# data[].attributes.body
Gumbs, A. P. (2020). Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals. AK Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Alexis Pauline Gumbs pushes us out of our comfort zone and into the sea, where other species are moving and mothering in ways that can teach us how to survive. With her beautifully rendered reflections on the habits and habitats of seals, otters and manatees, Gumbs shows us that humans aren't the only ones affected by climate change, and that other mammals know the pain of having their children hunted. Undrowned is a gift and its message is clear: The natural world offers solutions if we just pay attention."- Dani McClain, author of We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood

I'm always interested in the lessons we can learn from other animals. This is why a new book by National Humanities Center Fellow Alexis Pauline Gumbs called Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals caught my attention. 1,2,3

Orcas, also called killer whales, offer some useful lessons we may choose to emulate, recognizing that their killing ways that have evolved in order for them to survive surely aren't behavior patterns for which we should strive. ⁴ I thoroughly enjoyed Undrowned and was thrilled Alexis could take the time to answer a few questions about her riveting new book. Here's what she had to say.
Why did you write Undrowned?
For several years, I have been meditating to the sounds of whales communicating with each other and I noticed that in that practice I was opening up parts of my emotional reality that resonated with the depth and expansiveness of the recorded sounds I heard whales making. I went to the Aquarium of the Pacific to an exhibition about different whale songs and forms of communication and right outside the aquarium was the museum attraction made out of the Queen Mary, the last of the huge ocean liners of the early twentieth century and, incidentally, the ship on which my grandmother migrated to this country.

I bought all the marine mammal guidebooks in the aquarium gift shop and I started to think about marine mammals as mentors, guides in their very being for the deeper, more expansive relationship I wanted to have with the saltwater within and around me, my own breathing, my own sweat, my own tears. I didn't start out thinking that I was writing a book; I just read the guidebooks (opening to random pages every day) and started to write in my journal.

The more I read and wrote the angrier I got. As a Black queer woman and daughter and granddaughter of immigrants, there was something about the descriptions of marine mammals in the guidebooks I had access to that reminded me of all of the forms of surveillance, violence, and endangerment my communities face. And so while I thought that my attraction to information about marine mammals was personal, I soon realized that it was political and not at all separate from my lifelong work as a Black Feminist writer and educator.
How does your book relate to your background and general areas of interest?
My work before Undrowned has focused on the lives and legacies of Black feminists, especially queer Black feminists, and also the revolutionary Black ancestors who inform the contemporary praxis of Black feminism. I took several environmental science courses in college, but I am by no means a marine biologist. I found that to actually be an asset in this process because Undrowned for me is not a book about knowing or explaining anything; it is a book about wonder.

At the same time, as I was writing, I drew on my non-academic background as a granddaughter of Lydia Gumbs, who designed the three-dolphin insignia of the Revolutionary Anguillian flag and seal who is also descended from Shinnecock people who have been in sacred relationship to the Atlantic Right Whale for many generations, and as the granddaughter of Jeremiah Gumbs, who got into the ocean every day even into his nineties and was descended from Ashanti foreparents who survived the middle passage, and as the granddaughter of Joseph McKenzie and Joyce McKenzie whose ancestors survived the transatlantic slave trade to Jamaica.

I am interested in freedom. I am interested in how our relationships to the oceans are carried inside us. I am interested in what marine mammals have to teach us and all species as the ocean rises because of the same greed and exploitation that caused the slave trade to exist.
Who is your intended audience?
I think everyone who has felt awe at the very existence of marine mammals will find resonance here. And everyone who wants to help make the world better. And everyone who wants to be in touch with their deeper emotions. Like the great poet Audre Lorde says, "My work is for anyone who can use it."

I think that we all have something to learn about breathing, about depth, about being part of this planet from the lives and adaptations of marine mammals. I also think that everyone can learn from the legacy and practice of Black feminism which argues that in order to create a more loving and livable world, we have to reckon with what the Combahee River Collective call "interlocking systems of oppression," and our different positionalities in relationship to those systems.

I would love to say that marine mammals themselves - sometimes I call them advanced marine mammals because we are potential marine mammals too; we just mostly aren't very good at it yet - are an audience for this book. But they aren't. I think they would find it boring since it only scratches at the surface of what they already know and live. Also, the pages of this edition are not waterproof.

What are some of the topics that are woven into your book and what are some of your major messages?

Each chapter of the book focuses on what I think of as instructions that we can find in the way marine mammals live. As in: Listen, Breathe, Go Deep, Be Fierce, Be Vulnerable, etc. so in a way the point of the book is our own mindful living, but it also calls us to recognize our role in perpetuating economic systems and political contexts that harm and threaten marine mammals with attunement to the fact that it is our commitment to our own suffering as a species that makes the practices of our species so harmful to others on Earth. The book is environmental, emotional, critical, and cathartic all at once.

What I most hope people take away from the book is the fact that if mammals can live gracefully in the ocean, we can live differently than we do right now. We can do so many things that feel impossible in this moment. And sometimes what feels the most impossible is loving ourselves and each other with the depth we deserve.
How does your book differ from others that are concerned with some of the same general topics?
My book is different in that it probably says "I love you" more than any other phrase. So while it is certainly in community with the other wonderful books that recognize how much we have to learn beyond species, and the sacred work of understanding that some of our greatest teachers are not within our species classification, it also does the poetic work of slipping between educational and intimate voice. Each passage of the book is a love letter, not only to a species of marine mammal but also to the reader and to an emerging part of myself.

You could therefore say it is less clear-cut, or messier; I create myself as less of an expert. But I would say it models itself on the work of living in a fluid environment and seeks the embodied change in feelings you might experience right after you submerge in the water, or right when you come back up for air.
What are some of your current projects?
Right now I am writing a literary biography of the poet Audre Lorde. It's called The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde: Biography as Ceremony. I'm also writing poems about space, particularly the stories and constellation forms observed by indigenous people in the Caribbean region.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Alexis Pauline Gumbs pushes us out of our comfort zone and into the sea, where other species are moving and mothering in ways that can teach us how to survive. With her beautifully rendered reflections on the habits and habitats of seals, otters and manatees, Gumbs shows us that humans aren't the only ones affected by climate change, and that other mammals know the pain of having their children hunted.

# data[].attributes.headline
"Maybe I have to nurture something more visceral than sale or security. Maybe I have to clarify my values." (p. 158)

# data[].attributes.subject
"Maybe I have to nurture something more visceral than sale or security. Maybe I have to clarify my values." (p. 158)

# data[].attributes.body
"How do I cultivate it, what I actually want, which is to be more than attractive, more than useful, because beauty and skill are deadly in the time of extraction? But I also don't want to be expendable to you. Is there any way that I don't lose? (p. 158)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Audre Lorde Speaks! March  for Lesbian and Gay Rights Washington D.C.1979

# data[].attributes.headline
"...the urgency of rest, the necessity of regeneration, and the depth rest reveals and allows." (p. 147)

# data[].attributes.subject
"...the urgency of rest, the necessity of regeneration, and the depth rest reveals and allows." (p. 147)

# data[].attributes.body
"...rest is the only way to be renewed." (p. 149)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
CATASTROPHIC MOLT: Elephant Seals Shed their Coats | Oceana

# data[].attributes.headline
"What if we could release ourselves from an internalized time clock and remember that slow is efficient, slow is effective, slow is beautiful?" (p. 141)

# data[].attributes.subject
"What if we could release ourselves from an internalized time clock and remember that slow is efficient, slow is effective, slow is beautiful?" (p. 141)

# data[].attributes.body
"What will you learn? Patience and diligence, when to stand, how to rearrange your life when conditions change? That would be useful."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you work third shift, pull all-nighters (whether it's studying or bingeing a TV show) or experience jetlag, your internal clock might be off.

Circadian rhythm, the name given to your body's 24-hour internal clock, controls your body's sleep-wake cycle.

"It's not just for sleep," says behavioral sleep medicine psychologist Alicia Roth, PhD. "It's for everything that goes on in our body. We have internal clocks for our hormones, our immune system, our digestion. Our organs all run on some sort of timing system."

And everyone's internal clock varies - you might be an early riser, a night owl or somewhere in between.

If you've been feeling tired and think your internal clock is off, can you reset your circadian rhythm? Dr. Roth gives us advice on how to improve our sleep schedule.

Can you reset your circadian rhythm?

Yes, you can reset your circadian rhythm. But first, it's important to understand your own individual circadian rhythm.

"I tell a lot of patients that they're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole," says Dr. Roth. "For example, they might be natural night owls and their body wants to go to bed at midnight, but they're pushing their body to go to bed at nine."

In this example, because your body is not set up to go to bed that early, you might have trouble falling asleep and trouble waking up at the time you'd like.

"It's also ideal to be aware of your circadian rhythm because it also dictates when you're going to be most alert during the day and when you're going to be the most productive," says Dr. Roth. "People who are night owls tend to be most productive in the later evening. And people who are morning people tend to be most productive in the morning."

Factors like light, temperature and when you eat affect your circadian rhythm as well. These are known as zeitgebers, external cues that impact your internal clock.

"So the sun is a zeitgeber," says Dr. Roth. "Our school schedule, our work schedule, when we exercise, those are all zeitgebers. We can do things to change our circadian rhythm by what we expose ourselves to."

How to reset your circadian rhythm

"Resetting your circadian rhythm really means resetting the timing of when you sleep and when you wake up," says Dr. Roth. "It has to do more with the schedule of your sleep, rather than how well you fall asleep."

The following tips can help reset your circadian rhythm.

Have a routine

If you've been going to bed at all different hours of the night, try setting up a schedule and sticking with it. Once you've established a routine, you'll be able to fall asleep and wake up easier.

It's also important to stick close to that schedule on weekends or days off.

Exercise

Overall, exercise helps with melatonin production, which can help you sleep. And working out can help your body's other systems sync with your circadian rhythm.

But when you work out and how you feel from it is different for everyone.

"Some people exercise in the morning because it makes them feel more energetic," says Dr. Roth. "For others, it makes them tired, so they save it for after work."

Avoid alcohol and caffeine in the evening

Pay attention to when you have that last cup of coffee. Drinking caffeine, which is a stimulant, can keep you awake late into the evening, when you'd ideally like to be winding down.

If you're a fan of a nightcap, reconsider drinking alcohol in the evening, too. While you may find you're sleepy or drowsy after drinking alcohol, it can affect your circadian rhythm in the long run.

Limit screen time

If you have a habit of scrolling through social media right before bedtime, stop.

The blue light from your cellphone and tablets restricts the production of melatonin and leads to a disruption in your circadian rhythm.

Try to avoid screens 30 minutes before bedtime.

Avoid naps

While you may love taking an afternoon nap, that hourlong (or more) snooze can harm your circadian rhythm by making it harder to fall asleep at night.

If you do need to take a nap, limit it to 30 minutes or less and aim to nap before 3 p.m.

Gradually move your bedtime

Don't expect to fix or reset your circadian rhythm overnight. Dr. Roth recommends gradually moving your bedtime. This can be done in half-hour shifts.

For example, if you currently go to sleep at 1 a.m. and wake up at 9 a.m., focus on going to bed at 12:30 p.m. and waking up at 8:30 a.m. for a week, and then shift those times back another half-hour the following week.

Why your circadian rhythm matters

Your circadian rhythm affects all aspects of your life, says Dr. Roth.

"For example, if your sleep times are off, your hunger could be off or your eating times," says Dr. Roth. "We often see people who are sleep deprived that their hunger changes, either goes up or down and the timing of when they get hungry can change."

How to tell it's time for a reset

You might need to reset your circadian rhythm if you:

Have trouble falling asleep.

Have trouble staying awake in the evening.

Have trouble waking in the morning.

Have trouble focusing on daily tasks and responsibilities.

If you're having trouble resetting your circadian rhythm on your own, a sleep medicine specialist or a behavioral sleep medicine psychologist can help determine if you have a circadian rhythm disorder.

"A circadian rhythm disorder is when your preferred sleep schedule isn't aligned with what you want it to be," says Dr. Roth. "Your doctor can recognize these disorders, do an assessment of these disorders and figure out how to help treat them."

Dr. Roth says that treatments can include changing schedules, habits and behaviors, using light therapy and adding melatonin supplements.

"Our circadian rhythms evolve over time," says Dr. Roth. "As we age, our circadian timing gets earlier. People in their 50s, 60s and 70s may start to want go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. If you were a night owl as a teenager, you could be a morning person when you're an older adult."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Do You Need to Reset Your Circadian Rhythm?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you work third shift, pull all-nighters (whether it's studying or bingeing a TV show) or experience jetlag, your internal clock might be off. Circadian rhythm, the name given to your body's 24-hour internal clock, controls your body's sleep-wake cycle. "It's not just for sleep," says behavioral sleep medicine psychologist Alicia Roth, PhD.

# data[].attributes.headline
"What has the Amazonian manatee learned in all this time?" (p. 143)

# data[].attributes.subject
"What has the Amazonian manatee learned in all this time?" (p. 143)

# data[].attributes.body
"They say she don't study day or night, just water and where is it, and how much of it is there and what is it nurturing, what now grows." (p. 144)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
You can't see them to count them, but Amazonian manatees seem to be recovering

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Diogo de Souza used to wake up at 3 a.m., stop by the house of a community member who knew about manatees, and the two began work among the carapanãs, the large Amazonian mosquitoes, as the sun came up. Sitting still in their wooden canoe under the scorching sun typical of the dry season, they [...]

# data[].attributes.headline
"Once upon a time, there was whiteness. It will soon be a memory." (p. 137)

# data[].attributes.subject
"Once upon a time, there was whiteness. It will soon be a memory." (p. 137)

# data[].attributes.body
"Though we are hunted for exactly what makes us strong, may we always be embraced in the words of the Lorde." (p. 132)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast features a series of conversations with the 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize winners about their favorite books. Hosted by Michael Kelleher.

In this episode, poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs joins Windham-Campbell Prizes Director Michael Kelleher to talk about the beauty of Audre Lorde's poetry and why more people should know her as a poet as well as an essayist.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Audre Lorde is a cosmic force. Audre Lorde was a science nerd and a science fiction addict. 'Science fiction addict' is her own phrase, that she used from a young age and the imagery in her poetry, of sand, of volcanoes, of stones, is not actually purely metaphorical. She really was interested in Earth and our relationship with earth literally.

And she was like, studying stones and all of this geology and reading all of this science literature for her entire life and I don't think people recognize that. In so many interviews, she talks about us having, yes, to understand the creative power of difference in our relationships with each other. But, she says, if we don't shift our relationship to this planet, we won't even be able to have these conversations because we will not be able to exist. And I don't think that people think about Audre Lorde as an environmentalist or as an eco-feminist or as a science nerd, really.

But she really was her whole life, like from childhood to the moment that she took her last breath, she was thinking about meteors. She was reading up on what caused these rocks to form out of the earth. I really want people to be able to have a conversation, I want people to think about Audre Lorde and that the fact that they should read Audre Lorde's poetry to think about what to do about our climate crisis, and they should read Audre Lorde's poetry to think about what it means to be in relationship with this planet at this time.

The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde * Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde * The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir * Broadside Press * "A Supermarket in California!" by Allen Ginsberg
For a full episode transcript, click here.

__________________________

Born in Summit, New Jersey in 1982, Alexis Pauline Gumbs is an activist, critic, poet, scholar, and educator. A self-described "Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist," Gumbs uses hybrid forms to re-envision old narratives and engage with the history of Black intellectual-imaginative work. Her four books of prose-poetry include Dub: Finding Ceremony (2020), Undrowned (2020), M Archive (2018), and Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity (2016). Dub, M Archive, and Spill form a kind of triptych, each engaging with the work of a Black woman theorist: Sylvia Wynter in Dub; M. Jacqui Alexander in M Archive; and Hortense Spillers in Spill.

In all her work, Gumbs raises the stakes of literature within and beyond the page. She is a people's poet, awake to the form's capacity to imagine alternative worlds, across and through time. Her worldview is capacious and paradigm-shifting, speaking to urgent realities with exuberant love, and inviting activists, artists, and readers alike to join in her participatory presentations. A graduate of Barnard College and Duke University, Gumbs is also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2022), a Whiting Award (2022), and a National Humanities Center Fellowship (2020). She lives in Durham, North Carolina, and is currently at work on a biography of Audre Lorde.

The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast is a program of The Windham-Campbell Prizes, which are administered by Yale University Library's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Alexis Pauline Gumbs on Audre Lorde's The Black Unicorn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast features a series of conversations with the 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize winners about their favorite books. Hosted by Michael Kelleher. In this episode, poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs joins Windham-Campbell Prizes Director Michael Kelleher to talk about the beauty of Audre Lorde's poetry and why more people should know her as a poet as well as an essayist.

# data[].attributes.headline
"How do we stay deep when distracting distractions distract us (like racists being racist for racist reasons)?" (p. 129)

# data[].attributes.subject
"How do we stay deep when distracting distractions distract us (like racists being racist for racist reasons)?" (p. 129)

# data[].attributes.body
"How do you keep your swim bladder level right so you don't float out of school formation?" (p. 129)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Basic Information

Definition

Swim bladder disease is a symptom of various underlying etiologies that results in abnormal buoyancy in the water column. The swim bladder is a gas-filled organ in the dorsal coelomic cavity of fish. Its primary function is maintaining buoyancy, but it is also involved in respiration, sound production, and possibly perception of pressure fluctuations (including sound).

Synonyms

Tenpuku (capsized) disease, buoyancy disorder, gyakuten (upside-down) disease

Clinical Presentation

History, Chief Complaint

Physical Exam Findings

Etiology and Pathophysiology

*

Diseases of the swim bladder can result in overinflation or underinflation, causing positive or negative buoyancy, respectively.

*

The exact cause of buoyancy disorder is unknown.

*

Possibilities include pneumocystis (infectious, idiopathic), swim bladder torsion, anatomic abnormalities of the swim bladder, mechanical obstruction of the pneumatic duct, poor water quality, low water temperature, and neoplasia.

*

The condition is especially common in globoid fancy goldfish and may be secondary to conformational changes in the body brought about by selective breeding and genetics.

*

Light, floating foods such as flakes and pellets have been incriminated because they are theorized to expand with water in the digestive tract and occlude the pneumatic duct.

*

A large number (up to 85%) of fish with buoyancy disorder may have underlying disease.

Read full chapter

URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9781416039693000251

13.4 Swim Bladder Leiomyosarcoma

Leiomyosarcoma of the swim bladder in Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar) was first recognized in pen-reared salmon at a commercial fish farm in Scotland in 1976 (Duncan, 1978; McKnight, 1978). The disease was noted in 4.6% of the fish that were put in a sea cage the prior year. These fish were in poor physical condition and had multiple nodular masses on the surface of the swim bladder (McKnight, 1978). A second outbreak of disease occurred in 1996 in Atlantic salmon collected from the Pleasant River in Maine that were housed at a fish hatchery in Massachusetts and used as brood stock for the Atlantic salmon recovery program (Bowser et al., 2012; Paul et al., 2006). Mortality among the affected salmon from the Pleasant River peaked at 35% in the spring of 1998. Affected fish exhibited signs of lethargy, hemorrhages on the fins and body and swollen abdomens that contain firm nodular masses on the external and internal surfaces of the swim bladder. The swim bladder of affected salmon was expanded by the presence of these masses.

Histologically, the tumors are comprised of spindle cells organized into interlacing bundles divided by bands of collagen (Fig. 13.4) (Coffee et al., 2013; Duncan, 1978; McKnight, 1978). Neoplastic cells exhibit moderate anisocytosis, variable nuclear pleomorphism, frequent pyknotic nuclei and abundant mitotic figures. Tumor cells stain positive for desmin and weakly positive for smooth muscle actin, consistent with the diagnosis of leiomyosarcoma.

Electron microscopy was used to examine neoplastic tissue collected from Atlantic salmon during the first outbreak of disease in 1976, which revealed the presence of budding retroviruslike particles (Duncan, 1978). These observations led investigators to pursue a molecular approach to identify possible retrovirus sequences in swim bladder leiomyosarcomas collected from the second outbreak. Degenerate PCR primers that target conserved sequences in the RT genes of retroviruses were used to amplify a tumor-associated retroviral sequence (Fig. 13.2) (Bowser et al., 2012; Paul et al., 2006). The complete sequence of Atlantic salmon swim bladder sarcoma virus (SSSV) was obtained and found to be 10.9 kb in length. SSSV contains gag, pro, pol and env genes and utilizes a methionine-tRNA as a primer for replication. Full-length viral transcripts and singly spliced env transcripts are detected in tumors (Paul et al., 2006). The virus has not been propagated in cell culture.

SSSV is an exogenous retrovirus that does not contain viral accessory genes, which distinguishes it from the complex fish retroviruses WDSV and WEHV. Phylogenetic analysis places SSSV between the Gammaretrovirus and Epsilonretrovirus genera. Unlike mammalian and avian simple retroviruses, related endogenous copies of SSSV are not present in the Atlantic salmon genome (Paul et al., 2006). SSSV-associated tumors contain high proviral copy numbers (≥30 copies per cell) and a polyclonal integration pattern (Paul et al., 2006). The mechanisms that lead to the accumulation of proviruses in tumors are not known.

Gross and microscopic features are used to confirm the presence of swim bladder leiomyosarcoma. The presence of SSSV can be detected in blood of salmon by PCR (Bowser et al., 2002a,b). Salmon can be screened for infection with SSSV using viral-specific PCR primers. There are no vaccines available.

Read full chapter

URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128015735000139

ATLANTIC SALMON SWIM BLADDER LEIOMYOSARCOMA VIRUS

Sarcomas of the swim bladder in captively-reared Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar) have been described in both Scotland and Maine. These tumors appear as smooth, firm, pale-tan masses that can constrict the swim bladder and cause lethargy, inappetance, and a significant level of mortality. The tumors, which are associated with an exogenous retrovirus, are composed of spindle-shaped cells that are variably immunopositive for α-smooth muscle actin and strongly immunopositive for desmin, characteristics consistent with their being of smooth muscle origin (ie, leiomyoscarcoma). The genome of Atlantic salmon swim bladder sarcoma virus differs from that of the epsilonretroviruses of walleye in being a simple retrovirus with, at most, one potential coding region in addition the gag, pol, and env genes. However, unlike most simple exogenous retroviruses, no endogenous homologue was found in the Atlantic salmon genome, perhaps indicating the species is a recent host and that the oncogenic potential of the virus is due to a viral gene product such as Env as shown for Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus. The Atlantic salmon swim bladder sarcoma virus is most closely related to an endogenous retrovirus of zebrafish ( Danio rerio).

Read full chapter

URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128009468000143

B. Generation of High Oxygen Partial Pressures

In the swim bladder, high partial pressures of gas are generated in two steps: an initial increase in partial pressure and a subsequent countercurrent multiplication ( Kuhn et al., 1963). The initial increase in partial pressure is achieved by a decrease in physical gas solubility and/or a release of gas molecules from a chemical binding site; for oxygen, this is achieved by liberation from the hemoglobin via the Root effect.

To initiate the Root effect, blood must be acidified during passage through the swim bladder, and this is achieved by the metabolic and secretory activity of gas gland cells in the swim bladder epithelium. Gas gland cells are cuboidal or cylindrical with a size ranging from 10-25 μm to giant cells of 50-100 μm. Gas gland cells may be lumped together, forming a compact gas gland as in cod, or spread over the whole swim bladder epithelium as in the eel. They are polar with extensive basal membrane foldings, typical for secretory cells. In contrast to other secretory cells, however, these infoldings are not associated with large numbers of mitochondria. Only a few microvilli are observed on the luminal surface of gas gland cells (cf. Pelster, 1997).

The metabolism of gas gland cells is highly specialized for the production of acidic metabolites. It is fueled by blood glucose, which, even under hyperoxic conditions, is largely converted into lactic acid (D'Aoust, 1970; Boström Pelster et al., 1972; Ewart and Driedzic, 1990; Pelster and Scheid, 1993; Pelster, 1995a). Although aerobic metabolism appears to be almost negligible in gas gland cells, some of the glucose is decarboxylated by the enzyme 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase in the pentose phosphate shunt, forming CO ₂ without concomitant consumption of oxygen (Walsh and Milligan, 1993; et al., 1994).

Lactic acid as well as COKobayashi ₂ are released into the bloodstream (Steen, 1963; Pelster and Scheid, 1993) and acidify the blood. Though CO ₂ easily diffuses into the blood and into the red cells, the situation is more complex for lactic acid. Experiments on gas gland cells in primary culture suggest that the acid secretion from these cells may involve sodium-dependent pathways and in part be due to the activity of a V-ATPase (Pelster, 1995b). This acid release results in a remarkable acidification of the blood (Fig. 4). In the European eel, pH values as low as 6.6-6.8 have been measured in blood after passage of the gas gland cells (Steen, 1963; et al., 1990).

Pelster In vitro measurements characterizing the oxygen-binding properties of Root effect hemoglobins have shown that blood pH values below 7.0 usually are sufficient to provoke a maximal Root effect. In the European eel, for example, anodic components, which exhibit a Root effect, make up about 60% of total hemoglobin and can be deoxygenated at pH values below 7.0 (Pelster and Weber, 1990). Titration of blood with CO ₂ indeed revealed that about 40-50% of eel blood is deoxygenated at an extracellular pH of 7.1 or below ( et al., 1990). Given a hematocrit of about 20-30%, typically observed in fish, deoxygenation of 40% of the respiratory pigment results in a remarkable increase in oxygen partial pressure (Pelster and Weber, 1991).

The time courses of the initiation of the Root effect caused by the release of CO ₂ and of lactic acid should be different. Diffusion of CO ₂ and the presence of carbonic anhydrase activity in the extracellular space (Pelster, 1995b), as well as in the erythrocyte, will allow for a rapid increase in red cell proton concentration, and thus for a rapid activation of the Root effect. On the other hand, membranes are not easily penetrated by protons so that ion transfer is required to bring the protons out of the gas gland cells and into the red cell. In consequence, proton transfer into the red cell is much slower than diffusion of CO ₂, possibly resulting in a transient disequilibrium in extracellular pH. In this case, liberation of oxygen from the hemoglobin would occur only after leaving the capillary system of the secretory bladder, when the blood is already on its way to the venous rete mirabile. Gas deposition into the swim bladder initially would be diminished, but oxygen back-diffusion in the rete mirabile would be enhanced so that the oxygen is not lost for gas deposition.

Acid production and release from the gas gland cells cause a significant acidification of the blood, but careful analysis of the acid-base status of the blood during passage of the swim bladder revealed that, in the European eel, blood pH decrased from 7.82 ± 0.06 to 7.33 ± 0.04 during arterial passage of the rete mirabile (Kobayashi Pelster Kobayashi et al., 1990); i.e., the blood was acidified even before reaching the gas gland cells. This acidification is caused by back-diffusion of acid-mainly CO ₂-in the rete mirabile ( et al., 1990; et al., 1990). The high rate of CO ₂ production and release from gas gland cells assures that the P CO₂ in blood returning to the venous rete mirabile exceeds arterial P CO₂ and establishes partial pressure gradient for CO ₂ from the venous to the arterial rete capillaries. The formation of CO ₂ in the pentose phosphate shunt of the gas gland cells not only contributes to the acidification of blood during passage of the gas gland cells, but also sets the stage for back-diffusion of CO ₂ and acidification of the blood in the countercurrent system.

In analyzing the Root effect, both steps have to be taken into account, as shown in Fig. 5. At pH 7.8, observed in the arterial blood supplying the swim bladder, almost complete saturation of the hemoglobin can be expected. Acidification of the blood down to pH 7.3, induced by back-diffusion of acid during passage of the rete, is sufficient to reduce the oxygen-carrying capacity of the hemoglobin by about 20%. The release of acid from gas gland cells into the blood causes a further decrease in pH to 7.1 and adds another 15-20% reduction (Fig. 5). Thus, the acidification of blood in two steps during passage of the swim bladder ensures an almost maximal reduction in the hemoglobin oxygen-carrying capacity.

The importance of acid back-diffusion in the rete mirabile for the generation of high Kobayashi Kobayashi Kuhn Kuhn Kobayashi Pelster Kuhn Kobayashi P O₂ values was demonstrated by experiments of et al. (1990), in which, due to a high rate of oxygen deposition into the swim bladder, only a very small P O₂ gradient was measured between the venous blood returning to the rete mirabile and arterial blood leaving it. Nevertheless, P O₂ increased remarkably during arterial passage of the rete and dropped in the venous capillaries. These P O₂ changes, however, were not accompanied by changes in oxygen content, precluding oxygen back-diffusion as the underlying mechanism. Thus, the observed sevenfold increase in P O₂ during arterial passage of the rete was induced solely by acid back-diffusion in the rete, switching on the Root effect and partially deoxygenating the hemoglobin ( et al., 1990). According to the basic concept of countercurrent concentration, the acidification of blood achieved by acid release from gas gland cells represents the single concentrating effect ( et al., 1963), the initial increase in gas partial pressure induced by a decrease in the effective gas transport capacity of hemoglobin (without change in the whole blood gas content). In a second step, this initial increase in gas partial pressure is then multiplied by back-diffusion in the countercurrent system, which results in increasing gas partial pressures and gas concentrations on the arterial side of the countercurrent system ( et al., 1963; Pelster and Scheid, 1992). The magnitude of the final gas partial pressure that can be achieved largely depends on the magnitude of the single concentrating effect ( et al., 1989). Due to the action of the Root effect, the single concentrating effect for oxygen by far exceeds that of inert gases and CO ₂ ( et al., 1990). As model calculations have shown, extremely high P O₂ values can be achieved by such a large single concentrating effect and subsequent countercurrent multiplication, certainly sufficient to explain the presence of fishes with a gas-filled swim bladder at a water depth of several thousand meters ( et al., 1963; et al., 1989, 1990).

Read full chapter

URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1546509808602605

B. High O₂ Tensions

A primary function of the swim bladder in those fishes which use this organ in hydrostatic function appears to be the secretion of O ₂ from the blood into the swim bladder, at times against exceedingly high concentration gradients. During gas deposition, lactic acid enters the blood circulating through the bladder epithelium. The pH of this blood drops to values approaching 1 pH unit lower than the pH of the blood entering the rete system. This pH change is brought about largely, if not solely, by lactic acid which is presumably produced as an end product of glycolysis in the swim bladder epithelium (Steen, 1963). These conditions raise two important problems: (1) high glycolytic rates are not normally expected in the presence of high concentrations of O ₂ because of the Pasteur effect (inhibition of glycolysis by high O ₂); and (2) the variability in intracellular pH may be expected to be high, being a function of the rate of O ₂ secretion.

The Pasteur effect is brought about by the development of a high energy charge in the cell and the subsequent inhibition of the PFK reaction by high ATP concentrations. In swim bladder, the Pasteur effect is absent (Ball et al., 1955), probably because mitochondrial metabolism is reduced (Steen, 1963). Also, it is possible that swim bladder epithelium possesses forms of PFK which are not sensitive to inhibition by high ATP.

We have little information on the pH responses of enzymes of the bladder epithelium. Swim bladder LDH, particularly at high substrate values, appears to be less sensitive to pH change than do other LDHs examined (Hochachka, 1968b); in this way, this particular enzyme appears to be well adapted for function in the microenvironment of the swim bladder epithelium. We do not know if the same is true for other enzymes.

Read full chapter

URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1546509808601478

Read full chapter

URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123744739006779

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Definition Swim bladder disease is a symptom of various underlying etiologies that results in abnormal buoyancy in the water column. The swim bladder is a gas-filled organ in the dorsal coelomic cavity of fish. Its primary function is maintaining buoyancy, but it is also involved in respiration, sound production, and possibly perception of pressure fluctuations (including sound).

# data[].attributes.headline
"What it would take to tune in with our environment enough to be in flow with the Earth instead of in struggle against it." (p. 121)

# data[].attributes.subject
"What it would take to tune in with our environment enough to be in flow with the Earth instead of in struggle against it." (p. 121)

# data[].attributes.body
"I am learning to trust myself here at the shoreline." (p. 122)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes | Brief Summary

# data[].attributes.headline
"I want to tune my movement to where the warmth is, but instead I struggle, treading water on a path I made up in my mind based on bad information. And if I had trusted you, I would have learned to trust myself." (p. 125)

# data[].attributes.subject
"I want to tune my movement to where the warmth is, but instead I struggle, treading water on a path I made up in my mind based on bad information. And if I had trusted you, I would have learned to trust myself." (p. 125)

# data[].attributes.body
"We can learn to let go or you will let go for us." (p. 126)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Paule Marshall (author) visits Medgar Evers College October 20, 2000

# data[].attributes.headline
"What does it look like to be intolerant of colonialism?" (p. 115)

# data[].attributes.subject
"What does it look like to be intolerant of colonialism?" (p. 115)

# data[].attributes.body
"...what recovery is possible if the colonial force actually shuts down?" (p. 115)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
African American culture is often considered expressive, dramatic, and even defiant, notes Quashie. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of black culture.

Quashie will discuss The Sovereignty of Quiet on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 4:30 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room. He recently responded to questions about the book.

Gate: How do you define your concept of Quiet?

Kevin Quashie: I try to make a distinction between the way that we commonly use the term "silence"-which is often imagined as something that is withheld or as absence-and the idea of Quiet, which I think of as a quality of being, as a manner of expression. Quiet can describe something that is vibrant-for example, one can say that a song or a novel is quiet. Quiet is a certain quality of being and it is this quality of being I am interested in. I know that silence can be expressive too-one can communicate something by not speaking, or by withholding. But, for me, the difference is the way that Quiet seems to represent a kind of inwardness, the vast feelings and thoughts and desires of one's inner life; the expressiveness of Quiet is not about suppression or reservation...it is an expressiveness that is interior.

I think that these ideas about Quiet reflect a particular dynamic of the way that race is tethered to publicness-race is a concept that is formed and contested in public discourse. But it also reflects the way that publicness is such an important feature of American culture as a whole. Part of it has to do with the significance of publicness (public spaces but also the way that notions of publicness are key to what it means to be a free citizen).

Gate: How did you come to embark on scholarly treatment of the topic of Quiet?

KQ: I think I have been interested in Quiet for much of my conscious life, though I certainly didn't always think of the term as I do now. I am inclined to be shy, to be observant, I like to study moments, people, and situations quietly. But I also know how to be social, I know how to overcome or compensate for shyness. Indeed, it has been important for me to do this, since there are ways that quiet can be misread (in general, but also specifically in terms of race and gender, for example). So the interest is very personal, almost psychological. Even as the book is not memoiristic, its shape is deeply personal: I am a child of quiet.

But there is another formative moment-when I started reading work by black women writers (and other women of color) in the early 1990s. I was struck by the fact that in many of these works, race and its social meanings were important but not necessarily paramount, that the representations of black life was not over-determined by racial discourse. The lives of black people, in the imaginations of these writers, were broad and multiple and complicated. So I started to think about what it meant to think about black life through some other framework, not one that ignores the enduring significance of race and racism, but one that imagines that there is an expansiveness to the humanity of a black person. I have been thinking about this idea for a long time, and in a variety of ways, some of them casual, some of them deliberate. And though I played around with other terms that might serve as a metaphor to help me organize my thinking, none of them ever seemed as capable as Quiet, a term which locked itself into my consciousness sometime in 2002.

Gate: What might we in society learn from the examples in your book of Quiet's magnitude?

KQ: I think that we can become a little more aware of the ways that we tend to understand or interpret blackness, interpretations that are pretty unconscious and that are made within black culture but also from outside of it. For example, resistance: resistance is so readily identified with black culture-it is a commonsense notion that black culture is expressive, dramatic, even defiant...characterizations that all point toward the notion of resistance. Resistance is such a powerful idiom in how we think about black culture, that it is a nearly unconscious assumption.

And while I am not arguing against resistance (I mean, organized and informal acts of resistance have been legendarily important to American history, never mind to black people's experience), I do think that the prevalence of understanding black culture through the framework of resistance actually keeps us from being able to see/notice black humanity; it is as if black people have no inner life, as if their being only conjures up a social narrative of racism and the resistance of racism, violence and the triumph over violence.

Again, I don't think that we have to give up appreciating the ways that resistance (and its related terms) play a vital part in black American history, but I also think that we can be careful about the ways that resistance serves as such a dominant catch-all for thinking about blackness. Sometimes it feels that for all of the ways that our thinking about blackness has changed, that the equivalence between blackness and resistance is not one of them.

Gate: What role does Quiet, as a paradigm, play in your life? Have you used Quiet or related concepts to engender an outcome? The result?

KQ: Ah, I was intentional about not making any personal or biographical references in the book; my life is not interesting enough to be useful in this way. But more than this: I was trying to avoid the idea that Quiet might be connected with behavior-as if it were a synonym of silence, a kind of inaction or a less-expressive and less-attractive action; I wanted Quiet to stand as a concept, a habit of being, a metaphor for the wildness and wideness of one's inner life.

But, of course, Quiet, in all kinds of forms, is deeply important to my life, to how I think about my life and how I think about what kind of human being I am, am becoming, want to become. There are ways that my racial identity (not alone but in concert with gender and other identities)-the way race seems to shape how people interact with me-is in conflict with what I might call my Quiet. That is, I spend a lot of time thinking about and through my inner sensibilities, which organizes much of how I live and try to live; and yet, this self-concept is often different from the ways that ideas of race seem to shape some of my social experiences.

Here's one specific way that a notion of Quiet has been useful to my life: being aware of the power of publicness in our society has allowed me to build, consciously, an ambivalent relationship to publicness, to try to find ways to manage the impact of publicness in my life. And I don't just mean professionally-managing public contexts or expectations-but personally, too. I am always looking for the intimate aspect of any public situation, since I think that the intimacy helps me to be more honest, more free, more capable in whatever interaction. This has informed my teaching in the classroom, for example.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kevin Quashie on "The Sovereignty of Quiet"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
African American culture is often considered expressive, dramatic, and even defiant, notes Quashie. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of black culture. Quashie will discuss The Sovereignty of Quiet on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 4:30 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room.

# data[].attributes.headline
"All my love to the queers claiming the ocean on land... We prioritize each other over the gravity of socially enforced narratives, laws, and tax structures." (p. 117)

# data[].attributes.subject
"All my love to the queers claiming the ocean on land... We prioritize each other over the gravity of socially enforced narratives, laws, and tax structures." (p. 117)

# data[].attributes.body
"Out in the ocean, it is not considered queer for bottlenose dolphins assigned male by scientists to live in bonded pairs for decades, whole lifetimes. It is common. It is not considered queer for groups of bottlenose dolphins that scientists call "related females" to travel the whole world together for always. It is common." (p. 116-117)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Homosexual marine animals? Exactly! Aristotle reported about homosexual couples in the animal kingdom as early as 2300 years ago , and until today, homosexual relationships have been observed in about 1500 animal species . This was ignored by scientists or dismissed as a hormonal disorder for a long time but today we know: There is nothing more natural !

To celebrate Pride Month in June, we further researched the topic of homosexuality in marine animals. With the Rainbow Bracenet you too can show your support for universal love!

Penguins

The Central Park Zoo in New York is home to several world-famous male homosexual penguin couples. The most famous one ist the Humboldt penguin pair Silo and Roy from 2006, who were both exclusively homosexual and refused to have any romantic or sexual contact with females. Together they adopted an orphaned egg and raised their adopted daughter, . Tango later lived in a same-sex monogamous relationship with another female. A female homosexual Gentoo Penguin couple named Georgey and Mickey lived in the same zoo. At the Bremerhaven Zoo , six of the 20 Humboldt penguins are homosexual. One of the couples, like Silo and Roy, took in an orphaned egg, hatched it, and now lovingly cares for the young penguin.

A penguin couple - Photo by Pam Ivey on Unsplash

Dolphins

Not just penguins can show homosexual behavior; there are also many same-sex partnerships among dolphins. In a researched group of dolphins in Australia, lifelong homosexual partnerships between males were even more common than heterosexual partnerships. Scientists assume that the main reason for this is not primarily sex, but rather intimate social relationships.

In bottlenose dolphins, a subspecies of dolphins, all males are bisexual. The homosexual encounters help the social structure of the dolphin groups . At a young age, male dolphins form a particularly close relationship with another male dolphin which solidifies over time and grows into a lifelong partnership . The same-sex couple become companions, traveling long distances through the ocean together and defending each other. When one partner sleeps, the other keeps watch and protects him from predators such as sharks. Even during sexual maturity and reproduction with female dolphins, the homosexual relationship between the male dolphin couple remains. When one partner dies, the "widower" often remains alone for a long time. However, sometimes he will form a new relationship with another "widower".

Two dolphins swimming together - Photo by Lachlan Dempsey on Unsplash

Albatrosses

Walruses

Walruses cuddling at the beach - Photo by Jay Ruzesky on Unsplash

Gray whales

Happy Pride Month! 🌈

Protecting sharks through diving tourism sounds paradoxical at first. But it is a sustainable solution that can make a significant contribution to shark conservation. Dive into the world of sustainable shark tourism together with freediver and marine biologist Lennart Voßgätter.

Who doesn't like going to the zoo or tropical aquarium? Is it true that zoos contribute to species conservation and that animals live longer in zoos than in the wild? Let's take a close look at what we really support and learn during a visit.

If you like to spend time along Germany's North Sea coast, you will likely be well acquainted with weather, wind and waves. You'll also be familiar with another sight: Small threads of plastic, mostly orange or blue, that have been washed ashore. These are so-called "dolly ropes". They are used to protect fishing nets, but they endanger the environment. What can we do about it?

Christmas is getting closer and closer! Since it is a well-known fact that giving presents to others makes you even happier than receiving them, we have collected gift inspirations for you. These small gifts create long-lasting joy and at the same time contribute to marine conservation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Homosexuality among marine animals - Queer life underwater

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Homosexual marine animals? Exactly! Aristotle reported about homosexual couples in the animal kingdom as early as 2300 years ago , and until today, homosexual relationships have been observed in about 1500 animal species . This was ignored by scientists or dismissed as a hormonal disorder for a long time but today we know: There is nothing more natural !

# data[].attributes.headline
"Maybe you know something about what it means to bear the constant wounding of a system that says it's about something else entirely." (p. 103)

# data[].attributes.subject
"Maybe you know something about what it means to bear the constant wounding of a system that says it's about something else entirely." (p. 103)

# data[].attributes.body
"I mourn the scars you will not notice until you have a reason to grow." (p. 104)

"...you don't have to save the whales but at least take a look at the ropes." (p. 104)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
André 3000’s iconic Source Awards speech deserves a deep rewind

# data[].attributes.headline
"What if I know you by the movements I can sense in you through goosebumps, the way my hair stands up and greets you, or calms down?" (p. 97)

# data[].attributes.subject
"What if I know you by the movements I can sense in you through goosebumps, the way my hair stands up and greets you, or calms down?" (p. 97)

# data[].attributes.body
"...what if I remembered that my living depends on knowing what is what here in the dirt that I can't see through?" (p. 97)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dark as the Door to a Dream----Tavia Nyong'o

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Emily Winfield Martin's Dream Narwhal painting

# data[].attributes.headline
"It makes me think about who benefited all this time from the conspiracy to pretend I didn't exist." (p. 98)

# data[].attributes.subject
"It makes me think about who benefited all this time from the conspiracy to pretend I didn't exist." (p. 98)

# data[].attributes.body
"I am still unlearning the coping mechanisms I created when I thought I was impossible within myself." (p. 99)

# data[].attributes.headline
"How can we discern the differences between generative boundaries and destructive borders?" (p. 87)

# data[].attributes.subject
"How can we discern the differences between generative boundaries and destructive borders?" (p. 87)

# data[].attributes.body
"As former poet laureate Tracy K. Smith said on her daily poetry podcast The Slowdown, "All animals allowed to live free and wild protect something holy in the world."" (p. 88)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Today’s poem is a brief meditation on breath by Yesenia Montilla.

# data[].attributes.headline
"What are the contours of your captivity? Does it offer something to your own torment to know you are not alone in your tiredness?" (p. 89)

# data[].attributes.subject
"What are the contours of your captivity? Does it offer something to your own torment to know you are not alone in your tiredness?" (p. 89)

# data[].attributes.body
"...I celebrate your right to evade and avoid me." (p. 92)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We are the originators of the 'rest as resistance' and 'rest as reparations' frameworks, and create sacred spaces where the liberatory, restorative, and disruptive power of rest can take hold.

# data[].attributes.headline
"What is our bravest breathing? What is our unapologetic action towards self-determination?" (p. 73)

# data[].attributes.subject
"What is our bravest breathing? What is our unapologetic action towards self-determination?" (p. 73)

# data[].attributes.body
"Sometimes you do have to make your own whirlpool, redirect the waters, initiate a spiral of momentum that can displace whole governments." (p. 79)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Audre Lorde Live at UCLA circa early 1990s

# data[].attributes.headline
"How would we spend our time if we realized that the conflicts we are experiencing now urgently demand that we create a loving world as soon as possible?" (p. 83)

# data[].attributes.subject
"How would we spend our time if we realized that the conflicts we are experiencing now urgently demand that we create a loving world as soon as possible?" (p. 83)

# data[].attributes.body
"...the harms closest to home are both forcing and teaching us to evolve." (p. 83)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Taonga species are native birds, plants and animals of special cultural significance and importance to iwi, in this case Ngāi Tahu.

The Crown's settlement with Ngāi Tahu (Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998) included recognition of the special traditional relationship Ngāi Tahu have with taonga species. Ngāi Tahu participates in the management of those species in many ways, including representation on species recovery groups.

Treaty of Waitangi obligations

Sea lions are very important to all Māori. In te reo Māori, the female sea lion is kake and the male is
whakahao - rāpoka is used more generically for all sea lions.

Section 4 of the Conservation Act 1987 requires that the Act (and the Acts in the First Schedule)
must be interpreted and administered as to give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi
(the Treaty). It provides one of the highest levels of recognition and requires the Crown to work in partnership with iwi.

The Treaty partnership within the Ngāi Tahu takiwā is the primary mechanism to enable Ngāi Tahu
whānui to exercise their tribal rights and interests as rangatira and kaitiaki over conservation lands and taonga species. In addition to Section 4 responsibilities, rāpoka are a taonga species under the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, in which the Crown acknowledges the cultural, spiritual, historical, and traditional association of Ngāi Tahu with rāpoka.

This commits the Crown to consult with and have particular regard to the views of Ngāi Tahu when the Minister of Conservation makes policy decisions concerning the protection, management, or conservation of rāpoka.

Ngāi Tahu relationships to taonga species are not passive, they reflect the long history of interaction, management and use. It is through working in partnership with the Department that Ngāi Tahu are able to maintain these relationships with the lands, waters, flora and fauna within the Ngāi Tahu takiwā.

By exercising rangatiratanga across these ancestral lands and waters, and as active tangata tiaki, the traditions that support the central values that define Ngāi Tahu can be maintained.

New Zealand sea lion Threat Management Plan and Ngāi Tahu

The principles of mātauranga Māori will be incorporated into the four workstreams to achieve the
vision of the New Zealand sea lion Threat Management Plan. Ngāi Tahu will be active in the management and decision making in relation to the enhancement of the species, to ensure the cultural knowledge and the Ngāi Tahu voice is heard.

Engagement with iwi will be further developed at the local level, with the associated rūnanga, ensuring the structure and function of the relationship matches the Treaty partnership needs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Taonga species are native birds, plants and animals of special cultural significance and importance to iwi, in this case Ngāi Tahu. The Crown's settlement with Ngāi Tahu (Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998) included recognition of the special traditional relationship Ngāi Tahu have with taonga species.

# data[].attributes.headline
"...sometimes I have to vocalize my limits and so do you." (p. 85)

# data[].attributes.subject
"...sometimes I have to vocalize my limits and so do you." (p. 85)

# data[].attributes.body
"South American sea lions fight each other sometimes, but only for fifteen seconds." (p. 84)

"They shift, recalibrate, and let it go in fifteen seconds or less. Could we get there?" (p. 85)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
30 Seconds With South American Sea Lions

# data[].attributes.headline
"What could it mean to be present with each other across time and space and difference?" (p. 67)

# data[].attributes.subject
"What could it mean to be present with each other across time and space and difference?" (p. 67)

# data[].attributes.body
"She called on Black women in the US to relate to the struggle of SWAPO (the South West African People's Organization) as a lesson on the complexity of liberation in our own lives." (p. 70)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University

# data[].attributes.headline
"I wonder why we sometimes congregate with those who have been hurt in ways that look similar to how we have been hurt." (p. 62)

# data[].attributes.subject
"I wonder why we sometimes congregate with those who have been hurt in ways that look similar to how we have been hurt." (p. 62)

# data[].attributes.body
"I wonder sometimes about what keeps us close, in a hurting world shaped by intimate violence. In a world that cuts systemically and deep." (p. 62)

"And our kinship is the kind of salve that heals whole oceans. And love is where I know and do not know you. And love is where we began and where we begin." (p. 63)

# data[].attributes.headline
"...the dolphins are educating us on how to squad, or pod up." (p. 51)

# data[].attributes.subject
"...the dolphins are educating us on how to squad, or pod up." (p. 51)

# data[].attributes.body
"Knowing who they're with helps them know where they're at and where they want to be." (p. 53)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wild Dolphin Project – New Research: Making Friends!

# data[].attributes.headline
"How can we navigate oppressive environments with core practices that build community, resistance, and more loving ways of living?" (p. 43)

# data[].attributes.subject
"How can we navigate oppressive environments with core practices that build community, resistance, and more loving ways of living?" (p. 43)

# data[].attributes.body
"I am so grateful for the loving community of divine swimmers who have transformed my tissue by doing their work... Out here in the ocean we have our breathing and our practice. We have each other if we choose each other." (p. 45)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
yoga maya practice 1 

Level: 1.5 Beginner/Intermediate 
(should know basic surya namaskar)
Length: 18 minutes 
Date: 6/22/2009 
Location: Stone House, Mebane NC

Class structure: 
- meditation
- warm up 
- surya namaskar-sun salutation 
- setu bandhasana-bridge pose and urdhava dhanurasana-backbend
- spinal twist 
- savasana-relaxation
 
How to modify the class: 
SHORTER CLASS: 
- practice savasana right the first ten minutes which is directly after surya namaskar 
LONGER CLASS: 
-put the video on pause after the first ten minutes of warm up and surya namaskar
- practice some more standing poses, balancing poses and/or floor stretches for about 10-15 minutes
- then restart the video when you are ready to conclude with 8 minutes of back bends, twists and relaxation. 

Note about the video and the class: 
This is a practice in acceptance for me. This video is NOT perfect. I taped it in June 2009 and have waited until June 2010 to post it because I felt like it was not good enough and I should make a new one. 
With that belief I realized I was not able to share even the good parts of the video- so I am practicing acceptance of the imperfection of this video, the imperfection of me- and offering the truth of it to you as a gift. 
I hope you enjoy and can practice acceptance of yourself too.

# data[].attributes.headline
"The mother Weddell seal will push her baby into the water against her will." (p. 23)

# data[].attributes.subject
"The mother Weddell seal will push her baby into the water against her will." (p. 23)

# data[].attributes.body
"Am I the only one here in a lesson, a coughing sputtering thrash, a struggle to stay who I thought I was, ignorant to what evolution has already written inside me?" (p. 23)

"The tough love of the Weddell seal mother teaches a lesson about the difference between what is cute and what is necessary. What has been and what could be. And I am grateful for all of my mothers... who would shock me into knowing my capacity, trust my lungs more than I thought I could. To breathe in ways I haven't breathed before." (p. 23)

# data[].attributes.headline
"Yesterday I learned that the breathing of whales is as crucial to our own breathing and the carbon cycle of the planet as are the forests of the world." (p. 24)

# data[].attributes.subject
"Yesterday I learned that the breathing of whales is as crucial to our own breathing and the carbon cycle of the planet as are the forests of the world." (p. 24)

# data[].attributes.body
"And now we are here to notice the miracle that was there the entire time... Your breathing. It is your breathing that we need." (p. 27)

# data[].attributes.headline
"It is dangerous to be discovered." (p. 16)

# data[].attributes.subject
"It is dangerous to be discovered." (p. 16)

# data[].attributes.body
"Once upon a time there was a giant sea mammal... hydrodamalis gigas swimming large and luxe, at least three times bigger than the contemporary manatee. Within twenty-seven years, the the entire species was extinct, killed on thousands of European voyages for fur and sealskin." (p. 16)

"Oh you rough mermaid, what are you teaching us about breath?" (p. 16)

"What can I do to honor you, now that it is too late?" (p. 17)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Extinct sea cow’s underwater engineering legacy lives on today, study finds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On a Russian-led expedition in the northern Pacific Ocean in the 1740s, German botanist Georg Wilhelm Steller laid eyes on a species that captured his imagination. It looked like a manatee but was bigger than a killer whale, and it grazed similarly to a cow or horse. After Steller described the anim…

# data[].attributes.headline
"She will show you how it feels to be hunted, an opportunity if you can take it, to unlearn your predatory assumptions." (p. 77)

# data[].attributes.subject
"She will show you how it feels to be hunted, an opportunity if you can take it, to unlearn your predatory assumptions." (p. 77)

# data[].attributes.body
"I know our reparations will come from your leadership. Your wounds and their wisdom. Your knowledge of teeth. Your brave associations. Do you hear me here screaming beside you? Stay close." (p. 76)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A Southern Resident Killer whale kept in captivity for more than 50 years is a significant step closer to coming home to the waters of the Puget Sound.

"I'm just trying not to cry, again, because I've spent a good part of the last couple of hours crying," Lummi Tribal member Ellie Kinley said.

Kinley cried in relief at the announcement that the Miami Seaquarium, the nonprofit " Friends of Toki," and philanthropist Jim Irsay have all signed off on an agreement to return Tokitae to the Salish Sea.
Beloved orca will return to Seattle after performing for 50 years
For the Lummi Tribe, it would be a homecoming.

"It was taught to use that they (whales) are just an extension of our family," Kinley said. "They're our family that lives under the waves."

In 1970, when Tokitae was about 5 years old, she was snatched from the waters of the Puget Sound and shipped to the marine mammal park where she performed for crowds under the name Lolita.

"We allowed that daughter to be stolen," Kinley says. "Bringing her home is righting a wrong."

The effort to bring Tokitae home has been underway for years, but it gained steam when the head of the Dolphin Company, which took over management of the Seaquarium, expressed an interest in the idea.

Another key factor is the killer whale's health is improving. In 2021, a USDA inspection cited poor conditions at the Seaquarium under its former owner.

Animal advocates said Tokitae's health suffered, but is now improving under consistent veterinary care. Despite all the challenges, Tokitae has lived much longer than other captive killer whales.

"I think she knew she would come home," Kinley said. "And I think that's why she's been able to be so strong for so many years."

The Sacred Lands Conservancy has developed a detailed plan on how to safely fly Tokitae - in a cargo plane - from Florida to Washington, where she'd be placed in a large net pen in the Salish Sea. It would be a whole new world of freedom in comparison to Seaquarium.

"She's in a tank that's 20 feet deep. She's in a tank that's as deep as the length of her body," Kinley said, but in the sea, "she's going to be in a pen where she can swim at full speed."

And she'll be in her home waters.
Seattle dives into professional cricket with new franchise, the Orcas
Kinley said she's hopeful Tokitae will be able to reconnect with her family in the L pod. There's evidence her mother is still alive. Kinley said Tokitae recognized the killer whales' song, which has been played for her.

While the goal is to move Tokitae within two years, there are still steps ahead, including approval by several government agencies. But Kinley remains confident.

"It's been a long road. It's been a long fight, but we never stopped moving forward," Kinley said. "We were always preparing for this, knowing it would happen some day. Today is that 'some day.' "
Follow @http://www.twitter.com/heatherbosch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lummi Tribe: Tokitae's return home is 'righting a wrong'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A Southern Resident Killer whale kept in captivity for more than 50 years is a significant step closer to coming home to the waters of the Puget Sound. "I'm just trying not to cry, again, because I've spent a good part of the last couple of hours crying," Lummi Tribal member Ellie Kinley said.

# data[].attributes.headline
"I know what it's like to be sick of systemic oppression and its cycles of extraction." (p. 105)

# data[].attributes.subject
"I know what it's like to be sick of systemic oppression and its cycles of extraction." (p. 105)

# data[].attributes.body
"I am writing this in solidarity with with the Greek activists who are currently using music and community education to raise awareness and stop off-shore speculation drilling." (p. 105)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As other countries turn away from fossil fuel exploration, Greece is searching for oil and natural gas amid protests. But a global shift to renewables and the pandemic are complicating drilling plans.

A group of young Greek women in traditional dress and wearing face masks, hand out flyers to shoppers and hold signs reading "nature is our antidepressant," and "my appearance is a political act."

For the past three years, the all-women activist group Vrisoules have been interrupting politicians' speeches and political rallies with singing and dancing to protest oil and gas exploration in Western Greece.

Their name is the Greek word for natural springs, just one of the precious features of the landscape the group says is threatened by fossil fuel exploration. During the protests, they dress in black to highlight what they say is the severity of the situation.

Several oil and gas companies, including US multinational Exxon Mobil and Spanish company Repsol, have rights to explore for oil and gas in an area that includes Crete and the Ionian islands.

These landscapes, with their sandy beaches lapped by azure Mediterranean waters, attract some 11 million visitors each year — or 30% of the country's tourism.

And they're a draw for wildlife, too, encompassing Europe's biggest loggerhead turtle nesting spot and key habitat for whales and dolphins.

High school teacher Eleftheria Tsouknaki says tourism and nature could be damaged if drilling plans go ahead. She and a handful of friends started the group when a friend told them about fossil fuel exploration near their hometown of Ioannina and quickly "understood the dangers."

To make others aware, they began their musical campaign. And they are not the only ones demanding the Greek government rethink its decision to allow oil majors into some of the country's most iconic beauty spots.

At the beginning of February, the Greek and Spanish chapters of international conservation NGO WWF wrote to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis asking him to cancel all existing exploration concessions and forbid any new ones.

"It's an outdated political decision made with the wrong data a decade ago and is trapping the country in an energy system of high economic risk and high carbon intensity," the letter read.

Against the tide

It's also a decision that runs against the European grain, as countries like Italy, Croatia, Spain and France have banned fracking, and a group of 63 European Union lawmakers, mainly from the Green bloc, is now calling for a ban on offshore oil drilling across all 27 EU members.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — which involves injecting water, sand and chemicals into shale rock at very high pressure to recover gas or oil — is particularly unpopular across Europe, as people fear the chemicals leaching into soil and water supplies.

Hellenic Hydrocarbon Resources Management (HHRM), which manages the country's hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation rights, says fracking isn't allowed in Greece. But activists and some political parties, like the Greens, claim the law leaves space for the practice.

"We're against fracking and we don't want the country to go back in time while the rest of the world is putting an end to it," Tsouknaki said.

Environmental groups fear pollution from drilling or a potential oil spill could damage the local ecosystem, which includes sea turtle habitat

Greece began selling oil and gas concessions at the height of the eurozone debt crisis in 2011, when the country desperately needed cash to avoid bankruptcy.

Last year, Mitsotakis' center-right government made sweeping changes to the country's environmental laws that, among other things, open up protected areas to drilling. Now, some 10% of Greece's landmass is earmarked for hydrocarbon exploration, with further plans for drilling.

A bridging technology for the energy transition?

As part of the EU, Greece is required to do its bit to give up fossil fuels and cut the bloc's emissions by 55% on 1990 levels by 2030. With plentiful sun, it aims to cover 35% of its energy consumption with renewables like solar by that date.

But Aristofanis Stefatos, of HHRM says natural gas, which is less carbon-heavy than coal, also has a role to play as the country aims to ditch domestically produced brown coal by 2028.

The coastal waters around Greece are home to a number of marine mammals, including dolphins

Currently, Greece imports most of its natural gas. Pushing ahead with exploration now could boost the country's energy independence.

"Given the high cost and the time required to develop alternative solutions, it is evident that we should try to develop the potential gas reserves in Greece as soon as possible," Stefatos said, adding that infrastructure being developed now for natural gas could eventually be used for hydrogen generated from renewables: "Gas infrastructure sets the foundation for hydrogen, one of our best options for clean future fuels."

Threats to air, sea and land

Eco activists, however, are skeptical of this "bridging technology" argument, insisting that Greece's gas and oil, like other fossil fuels, should be kept in the ground. It's a skepticism shared by some energy experts.

"Gas is a bridge to nowhere," said Claudia Kemfert, head of the department Energy, Transportation, Environment at the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW Berlin), in a recent DW interview. "Instead of bridging technologies, we need future technologies, namely renewable energy."

Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon back in 2010

Eleftheria Tsouknaki believes the current drive for exploration has less to do with a managed energy transition than profit. "Greece is being cut into blocks for hydrocarbon exploration and extraction," said the activist. "The whole Mediterranean basin is in danger, from Greece to Spain and northern Africa because of it."

Helen Briassoulis, a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of the Aegean, says air, soil and water pollution from drilling operations and chemical pollution from fracking could harm wildlife, land and water. That in turn, would put jobs at risk in an area highly dependent on tourism, fishing and farming.

She added that one other major polluting risk is that of an accidental oil spill from offshore drilling, similar to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which released 4.9 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, killing 11 rig workers and millions of animals.

"Such big-scale projects are like you're gambling with nature," Briassouli said. "Offshore drilling is a great disaster and I don't think there's been a lot of debate in Greece on what we'll do in the case of an accident."

Covid leaves future uncertain

However, just as the pandemic has dampened the Vrisoules dancers' public performances, it has also complicated fossil fuel exploration.

Vrisoules has to stop singing and dancing to make their voices heard and have adapted to other forms for protest due to COVID-19

A decade on from the economic crisis that spurred Greece's concession sell-off, the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and plummeting oil prices prompted energy firm Repsol to announce it would pull out of its interests in Western Greece earlier this year.

Stefatos cautioned against "hasty conclusions about freezing of the exploration activities," stressing that they were continuing in all other blocks, "albeit in some cases with some delays related mostly to the effects of the pandemic on-field operations."

For Tsouknaki the rest of her troupe, the fight to block the exploration continues, if largely online and without singing as the pandemic continues.

"No one should divide half a country from north to south in fields [for oil extraction], especially in virgin areas and areas that might affect the sea and clean water reserves," Tsouknaki said.

Correction 1/04/2021: An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that Aristofanis Stefatos said fracking would boost Greece energy independence. Stefatos instead said exploration could help with this. The error was made during the editing process.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
In Greece, women activists sing and dance against oil and gas | DW | 01.04.2021

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As other countries turn away from fossil fuel exploration, Greece is searching for oil and natural gas amid protests. But a global shift to renewables and the pandemic are complicating drilling plans.

# data[].attributes.headline
"I know about hiding. I know about creating an opaque image unattenuated by grief, insecurity, and shame." (p. 64)

# data[].attributes.subject
"I know about hiding. I know about creating an opaque image unattenuated by grief, insecurity, and shame." (p. 64)

# data[].attributes.body
"What if my swimming unseen sacrifices the wisdom that would awaken within you if you saw?" (p. 64)

"Can I trust you to love me with spots?" (p. 64)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Common Name: Pan-tropical spotted dolphin

General Description: Pantropical spotted dolphins are grey overall, darker above and on the upper flanks, and lighter on the belly and lower flanks. The body is usually spotted, thought spotting varies with regions, with white spots above and dark spots below. The spotting increases with age. They have a beak that is moderately long, and a tall, falcate dorsal fin which is centrally placed.

Newborn spotted dolphins are unspotted, having a dark grey back with soft edges and a light belly.

There is a distinct dark grey cape, from the head to the dorsal fin. A light coloured flare can be seen from above the eye, turning downwards and up again rising just behind the dorsal fin. A black circle around the eye extends to the junction of the beak and the melon, and a broad black stripe runs from the origin of the flipper to the corner of the mouth. Due the presence of a distinct bridle it is also known as the Bridled Dolphin.

Coastal forms are generally larger and more heavily spotted than those which live offshore.

Spotted dolphins off the coast of Tamil Nadu, India @ Dipani Sutaria

Size: Adults, around 2 m long, weigh around 110 kg.Calves at birth, 90cm long.

Appearance At Sea: Spotted Dolphin schools vary from a few individuals to thousands. There appears to be no segregation based on age or sex. Individual dolphins regularly come to the bows of vessels in the ocean.

Spotted Dolphins often throw themselves out of the water, high into the air.

They are found in mixed species assemblages with other species of dolphins like spinner dolphins and striped dolphins often along with schools. Spotted dolphins like other Stenella and Delphinus species have been commonly by caught in purse-seine tuna nets. When caught along with tuna in a net, the dolphins thrash about at first and then get into a sort of stupor. They simply sink tail first into the folds of the net, where they lie until they are pulled out or drown.

Found In: Pan-tropical spotted dolphins are found in tropical oceans with warm surface temperatures, both in coastal and offshore regions. They are surface feeders, feeding on various species of fish and squid.

Records from India: Pan-tropical spotted dolphins are found offshore in the Arabian Sea and in the Bay of Bengal.

World Distribution: These dolphins are widely distributed in tropical and some warm temperate waters in a band of varying width around the equator.

Could Be Confused With: Even at a distance the spotting on the dolphins is usually evident, making it easy to identify the species. They are sometimes confused with other Stenella species.

Diagnostic Features: At sea, the unique facial markings (presence of a marked bridle), uniform dark cape on the dorsal side, and presence of a dark flipper line help in identifying the species.

Stranded Specimens: Pan-tropical spotted dolphins have 35-40 tiny pointed teeth on each side of both slender jaws.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
General Description: Pantropical spotted dolphins are grey overall, darker above and on the upper flanks, and lighter on the belly and lower flanks. The body is usually spotted, thought spotting varies with regions, with white spots above and dark spots below. The spotting increases with age.

# data[].attributes.headline
"When I can't see the shore I'm here timing my breath to yours. Knowing collectively we can leap, we can dive, we can practice our faith in each other." (p. 53)

# data[].attributes.subject
"When I can't see the shore I'm here timing my breath to yours. Knowing collectively we can leap, we can dive, we can practice our faith in each other." (p. 53)

# data[].attributes.body
"What would it mean to go deep with each other? What are the scales of intimacy and the actual practices that would teach us how to care for each other beyond obligation or imaginary duties." (p. 56)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
subversive sirens MEDIA & PRESS Liberation is a collective process Sylvia rivera Caring for myself is not...

# data[].attributes.headline
"I think of Debbie Africa, who gave birth secretly in prison, how the other women prisoners used sounds to shield her birth process." (p. 31)

# data[].attributes.subject
"I think of Debbie Africa, who gave birth secretly in prison, how the other women prisoners used sounds to shield her birth process." (p. 31)

# data[].attributes.body
"Remember this feeling, there is something called love. I would say, remember there is something called freedom, even if you can't see it." (p. 32)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The placenta was the trickiest part. How to dispose of it without it making a mess that would alert the guards that a child had just been born in a prison cell?

There was no medical equipment, no painkillers, no sterilized wipes or hygienic materials of any sort. When it came to cutting the umbilical cord in the absence of scissors, well, that was the easy part: just use your teeth.

But Debbie Sims Africa was more stressed about the placenta. It was 1978, she was 22 years old and five weeks into what would turn out to be a 40-year prison sentence.

She was determined to give birth on her own without any involvement of the jail officers so she could spend some precious time with the baby. In the end, a co-defendant helped her out, scooping up the placenta in her hands and secreting it to the shower room where she flushed it down the prison toilet.

The plan worked. Debbie Africa got to spend three wonderful days with her baby son. She hid him under a sheet and when he cried, other jailed women would stand outside the cell and sing or cough to obscure the noise.

She knew it couldn't last, as jail rules prohibited mothers being with their children. At the end of the three days she informed the jailers of the baby's existence and, once they had got over their astonishment, they arranged for the mother and son to be separated and for the child to be taken to the outside world.

So begins the extraordinary life of Mike Africa Jr, a man born in a prison cell, and his incarcerated parents. As he approaches his 40th birthday in September, he reflects on what a crazy ride it's been.

He was born to a mother accused and later convicted of third-degree murder in one of the most dramatic confrontations with law enforcement of the 1970s black liberation struggle. Not only was Debbie Africa sentenced to 30 years to life for the death of a police officer, so too was her husband, Mike Africa Sr, father to Mike Jr, who was caught up in the same confrontation and given the same punishment.

Which makes Mike Jr a penal orphan of the black power movement. For almost 40 years, he visited both his parents in separate penitentiaries but never saw either of them outside prison walls. Last month Debbie was finally released from prison on parole, but his father remains in captivity and to this day he has never seen the two of them together.

Debbie and Mike Sr, both now 62, are two of the Move Nine, the group of black radicals who were collectively held responsible for the death of Officer James Ramp during a massive police shoot-out at their communal home in Powelton Village, Philadelphia on 8 August 1978. The group, whose members take "Africa" as their last name as a political badge, were resisting eviction.

They were like the Black Panthers crossed with nature-loving hippies. Black ​power meets flower power

Move was one of the more extraordinary elements of the 1970s black liberation struggle. Deeply committed to fighting police brutality in African American communities, they were also devoted to caring for animals and the environment.

They were like the Black Panthers crossed with nature-loving hippies. Black power meets flower power.

They lived in a communal house along with dozens of stray dogs and cats where they would preach their political beliefs day and night at high volume through bullhorns, driving their neighbors to despair. Over time they came to be seen as dangerous non-conformists by the Philadelphia police and city government, leading to a drawn-out confrontation that culminated in the 1978 siege and gunfight involving hundreds of police that saw the death of Officer Ramp and sent nine of the black radicals to prison, potentially for life.

The Move Nine were accused of firing the first shot and of killing Ramp. Yet they have always claimed innocence. They deny that they shot at anybody and blame the officer's death on accidental "friendly fire" from other armed police. Ramp, 52, was a former marine who had served with the Philadelphia police department for 23 years. He was killed by a single bullet. Yet all nine Move members were convicted of his murder.

I met Debbie Africa and her son as part of research into incarcerated black radicals that began more than two years ago. The starting point was the Angola Three, former Black Panthers who had endured unprecedented stretches in solitary confinement in Louisiana's notorious Angola prison.

That began a journey that would bring me to interview several members of the Move Nine as well as former Black Panthers and members of the Black Liberation Army who remain incarcerated in some cases half a century after their arrests. It would culminate with a day spent with Debbie and Mike Jr, mother and son, as they celebrated their first time together beyond prison walls.

Debbie Africa was eight months pregnant during the 1978 siege. During the shoot-out she was holed out in the basement of the Move house, where she was bombarded by water cannons and tear gas and had to fumble her way out in the dark carrying her first child, her two-year-old daughter Michelle.

No evidence was presented at trial that she pulled the trigger or ever touched a gun. But she was convicted nonetheless as a murderer and conspirator.

Mike Sr remains behind bars in Graterford correctional institution in Pennsylvania. But last June, Debbie Africa became one of very few black liberationists convicted of violent acts from the 1970s to be released on parole having convinced the board she was no threat to society.

* * *

Debbie and Mike Jr talked to me at his home in a small town outside Philadelphia just two weeks after she had been released on parole from Cambridge Springs prison. They were both still clearly awestruck to be in each other's company after so long - Mike's sporadic prison visits to both his parents were nothing like this.

It's the little things that have dumbfounded Mike Jr most. The first morning after they got back to his house, they were sitting at breakfast wearing no shoes.

"It was the first time I've ever seen her feet, and it was the first time she'd ever seen my feet since I was three days old in her cell," he said.

Debbie Africa described waves of overpowering emotion. "I can't believe this is happening," she said. "I'll just start hugging him in the supermarket and people will be giving us strange looks."

She talked about the wrench of letting her son go when he was three days old. "It was a hard, hard decision. I wanted what was best for him and I knew that was not to get close to me at any level. So I had to break the bond."

Mike Jr was raised during his childhood by his grandmother and by a succession of different female members of the Move organization as part of its communal ethic. "I was a community kid, I had many mothers," Mike Jr said in a deadpan voice, as though describing the weather.

Every Mother's Day he makes the rounds of his "mothers". He drives around bearing cards and flowers which he drops off at the homes of at least six women. He rattled off their names: Bert, Sue, Romana, Pam, Mary, Teresa.

Now he'll be able to put flowers in the hands of his true birth mother. He had no idea who she was, nor who his father was, until he was about six or seven when their relationship to him was made clear to him.

"I didn't know she was in prison, I didn't know any of it. I thought that the person caring for me was my mother."

He looks back on his childhood and recognizes that some aspects of his upbringing were less than ideal. "Who teaches a kid how to brush his teeth or take a bath but his parents. I didn't know how to wash my hair 'til I was 15."

Through his childhood he was taken to visit both parents in separate prisons, maybe once or twice a year. But for years he had no idea why they were locked up. When friends at school asked about him about them, he would demur or make up stories because he was embarrassed to reveal his ignorance.

I feel relief. Big relief. I never knew she would come out alive

Mike Africa Jr

It was only when he was 14 and sitting with his father in Graterford that the penny dropped. He asked Mike Sr whether there was anybody held in the prison who had done something really bad, like killing somebody.

"Yeah," Mike Sr replied, "me".

"He didn't go on to explain," Mike Jr recalled. "I was frightened. Was he going to be in here forever? I was crying my eyes out trying to figure it out, but I couldn't explain to him why I was crying. I couldn't put it into words."

Mikr Jr said it took him years to put the pieces together. "I was left to figure it out for myself, to fend for myself."

But neither son nor mother are ones to dwell on the wounds of the past. I asked Debbie Africa whether she regretted that by her actions as a black liberationist and Move member she had put her son through so much pain.

"There are always going to be things in my life that I wish didn't happen," she said. "I do truly wish that what happened to my son hadn't happened, I do truly. But I look at the man he is now, and I love it."

Having spent two days in the company of Mike Africa Jr outside Philadelphia, I can see what she means. He has turned out remarkably poised for someone with his chaotic childhood résumé.

He runs his own small business as a landscape gardener, is married and has four children of his own. He is a proud member of Move, has never owned or even held a gun, and his house is comfortable and full of light, though it was notable how much neater it was the second time I visited following Debbie's release. At last she has begun fulfilling that ritual of parents everywhere: tidying up after their child's mess.

On Mike Jr's part he's similarly delighted his mother has turned out as well-balanced, sociable and positive as she is, given 40 years in correctional institutions. "I feel relief. Big relief. I never knew she would come out alive. When people come out of prison they can be sick in the head, but this transition of her coming to my house has been the smoothest major transformation of my life."

Now the challenge is to help Mike Africa Sr secure parole, and so complete the family. His next appearance before the parole board is in September, and they are all already on tenterhooks.

A paradox of Debbie Africa's release is that under her parole terms she is not able to communicate in any form with her husband because he is classified as a co-defendant and thus is out of bounds. The last time they saw each other in the flesh was in 1986. Since then they had been allowed to write to each other from their cells, and in that way managed to keep their bond alive.

I can't believe this is happening. I'll start hugging him in the supermarket and people will be giving us strange looks

Debbie Sims Africa

Now that the letter-writing has been stopped all they have in terms of connection is Mike Jr acting as a go-between. He lets each parent know how the other is doing. He also acted as my go-between, putting questions to his father which Mike Sr answered in a phone call to him.

How confident is Mike Sr, I asked, as he heads into the parole hearing?

"I'm confident that I'm going to tell the truth. I'm confident that I deserve parole. I'm confident I would never be considered a danger to the community ever again. We never intended for anyone to get hurt, and regret that anyone did get hurt."

Then he added: "What I'm not confident about is what they're going to do, I have no control over that."

He said the knowledge that his wife was now at home with his son and daughter was a great comfort to him. But it also heightened his desire to be with them all.

"Forty years of wanting, anticipating. It's like Double Dutch. You're always on the edge of that jump rope, hopping up and down, waiting to get in, waiting for your turn."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Born in a cell: the extraordinary tale of the black liberation orphan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The placenta was the trickiest part. How to dispose of it without it making a mess that would alert the guards that a child had just been born in a prison cell? There was no medical equipment, no painkillers, no sterilized wipes or hygienic materials of any sort.

# data[].attributes.headline
"M. NourbeSe Philip taught me that water holds sound, that it can reverberate on and on and keep on calling us." (p. 48)

# data[].attributes.subject
"M. NourbeSe Philip taught me that water holds sound, that it can reverberate on and on and keep on calling us." (p. 48)

# data[].attributes.body
"And so maybe the calls of the great blue whales who filled the whole ocean... are still blessing our water selves now." (p. 48-49)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
WGSI Research Seminar: M. NourbeSe Philip

# data[].attributes.headline
"...what happens when we shift our behavior beyond the characteristics most palatable to predatory "allies"?" (p. 71)

# data[].attributes.subject
"...what happens when we shift our behavior beyond the characteristics most palatable to predatory "allies"?" (p. 71)

# data[].attributes.body
"What happens when we value our mass impact as much or more than our unique and haunting songs? And after we finish proving we are smart and capable of feeling to those who somehow think that it is wise to boil the world, what then?" (p. 71)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mysterious gatherings of hundreds of humpback whales off the coast of South Africa baffles scientists

Researchers have been left baffled by the bizarre new behaviour

They suggest the whales could be gathering due to shifts in availability of prey

The humpback has seen a mysterious resurgence in numbers in recent years

The large gatherings could be normal for the animals but rarely observed because they have been endangered for over a century

Humpbacks have been gathering in large groups in a bizarre never-before-seen behaviour that is baffling scientists.

The gatherings can reach 200 whales and have been spotted in the midst of mass feeding frenzies off the coast of South Africa - thousands of miles further north than their normal feeding grounds around the Antarctic.

The whales are not normally social creatures, preferring to travel and hunt alone, in pairs, or as small groups that quickly disband.

Scroll down for video

HUMPBACK WHALES

One expert theory suggests that the behaviour is simply a return to sociable activity that was seen before the species had its numbers reduced 90 per cent by whaling in the early 20th century.

'I've never seen anything like this,' Dr Ken Findlay, lead author of the study from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa, told New Scientist.

'It's possible that the behaviour was occurring but just not where it was visible - because there were so few of them, we may not have seen it.'

The whales could also be gathering in response to shifts in prey availability.

Despite whaling crippling their numbers, the humpback has seen a mysterious resurgence in numbers in recent years.

'For the last few decades, suddenly they seem to have overcome some threshold and have begun to increase very fast,' Dr Gísli Vikingsson, head of whale research at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute in Iceland, told New Scientist.

The huge mammals grow up to 16 metres (52 feet) in length, and weigh approximately 36,000 kg (79,000 lbs).

Despite their intimidating size, humpback whales are harmless to humans and mostly eat krill and small fish.

Humpbacks were found feeding off the Cape Peninsula area once before, but that was almost a century ago.

Now researchers at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa have spotted the bizarre behaviour on three separate cruises in 2011, 2014 and 2015, as well as a handful of public observations from aircraft.

'It's quite unusual to see them in such large groups,' said Dr Vikingsson.

Humpbacks usually spend the summer months around the Antarctic where they feed on krill and build up fat stores for the winter.

In winter they swim to tropical and subtropical waters where female whales give birth to new calves.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Humpback whales are mysteriously gathering in large, frenzied groups

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Researchers have been left baffled by the bizarre new behaviour They suggest the whales could be gathering due to shifts in availability of prey The humpback has seen a mysterious resurgence in numbers in recent years The large gatherings could be normal for the animals but rarely observed because they have been endangered for over a century Humpbacks have been gathering in large groups in a bizarre never-before-seen behaviour that is baffling scientists.

# data[].attributes.headline
"Word is, Māori meteorologists have been studying these dolphins for centuries to gain insights about the weather." (p. 19)

# data[].attributes.subject
"Word is, Māori meteorologists have been studying these dolphins for centuries to gain insights about the weather." (p. 19)

# data[].attributes.body
"I am amazed by how much listening can do. How quickly it becomes less important to be seen, to leap, to show. And those who study river dolphins know it too. Don't bother looking for these teachers who will rarely jump or splash. You have to listen for them, try to hear them breathe." (p. 19)

# data[].attributes.headline
"This is my prayer. May anyone who seeks to mention you be called to learn the language of those who first loved you."

# data[].attributes.subject
"This is my prayer. May anyone who seeks to mention you be called to learn the language of those who first loved you."

# data[].attributes.body
"...the only dolphin--and I believe, the only marine mammal at all--who has managed to keep her Indigenous given name lives in the Amazon. Tuxuci, named in the Tupi language, has kept her name through all this colonization... It's a miracle. We say her name." (p. 30)

"I love you impossible dolphin, quietest in the river, breathing close to the surface. I'm grateful for what you remember even if you never say." (p. 30)

# data[].attributes.headline
"Who here has not been mothered by someone genetically and socially distant from your birth situation, at some necessary time?" (p. 162)

# data[].attributes.subject
"Who here has not been mothered by someone genetically and socially distant from your birth situation, at some necessary time?" (p. 162)

# data[].attributes.body
"And if you have ever shared something, taught someone, shared responsibility for someone's wellness for even a part of their journey, how would you measure what you gained from that potentially "costly behavior?" We call it love. (p. 163)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Adolescent Pregnancy: The Perspective of the Sisterhood of Black Single Mothers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.