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Dolphins have the ability to use echolocation to track objects and to be more aware of their environment.

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Biosonar Research - National Marine Mammal Foundation

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Dolphins use biosonar, or echolocation, to navigate and find their prey.

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The Shinnecock, also known as the Shinnecock Indian Nation, are a self governing tribe in New York and their name means "people of the stony shore."

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The Shinnecock Indian Nation (the Nation) is one of the oldest self-governing tribe in the State of New York and was formally recognized by the United States federal government as the 565th federally recognized tribe on October 1, 2010. Historically, the language of the Shinnecock people is an eastern Algonquian dialect and they have owned and occupied their aboriginal homelands in and around the Town of Southampton on the eastern end of Long Island from time immemorial. In their Algonquian language, the Shinnecock name roughly translates into English as "people of the stony shore."

The Nation primarily holds jurisdiction over tribal territory at Shinnecock Neck, a peninsula that juts into the Shinnecock Bay encompassing approximately 900 acres, and as well as land at Westwoods in Hampton Bays encompassing approximately 100 acres along the Peconic Bay. There are currently over 1,589 enrolled tribal members and about half of the Shinnecock membership live on the Reservation at Shinnecock Neck.

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Official webpage of Shinnecock Indian Nation, the oldest self-governing tribe in the State of New York.

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The Tucuxi dolphin is the only dolphin that has kept its native name. It lives in the amazon and its named in the Tupi language. They are an endangered species due to human activity.

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Tucuxi are highly aesthetic dolphins who aren't dissimilar to bottlenose dolphins in appearance. Smaller than Guiana dolphins, they only grow to a dainty 1.5 metres long and weigh around 50kg. Whilst their bodies are coloured in muted tones of blues and greys, their bellies are much lighter in shades of ivory, grey or pink. Stood proudly on their backs, tucuxi have low, triangular dorsal fins. To their sides, they bear broad flippers whilst their faces have pronounced beaks. Although tucuxi can be up to 30% smaller than the Guiana dolphins, their ranges overlap and it's nigh on impossible to tell them apart when only brief glimpses are seen.

What is life like for Tucuxi?

Whilst they have been seen in larger groups, tucuxi are most often found in small pods of just a few individuals. Together, they are extremely sociable and execute impressive stunts such as spyhopping, lobtailing, flipper-slapping and porpoising. They are, however, not so keen on socialising with people. Not ones to bow-ride or seek out human interaction, they prefer not to be approached and generally keep themselves to themselves. When they dive, tucuxi tend to only stay down for short periods of time, usually lasting 30 seconds to one minute. As well as other tucuxi, these dolphins are also happy to mingle with botos, the majestic, pink river dolphins.

The estimated population size for tucuxi is unknown.

What do Tucuxi eat?

Tucuxi eat a wide variety of freshwater fish and crustaceans.

Where are tucuxi found?

Tucuxi have made themselves at home throughout the Amazon basin and possibly in the Orinoco River too and are found therefore in rivers throughout Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil. Although protected in some areas because of their legendary importance, in other areas tucuxi are deliberately targeted by fishermen who view them as threats to their trade and for use in traditional medicine. As well as this, they also face very real dangers in the form of pollution, accidental bycatch and getting caught in fishing gear, human interference, habitat loss and the constructions of dams.

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Tucuxi - Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA

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Tucuxi are highly aesthetic dolphins who aren't dissimilar to bottlenose dolphins in appearance. Smaller than Guiana dolphins, they only grow to a dainty 1.5 metres long and weigh around 50kg. Whilst their bodies are coloured in muted tones of blues and greys, their bellies are much lighter in shades of ivory, grey or pink.

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Dorsal fins help marine mammals stay stabilized. It helps them with stability and balance but in addition, it helps support the many turns they do and it helps them do them quickly and easier.

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While some cetaceans have huge dorsals relative to their body size, others have smaller ones, and some species lack them altogether. Thus, the diversity of these fins is a continuum that ranges from imposing to non-existent.

In the killer whale, the size of the dorsal is pushed to the extreme. This species sports a larger dorsal fin than any other cetacean and its size varies according to the sex of the individual. Males feature much taller dorsals than females. This difference has yet to be fully explained, but could be attributable to females' sexual preferences or other social or ecological pressures.

In the narwhal, the dorsal fin is completely absent, a characteristic that betrays the species' arctic habitat. Arctic water bodies are often covered with pack ice or ice floes under which it is easier to navigate without a dorsal fin.

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Dorsal Fins, From Killer Whales to Narwhals - Baleines en direct

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While some cetaceans have huge dorsals relative to their body size, others have smaller ones, and some species lack them altogether. Thus, the diversity of these fins is a continuum that ranges from imposing to non-existent. In the killer whale, the size of the dorsal is pushed to the extreme.

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Many striped dolphins in the 1990's were killed in the Mediterranean sea from a disease. The ones who survived, which were about seven dolphins, found each other and stayed together.

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In July 2007, >100 striped dolphins, Stenella coeruleoalba, were found dead along the coast of the Spanish Mediterranean. Of 10 dolphins tested, 7 were positive for a virus strain closely related to the dolphin morbillivirus that was isolated ...

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Scars on whales or dolphins are important to better understand what caused those scars, whether it was something natural or caused by humans. In addition, it gives experts a better way to identify them.

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Using Physical Features for Dolphin Photo Identification

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

Tail Flukes

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

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

Scarring

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

Scars visible on wild dolphin, Mako.

Shark Bites and Other Scars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Indus river dolphin has been affected by many human activities and manmade changes. Pollution, fishing, invasion of the habitat and other activities have impacted the lives of this species.

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River Dolphins - Protecting River Dolphins worldwide

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IUCN Red List Conservation status: Endangered

Indus river dolphins are endemic to the Indus river basin, where their naturally murky and silt-laden river habitat means that their eyes are of limited use. Indus river dolphins therefore rely on echolocation clicks to navigate and find food. Both Indus and Ganges river dolphins are considered to be living fossils, as they are the most ancient dolphin species still alive.

The South Asian river dolphin consisted of two sub-species, the Ganges river dolphin and the Indus river dolphin. The taxonomy of the group is in the process of being revised so that they are recognised as separate species in the course of 2021.

Indus river dolphins are found mostly in the lower parts of the Indus River in Pakistan. The dolphins historically swam freely through about 3500 km of the Indus River system from the Indus estuary, through the plains to the foothills of the Karakoram mountains. The dolphins' range has been reduced by approximately 80% due to the construction of irrigation barrages, and now most of the remaining animals are in a 690 km stretch of the Indus River in three separated populations. A handful of Indus river dolphins also occur in the Beas River in India, trapped above an irrigation dam.

The most recent estimate of abundance for the Indus river dolphin, based on surveys conducted in 2017, was close to 2000 animals. The largest dolphin population, which also occurs at very high density, is found between the Guddu and Sukkur barrages in Sindh province, and smaller populations are found in Punjab and KPK. Regular dolphin counts conducted since the 1970s show a clear increasing trend in dolphin abundance over the last 50 years. The increase coincides with dolphin hunting being banned and is assumed to be the reason for population recovery now that hunting has stopped, in combination with other effective conservation actions.

The major threats to the Indus river dolphin include water-related infrastructure such as dams, barrages and diversions, which cause flow regulation and habitat fragmentation, as well as mortality from entanglement in fishing nets, and pollution from domestic, industrial and agricultural sources. Dams and barrages fragment the dolphins habitat, reducing population connectivity and isolating animals in river sections. They also affect river habitats by reducing water availability and habitat quality, and blocking passage for migratory fish. Indus river dolphins, as with most other cetaceans, frequently become entangled in fishing nets and then drown. They also become trapped in irrigation canals and die unless they are rescued. As long-lived top predators, Indus river dolphins are vulnerable to negative health effects from living in waterways contaminated with heavy metals, industrial pollution and agricultural run-off. River cetaceans, including the Indus river dolphin, are considered to be indicators of river health.

Indus river dolphins are light brownish-grey, though they sometimes exhibit lighter undersides. They have a long thin rostrum with many long teeth that are visible even when their mouths are closed. Their dorsal fin is rather small compared to other river dolphins, and is more like a triangular hump. They have large flippers and flukes, and flexible necks.

This species is functionally blind. Therefore, like other dolphin species, it relies heavily on echolocation to navigate and hunt. Externally, the eye appears to be barely larger than a pinhole, restricting light from reaching the retina, there is no lens, and the optic nerve is very narrow, leading scientists to conclude that their eyes are incapable of forming clear images, but that they may still serve as light receptors.

Reproduction and growth

Indus river dolphins reach sexual maturity when they are approximately 10 years old. Mating occurs throughout the year but births appear to peak between March and May. After a gestation period of 8-9 months, a single calf is born, generally around 70cm in length, and feeds on milk from the mother. They can grow up to 2.5 metres in length and weigh 70-110 kg. Limited data is available about their lifespan, but the oldest known animal was 39 years.

Diet

The Indus river dolphin eats a large variety of prey including river prawns, catfish and carp.

Behaviour

Like Ganges river dolphins, Indus river dolphins have developed a unique side swimming behaviour which is an adaptation to help them navigate through shallow waters. Although the dolphins have occasionally been found in groups consisting of as many as 30 individuals, they are mainly solitary.

Individuals are at the surface for only about 1 second, and they then dive for just over a minute. Like other dolphin species, they navigate using echolocation, but reflecting the complexity of the river environment, Indus river dolphins emit sound almost constantly. Generally, these animals are shy towards humans.

For more information see:

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Indus river dolphins are endemic to the Indus river basin, where their naturally murky and silt-laden river habitat means that their eyes are of limited use. Indus river dolphins therefore rely on echolocation clicks to navigate and find food. Both Indus and Ganges river dolphins are considered to be living fossils, as they are the most ancient dolphin species still alive.

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Orcas were killed by military officials with guns and teenagers would also kill orcas with guns and knives. There was no real motive or reason as to why they were doing that but they were praised by their communities for doing so.

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While the stench of a dead, bloated killer whale that's washed ashore might steer away your average beachgoer, for Stephen Raverty of the Ministry of Agriculture in Canada it's an invitation to collect data. Raverty, a veterinary pathologist, carefully examines each one he's called to dissect, knowing that they retain invaluable information about the overall health of orcas in the Pacific ocean. Raverty says the data on killer whale deaths give clues to what factors might be keeping the Pacific populations on the endangered and threatened species lists.

For decades, researchers have been performing necropsies on beached orcas, but, until now, no one has amassed all of those data to assess the health of the populations and whether human activities, such as fishing or shipping, may harm the animals. In a study published this month in , Raverty, veterinarian Joseph Gaydos of the University of California, Davis, and colleagues reviewed the pathology reports of 53 orcas that stranded between 2004 and 2013, as well as other data on 35 orca strandings between 2001 and 2017. The orcas ranged in age from infants to older adults, and in every age category, there was evidence of orcas dying after being struck by ships or entangled in or impaled by fishing gear. Infectious disease and congenital defects also caused deaths, but the data are clear: "Humans are killing orcas directly," Gaydos says.

The Scientist spoke with Raverty and Gaydos about the findings.

The Scientist:In your paper, you note that necropsy findings have never before been evaluated to understand causes and trends in orca mortality. Why do this now?

Joseph Gaydos: We've seen how valuable this type of data analysis is for understanding shifts in populations of marine mammals such as gray whales. We had the data for orcas so we decided to use it to develop a baseline for understanding the health of the northern resident killer whale population off the west coast of Canada, which is threatened, and the southern resident population off the coast of the US and Canada, which is endangered, and what's leading to the deaths of the stranded animals.

TS: How can the data help identify human causes of death and how to mitigate them?

Stephen Raverty: Necropsies on killer whales provide information on how each animal died, and collectively what are the leading causes of death. Blunt force trauma from ship strikes, for example, is quite obvious based on the bruises on an animal. There have been anecdotal stories of orcas being struck or even pulled into the propeller of boats, but before this study, there wasn't a pattern of evidence that ship strikes, or other human activities, repeatedly caused death. Since there's blunt force trauma or death by fishing gear, a hook in an orca's throat, for example, documented in the necropsies across the age classes of orcas and across time, it's clear humans are contributing to the death of the animals. We might be able then to use that information to influence human activity and reduce killer whale deaths from these kinds of direct interactions.

TS: What was most surprising to see in the necropsy data?

JG: That humans are directly killing killer whales. I think most people thought that humans' influence on the animals might be indirect-disturbances from ships, things such as sonar, or overfishing of salmon, affecting the orcas' diet. But we have to realize that adding back salmon, for example, is only part of the solution. A successful conservation strategy has to include steps to address these direct causes of death, as well as the indirect ones.

TS: How can you use this data going forward?

SR: Necropsy data are important to understanding the health and causes of death of the stranded animals. As part of the research, we developed a body condition index, which assesses the health of the animal when it died. It goes beyond measuring only the thickness of the animal's blubber, which scales with the length from nose to the tip of the tail of the animal. The body score index takes into account the girth of the animal relative to its length, in addition to blubber thickness. That approach provides a more objective way to examine the nutritional health of the animal and is a technique that could be adopted around the world when studying stranded orcas and determining what killed them.

JG: To add to that, the study shows that performing these postmortem examinations is worth the effort. It shows that continuing to perform necropsies on killer whales helps us better monitor their health and understand what we can do to protect them.
S. Raverty et al., "Pathology findings and correlation with body condition index in stranded killer whales (Orcinus orca) in the northeastern Pacific and Hawaii from 2004 to 2013," PLOS ONE, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0242505, 2020. Editor's note: The interview was edited for brevity.

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What's Killing Killer Whales? Autopsies Reveal a Role for Humans

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While the stench of a dead, bloated killer whale that's washed ashore might steer away your average beachgoer, for Stephen Raverty of the Ministry of Agriculture in Canada it's an invitation to collect data. Raverty, a veterinary pathologist, carefully examines each one he's called to dissect, knowing that they retain invaluable information about the overall health of orcas in the Pacific ocean.

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"The rpoka (sea lions) in Aotearoa have struggled since the 90s. Conservationists estimate that half of the population died since then. A disease broke out that killed 60 percent of pups and 20 percent of adults classified as female, and adults classified as male were observed killing and eating their young in striking numbers. Their own species is now on the list of species that threatens their species" (Gumbs 42)

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Amazon river dolphins have suffered as a result of being in captivity. They do not do well and many of them have not survived being in aquariums, due to the forced migration and the adaptation of a new environment.

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During my interview with Corbin Maxey, he asked me what surprises have popped up in my zoo history research. My answer was not included in the final release of the interview; I answered that I was surprised about the extreme difficulty of caring for penguins in captivity until the late 1960s-too sad a topic to include in a fun podcast. Corbin told me that his zoo history surprise was that the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium exhibited an Amazon river dolphin (a species often called pink dolphin, or boto) for many years. River dolphins are a species rarely found in captivity, so I assured Corbin that I would further investigate this animal!

When we think of dolphins, we usually conjure up images of Flipper and the playful saltwater variety. Their freshwater cousins, however, are rarely portrayed in popular culture. River dolphins are smaller in order to propel through shallower water. They have tiny eyes, very flexible necks, longer snouts, and strong sonar to help snag fast-moving prey in muddy water. They are mostly concentrated in South American rivers, particularly the Amazon and Oronoco basins-with other species of river dolphins located in Asia (China and India). They are extremely rare in captivity even today, with only a few on exhibit around the world, mainly due to high mortality, aggression, and level of difficulty in training. Between 100 and 140 Amazon river dolphins were brought to the United States aquariums between the 1950s and the mid-1970s, and 90 percent of them lived only one to five years. Given this gram statistic, the story of Chuckles is an extremely remarkable one.

When Pittsburgh's AquaZoo opened in 1967, it was the second largest aquarium in the country. To fill the tanks with attractive specimens, zoologists set out on a three-week "aquafari" to the upper Amazon River of Columbia. They returned to Pittsburgh in June 1967 via C-46 airplane with 11,000 pounds of fish, reptiles, and amphibians; 500 excited fans greeted them at the airport, along with an orchestra playing South American music and a motorcade waiting to escort the new Pittsburgh residents to their home.

The stars of the aquarium were predicted to be three Amazon river dolphins-two adults (one very pregnant) and a baby. Sadly, both adults died a few days after arriving at the aquarium, one of pneumonia and the other of an infection stemming from a harpoon wound. (The only other immediate deaths reported were three red-tailed catfish, so the overall fatality rate of the large shipment was quite low.) The baby, a six-month-old named Pinky, seemed to thrive initially-eating well, taking vitamins, and enjoying the company of her human keepers. Keeping this baby alive, the first baby to survive in captivity, was an all-hands-on-deck affair, with pathologists and dieticians from the local Magee-Womens Hospital assisting. After Pinky's mother passed away, dieticians were able to obtain samples of her milk so that they could learn to simulate the high-fat, low-sugar formula that she required.

While Pinky was soaking up the attention, in August zoo officials acquired three companion Amazon porpoises, two females and a male, secured by fishermen a few weeks after the initial aquafari trip. Two dozen reporters were on hand for the initial introduction to their pool. Pinky was kept in a separate pool from the adults as she was received around-the-clock care. The behaviors of these creatures had not yet been understood, so they were not risking the larger adults hurting or killing the young dolphin.

The AquaZoo opened its doors on October 1, 1967. Aside from the porpoises, visitors were awed by the penguins, sharks, otters, electric eels, and rare specimens such as the tiger-fish (more vicious than piranhas) and South American gar. Zoo staff were quite proud of the health of the animals and smooth operation of the filtration systems of the $1.6 million facility. One newspaper article called the Amazon exhibit the only one of its kind in the world. The exhibit resembled their natural environment as closely as possible, and the thousands of visitors who showed up for the opening walked away super impressed.

Twelve days after the grand opening, baby Pinky's fragile life ended. She had been dealing with an eye infection, but her care team suspected that pneumonia is what ultimately killed her. In 1970, seven more Amazon river dolphins arrived. Then in 1972 three Amazon River dolphins died after emergency digestive surgery at Magee-Womens Hospital. They had swallowed coins and other debris (even a rail spike) that had been thrown into their tank. Eventually, only one dolphin remained: Chuckles.

By the time Chuckles arrived in 1970, the zoo (in Pittsburgh as well as other zoos) had learned a very important lesson in keeping river dolphins healthy in captivity. Their natural environment is not a vast ocean but a shallower body of water. In a deep tank, the river dolphins, which do not float, were expending a tremendous amount of energy attempting to rise to the surface for air and had difficulty sleeping in the deep water. The stress on the body was making them more susceptible to illness. Chuckles, at 6′3″ and over 200 lbs, was moved to a much smaller, four-foot-deep tank with a sloped area where he could beach himself. The smaller living space upset visitors but no doubt contributed to his record-breaking longevity. Amazon river dolphins are also mostly solitary in the wild, so his single lifestyle also kept his stress level lower but made him a target of cries that he looked lonely.

By the 1980s Chuckles was only one of two Amazon river dolphins living in U.S. aquariums-the other was Buster in Niagara Falls, New York. After Buster passed away around 1987, Chuckles was the only living freshwater dolphin in captivity in North America. He had outlived them all.

Although his species was generally believed to be less intelligent than their ocean-dwelling cousins, Chuckles proved extremely smart, and keepers started to notice that he would invite interaction with humans. He engaged visitors, particularly children, in play, and his care team would occasionally swim with him. After 15 years in captivity, it was time to use this rare opportunity to formally study him.

In 1982, when Chuckles developed a severe case of gout around his pectoral fins and required treatment, trainers started entering his pool and interacting with him on a more routine physical level. That April, after a University of Pittsburgh student who worked with Chuckles as well as marine dolphins noticed his aptitude for learning, thirteen trainers became involved in an intensive training program (23 other trainers were on a waiting list). Throughout his daily regimen, Chuckles learned more than a dozen routines, including tossing and fetching balls and frisbees, swimming through hoops (freshwater dolphins do not jump like the ocean dwellers), shaking with his fin, rolling over, and jump-hugging humans. With thirteen of them, not every trainer gave the dolphin a command in the exact same way, but he figured out what they wanted anyway. He was also a perfectionist, often re-performing a behavior if he wasn't pleased with the initial attempt. AquaZoo director Randy Goodlett noted that Chuckles' mental well-being had improved dramatically as well. "Before the training Chuckles was very blasé, just moping around in his tank. Now, he's like a puppy. He looks forward to the training sessions." By the time of his death, he knew over 30 behaviors.

Amazon river dolphins are born gray and tend to become pinker in color as they get older, or as they become more excited. Perhaps a trick, perhaps not, Chuckles appeared to be able to change his coloring from pink to gray at will. "Chuckles can go pink. He can go gray. He can go so gray that there's no pink on his body. He can be slightly pink. He can be brilliant pink. If they do have emotions, it might be tied into that. It might be vascular. It could be diet and old age," Goodlett suggested.

Chuckles was well trained, but that didn't mean he was always on his best behavior. In 1990 he bit a zoo volunteer while she rubbed his belly with a brush. He was in "reproductive stage," a time when aggressive behavior tends to peak in males. The volunteer required stitches on her finger, but claimed that Chuckles was still her buddy and would continue to work with him. The volunteer eventually sought $50,000 in damages from the zoo and won, but in 1996 the decision was overturned; the zoo was ultimately found not at fault. Chuckles also bit one of his trainers on the hand and leg during a training session in 1993, again while he was in reproductive stage. Three years later he bit a female visitor who, attempting to pet him, stuck her hand in his exhibit though a screen barrier while shouting his name. The zoo had to remind visitors that Chuckles was not dangerous, but he was a wild animal.

Every single trainer was bit. I was bit. He got me good a couple of times on the fingers. -Randy Goodlett, AquaZoo director

Chuckles' popularity helped bring awareness to the plight of his species in the wild. In 1986, a group of Pittsburgh conservationists, as part of the California-based "Pink Dolphin Project," journeyed to Brazil to help save around 150 Amazon river dolphins that had become trapped in dammed areas that were drained for irrigation during the dry season. As their situation became dire, the dolphins were transported to lakes and undammed streams. (The previous year, 200 river dolphins perished from starvation and sun exposure during the dry season.) To prepare for the trip, volunteers studied Chuckles to learn how to care for and handle the species for safe transport. The efforts to save the trapped river dolphins became a yearly project.

Chuckles lived out his final few years in a new home. In 2000, a newly renovated $17 million AquaZoo was opened (and renamed PPG Aquarium). The entire space was twice the size as the former iteration, and Chuckles was transferred to a customized pool five times the size of his previous home.

Chuckles died two years later on February 20, 2002, at the elderly age of 34. (Buster, the oldest Amazon river dolphin in captivity prior to him lived to the age of 23, so Chuckles smashed the longevity record for his species.) Pittsburgh had lost its smiley treasure. A makeshift memorial of flowers, photos, letters, and other mementos adorned the aquarium. One of his trainers added her whistle. Asked if the zoo would replace him with another river dolphin, a spokesperson said they would not. He was irreplaceable-their miracle dolphin.

On a wintry day our two sons, then about 6 and 10, and I were alone in front of Chuckles ' tank when he threw a ball out to us. We immediately threw it back, and this catch game went on for some minutes to the delight of the kids. We just wanted to describe our experience, which shows how intelligent and playful Chuckles was. -Radmilla Raikow, Pittsburgh resident ("Mourning Chuckles." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 23, 2002)

Today only three Amazon river dolphins exist in captivity-one each at Acuario de Valencia (Venezuela), Zoologico de Guistochoca (Peru), and the Duisburg Zoo (Germany). The Dallas World Aquarium attempted to acquire them in the mid-1990s as the main attraction of their new facility. However, the plan to capture them was strongly opposed by citizens, federal agencies, and advocacy groups and ultimately abandoned. In the wild, the Amazon river dolphin population is considered endangered and declining due to habitat loss (deforestation), commercial fishing, hydroelectric dam construction, and toxic mercury from gold mining. The largest effort to conserve the species occurred in 2012 when Bolivian president Evo Morales signed a law that banned fishing river dolphins and declared the species a national treasure; Brazil enacted a similar law in 2015. Additionally, the organization World Animal Protection has created a "Boto Guardians" program to help educate locals and enforce fishing laws. The Guardians number 300,000, and an estimated 1,600 river dolphins have been saved from illegal hunting through the organization's efforts.

Sources

"1967: First penguins arrive in Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photo archive. https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/thedigs/2014/06/11/1967-first-penguins-arrive-in-pittsburgh/

"Amazon River Dolphin." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_river_dolphin

Amazon River Dolphin fact sheet. World Wildlife Fund. https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/amazon-river-dolphin

"Aquafari's Porpoises Die in Highland Zoo." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 6, 1967): 1.

"Aquafarians Will Return on Sunday." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Daily Magazine (June 2, 1967): 1.

"Aquarium Opening to Public on Sunday." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (September 29, 1967): 25.

"Bolivia enacts law to protect Amazon pink dolphins." BBC News (September 18, 2012). https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19642422

Bonar, Christopher et al. "A Retrospective Study of Pathologic Findings in the Amazon and Orinoco River Dolphin ( Inia geoffrensis) in Captivity." Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 38 (2007): 177-91.

Bradley-Steck, Tara. "Rare Dolphin Taught at Pa. Zoo." Philadelphia Inquirer (March 7, 1985): B18.

---. "Conservation Group Trying to Rescue Amazon River Dolphins." The Daily Item (Sunbury, Pa.) (July 23, 1986): 25.

Butler, Ann. "Chuckles: Aqua Zoo's dolphin is teaching trainers." The Pittsburgh Press (January 7, 1985): C1.

Caldwell, M. C., D. K. Caldwell, and R. L. Brill. Inia geoffrensis in captivity in the United States. In W. F. Perrin, R. L. Brownell, Zhou Kaiya, and Liu Jiankang (Eds.), Biology and Conservation of the River Dolphins (IUCN, 1989): 35-41. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/SSC-OP-003_pp35-41.pdf

Carlisle, Anthony Todd and William Loeffler. "Chuckles the Dolphin Dies." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (February 21, 2002).

"Chuckles: No One Knew He Was So Smart." The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) (March 8, 1985): 7D.

Collier, Gene. "Random Points in the Zoo Time Continuum." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 14, 1998): G10.

da Silva, V. et al. Inia geoffrensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T10831A50358152. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T10831A50358152.en.

"Dallying Dolphin Puts Bite on Lady Friend from Pittsburgh." Dayton Daily News (March 22, 1990): 4A.

DeLaney, James K. "'Pinky the Porpoise' Dies at Zoo Aquarium." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (October 13, 1967): 21.

Dolphins, Porpoises and Whales of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book. Cambridge, UK: IUCN, 1991. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/RD-1991-001.pdf

Golightly, John. "'Aquafari' Hopes for Five-Ton Catch in Expedition to Waters of Amazon." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Daily Magazine (April 28, 1967): 1.

---. "Mama Caiman a Tough Jungle Fighter." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Daily Magazine (June 8, 1967): 1.

---. "Staff of Aquarium Ready for Opening." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (September 21, 1967): 1.

Grata, Joe. "Dolphin Bites the Hand That Feeds It at City Zoo." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 14, 1993): C1.

"Harpoon Wound Found Fatal to One Zoo Porpoise." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 8, 1967): 1.

Hopey, Don. "Chuckles the Dolphin, c. 1968-2002 - Smiler, Biter and Zoo Star for 3 Decades." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (February 21, 2002): A1. http://old.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20020221chuckles4.asp

Loftis, Randy Lee. "Dolphin Exhibit Opposed-Aquarium Promises Good Care for Display." Dallas Morning News (April 20, 1997): 37A.

---. "Federal Agency Challenges Plan to Capture River Dolphins." Dallas Morning News (August 17, 1997): 6A.

---. "Aquarium Won't Import Dolphins-Dallas Facility Drops Plan After Prominent Scientists Object." Dallas Morning News (September 37, 1997): 31A.

McNulty, Timothy. "No Laughing Matter: 'Chuckles' Bites Zoo Visitor." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, (December 4, 1996): C7.

Moody, Chuck. "Amazon Dolphin 'Chuckles' Nears Record in Captivity." The Daily Herald (Tyrone, Pa.) (March 21, 1990): 9.

Pierce, Henry W. "Pinky Displays (Por)poise in an Underwater Interview." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (August 3, 1967): 25.

---. "Team Preparing to Rescue Dolphins." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 7, 1986): 7.

"Pink dolphin protection is a powerful success." World Animal Protection, February 26, 2018. https://www.worldanimalprotection.us/news/pink-dolphin-protection-powerful-success

"Race Is on to Move Dolphins." The Sentinel (Carlisle, Pa.) (July 12, 1986): A2.

Raikow, Radmila. "Mourning Chuckles." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (February 23, 2002): A10.

"Rare Amazon River Dolphin Amazes Researchers." The Evening Times (Sayre, Pa.) (March 8, 1985): 9.

Rosensweet, Alvin. "New Aquarium Pleases Crowd on First Day." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (October 2, 1967): 1.

Ryan, Jack. "Amazon Expedition Returns with Big Catch for Aquarium." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 5, 1967): 25.

Ryan, Jack. "Three Porpoises Join 'Pinky' in Zoo." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (August 5, 1967): 13.

Schreib, Sandi, Annie Burrows, and Tim Smith. "The Amazon River Dolphin ( Inia geoffrensis)." Soundings: Newsletter of the International Marine Animal Trainers Association 19:2 (Spring 1994). http://www.imata.org/uploads/issues/pdf/1994_q2_soundings.pdf

Siemers, Erik. "Zoo Remembers Chuckles, a Fan Favorite." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (February 28, 2002).

Stanley, Bruce. "Rambunctious Dolphin Judged Wild Animal in Pittsburgh." Cleveland Plain Dealer (December 25, 1996): 16A.

Walsh, Lawrence. "30-Year-Old AquaZoo to Be Renewed by 2000." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (October 29, 1997): A1.

"Zoo Need Not Pay for a Dolphin's Bite." New York Times (December 25, 1996): A22.

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Chuckles the River Dolphin: Pittsburgh Treasure, Defier of Odds

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During my interview with Corbin Maxey, he asked me what surprises have popped up in my zoo history research. My answer was not included in the final release of the interview; I answered that I was surprised about the extreme difficulty of caring for penguins in captivity until the late 1960s-too sad a topic to...

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"This section looks at the hair of seals, walruses, and whales in connection with hair discourses within our species in order to reclaim the bodily feature most entangled with racial definition (after skin)" (Gumbs 46)

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News anchors talk about California's new natural hair law -- CROWN Act

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Many marine animals are endangered and suffer due to capitalism. Fishing industries maintain their practices and don't change them. They even invade and harm the habitats for economic profit.

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What is the relation between contemporary social, environmental, climate, economic crises and the oceans? And also, who is benefitting from all of this exploitation of the oceans, and how? Who are the capitalists at sea and what are their strategies? What types of acts of resistance and struggle exist against these interests - historically and today?

Podcast by

Aside from occasionally popping up as a topic, for example in relation to plastics, oil-spills, or occasional references to melting glaciers, the oceans are often a "forgotten space" for many otherwise inspiring social movements. But the oceans have had a central and changing role across different moments.

The global ocean has through the centuries served as a trade route, strategic space, fish bank and supply chain for the modern capitalist economy. While sea beds are drilled for their fossil fuels and minerals, and coastlines developed for real estate and leisure, the oceans continue to absorb the toxic discharges of our carbon civilisation-warming, expanding, and acidifying the blue water part of the planet in ways that will bring unpredictable but irreversible consequences for the rest of the biosphere.

Here at the State of power podcast, we are concerned with the ways in which power functions, on land and on the sea. With the United Nations Oceans Conference coming up between 27 June and 1 July, we thought this would be as good a time as any to take a closer look at the oceans that make up more than 70% of our planet's surface.

What is the relation between contemporary social, environmental, climate, economic crises and the oceans?

Also, who is benefitting from all of this exploitation of the oceans, and how? Who are the capitalists at sea and what are their strategies? What types of acts of resistance and struggle exist against these interests - historically and today?

Liam Campling and Alex Colas, are the authors of the book, Capitalism and the Sea: The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern World
In their book, which deals with the political economy, ecology and geopolitics of the sea, the authors argue that the earth's geographical separation into land and sea has significant consequences for capitalist development. The distinctive features of this mode of production continuously seek to transcend the land-sea binary in an incessant quest for profit, engendering new alignments of sovereignty, exploitation and appropriation in the capture and coding of maritime spaces and resources.

Here they are in conversation with Mads Barbesgaard, who is a researcher with TNI working on struggles around the use and control of land and ocean resources in the midst of the energy transition. Mads is also an Associate Senior Lecturer at the Department of Human Geography, at Lund University in Sweden.

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Capitalism and the Sea | Transnational Institute

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What is the relation between contemporary social, environmental, climate, economic crises and the oceans? And also, who is benefitting from all of this exploitation of the oceans, and how? Who are the capitalists at sea and what are their strategies? What types of acts of resistance and struggle exist against these interests - historically and today?

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Balaepnotera acutorostrata, also known as the common minke whale, is a species that not much is known about. They tend to be silent and not really show themselves on the surface. They roam and change directions in water, which is difficult to track.

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Geographic Range

Minke whales have a worldwide distribution, appearing in all oceans and some adjoining seas. Cooler regions seem to be preferred over tropical regions.

Habitat

Although not considered "coastal", these baleen whales rarely venture farther than 169 km from land. They also commonly enter estuaries, bays, fjords, and lagoons. They are also know to move farther into polar ice fields than other rorqual species.

Physical Description

Minkes are the smallest of the finback whales, growing to a maximum of 10.2 meters long. Females are larger than males, occasionally growing to a maximum of 10,000 kg. Coloration is dark above with a white underbelly. The head is pointed and bulletlike, with a relatively small rostrum. Baleen plates number around 300, are yellowish in color, and occasionally assymetrical in pattern. There are between 50-70 ventral grooves. A broad white band trims the dorsal side of flippers. The tail extends into two long tips. The dorsal fin is high and curved back.

Range mass

6000 to 9000 kg

13215.86 to 19823.79 lb

Reproduction

Only one young is born at a time. Gestation lasts for 10 to 11 months. Weight at birth is 450 kg. The young are weaned at 5 months, but they do not become sexually mature for 6 years. Females are thought to have young every other year. The breeding period is long--from December to May in the Atlantic and year round in the Pacific. Peak months for births are December and June. Growth stops at about 18 years for females and 20 years for males.

Average number of offspring

1

AnAge

Lifespan/Longevity

Behavior

Minke whales travel either singly or in small groups (2-4), although they can be found in large aggregations in the hundreds where krill is abundant. They are thought to be curious, approaching ships and wharfs which is not typical of its family. They are also highly acrobatic, able to leap completely out of the water like a dolphin. Minkes are fast swimmers. Some populations are migratory--both southern and northern populations often spend winter in tropical waters, although these are actually at different times of year as a result of seasonal differences in their homelands.

Communication and Perception

Food Habits

A baleen whale, this species feeds primarily on krill and some small fish. There are regional differences in the diet. Minkes eat krill almost exclusively in the Antarctic, but they are more omnivorous in the northern hemisphere, taking as food squid and small vertebrates such as cod, herring, and sardines.

fish

mollusks

aquatic crustaceans

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Minke whales have been hunted by people for products such as meat, oil, and baleen since the Middle Ages. Regardless, it has never been of large commercial importance until other whale species were overhunted. Annual kill peaked in 1976 with 12,398 individuals, but now is down to < 1,000. These are taken primarily by indigenous peoples for food, or by scientists for research.

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

None.

Conservation Status

The global population is estimated at over 300,000 individuals, and there seems to be no cause for concern, since this species is not commonly hunted anymore. Many populations are on appendix 1 of CITES. Numbers have also been on the rise since the early 1900's because close competitors (other rorqual species) have been overhunted.

A second form of minke whale called the dwarf minke has been found off Australia/ New Zealand/ South Africa. There is debate as to whether this is a subspecies of B. acutorostrata or a different species altogether.

Contributors

Bridget Fahey (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Atlantic Ocean

the body of water between Africa, Europe, the southern ocean (above 60 degrees south latitude), and the western hemisphere. It is the second largest ocean in the world after the Pacific Ocean.

Pacific Ocean

body of water between the southern ocean (above 60 degrees south latitude), Australia, Asia, and the western hemisphere. This is the world's largest ocean, covering about 28% of the world's surface.

References

Nowak, R.M. Walker's Mammals of the World, 5th Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Grizemek's Encyclopedia of Mammals. McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

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Balaenoptera acutorostrata (common minke whale)

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Minke whales have a worldwide distribution, appearing in all oceans and some adjoining seas. Cooler regions seem to be preferred over tropical regions. Although not considered "coastal", these baleen whales rarely venture farther than 169 km from land. They also commonly enter estuaries, bays, fjords, and lagoons.

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Herman Melville was an author, famous for writing Moby Dick. He was fascinated with a Shakespeare story about a whale. He then took a trip across the Atlantic and was eager to write about his experiences.

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Not until the early 20th century was Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick first recognized as a literary masterpiece and touted as a cornerstone of modern American literature.

Etching of Joseph O. Eaton's portrait of Herman Melville, Courtesy: Library of Congress

Born to a New York City merchant in 1819, Melville fought for a greatness that would not be realized during his lifetime. Melville's father supported his seven children importing French dry goods, but in 1830 he decided to try his luck in the fur business in Albany, NY. Within two years, the family was bankrupt and Herman's father died suddenly. Melville and his siblings left school to work in the family fur and cap business, with Melville working several other jobs as well -- filling in teaching positions at local schools, working on his uncle's farm, and clerking in a local bank.

Despite these difficulties, Herman Melville read extensively on his own, consuming mythology, anthropology, and history. He was fascinated with Shakespeare's poetic devices and their ability to capture an audience. He was also raised hearing the thrilling story of the whaleship Essex, which was attacked by a whale and sunk when Melville was just a year old. Melville's captivation with the terrifying grandeur of whales, the audacity of whalers, and the relationship between the two would be a motivating factor behind his writing.

In 1839, at the age of 20, Melville took his first voyage across the Atlantic sea as a cabin boy on the merchant ship the St. Lawrence. After this expedition and a year exploring the West, Melville joined the crew of the whaling ship Acushnet in January of 1841. The thrilling adventure that occurred during the next three years would satiate his desire for excitement and provide him with his material for his first three novels.

After a year and a half aboard the Acushnet, Melville and a fellow seaman deserted the ship, only to be captured by cannibals in the Marquesas Islands, the Typee. Although Melville was treated well, he sought rescue on the Australia whale ship Lucy Ann when it arrive on the Marquesas a month after his capture. On the Lucy Ann Melville traveled to Tahiti, where his unusual journey continued when he, along with the crew, committed mutiny by refusing their duty. Briefly jailed, Melville escaped and sailed to the nearby island Eimeo, where he worked on a potato farm.

More than five months after deserting the Acushnet, Melville's adventures were not over. Tiring of life on Eimeo, he joined the crew of whaler Charles and Henry, where he worked as harpooner. When the Charles and Henry anchored in Maui Island five months later in April of 1843, Melville took up work as a clerk and bookkeeper in a general store in Honolulu. In August, 1843, Melville enlisted in the US Navy and embarked on the final leg of his journey, working as a seaman on the Navy ship United States through the Pacific.

In October 1844, Melville returned to his mother's house determined to write about his adventures. His subsequent writings borrowed from his own experiences as well as other peoples' fantastic stories that he heard during his travels. Because of his extensive experience as a seaman and a whaler, his descriptions of life out at sea were comprehensive and unflinchingly accurate. Melville was also able to communicate the fear and terror of a whale hunt, a feat that would make his greatest work, Moby Dick, a literary tribute to the whaling industry.

His first manuscript, a tale in which the narrator, Tommo, is captured by Typee cannibals, was initially rejected in the United States because publishers refused to believe the validity of the story. The story was finally accepted in London, where Melville's older brother, Gansevoort, was working for the American Legation. Typee was published in Britain in February of 1846 to favorable reviews. Lauded for its ethnographic focus exploring the relationship between a New Englander and a foreign culture, Melville's story gained even more popularity after one of Herman's former crewmates came forward to validate its factual base. This new based-on-a-true-story status coupled with Americans' high interest in maritime adventures, helped Typee sell over 6,000 copies in two years when it was published in the U.S.

In the midst of his initial years as a profitable author, Melville married Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of the chief justice of Massachusetts and a close family friend. The chief justice, Lemuel Shaw, would later support Melville in the late 1850s during his financial struggles. With his new bride, Melville moved to New York City to live with his younger brother, mother, and four sisters in late 1847. Despite these crowded quarters, Melville was able to continue writing, and he finished two more novels within two years.

Encouraged by his success with Typee, Melville published Omoo in 1847, a story inspired by his time in the Polynesian Islands of Tahini and Eimeo. Omoo was just as successful as Typee, and Melville immediately began work on his third installment of his maritime adventures, Mardi and a Voyage Thither. Published in 1849, Mardi was not as successful as his previous two books, a fact credited largely to his increased use of allegory and a more farfetched storyline.

From 1849 to 1850, Melville wrote two more novels, Redburn and White-Jacket, both of which he later claimed to write simply for the money and the prestige. These attempts to inflate his image as an author won him general acclaim and the novels were modest hits. Melville moved on to his most prolific endeavor yet -- a story about one man's need to conquer and kill a great white whale. Melville had first thought of the idea after reading a 1839 article by Jeremiah N. Renolds entitled "Mocha Dick: Or, the White Whale of the Pacific."

While he drafted what would become the novel Moby Dick, Melville met and befriended Nathaniel Hawthorne, who had recently published the literary masterpiece The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne provided Melville with precious feedback on his manuscript, and encouraged him to change his current draft, a detailed account of whaling, into an allegorical novel.

In October 1851, The Whale, printed later as Moby Dick, was published in London. The allegorical undertones that Melville cultivated throughout the novel picked up on the link between whaling and a mid-19th century emerging American identity. The story centers around the narrator Ishmael, a sailor on the whaleship Pequod. The ship captain, Ahab, has lost his leg to Moby Dick on a previous expedition, and he is motivated to the point of derangement by revenge for the whale's life. Powered by this plot, Melville's Moby Dick spun the parable of the hunt for the great white whale as an emblem of the human condition and the reckless expansion of the American republic.

Despite Melville's high expectations for Moby Dick, literary critics largely disregarded the novel. Many critics were impressed with the detailed account of whaling voyages, but during Melville's entire lifetime, the book sold only 3,000 copies. Interest in maritime adventures was dwindling as Americans were setting their imaginations towards the potential in the West.

After the disappointment of Moby Dick's reception, Melville faced a battle against obscurity and financial ruin for the remainder of his life. In 1852, he wrote Pierre, a psychological romance based on his own childhood, but a negative critical reception and a poor sales performance cost him a significant amount of his savings. He turned to short pieces and poetry, publishing several pieces in Putnam's Monthly Magazine from 1853 to 1854. The general public ignored his short novel Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile (1855), and Melville entered a period of darkness and depression.

A trip to Europe to visit his friend Hawthorne in October 1856 did little to lighten his melancholy over a lost dream of literary fame. He toured the country from 1857 to 1860, giving lectures on various topics such as "Statues in Rome," "The South Seas," and the vague subject of "Traveling." In 1863, Melville moved back to New York City where he later found a job as a customs inspector on the New York docks.

Throughout his following 20 years as a dock worker, Melville continued writing, publishing the poem Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War in 1866. The chronological piece included depictions of all types of soldiers from both sides of the war, rendered accurately from a trip to the war front to visit his cousin the year before. Despite being considered among the best poems of the 19th century, Battle-Pieces sold a meager 486 copies.

Further heartache befell Melville when his oldest son, Malcolm, committed suicide in 1867. Again Melville turned to travel to gain perspective and possible writing material. His 1876 poem Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land drew upon his experiences in Europe and the Holy Land and set a baseline for a theme of religious crisis. Melville continued to pen poetry throughout these later years, printing John Marr and Other Sailors privately for friends and family in 1888. Melville was working on the manuscript of Billy Budd, Foretopman, a story about a sailor falsely accused of involvement in mutiny, when he died of a heart attack on September 28, 1891.

In the 1920s, literary scholars began to identify Moby Dick as a work that commented upon larger issues of the American experience in the 19th century. Critics increasingly recognized Moby Dick as one of the greatest pieces of American literature, and they began to discuss the allegorical implications at long last. The novel has been described as both an allegory to the push west (the prairie being the sea) and the Gold Rush (the gold being the whale), and it has been taught in classrooms worldwide for its successful combination of philosophical speculation, Shakespearean rhetoric and dramatic staging while moving an intelligent and authentic, albeit fantastic, plot.

Today, Moby Dick is a staple of many high school curriculum reading lists, and a 1956 film version by John Huston introduced the story into popular culture. In Moby Dick and his other works, Melville was able to incorporate stories of adventure with examinations of many inherently American themes: religion versus science, human limitations and emerging technology, and truth versus American myth. The ramifications that Americans can take from reading Melville center around the immoral manifestation of the democratic ideal that Americans were facing during the height of the whaling industry and one that we still battle with today.

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The Life of Herman Melville | American Experience | PBS

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Not until the early 20th century was Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick first recognized as a literary masterpiece and touted as a cornerstone of modern American literature. Born to a New York City merchant in 1819, Melville fought for a greatness that would not be realized during his lifetime.

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The ocean's deepness in one part is about 300-400 meters. Some sonar operators believed that they could see the bottom of the ocean floor but as a matter of fact, it can not be seen because there is a lot of ocean life in the deepness of the ocean.

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Epipelagic Zone
This surface layer is also called the sunlight zone and extends from the surface to 200 meters (660 feet). It is in this zone that most of the visible light exists. With that sunlight comes heat from sun, which is responsible for wide variations in temperature across this zone, both with the seasons and latitudes - sea surface temperatures range from as high as 97°F (36°C) in the Persian Gulf to 28°F (-2°C) near the North Pole.

Wind keeps this layer mixed and thus allows the sun's heat to be distributed vertically. The base of this mixing layer is the beginning of the transition layer called the thermocline.

Mesopelagic Zone
Below the epipelagic zone is the mesopelagic zone, extending from 200 meters (660 feet) to 1,000 meters (3,300 feet). The mesopelagic zone is sometimes referred to as the twilight zone or the midwater zone, as sunlight this deep is very faint. Temperature changes are the greatest in this zone because it contains the thermocline, a region where water temperature decreases rapidly with increasing depth, forming a transition layer between the mixed layer at the surface and deeper water. The depth and strength of the thermocline varies from season to season and year to year. It is strongest in the tropics and decrease to non-existent in the polar winter season.

Because of the lack of light, bioluminescence begins to appear on organisms in this zone . The eyes on the fishes are also larger and generally upward directed, most likely to see silhouettes of other animals (for food) against the dim light.

Bathypelagic Zone
The depths from 1,000-4,000 meters (3,300 - 13,100 feet) comprise the bathypelagic zone. Due to its constant darkness, this zone is also called the midnight zone. The only light at this depth and lower comes from the bioluminescence of the animals themselves.

The temperature in the bathypelagic zone, unlike that of the mesopelagic zone, is constant. The temperature never fluctuates far from a chilling 39°F (4°C). The pressure in the bathypelagic zone is extreme and at depths of 4,000 meters (13,100 feet), reaches over 5850 pounds per square inch! Yet, sperm whales can dive down to this level in search of food.

Abyssopelagic Zone
The Abyssopelagic Zone (or abyssal zone) extends from 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) to 6,000 meters (19,700 feet). It is the pitch-black bottom layer of the ocean. The water temperature is constantly near freezing, and only a few creatures can be found at these crushing depths.

The name (abyss) comes from a Greek word meaning "no bottom" because they thought the ocean was bottomless. Three-quarters of the area of the deep-ocean floor lies in this zone.

Hadalpelagic Zone
The deepest zone of the ocean, the hadalpelagic zone extends from 6,000 meters (19,700 feet) to the very bottom, 10,994 meters (36,070 feet) in the Mariana Trench off the coast of Japan.

The temperature is constant, at just above freezing. The weight of all the water over head in the Mariana Trench is over 8 tons per square inch.

Even at the very bottom, life exists. In 2005, tiny single-celled organisms called foraminifera, a type of plankton, were discovered in the Challenger Deep trench southwest of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. The deepest a fish have ever been found, Abyssobrotula galatheae, was in the Puerto Rico Trench at 8,372 meters (27,460 feet).

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Epipelagic Zone This surface layer is also called the sunlight zone and extends from the surface to 200 meters (660 feet). It is in this zone that most of the visible light exists.

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"The scientific surveillance and profiling technologies that describe marine mammals hold much in common with the systems that criminalize Blackness too. From the young narwhal as Black Unicorn (in Audre Lorde’s sense of the term), to a whale whose Latin name means “punkinhead” to the slim Black panther of the ocean to the extinct Caribbean monk seals, who were the first victims of Columbus and whose blubber was used to literally lubricate the plantation infrastructure of the region, this section explores Black kinship with marine mammals and the possibility of solidarity, love, chosen family, new traditions, and abundant survival" (Gumbs 62)

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As the term popularizes as a catch-all, however, so proliferate assumptions, narratives, and stereotypes that obscure the diversity of Black lived experiences.This month, we asked a few of our authors the following question: What do you find is commonly misunderstood about Blackness in America? Our authors brought together a wealth of experience and research from the worlds of literature, higher education, art, and criminal justice to illuminate shades and contradictions within Blackness and to offer paths out of reductive generalizations. In honor of Black History Month, we present this composite of perspectives that invites us to embrace a complex and heterogenous understanding of Black life, culture, and politics.

The visibility of race is a myth. And yet it remains common for Americans to ignore, overlook, or forget that Black identity (and African ancestry) comes in all shades.

Given the diversity among Black Americans today, any assumptions we make about the origins, experiences, and characteristics of someone you perceive as Black are likely to be wrong.

Another misunderstanding about "Blackness" in America is that the histories, struggles, and concerns of Black people should be "contained" rather than being seen as integral to the understanding of American history, culture, and society writ large.

People from all racial and class backgrounds engage in criminalizable behaviors; the difference is that anti-Black stereotypes about criminality and worthiness structure crime's meaning and the way it is policed.

This exchange was facilitated by Akhil Jonnalagadda as part of the Princeton University Press Publishing Fellowship program .

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In Dialogue: What is misunderstood about Blackness?

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As the term popularizes as a catch-all, however, so proliferate assumptions, narratives, and stereotypes that obscure the diversity of Black lived experiences.This month, we asked a few of our authors the following question: What do you find is commonly misunderstood about Blackness in America?

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Military officials supposedly protect the amazon manatee but they still hunt it for uses that benefit them. They don't protect it. The same is said about black and indigenous environmental activists that fight against environmental injustice.

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"The miouroung, or southern sea elephants, spend a whole month snuggling. This is after breeding season is already over and done. Just a platonic month of spooning with relatives and friends. They press right up onto each other on the beach and mostly nap. And this is all they do for an entire month. No hunting, mating, or territory struggles, just snuggling like a full-time job" (Gumbs 69).

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Marine mammals have many connections to black women and feminism. Marine mammal parenting and care practices relate to black female queerness and black mothering. There is a need to take care and embrace people that are one's own or are like one's own.

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My journey to motherhood has at once been a step forward into uncharted territory and a step back into an almost forgotten vulnerability. I am Black, Queer, Woman. My journey to the point where I could harmoniously claim these aspects of my identity has been far and long. Last year, I reached my hands into the wet clay to begin molding and shaping my new identity as a parent. My fingers trembled with a familiar anxiety. The anxiety of being judged in a society that, despite its progress, still hesitates to recognize the fullness of my humanity and receive my presence with ease.

Heads would turn and glances would linger as I went about my daily life with my wife and our now one-year-old, then newborn twin daughters. In the first few months, I constantly parried thoughts of 'am I doing it right?' all while dancing a violent tango with 'what does queer motherhood look like?' My wife is feminine-presenting and so are all of the mothers in each of our families. Motherhood is regularly represented in the media by feminine-presenting women as well, with the occasional feature of a white, "tomboyish" Ellen-type.

Surrounded by mothers, yet invisible. The anxiety brought me to consider retreating into myself. It teased me and attempted to place anger in my heart. It would bat its long, curly eyelashes at me; tempting me to have a bite from the apple to make me smaller for the comfort of other people, under the guise that it would be for my own good.

The more visible this new part of my identity, the more keenly aware I became of the heteronormative expectations our society holds about motherhood. A well-meaning healthcare provider directed questions about our children to my wife, making eye contact with me infrequently as if I were less-involved or less-responsible by default. Once in conversation, I mentioned the quality time I enjoyed spending with my daughters across a weekend and was complimented for "giving mom a break," as though the possibility that I genuinely wanted to spend time alone with my own children could not be fathomed.

When our daughters were nearly two-months-old, we made a trip to the mall. While there, a stranger saw nothing wrong with asking, "Who's their real mom?" Later on, I reflected on that moment and flashed-back to the weeks I spent traveling to the hospital with an insulated lunch box full of breastmilk to bottle-feed our newborn daughter in the NICU; returning home to care for our second newborn and my wife as she recovered from a C-Section. My undying love and sense of purpose was the only thing that kept me going during those sleepless weeks where I was so worried about my family, I regularly forgot to feed myself. An a-ha moment dawned upon me with a remix of Sojourner Truth's famous words...

And ain't I a mother?

It was at this point that I decided my strength should come from trusting in my innermost self. To give myself permission to be imperfect and to make mistakes in order to make possible unlimited opportunities to learn and grow and break free of the box within which society expects mothers to fit.

My innermost self is the molten core that houses the raw material needed to create my own definition of motherhood. This unique definition need not live up to any expectations save for my own. I had known this truth all along, but becoming a mother threw me for an unexpected loop that had me second-guessing myself and seeking validation from the very folks who have yet to truly respect the intersections of my identity to begin with.

The love my daughters express affirms that I am 'doing it right'. I set the standard for myself about what queer motherhood looks like, and though I hope to serve as a role model for the next generation, I love that my fellow queer sisters have the freedom to define motherhood completely for themselves as well.

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At the Intersection of Black, Queer, and Mother by Azuree Harrison

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My journey to motherhood has at once been a step forward into uncharted territory and a step back into an almost forgotten vulnerability. I am Black, Queer, Woman. My journey to the point where I could harmoniously claim these aspects of my identity has been far and long.