social bonds within their colonies.

Seals have been revered in mythology and folklore.

Throughout history, seals have held a special place in human cultures. They have been mythologized and revered as symbols of grace, adaptability, and interconnectedness with the marine world.

Seals play a vital role in marine ecosystems.

Seals are key predators in their ecosystems, maintaining a balance by preying on certain fish populations. Their presence and activities contribute to the overall health and biodiversity of marine habitats.

From their remarkable diving abilities to their playful personalities, seals continue to captivate and inspire both scientists and nature enthusiasts. Their presence in our oceans reminds us of the rich diversity and wonders that lie beneath the surface. So next time you catch a glimpse of a seal swimming gracefully in the ocean, remember these 20 fascinating facts about these incredible marine mammals.

References:
- Smith, J. D. (2008). Seal watching. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Gentry, R. L., & Kooyman, G. L. (1986). Fur seals: maternal strategies on land and at sea. Princeton University Press.

Conclusion

In conclusion, seals are fascinating creatures that inhabit both the land and the sea. With their sleek bodies, incredible hunting abilities, and unique adaptations, they have successfully adapted to various habitats around the world. From their playful nature to their impressive swimming skills, seals continue to captivate both scientists and animal lovers alike. As we strive to protect and conserve these incredible animals, it is essential to continue learning about them and raising awareness about their importance in maintaining the balance of marine ecosystems. So, the next time you spot a seal on the beach or in the water, take a moment to appreciate the wonders of these remarkable creatures.

FAQs
1. What are seals?
Seals are aquatic mammals that belong to the family Phocidae. They are known for their streamlined bodies, flippers, and ability to migrate between land and sea.
2. Where do seals live?
Seals can be found in different regions across the globe, including the Arctic, Antarctic, and various coastal areas. They prefer habitats such as rocky shores, ice floes, and sandy beaches.
3. What do seals eat?
Seals primarily feed on fish, squid, and other marine creatures. Their diet may vary depending on the species and the availability of prey in their environment.
4. How do seals communicate?
Seals communicate through a combination of vocalizations, body language, and visual displays. They can produce a range of sounds including barks, growls, and whistles.
5. Are seals endangered?
Some species of seals are considered endangered or vulnerable due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and overfishing. Conservation efforts are crucial to protect and preserve their populations.
6. Can seals live in both saltwater and freshwater?
Most seals are adapted to live in saltwater habitats. However, there are a few species, such as the Baikal seal, that can tolerate and thrive in freshwater environments.
7. How long do seals live?
The lifespan of seals varies depending on the species. On average, they can live up to 20-30 years, although some species, like the Weddell seal, can live for over 30 years.
8. Do seals have any predators?
Seals have a few natural predators, including sharks, killer whales, and polar bears. However, the biggest threat to their survival is human activities such as hunting and habitat destruction.
9. Can seals stay underwater for a long time?
Seals are excellent divers and can stay submerged for extended periods. Some species, like the Weddell seal, can hold their breath for up to 90 minutes and reach impressive depths.
10. Are seals social animals?
Yes, seals are social animals and often form colonies on land or gather in groups in the water. They engage in various social behaviors, including vocalizations, grooming, and playing.

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Discover 20 intriguing facts about seals, from their diverse species and habitats to their incredible adaptations and social behaviors. Uncover the wonders of these fascinating marine mammals.

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Wisdom

Even a small part of your body holds significance. Walruses have whiskers which helps them to detect vibrations in deep water and also helps them to detect any prey.

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Why Do Walruses Have Whiskers and a Moustache? - Polar Guidebook

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Walruses are iconic marine mammals and are distinguished because of their large size, long tusks, and whiskers. It is also their whiskers that give off the characteristic of having a mustache. Why do walruses have these features, and do they do more than look like facial hair? Both subspecies of walruses have whiskers and a […]

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Degrowth

It mainly says how capitalism ignores sustainability, care, and balance. How marine mammals teaches us ways to live, like with deep connection.

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Brett Clark teaches sociology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Rebecca Clausen teaches sociology at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.

The world ocean covers approximately 70 percent of the earth. It has been an integral part of human history, providing food and ecological services. Yet conservation efforts and concerns with environmental degradation have mostly focused on terrestrial issues. Marine scientists and oceanographers have recently made remarkable discoveries in regard to the intricacies of marine food webs and the richness of oceanic biodiversity. However, the excitement over these discoveries is dampened due to an awareness of the rapidly accelerating threat to the biological integrity of marine ecosystems.1

At the start of the twenty-first century marine scientists focused on the rapid depletion of marine fish, revealing that 75 percent of major fisheries are fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted. It is estimated "that the global ocean has lost more than 90% of large predatory fishes." The depletion of ocean fish stock due to overfishing has disrupted metabolic relations within the oceanic ecosystem at multiple trophic and spatial scales.2

Despite warnings of impending collapse of fish stock, the oceanic crisis has only worsened. The severity is made evident in a recent effort to map the scale of human impact on the world ocean. A team of scientists analyzed seventeen types of anthropogenic drivers of ecological change (e.g., organic pollution from agricultural runoff, overfishing, carbon dioxide emissions, etc.) for marine ecosystems. The findings are clear: No area of the world ocean "is unaffected by human influence," and over 40 percent of marine ecosystems are heavily affected by multiple factors. Polar seas are on the verge of significant change. Coral reefs and continental shelves have suffered severe deterioration.

Additionally, the world ocean is a crucial factor in the carbon cycle, absorbing approximately a third to a half of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. The increase in the portion of carbon dioxide has led to an increase in ocean temperature and a slow drop in the pH of surface waters-making them more acidic-disrupting shell-forming plankton and reef-building species. Furthermore, invasive species have negatively affected 84 percent of the world's coastal waters-decreasing biodiversity and further undermining already stressed fisheries.3

Scientific analysis of oceanic systems presents a sobering picture of the coevolution of human society and the marine environment during the capitalist industrial era. The particular environmental problems related to the ocean cannot be viewed as isolated issues or aberrations of human ingenuity, only to be corrected through further technological development. Rather these ecological conditions must be understood as they relate to the systematic expansion of capital and the exploitation of nature for profit. Capital has a particular social metabolic order-the material interchange between society and nature-that subsumes the world to the logic of accumulation. It is a system of self-expanding value, which must reproduce itself on an ever-larger scale.4 Here we examine the social metabolic order of capital and its relationship with the oceans to (a) examine the anthropogenic causes of fish stock depletion, (b) detail the ecological consequences of ongoing capitalist production in relation to the ocean environment, and (c) highlight the ecological contradictions of capitalist aquaculture.5

Marine Metabolism: Biological Richness, Energy Cycles, and Trophic Levels

Ecologists now appreciate the complexity of biological relationships at multiple scales, including primary productivity, carbon sequestration, and intricate food webs. New light is being shed on oceanic ecosystems offering an emerging picture of the sea's metabolism. In particular, research reveals great complexity and a resultant integrity among trophic level interactions (food webs) between microscopic organisms, plankton, and larger predators. Ivan Valiela, a marine biologist, states:

No topic within marine ecology and biological oceanography has changed more...than our notions about components and structure of planktonic food webs. Knowledge about marine water column food webs has been considerably enlarged, and made much more complex, by recent findings about the existence and role of smaller organisms, release and reuse of dissolved organic matter, and reassessment of the function of certain larger organisms.6

The metabolic interactions expressed among trophic levels are proving to be the underlying source of great biological wealth and ocean resiliency.

According to marine scientists, "the genetic, species, habitat, and ecosystem diversity of the oceans is believed to exceed that of any other Earth system." For example, ocean environments contain seventeen different taxa of life forms compared to eleven land-based taxa. Oceans account for 99 percent of the volume that is known to sustain life-most of which is still unknown. Scientists exploring the ocean's middle depths have discovered a host of new species composing productive ecosystems. The deep-sea bottom, of which little more than 1.5 percent has been explored, has recently been the object of great interest due to its abundant biodiversity.

For example, in one such Atlantic seafloor with an area of approximately twenty-one square meters, scientists sampled and found 90,672 individual organisms representing 798 species, of which 460 were previously unknown. These new discoveries have yielded important insights regarding marine ecosystems. At the same time, they produce an appreciation of the great uncertainty that still exists for much of the marine environment's processes, such as the role of currents, nutrient cycles, and biomass.7

Recent advances in trophic level understanding have developed in three areas: microbial interactions, multi-tiered trophic dynamics, and upper trophic level controls. First, the new array of facts offered by studying the base of the food web (diatoms, dinoflagellates, and other microalgae) has led marine researchers to propose a new view of the planktonic food web that includes a "microbial loop." In the microbial loop, organic matter cycles through microbes before entering the classic food web; this is a more complicated relationship than was previously assumed.

Second, it has been found that oceanic food webs often have five trophic levels or more, as opposed to freshwater systems where three levels are more typical. Valiela describes this yet-unexplained discovery as a significant qualitative difference between the two environments. Previously, trophic interactions among freshwater fish were thought to be analogous to pelagic fish and management decisions were based on such comparisons. Exploring the multi-tiered dynamics of ocean food webs as unique from freshwater systems provides a more complex research question for the scientific community. Uncertainty colors all speculation of how vulnerable ocean systems are compared to freshwater and land ecologies.8

Finally, researchers have found that species in the upper trophic positions seem to be closely coupled to food availability. This means that the top predators exist near the carrying capacity of their environment. This is not the case with most bony fishes in freshwater environments, which usually exist in an environment with an abundant prey population. The life history characteristics of the upper trophic creatures suggest they are easily susceptible to overexploitation. Little room exists in the population of top marine predators to absorb losses of food resources.

For example, the ability of whales to recover to their earlier abundance after massive human predation is now dependent on the availability of krill. Although the large-scale hunting of whales has dramatically declined, the massive exploitation of krill as a protein source and as an animal-feed additive may now jeopardize recovering whale populations dependent on krill as a food supply.9

There is a significant amount of interaction and dependence of the ocean's top predators on lower trophic levels. Trophic level interactions represent a marine food web based on energy flow and describe one element of the ocean's metabolism. Many other relationships besides trophic level interactions exist between ocean organisms, such as the relation between organisms and their immediate habitat, which can include coral reefs and kelp forests. Both of these realms, on which species depend, are highly vulnerable to resource exploitation.

Capitalism and Marine Fishery Exploitation

Humans have long been connected to the ocean's metabolic processes by harvesting marine fish and vegetation. Harvesting methods and processes have varied depending on the structure of social production. Subsistence fishing is a practice woven throughout human history, beginning with the harvesting of shellfish along seashores and shallow lakes, and progressing with the development of tools such as stone-tipped fishing spears, fishhooks, lines, and nets. This was originally based upon fishing for use of the fish. What was caught was used to feed families and communities. Through the process of fishing, human labor has been intimately linked to ocean processes, gaining an understanding of fish migrations, tides, and ocean currents.

The size of a human population in a particular region influenced the extent of exploitation. But the introduction of commodity markets and private ownership under the capitalist system of production altered the relationship of fishing labor to the resources of the seas. Specific species had an exchange value. As a result, certain fish were seen as being more valuable. This led to fishing practices that focused on catching as many of a particular fish, such as cod, as possible. Non-commercially viable species harvested indiscriminately alongside the target species were discarded as waste.

As capitalism developed and spread, intensive extraction by industrial capture fisheries became the norm. Increased demands were placed on the oceans and overfishing resulted in the severe depletion of wild fish stocks. In Empty Ocean, Richard Ellis states, "Throughout the world's oceans, food fishes once believed to be immeasurable in number are now recognized as greatly depleted and in some cases almost extinct. A million vessels now fish the world's oceans, twice as many as there were twenty-five years ago. Are there twice as many fish as before? Hardly." How did this situation develop?10

The beginning of capitalist industrialization marked the most noticeable and significant changes in fisheries practices. Mechanization, automation, and mass production/consumption characterized an era of increased fixed capital investments. Profit-driven investment in efficient production led to fishing technologies that for the first time made the exhaustion of deep-sea fish stocks a real possibility. Such transformations can be seen in how groundfishing, the capture of fish that swim in close proximity to the ocean's bottom, changed through the years.

Industrialization began to influence the groundfishery around the early 1900s, as technological developments were employed to further the accumulation of capital. The introduction of steam-powered trawlers from England in 1906 heralded a significant change in how groundfish were caught and rapidly replaced the sail-powered schooner fleets. Prior to steam trawling, groundfish were caught on schooners with baited lines during long journeys at sea. Due to lack of refrigeration and freezing, most of the cod catch was salted.

The competitive markets organized under capitalist production welcomed the increased efficiency of steam-powered vessels, without a critical assessment of the consequences of increased harvest levels. More captured fish meant more profit. The switch to trawling was complete by 1920, and the consequences of the second industrial revolution organized under capitalist forces would soon change the human-nature relationship to the ocean, extending the reach of capital.

The expanded geographic range and speed of fishing fleets allowed for increased productivity of catch as well as increased diversity of captured species that were deemed "valuable" on the market. Technological developments and improved transportation routes allowed the fishing industry to grow, increasing its scale of operations. Cold storage ensured that fish would be fresh, reducing spoilage and loss of capital. In Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, Mark Kurlansky explains, "Freezing [cod] also changed the relationship of seafood companies to fishing ports. Frozen fish could be bought anywhere-wherever the fish was cheapest and most plentiful. With expanding markets, local fleets could not keep up with the needs of the companies." Advances in the transportation infrastructure allowed people in the Midwest to consume the increased harvests of cod and haddock, leading to a significant expansion in the market. Major marketing campaigns promoted the consumption of fish to increase sales. Together these factors enhanced the accumulation of capital within the fishing industry, and companies invested some of this capital back into their fleets.11

By 1930 there were clear signals that the groundfishing fleet's ability to capture massive quantities of fish had surpassed natural limits in fisheries. A Harvard University investigation reported that in 1930 the groundfishery landed 37 million haddock at Boston, with another 70-90 million juvenile haddock discarded dead at sea. The sudden rise in fisheries harvest (creating a subsequent rise in consumer demand through marketing campaigns) resulted in stress in the groundfish populations, and landings plummeted.

Competitive markets create incentives to expand production, regardless of resource decline. Thus, in reaction to decreased stocks due to overfishing, groundfishing fleets moved farther offshore into waters off of the coast of Canada to increase the supply of valuable fish to new markets. The fleet's ability to continue moving into unexploited waters obscured recognition of the severe resource depletion that was occurring. As a result, the process of overfishing particular ecosystems to supply a specific good for the market expanded, subjecting more of the ocean to the same system of degradation.12

The distant water fleets were made possible by the advent of factory trawlers. Factory trawlers represent the pinnacle of capital investment and extractive intensification in the global fisheries. In Distant Water William Warner presents a portrayal of a factory trawler's capacity:

Try to imagine a mobile and completely self-contained timber cutting machine that could smash through the roughest trails of the forest, cut down trees, mill them, and deliver consumer-ready lumber in half the time of normal logging and milling operations. This was exactly what factory trawlers did-this was exactly their effect on fish-in the forests of the deep. It could not long go unnoticed.

Factory trawlers pull nylon nets a thousand feet long through the ocean, potentially capturing 400 tons of fish during a single netting. Industrial trawlers can process and freeze their catch as they travel.13 Such technological development extended the systematic exploitation and scale of harvesting of fishes.

The natural limits of fish populations combined with capital's need to expand led to the development of immense trawlers that increased the productive capacity and efficiency of operations. These ships allowed fishermen to seek out areas in the ocean where valuable fish were available, providing the means to capture massive quantities of fish in a single trip. Overcoming the shortage of fishes in one area was accomplished by even more intensive harvesting with new ships and equipment, such as sonar, in other regions of the oceans. The pursuit of vast quantities of commercial fishes in different areas of the ocean expanded the depletion of other species, as they were exploited and discarded as bycatch. The swath of the seas subjected to the dictates of the market increased, whether a fish was sold as a commodity or thrown overboard as a waste product.14

Competition for market share between companies and capital's investment in advanced technology intensified fishery exploitation. Competing international companies sought nature's diminishing bounty, causing further international conflict in the "race for fish." President Truman responded to these disputes by attempting to expand U.S. corporate interests. He issued two proclamations expanding U.S. authority beyond territorial waters trying to further territorial enclosure of its adjacent seas out to the limits of the continental shelf. Coastal states around the world struggled to transform the property rights of the open ocean to benefit their nations. In response to growing conflict, the United Nations convened the First United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea in Geneva in 1958.

Eventually, most nations voted to sign the UN Law of the Sea article, "irrevocably transforming" international law and constituting "a fundamental revision of sometimes age-old institutions."15 (The U.S. Senate, however, has still not ratified the Law of the Sea Convention.) In the end, the convention established a property regime according to the prescription of an exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The EEZ put regions of the high seas adjacent to coastal waters entirely within the management purview of the coastal state, up to two hundred miles from their shore. In this zone, states have exclusive rights to living and non-living resources for extraction and economic pursuits.

The collapse of fisheries due to overexploitation coupled with the expanding seafood market forced companies to look elsewhere for "the most traded animal commodity on the planet." African nations-such as Senegal, Mauritania, Angola, and Mozambique-confronting dire economic conditions sold fishing access to European and Asian nations and companies. In the case of Mauritania, selling fishing access provided over $140 million a year, which equaled a fifth of the government's budget. Few countries can resist such bait, given the need for monetary resources. Industrialized trawlers descended into African waters, combing their seas for the treasured fish commodities. In the past three decades, Africa's fish population in the ocean has decreased by 50 percent and thousands of fishermen have become unemployed.16 The expansion of capitalist fishing practices continues to decimate fisheries and spread ecological degradation, as profits and food are funneled back to core nations.

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the world capture from fisheries increased from approximately 20 million tons in 1950 to 84.2 million tons in 2005. A dominant narrative explains that human population growth is solely responsible for this increase in capture; however, recent research demonstrates that social structural factors such as economic growth are also propelling the depletion. Since around 1989 the world capture of marine fish has declined by 500,000 tons per year amidst increasing fishing effort.

There have been sharp declines in the populations of tuna, cod, and marlins. During the 1960s and '70s, shelf fisheries in the Atlantic started to collapse as a result of overfishing. Operations moved to the deep sea. Deepwater fishing has seriously affected the populations of deep-sea fish, such as the roundnose grenadier, onion-eye grenadier, spiny eel, spinytail skate, and blue hake. The populations of these deep-sea fishes have plummeted by over 87 percent in seventeen years. It is expected that these fishes will be driven to the point of extinction-to the detriment of the ecosystems in which they live. Part of the vulnerability of these fishes is that they can live to around sixty years of age and do not sexually mature until their late teen years.17

Changes in the market can transform the demand for particular fish species. In the early 1900s, bluefin tuna was seen as being only suitable for use as pet food. But given their strength and size-weighing up "to three quarters of a ton and [having] a length of four meters"-they were deemed worthy opponents to be hunted. In the later half of the twentieth century, bluefin tuna became "the most desirable food fish in the world" with the spread of sushi and sashimi restaurants. Given the machinations of capitalism, this has also caused them to become "the most endangered of all large fish species."

The bluefin tuna population continues to be decimated by overfishing, and the practice of capturing half-grown tuna at sea and placing them in floating pens-known as tuna ranches-where they are fed until they are ready for market has only worsened the situation. While this helps control the production process, it involves catching the fishes "before they are old enough to breed" and keeping "them penned up until they are killed." As a result of this practice and overfishing, bluefin tuna are threatened with depletion.18

The geographic span of ocean exploitation has widened as capitalist operations of extraction continue. Even the Antarctic waters are increasingly under assault as the fishing industry gears up to plunder the krill population. Since the 1970s the numbers of krill have declined by 80 percent, largely due to global warming. But fishing operations are adding to the depletion. These tiny crustaceans eat carbon-rich food near the surface of the water, thereby they help remove the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

They have long been one of the primary sources of food for seals, whales, and penguins. Progressively they have been incorporated into the insatiable appetite of global capital. "Suction harvesting" swallows up huge quantities that are processed, frozen, and stored on newly outfitted ships. From here, the krill are to be used as feed for fish-farms (aquaculture) or transformed into omega-3 oil and other health supplements.19

Fleets of ships burning fossil fuels to harvest from the open oceans have exacerbated the deterioration of marine ecosystems. The depletion of fish stock increases the distance that is necessary to travel in order to catch certain species of fish, such as tuna and swordfish. It also expands the regional scope of exploitation, the number of species captured as bycatch, and the scale of depletion. In 2000, 80 million tons of fish required the burning of 13 billion gallons of fuel and the release of approximately 134 million tons of carbon dioxide. This means that global fisheries used up to 12.5 times the amount of fuel energy that they provided as edible-protein energy.20

During the 1970s and '80s fishing ships became more automated, with the trend toward full automation becoming common. Today, navigational aids, such as geographic positioning systems (GPS), and weather prediction models enhance the ability of fishing fleets to catch the most amount of fishes in the shortest amount of time, with the least amount of human labor. The synthesis of technical development and transformed property rights under the competitive framework of global capitalism has resulted in the massive extraction of marine fish and an intensified social metabolism organized for the pursuit of profit.

Ecological Degradation of Marine Ecoystems

Species-Level Effects

The intensified extraction of fish from already stressed oceanic ecosystems-fueled by capital accumulation and the free appropriation of nature-has resulted in significant consequences to the metabolic interactions between marine trophic levels. Marine scientists note that the removal of 100 million metric tons (which includes both capture and aquaculture) of fish from the world ocean will lead to long-term, large-scale disruptions in marine ecology. Of direct concern are "species level effects," in particular the removal of target and non-target marine life. Continued harvest of fish species to population levels that are below the sustainable numbers required for reproduction will eventually lead to extinction.

The orange roughy, for example, began to be commercially exploited ten years ago. This fish lives to be 150 years old and only begins to reproduce at age 25. By continually removing the oldest fish first, the industry has depleted the population of reproducing adults. (Harvesting this fish generally results in the destruction of coral forests.) The orange roughy species is now threatened with extinction. As mentioned earlier, the depletion of fish stock for commercial fishing in coastal waters led to the capture of fishes in the deep sea-such as roundnose grenadier, onion-eye grenadier, spiny eel, spinytail skate, and blue hake-subjecting them to the dictates of the market, driving them to the point of extinction.21

Industrialized capitalist fishing allows for vast quantities of target fish to be harvested at once. At the same time, it leads to an immense amount of non-target marine life-bycatch-being captured. Bycatch are commercially unviable species, thus they are seen as waste. The "trash fish" are often ground up and thrown back into the ocean. Part of the bycatch includes juveniles of the target fish, which, if the mortality is increased among this population, undercuts the success of recovery. Obviously, the populations of the discarded species are negatively affected by this practice, furthering the depletion of marine life. The most wasteful operation is trawling for shrimp. The capture and discarding of bycatch disrupts the habitats and trophic webs within ecosystems. The scale of the disruption is quite significant. It is estimated that an average of 27 million tons of fish are discarded each year in commercial fisheries around the world, and that the United States has a .28 ratio of bycatch discard to landings.22

Species extinction is the direct impact of overfishing, which is in part driven by the pursuit of capital accumulation and is facilitated by the technological innovations that are employed for this particular purpose, in what has become known as a "race for fish."23 Capitalist practices are creating a loss of marine biodiversity and undermining the resiliency of marine ecosystems. Valiela states, "The magnitude of the fishing harvest and the examples of major alterations to marine food webs by predator removal suggest that effects of fishing are ecologically substantial at large spatial scales." The "major alteration to marine food webs" due to overexploitation provides the clearest example of ecological degradation in the metabolic processes of the ocean.24

Fishing Down the Food Chain

Equally disrupting, but less apparent than species effects, are the ecosystem effects caused by fishery exploitation, especially "fishing down the food chain."25 As overfishing depletes the most commercially viable top predators (i.e., snapper, tuna, cod, and swordfish), competition drives commercial fishers to begin harvesting species of lower trophic levels. The downward shift is global, according to the model analysis of UN statistics describing worldwide catches of fish over a forty-year time span. If this quest is pursued to its logical end, scientists warn it will lead to the wholesale collapse of marine ecosystems. Fishing down the food chain erodes the base of marine biodiversity and undermines the biophysical cornerstone of ocean fisheries. The recent discoveries of marine trophic interactions suggest that the lower trophic levels of marine food webs provide an integral and complex foundation-disrupting this base undermines the metabolic cycle of energy flows within marine ecosystems.

Overfishing of lower trophic levels has shortened the food chain and sometimes has removed one or more of the "links," increasing the system's vulnerability to natural and human induced stresses. For example, in the North Sea the cod population has been so depleted that fishermen are now harvesting a lower trophic species called pout, which the cod used to eat. The pout eat krill and copepods. Krill also eat copepods. As the pout are commercially harvested, the krill population expands and the copepod population declines drastically. (In other areas of the ocean, krill are captured and used as an animal-feed additive, hindering the recovery of the whales that depend upon them for food.) Because copepods are the main food of young cod, the cod population cannot recover from initial fisheries exploitation.26

Fishing down the food chain illustrates how capture fisheries organized under competitive market conditions and the drive to accumulate capital are dismantling the marine ecological system that has been developing for millions of years. In addition, fishing for lower trophic level species deceptively masks marine fish extraction, as millions of tons of fish are harvested each year from the oceans. People continue to be provided with seafood on their menus, never realizing the full impact of overfishing the top predators. Fishing down the food chain, due to overfishing in the higher tropic levels, depletes the food resources on which predatory fishes depend. As noted earlier, marine predatory species are extremely vulnerable to losses of prey.

Collapse of Coastal Marine Ecosystems

The previous examples demonstrate how species extinction decreases the resiliency of trophic level interactions. Even more problematic, however, is the widespread collapse of entire ecosystems resulting from overfishing. Historical data suggests that species and population declines due to overfishing are direct preconditions for the collapse of entire coastal ecosystems. The collapse of whole-scale ecosystems not only threatens the ecological resiliency of the marine environment, but also disrupts the human populations that rely on the coastal ecosystem for subsistence or livelihoods. "Overfishing and ecological extinction predate and precondition modern ecological investigations and the collapse of marine ecosystems in recent times, raising the possibility that many more marine ecosystems may be vulnerable to collapse in the near future."27

Kelp forests, coral reefs, seagrass beds, and estuaries are examples of coastal ecosystems that have collapsed in parts of the world due to overfishing and other forms of environmental degradation. These ecosystems provide complex habitats for a multitude of species and often are the foundation of many local fishing communities. For example, the kelp forests of the Gulf of Maine experienced severe deforestation and widespread reductions in the number of trophic levels due to the population explosion of sea urchins, the primary herbivores that eat kelp. The following account details such a sequence of events:

Atlantic cod and other large ground fish are voracious predators of sea urchins. These fishes kept sea urchin populations small enough to allow persistence of kelp forests despite intensive aboriginal and early European hook-and-line fishing for at least 5000 years. New mechanized fishing technology in the 1920s set off a rapid decline in numbers and body size of coastal cod in the Gulf of Maine....Kelp forests disappeared with the rise in sea urchins due to removal of predatory fish.28

In other words, industrial fishing operations intensified the exploitation of marine ecosystems, transforming natural conditions.
A number of human activities are leading to the collapse of coral reefs. Overfishing is one of the causes. Deforestation is another. Clearing forests leads to muddy rivers filled with sediment, which moves downstream and smothers coral reefs. But the main force driving massive destruction of coral reefs is global warming. The increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere contributes to a warming and increase in the acidity of ocean water. As a result, multicolored, healthy coral reefs filled with a rich abundance of biodiversity are being bleached and turned into gray-white skeletons. Without radical changes to the social metabolic order, the death of the world's coral reefs could take place within a few decades. When coral reefs die, the fauna dependent upon them also die.29 Natural conditions, everywhere, are being transformed by the social metabolic order of capitalism. A general progression of environmental degradation accompanies this system of growth, creating ecological crises in the conditions of life.

The most recent changes to coastal ecosystems caused by overfishing involve microbial population explosions. The microbial loop has been found to be more sophisticated and complex than ever expected. Population explosions of microbes are responsible for increasing eutrophication, diseases of marine species, toxic bloom, and even diseases such as cholera that affect human health.30 Chesapeake Bay is now a bacterially dominated ecosystem with a trophic structure unrecognizable from that of a century ago. This rapid and drastic change in ecosystem composition is due to the overfishing of suspension feeders that filtered microbes out of the water column. Bacterial domination of Chesapeake Bay and the deforestation of kelp beds in the Gulf of Maine serve as two examples of how depletion of top predators leads to the collapse of entire ecosystems.

The immense problems associated with the overharvest of industrial capture fisheries has led some optimistically to offer aquaculture as an ecological solution. However, capitalist aquaculture fails to reverse the process of ecological degradation. Rather, it continues to sever the social and ecological relations between humans and the ocean.

Aquaculture: The Blue Revolution?

The massive decline in fish stocks has led capitalist development to turn to a new way of increasing profits-intensified production of fishes. Capitalist aquaculture represents not only a quantitative change in the intensification and concentration of production; it also places organisms' life cycles under the complete control of private for-profit ownership.31 This new industry, it is claimed, is "the fastest-growing form of agriculture in the world." It boasts of having ownership from "egg to plate" and substantially alters the ecological and human dimensions of a fishery.32

Aquaculture (sometimes also referred to as aquabusiness) involves subjecting nature to the logic of capital. Capital attempts to overcome natural and social barriers through its constant innovations. In this, enterprises attempt to commodify, invest in, and develop new elements of nature that previously existed outside the political-economic competitive sphere: As Edward Carr wrote in the Economist, the sea "is a resource that must be preserved and harvested....To enhance its uses, the water must become ever more like the land, with owners, laws and limits. Fishermen must behave more like ranchers than hunters."33

As worldwide commercial fish stocks decline due to overharvest and other anthropogenic causes, aquaculture is witnessing a rapid expansion in the global economy. Aquaculture's contribution to global supplies of fish increased from 3.9 percent of total worldwide production by weight in 1970 to 27.3 percent in 2000. In 2004, aquaculture and capture fisheries produced 106 million tons of fish and "aquaculture accounted for 43 percent."34 According to Food and Agriculture Organization statistics, aquaculture is growing more rapidly than all other animal food producing sectors.

Hailed as the "Blue Revolution," aquaculture is frequently compared to agriculture's Green Revolution as a way to achieve food security and economic growth among the poor and in the third world. The cultivation of farmed salmon as a high-value, carnivorous species destined for market in core nations has emerged as one of the more lucrative (and controversial) endeavors in aquaculture production.35 Much like the Green Revolution, the Blue Revolution may produce temporary increases in yields, but it does not usher in a solution to food security (or environmental problems). Food security is tied to issues of distribution. Given that the Blue Revolution is driven by the pursuit of profit, the desire for monetary gain trumps the distribution of food to those in need.36

Industrial aquaculture intensifies fish production by transforming the natural life histories of wild fish stocks into a combined animal feedlot. Like monoculture agriculture, aquaculture furthers the capitalistic division of nature, only its realm of operation is the marine world. In order to maximize return on investment, aquaculture must raise thousands of fish in a confined net-pen. Fish are separated from the natural environment and the various relations of exchange found in a food web and ecosystem. The fish's reproductive life cycle is altered so that it can be propagated and raised until the optimum time for mechanical harvest.

Aquaculture interrupts the most fundamental metabolic process-the ability of an organism to obtain its required nutrient uptake. Because the most profitable farmed fish are carnivorous, such as Atlantic salmon, they depend on a diet that is high in fishmeal and fish oil. For example, raising Atlantic salmon requires four pounds of fishmeal to produce every one pound of salmon. Consequently, aquaculture production depends heavily on fishmeal imported from South America to feed the farmed carnivorous species.37

The inherent contradiction in extracting fishmeal is that industries must increase their exploitation of marine fish in order to feed the farm-raised fish-thereby increasing the pressure on wild stocks to an even larger extent. Such operations also increase the amount of bycatch. Three of the world's five largest fisheries are now exclusively harvesting pelagic fish for fishmeal, and these fisheries account for a quarter of the total global catch. Rather than diminishing the demands placed on marine ecosystems, capitalist aquaculture actually increases them, accelerating the fishing down the food chain process. The environmental degradation of populations of marine species, ecosystems, and tropic levels continues.38

Capitalist aquaculture-which is really aquabusiness-represents a parallel example of capital following the patterns of agribusiness. Similar to combined animal feedlots, farmed fish are penned up in high-density cages making them susceptible to disease. Thus, like in the production of beef, pork, and chicken, farmed fish are fed fishmeal that contains antibiotics, increasing concerns about antibiotic exposure in society. In "Silent Spring of the Sea," Don Staniford explains, "The use of antibiotics in salmon farming has been prevalent right from the beginning, and their use in aquaculture globally has grown to such an extent that resistance is now threatening human health as well as other marine species." Aquaculturists use a variety of chemicals to kill parasites, such as sea lice, and diseases that spread quickly throughout the pens. The dangers and toxicities of these pesticides in the marine environment are magnified because of the long food chain.39

Once subsumed into the capitalist process, life cycles of animals are increasingly geared to economic cycles of exchange by decreasing the amount of time required for growth. Aquabusiness conforms to these pressures, as researchers are attempting to shorten the growth time required for fish to reach market size. Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) has been added to some fish feeds to stimulate growth in fishes in aquaculture farms in Hawaii. Experiments with fish transgenics-the transfer of DNA from one species to another-are being done to increase the rate of weight gain, causing altered fish to grow from 60 percent to 600 percent larger than wild stocks.40 These growth mechanisms illustrate capitalist aquaculture's drive to transform nature to facilitate the generation of profit.

In addition, aquaculture alters waste assimilation. The introduction of net-pens leads to a break in the natural assimilation of waste in the marine environment. The pens convert coastal ecosystems, such as bays, inlets, and fjords, into aquaculture ponds, destroying nursery areas that support ocean fisheries. For instance, salmon net-pens allow fish feces and uneaten feed to flow directly into coastal waters, resulting in substantial discharges of nutrients. The excess nutrients are toxic to the marine communities that occupy the ocean floor beneath the net-pens, causing massive die offs of entire benthic populations.41 Other waste products are concentrated around net-pens as well, such as diseases and parasites introduced by the caged salmon to the surrounding marine organisms.

The Blue Revolution is not an environmental solution to declining fish stocks. In fact, it is an intensification of the social metabolic order that creates ruptures in marine ecosystems. "The coastal and marine support areas needed for resource inputs and waste assimilation [is]...50,000 times the cultivation area for intensive salmon cage farming."42 This form of aquaculture places even more demands upon ecosystems, undermining their resiliency. Although aquabusiness is efficient at turning fish into a commodity for markets given the extensive control that is executed over the productive conditions, it is even more energy inefficient than fisheries, demanding more fuel energy investment than the energy produced.43 Confronted by declines in fish stock, capital is attempting to shift production to aquaculture. However, this intense form of production for profit continues to exhaust the oceans and produce a concentration of waste that causes further problems for ecosystems, undermining their ability to regenerate at all levels.

Turning the Ocean into a Watery Grave

The world is at a crossroads in regard to the ecological crisis. Ecological degradation under global capitalism extends to the entire biosphere. Oceans that were teeming with abundance are being decimated by the continual intrusion of exploitive economic operations. At the same time that scientists are documenting the complexity and interdependency of marine species, we are witnessing an oceanic crisis as natural conditions, ecological processes, and nutrient cycles are being undermined through overfishing and transformed due to global warming.

The expansion of the accumulation system, along with technological advances in fishing, have intensified the exploitation of the world ocean; facilitated the enormous capture of fishes (both target and bycatch); extended the spatial reach of fishing operations; broadened the species deemed valuable on the market; and disrupted metabolic and reproductive processes of the ocean. The quick-fix solution of aquaculture enhances capital's control over production without resolving ecological contradictions.

It is wise to recognize, as Paul Burkett has stated, that "short of human extinction, there is no sense in which capitalism can be relied upon to permanently 'break down' under the weight of its depletion and degradation of natural wealth."44 Capital is driven by the competition for the accumulation of wealth, and short-term profits provide the immediate pulse of capitalism. It cannot operate under conditions that require reinvestment in the reproduction of nature, which may entail time scales of a hundred or more years. Such requirements stand opposed to the immediate interests of profit.

The qualitative relation between humans and nature is subsumed under the drive to accumulate capital on an ever-larger scale. Marx lamented that to capital, "Time is everything, man is nothing; he is at the most, time's carcase. Quality no longer matters. Quantity alone decides everything."45 Productive relations are concerned with production time, labor costs, and the circulation of capital-not the diminishing conditions of existence. Capital subjects natural cycles and processes (via controlled feeding and the use of growth hormones) to its economic cycle. The maintenance of natural conditions is not a concern. The bounty of nature is taken for granted and appropriated as a free gift.

As a result, the system is inherently caught in a fundamental crisis arising from the transformation and destruction of nature. István Mészáros elaborates this point, stating:

For today it is impossible to think of anything at all concerning the elementary conditions of social metabolic reproduction which is not lethally threatened by the way in which capital relates to them-the only way in which it can. This is true not only of humanity's energy requirements, or of the management of the planet's mineral resources and chemical potentials, but of every facet of the global agriculture, including the devastation caused by large scale de-forestation, and even the most irresponsible way of dealing with the element without which no human being can survive: water itself....In the absence of miraculous solutions, capital's arbitrarily self-asserting attitude to the objective determinations of causality and time in the end inevitably brings a bitter harvest, at the expense of humanity [and nature itself].46

An analysis of the oceanic crisis confirms the destructive qualities of private for-profit operations. Dire conditions are being generated as the resiliency of marine ecosystems in general is being undermined.

To make matters worse, sewage from feedlots and fertilizer runoff from farms are transported by rivers to gulfs and bays, overloading marine ecosystems with excess nutrients, which contribute to an expansion of algal production. This leads to oxygen-poor water and the formation of hypoxic zones-otherwise known as "dead zones" because crabs and fishes suffocate within these areas. It also compromises natural processes that remove nutrients from the waterways. Around 150 dead zones have been identified around the world. A dead zone is the end result of unsustainable practices of food production on land. At the same time, it contributes to the loss of marine life in the seas, furthering the ecological crisis of the world ocean.

Coupled with industrialized capitalist fisheries and aquaculture, the oceans are experiencing ecological degradation and constant pressures of extraction that are severely depleting the populations of fishes and other marine life. The severity of the situation is that if current practices and rates of fish capture continue marine ecosystems and fisheries around the world could collapse by the year 2050.47 To advert turning the seas into a watery grave, what is needed is nothing less than a worldwide revolution in our relation to nature, and thus of global society itself.

Notes
1. Ivan Valiela, Marine Ecological Processes (New York: Springer, 1995); Jeremy B. Jackson, et al., "Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems," Science 293 (2001): 629-37.
2. Pew Oceans Commission, America's Living Oceans (Arlington, Va.: PEW, 2003), v; Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (Rome: FAO, 2002), 23; Ransom A. Meyers and Boris Worm, "Rapid Worldwide Depletion of Predatory Fish Communities," Nature 423 (2003): 280-83; Jennie M. Harrington, Ransom A. Myers, and Andrew A. Rosenberg, "Wasted Fishery Resources," Fish & Fisheries 6, no. 4 (2005): 350-61.
3. Benjamin S. Halpern, et al., "A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems," Science 319 (2008): 948-952; Jennifer L Molnar, et al., "Assessing the Global Threat of Invasive Species to Marine Biodiversity," Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 6 (2008), doi:10.1890/070064; Callum Roberts, The Unnatural History of the Sea (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2007).
4. István Mészáros, Beyond Capital (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1995), 40-44; John Bellamy Foster, Ecology Against Capitalism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2002).
5. Metabolism-the relationship of interchange within and between nature and humans, of regulatory processes that govern the regeneration of a system-is a foundational concept in ecology. Marx used a metabolic approach for studying the environmental problems of his day, looking at the metabolism of natural systems. Whereas the metabolic rift was originally described in the context of agriculture and the soil crisis, we extend its usage to study the interaction between society and the oceans. Mészáros notes that each mode of production creates a particular social metabolic order, which can be characterized by the material interchange between society and nature. See Mészáros, Beyond Capital, 40-45; John Bellamy Foster, Marx's Ecology (New York: Monthly Review). This essay, here, draws upon our article, "The Metabolic Rift and Marine Ecology," Organization & Environment 18, no. 4 (2005): 422-44, in which we extend and develop in detail metabolic analysis as it relates to marine ecosystems.
6. Valiela, Marine Ecological Processes, 275.
7. Pew Ocean Commission, America's Living Oceans; Elisabeth Borgese, The Oceanic Circle (New York: United Nations University Press, 1998).
8. Farooq Azam, et al., "The Ecological Role of Water-Column Microbes in the Sea," Marine Ecology Progress, Series 10 (1983): 257-63; Valiela, Marine Ecological Processes.
9. James A. Estes, "Exploitation of Marine Mammals," Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 36 (1979): 1009-17; M. Omori, "Zooplankton Fisheries of the World," Marine Biology 48 (1978): 199-205.
10. Richard Ellis, The Empty Ocean (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2003), 13.
11. Mark Kurlansky, Cod (New York: Walker and Co., 1997), 138-39.
12. Northeast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, accessed April 10, 2005, from Kurlansky, .
13. Today's trawlers now use technology developed by the military to fish waters as deep as one mile from the ocean's surface. They cost as much as $40 million to build, and they reach the length of a football field. There are currently over 37,000 industrial trawlers in the world's oceans, aiding in the total annual harvest of over 80 million tons of fish. See William Warner, Distant Water (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1983), viii.
14. Kurlansky, Cod.
15. Javier Perez de Cuellar, "International Law is Irrevocably Transformed," in United Nations, The Law of the Sea: Official Text of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea with Annexes and Index, A/CONF.62/122 (New York: United Nations, 1983), xxix; Mike Skladany, Ben Belton, and Rebecca Clausen, "Out of Sight and Out of Mind: A New Oceanic Imperialism," Monthly Review 56, no. 9 (February 2005): 14-24.
16. Sharon Lafraniere,"Europe Takes Africa's Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow," New York Times, January 14, 2008; Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Europe's Appetite for Seafood Propels Illegal Trade," New York Times, January 15, 2008; John W. Miller, "Offshore Disturbance: Global Fishing Trade Depletes African Waters," Wall Street Journal, July 18, 2007.
17. FOA, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (Rome: FAO, 2004), 6, 123; FOA, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2006 (Rome: FOA, 2006), 3; Harrington, Myers, and Rosenberg, "Wasted Fishery Resources." Rebecca Clausen and Richard York, "Economic Growth and Marine Biodiversity," Conservation Biology 22 no. 2 (2008): 458-66; Jennifer A. Devine, Krista D. Baker, and Richard L. Haedrich, "Deep-Sea Fishes Qualify as Endangered," Nature 439 (2006): 29.
18. Richard Ellis, "The Bluefin in Peril," Scientific American (March 2008): 71-77.
19. Juliette Jowit, "Krill Fishing Threatens the Antarctic," Guardian, March 23, 2008.
20. Peter H. Tyedmers, Reg Watson, and Daniel Pauly, "Fueling Global Fishing Fleets," Ambio 34 no. 8 (2005): 635-38.
21. Valiela, Marine Ecological Processes; A. Lack, Katherine Short, and Anna Willcock, Managing Risk and Uncertainty in Deep-Sea Fisheries (Australia: World Wildlife Fund, 2003); Devine, Baker, and Haedrich, "Deep-Sea Fishes Qualify as Endangered."
22. Dayton L. Alverson and Steven E. Hughes, "Bycatch," Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 6 (1996): 443-62; Larry B. Crowder and Steven A. Murawski, "Fisheries Bycatch," Fisheries 23 (1998): 8-16; Harrington, Myers, and Rosenberg, "Wasted Fishery Resources" Lance E. Morgan and Ratana Chuenpagdee, Shifting Gears (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2003); Dayton L. Alverson, Mark H. Freeberg, Steven A. Murawski, and J.G. Pope, "A Global Assessment of Fisheries Bycatch and Discard," FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 339 (Rome: FAO, 1996).
23. Harrington, Myers, and Rosenberg, "Wasted Fishery Resources," 358.
24. Valiela, Marine Ecological Processes, 514.
25. The concept of "fishing down the food chain" was first introduced in 1998. Since then it has received international attention. See Daniel Pauly, Villy Christensen, Johanne Dalsgaard, Rainer Froese, and Francisco Torres Jr., "Fishing Down Marine Food Webs," Science 279 (1998): 860-63.
26. In addition to fishing pressures, cod populations are confronting different environmental conditions, which are making population recovery difficult. Global warming is increasing the temperature of the oceans. A warm-water copepod plankton available in late summer has displaced the cold-water copepod plankton, which bloomed at the same time that baby cod needed such food. The shifts in plankton species due to the warming of the oceans has further complicated the conditions for cod to regenerate their numbers. Additional capture of cod in the North Sea could decimate the population to the point of no recovery. See Debora MacKenzie, "Cod Starved to Extinction," New Scientist 180 (2003): 8.
27. Jeremy B. Jackson, et al., "Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems," Science 293 (2001): 629-37.
28. Jackson, et al., "Historical Overfishing," 631.
29. Carl Folke, et al., "Regime Shifts, Resilience, and Biodiversity in Ecosystem Management," Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, & Systematics 35 no. 1 (2004): 557-81; O. Hoegh-Guldberg, et al., "Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification," Science 318 (2007): 1737-42.
30. Jackson, et al. "Historical Overfishing," 636.
31. Aquaculture can be broadly defined to include all historic forms of controlled rearing of aquatic organisms. For the purposes of this paper, we solely address capital intensive aquaculture of high trophic level species in the marine environment. For the remainder of the essay, the term "aquaculture" will only be referring to this contemporary form of capitalist aquaculture.
32. Snigda Prakash, "Soybean Industry Looking for Ways to Make Soy-based Food More Palatable to Farm-Raised Fish," National Public Radio, Morning Edition, May 26, 2004.
33. Edward Carr, "A Second Fall," The Economist 347 (1998): 3-4.
34. FOA, State of World Fisheries, 2002; FOA, The State of World Fisheries 2006, 3.
35. Rosamond L. Naylor, et al., "Nature's Subsidies to Shrimp and Salmon Farming," Science 282 (1998): 883-84.
36. Fred Magdoff, "A Precarious Existence," Monthly Review 55, no. 9 (February 2004): 1-14; Fred Magdoff, "The World Food Crisis," Monthly Review 60, no. 1 (May 2008): 1-15.
37. Naylor et al., "Nature's Subsidies."
38. Given the continual pressures placed on the fish stock in the oceans, compounded by the demands of aquaculture, capital is seeking out other forms of fishmeal as a substitute for marine derived protein sources. Corporations are working to modify soybeans as a fish feed substitute. See Prakash, "Soybean Industry Looking for Ways."
39. Don Staniford, "Silent Spring of the Sea," in Stephen Hume, et al., (eds.), A Stain Upon the Sea (Madeira Park, British Columbia: Harbour Publishing, 2004), 149; Ronald Hites, et al., "Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed Salmon," Science 303 (2004): 226-29; Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962).
40. Sea Grant News Media Center, "Bovine Hormone Could Provide Boost to Tilapia Aquaculture," http://www.seagrantnews.org/news/tips/tip_2003_feb.html; Thomas T. Chen, et al., "Transgenic Fish and Its Application in Basic and Applied Research," Biotechnology Annual Review 2 (1996): 205-36.
41. Naylor et al., "Nature's Subsidies."
42. Nils Kautsky, et al., "The Ecological Footprint," EC Fisheries Cooperation Bulletin 11, no. 3-4 (1998): 5-9.
43. Tyedmers, Watson, and Pauly, "Fueling Global Fishing Fleets."
44. Paul Burkett, "Natural Capital, Ecological Economics, and Marxism," International Papers in Political Economy 10, no. 3 (2003): 47; Paul Burkett, Marx and Nature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999).
45. Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy (New York: International Publishers, 1971), 54.
46. Mészáros, Beyond Capital, 174; Foster, Ecology Against Capital.
47. Boris Worm, et al., "Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services," Science 314 (2006): 787-90.

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Monthly Review | The Oceanic Crisis: Capitalism and the Degradation of Marine Ecosystem

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Brett Clark teaches sociology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Rebecca Clausen teaches sociology at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. The world ocean covers approximately 70 percent of the earth. It has been an integral part of human history, providing food and ecological services.

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Saying No

It talks about how saying no is resistance and it is ok to say no if someone is trying to trap you. It provides a story of Sampal who gets trapped for a long time but then gets free.

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Dolphin Escapes Captivity, Finds Her Family In The Wild And Has A Baby

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The Dodo serves up emotionally and visually compelling, highly sharable animal-related stories and videos to help make caring about animals a viral cause.

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Letting Go

It talks about how it's ok to surrender, it is not a sign of being weak. The article provides insights about adaptability and behaviors that embody surrender in marine mammals

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Frontiers | Marine Mammal Behavior: A Review of Conservation Implications

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The three orders which comprise the extant marine mammals exhibit a wide range of behaviors, varying social structures and differences in social information…

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Exploring

It uses ocean's depth as a metaphor to illustrate emotions, history and complexities of identity. The article talks about elephant seal deep dives into the ocean.

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An Elephant Seal’s Deep Dive | Friends of the Elephant Seal

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When diving to hunt, the northern elephant seal first exhales, emptying its lungs of almost all air. This reduces buoyancy and protects the seal from the bends (decompression sickness). All of the oxygen used to provide the energy needed during the remainder of the dive is stored in the red blood cells and the muscles. At the beginning of the dive the seal swims with its tail fins, however during the rest of the descent, almost 90% of the time the seal simply glides.

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Community

It provides the importance of collective support and solidarity, much like how marine mammals depend on their pods. Staying connected to community helps sustain Black life and culture.

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Perfectly adapted to zipping through the water, melon-headed whales have slim, torpedo-shaped bodies and conical heads. With the absence of a beak, their faces are softly rounded and are decorated with white markings on their lips and dark 'masks' around the eyes - particularly dapper traits. With bow-shaped dorsal fins, pointed flippers and broad flukes, their steely grey bodies sport dark capes below the dorsal fins and pale patches on their tummies.

Bearing a strong similarity to pygmy killer whales, melon-headed whales can be told apart by their flippers which are much more sharply pointed, and their heads which are more triangular. As well as pygmy killer whales, melon-headed whales can also be confused with false killer whales. However, melon-heads are much smaller than false killer whales, who can be up to a lofty 2,000kg heavier.

What is life like for a melon-headed whale?

Highly social, melon-headed whales form tight-knit herds of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands, of whales. Swimming and 'porpoising' closely together and communicating effectively with each other, they stay close throughout their lives. With the older generations made up of the matriarchs, females can live into their 30s, outliving the males by a decade or so.

Happy to socialise outside of their pods, melon-headed whales have been known to hang out with other species including Fraser's, rough-toothed, spinner, spotted and bottlenose dolphins. They sometimes extend this affability to humans and bow-ride alongside boats, but understandably don't like too much attention.

What do melon-headed whales eat?

Melon-headed whale have a varied diet mainly consisting of small fish, squid and shrimp

Where do melon-headed whales live?

Melon-headed whales prefer the world's deep subtropical waters and only tend to come close to shore when the land steeply shelves into the sea. Most regularly spotted around the Hawaiian Islands and other tropical archipelagos, melon-headed whales are also amongst the most common species to mass strand. Most recently, over 50 whales were trapped in a shallow bay in Madagascar in 2008, ultimately leading to their tragic deaths. Whilst the exact cause is unknown, the stranding is believed to have been due to seismic surveying (which use loud sounds) that was being carried out at the same time.

The main threats to melon-headed whales are hunting and entanglement in fishing nets - a plague that is cursing all marine life around the world. Whilst the IUCN currently lists the species as of 'Least Concern', we are only aware of a handful of thriving populations throughout their range.

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Melon-headed whale - Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA

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Perfectly adapted to zipping through the water, melon-headed whales have slim, torpedo-shaped bodies and conical heads. With the absence of a beak, their faces are softly rounded and are decorated with white markings on their lips and dark 'masks' around the eyes - particularly dapper traits.

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Healing

It mainly explores the idea of pausing and taking time to breathe, present and listen. It is important for survival and resilience.

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Marine mammals such as whales and dolphins spend their entire lives at sea. So how can they sleep and not drown? Observations of bottlenose dolphins in aquariums and zoos, and of whales and dolphins in the wild, show two basic methods of sleeping: they either rest quietly in the water, vertically or horizontally, or sleep while swimming slowly next to another animal. Individual dolphins also enter a deeper form of sleep, mostly at night. It is called logging because in this state, a dolphin resembles a log floating at the water's surface.

When marine mammals sleep and swim at once, they are in a state similar to napping. Young whales and dolphins actually rest, eat and sleep while their mother swims, towing them along in her slipstream--a placement called echelon swimming. At these times, the mother will also sleep on the move. In fact, she cannot stop swimming for the first several weeks of a newborn's life. If she does for any length of time, the calf will begin to sink; it is not born with enough body fat or blubber to float easily.

Lots of swimming will tire an infant, producing a weak animal susceptible to infection or attack. Adult male dolphins, which generally travel in pairs, often swim slowly side by side as they sleep. Females and young travel in larger pods. They may rest in the same general area, or companionable animals may pair for sleeping while swimming.

While sleeping, the bottlenose dolphin shuts down only half of its brain, along with the opposite eye. The other half of the brain stays awake at a low level of alertness. This attentive side is used to watch for predators, obstacles and other animals. It also signals when to rise to the surface for a fresh breath of air. After approximately two hours, the animal will reverse this process, resting the active side of the brain and awaking the rested half. This pattern is often called cat-napping.

Dolphins generally sleep at night, but only for a couple hours at a time; they are often active late at night, possibly matching this alert period to feed on fish or squid, which then rise from the depths. Bottlenose dolphins, based on electroencephalogram (EEG) readings, spend an average of 33.4 percent of their day asleep. It is not clear whether cetaceans undergo dream sleep. Rapid Eye Movement (REM)--a characteristic of deep sleep--is hard to discern. But a pilot whale was noted as having six minutes of REM in a single night.

To avoid drowning during sleep, it is crucial that marine mammals retain control of their blowhole. The blowhole is a flap of skin that is thought to open and close under the voluntary control of the animal. Although still a matter of discussion, most researchers feel that in order to breathe, a dolphin or whale must be conscious and alert to recognize that its blowhole is at the surface.

Humans, of course, can breathe while the conscious mind is asleep; our subconscious mechanisms have control of this involuntary system. But equipped with a voluntary respiratory system, whales and dolphins must keep part of the brain alert to trigger each breath.

Other methods help marine mammals to hold their breath longer than other types of mammals can. Marine mammals can take in more air with each breath, as their lungs are proportionately larger than those in humans. In addition, they exchange more air with each inhalation and exhalation. Their red blood cells also carry more oxygen. And when diving, marine mammals' blood travels only to the parts of the body that need oxygen--the heart, the brain and the swimming muscles. Digestion and any other processes have to wait.

Finally, these animals have a higher tolerance for carbon dioxide (CO ₂). Their brains do not trigger a breathing response until the levels of CO ₂ are much higher than what humans can tolerate. These mechanisms, part of the marine mammal diving response, are adaptations to living in an aquatic environment and help during the process of sleeping. Cetaceans reduce the number of breaths they take during rest periods; a dolphin might average 8 to 12 breaths a minute when fairly active only to have their breathing rate drop to 3 to 7 per minute while resting.

It is actually rare for a marine mammal to "drown," as they won't inhale underwater; but they do suffocate from a lack of air. Being born underwater can cause problems for newborn whale and dolphin calves. It is the touch of air on the skin which triggers that first, crucial breath. And necropsies sometimes show that an animal never gets to the surface to take its first breath of air. The same problem can occur when an animal is caught in a fishing net. If unable to reach the surface, or if in a panic, the animal may dive deeper, where it will be unable to breathe and suffocate.

Obviously sleeping safely at sea can pose problems, but the marine mammal system has addressed them.

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How do Whales and Dolphins Sleep Without Drowning?

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Marine mammals such as whales and dolphins spend their entire lives at sea. So how can they sleep and not drown? Observations of bottlenose dolphins in aquariums and zoos, and of whales and dolphins in the wild, show two basic methods of sleeping: they either rest quietly in the water, vertically or horizontally, or sleep while swimming slowly next to another animal.

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Resistance

It explores the importance of rest as a form of resistance and self-care. Connection of need for rest to the behaviors of marine mammals, such as whales and dolphins, who rest deeply and intentionally in their natural environments.

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Elephant seals rest at sea in downward-diving “sleep spirals”

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Elephant seals function on 2 hours of sleep per day, which they grab in 10-minute bursts on deep dives spiralling gently towards the sea floor.

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Care

It talks about the importance of love and protection for something we value like our community, relationships. I found this article very interesting because a mother dolphin from different community adopts a calf from different community which highlights love, care, and also blessings

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As reported in the journal , the curious duo was first seen by researchers led by the Marine Mammal Study Group of French Polynesia around the Rangiroa Atoll off the coast of the Tuamotu Archipelago in June 2014.

At first glance, they assumed it was just a typical bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) caring for her juvenile son. However, a closer look revealed that the youngster had an unusually blunt nose. This was no bottlenose, it was actually a melon‐headed whale (Peponocephala electra), another member of the dolphin family.

The two were recorded together on 11 different days between April and October 2015, then on 24 different days between April 2016 and August 2017, after which time the adoptee would have been weaned and "fled the nest."

While very uncommon in the wild, adoptions have been reported in a number of mammals. Just this month, researchers reported that a wild group of endangered Barbary macaques adopted an injured juvenile from another group.

However, it's not so common to see adoption between species. It's even rarer to see it between genera, as seen here. One of the only other times the phenomenon was when a marmoset ( has been scientifically documented Callithrix jacchus) was adopted by a group of wild capuchin monkeys ( Cebus libidinosus) in 2004. However, for two different genera of oceanic dolphins, this is extremely rare.

"To our knowledge, the case reported here is thus unique in wild mammals," the study authors write.

"Considering the high cost of lactation, long postnatal investment for delphinids, and absence of life‐threatening behaviors toward the new calf, it is reasonable to assume that the female Tursiops adopted the Peponocephala calf," they add.

Melon‐headed whales can be found on the outskirts of the bottlenose dolphin's range, which would explain how these two came into contact. However, it's less certain why the mother put her energy and resources into rearing the calf despite having relatively little genetic relation. Other explanations of interspecies adoption range from a simple mistake made through inexperience to pre‐parental training or even "babysitting" behavior.

In this case, the researchers suggest it was the result of the "mother's inexperience and personality." As you can see from the silhouette of the images above, melon-headed whales do appear fairly similar to bottlenose dolphins, if you ignore their characteristic nose.

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Mother Dolphin Adopts Melon‐Headed Whale Calf In The Wild For The Very First Time

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Mother Dolphin Adopts Melon‐Headed Whale Calf In The Wild For The Very First Time