Unusual Amount Of Gray Whales Spotted Of California Coast

Whale watchers are saying that migrating gray whales are swimming through Southern California waters in record numbers this winter.


The Los Angeles Times said on Wednesday that whale watchers at Point Vicente in Rancho Palos Verdes have recorded a record 163 sightings in December so far, which is the most that have been logged at this location in 28 years.

At this time last year, observers logged 26 gray whales. The previous record saw 133 of the mammals in 1996.

“I’ve seen some pretty good years but never anything like this,” Joyce Daniels, a volunteer in the whale census, told the LA Times.

“We had whales everywhere. So many I was having trouble figuring out which whale was which,” she said. “It’s a real adrenaline rush to have so many whales.”

Over 20,000 gray whales migrate each year from the arctic to Baja California, where females give birth. The mammals then migrate back north for the spring weather.

California’s coast is not just accustomed to only gray whales. Last spring, hundreds of blue whales were spotted in the area. Humpback whales have also been seen off the Californian coast.

Researchers say they hope this means things in the whaling world are going good and the populations are becoming more robust.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112447067/unusual-amount-of-gray-whales-spotted-of-california-coast/

Scientific Discovery: Long-legged Buzzard Migrates Backwards

What can the raptors of the coastal plain teach us about the state of open spaces in Israel, the importance of responsible management of these areas, and finding a balance between the need for development and the need for environmental protection?


A research study on this topic, undertaken by postgraduate student Gilad Friedman in cooperation with KKL JNF and other organizations, was presented at the 32nd Annual Bird Watching Conference, December 26, 2011 at Tel Aviv University. Friedman’s research received much attention, because it revealed a surprising discovery. The Long-legged Buzzard, which is considered a stable bird (one that does not migrate), does in fact migrate. Furthermore, it migrates in the opposite direction from most bird species - from south to north!

The conference was organized by the Tel Aviv University Zoology Department, the Multidisciplinary Center for Bird Migration Research in Latrun and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). About one thousand people, experts as well as bird lovers, came to hear a variety of lectures about the winged world.

The speakers included Dr. Yossi Leshem on Hoopoe Foundation Activities, Ohad Hatzofe (Pelican Migration), Yoav Perlman (Nesting Survey in the Negev), Roni Malka and Roni Levana (Harassment by Photographers), Dan Alon (Bird Watching Tourism), Alon Rothschild (Nature Preservation), Dr. Eran Levine (Insect Bats in the Jordan Valley) and Amir Ben Dov (The Yellow-legged Gull), and there was an exhibition of spectacular bird photographs for the participants to enjoy in between the presentations.
Friedman’s research began pursuant to a curious phenomenon—the move of the Long-legged Buzzard from the precipices of the Judean Hills to the trees of the Judean Plain. This move instigated competition between the buzzards and the Short-toed Eagle, a bird of prey of another species.


KKL JNF has a unique interest in this research and therefore assists in covering its costs. Many of the ninety nests located by Friedman in the Lachish region are in KKL JNF forests. The raptors often choose to nest in trees that are on the edge of the forest, thereby safeguarding easy access to the open fields where they prey without forfeiting the protection provided by the forest.

Another topic relevant to KKL JNF is the effect of human activity and development on the ecosystem. Experts propose that the move of the Long-legged Buzzard from the Judean Hills to the plain is due to urban development, the expansion of natural woodland and the planting of forests. These ecological changes compelled the raptor to seek new locations and adapt to living in trees and not on mountaintops.

As a result of the transition, competition began with the current occupants of the area, the Short-toed Eagles. Evidently man’s activities in one area could indirectly affect another species in another area. The rivalry between these two species has never been investigated. In general, the Long-legged Buzzard is a species about which very little research or documentation has been done.

The state of raptors is a good indication of the state of their habitat, because they are at the top of the food chain. If raptors are proliferating, it is a sign that there is other wildlife in the area.

In his research, Friedman visits the nests, collects data on the development of the young and analyzes the food remains. He also conducts fieldwork studies using stuffed birds in order to observe territorial aggression. All the work is done with the permission of the Nature Reserves Authority.

Friedman’s research began pursuant to a curious phenomenon—the move of the Long-legged Buzzard from the precipices of the Judean Hills to the trees of the Judean Plain. This move instigated competition between the buzzards and the Short-toed Eagle, a bird of prey of another species.


KKL JNF has a unique interest in this research and therefore assists in covering its costs. Many of the ninety nests located by Friedman in the Lachish region are in KKL JNF forests. The raptors often choose to nest in trees that are on the edge of the forest, thereby safeguarding easy access to the open fields where they prey without forfeiting the protection provided by the forest.

Another topic relevant to KKL JNF is the effect of human activity and development on the ecosystem. Experts propose that the move of the Long-legged Buzzard from the Judean Hills to the plain is due to urban development, the expansion of natural woodland and the planting of forests. These ecological changes compelled the raptor to seek new locations and adapt to living in trees and not on mountaintops.

As a result of the transition, competition began with the current occupants of the area, the Short-toed Eagles. Evidently man’s activities in one area could indirectly affect another species in another area. The rivalry between these two species has never been investigated. In general, the Long-legged Buzzard is a species about which very little research or documentation has been done.

The state of raptors is a good indication of the state of their habitat, because they are at the top of the food chain. If raptors are proliferating, it is a sign that there is other wildlife in the area.

In his research, Friedman visits the nests, collects data on the development of the young and analyzes the food remains. He also conducts fieldwork studies using stuffed birds in order to observe territorial aggression. All the work is done with the permission of the Nature Reserves Authority.

http://www.jpost.com/GreenIsrael/PEOPLEANDTHEENVIRONMENT/Article.aspx?id=251236

Migrating whale numbers hit 50-year high

There has been a rise in the number of migrating whales. They travel on a 5,000km (3,100 miles) round trip to give birth off the coast of Australia before heading back to Antarctica to their main feeding grounds.

It is the highest number seen in half a century.

Duncan Kennedy reports from Sydney.

Watch video here ...

Antarctic Killer Whales May Seek Spa-Like Relief in the Tropics

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2011) — NOAA researchers offer a novel explanation for why a type of Antarctic killer whale performs a rapid migration to warmer tropical waters. Scientists believe that warmer waters help the whales regenerate skin faster, after spending months coated with algae in colder waters.

"The whales are traveling so quickly, and in such a consistent track, that it is unlikely they are foraging for food or giving birth," said John Durban, lead author from NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California. "We believe these movements are likely undertaken to help the whales regenerate skin tissue in a warmer environment with less heat loss."

As evidence, the researchers point to the yellowish coating on Antarctic killer whales caused by a thick accumulation of diatoms or algae on the outer skin of the animals. The coloring is noticeably absent when they return from warmer waters indicating the upper epidermis of the skin has been shed.
One tagged Antarctic killer whale monitored by satellite traveled over 5,000 miles to visit the warm waters off southern Brazil before returning immediately to Antarctica just 42 days later. This was the first long distance migration ever reported for killer whales.

The coloring is noticeably absent when they return from warmer waters indicating the upper layer of skin has been shed. The scientists tagged 12 Type B killer whales (seal-feeding specialists) near the Antarctic Peninsula and tracked 5 that revealed consistent movement to sub-tropical waters. The whales tended to slow in the warmest waters although there was no obvious interruption in swim speed or direction to indicate calving or prolonged feeding.

"They went to the edge of the tropics at high speed, turned around and came straight back to Antarctica, at the onset of winter," said Robert Pitman, co-author of the study. "The standard feeding or breeding migration does not seem to apply here."

Researchers believe there are at least three different types of killer whales in Antarctica and have labeled them Types A, B and C.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111026113824.htm

Dinosaurs may have migrated: study

Giant plant-eating dinosaurs may have lumbered across hundreds of miles as they made seasonal migrations in search of food and water, scientists believe.

The long-necked "sauropods", which stood on four legs, were the largest animals that ever walked the Earth.

Given their enormous appetites and water needs, their ability to survive in lowland flood plains affected by seasonal dry spells and drought has puzzled scientists.

Now researchers have learned at least one dinosaur species made regular journeys between lowland to highland habitats covering several hundred miles.

The evidence is in the teeth of Camarasaurus, a large sauropod which grew to a length of 60ft and weighed to 18 tonnes.

Fossilised Camarasaurus teeth, found in the US states of Wyoming and Utah, contained a chemical record of the animals' movements during the Late Jurassic period around 150 million years ago.

Different atomic versions of oxygen, or isotopes, occur in the surface water of lowland and highland regions.

These differences remained imprinted in the oxygen from drinking water deposited in the Camarasaurus teeth.

Comparing the oxygen isotopes to those in ancient soil, lake and wetland samples revealed a picture of the dinosaurs' migration patterns.

The researchers, led by Dr Henry Fricke, from Colorado College, US, wrote in the journal Nature: "Camarasaurus populations... must have directly occupied high-elevated regions for at least part of the year before returning to the basin where they died."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/dinosaurs-may-migrated-study-171726034.html

Deep sea fish 'mystery migration' across Pacific Ocean (via Lindsay Selby)

Deep sea fish species found in the north Pacific Ocean have mysteriously been caught in the southwest Atlantic, on the other side of the world.

Deepwater travellers: A) deepwater slipskin and B) gonate squid

Photos: A Arkhipkin

It is unclear how the animals, a giant rattail grenadier, pelagic eelpout and deep sea squid, travelled so far.

Their discovery 15,000km from their usual home raises the possibility that deep sea currents can transport animals from one polar region to another.

An out of place rattail

Details are published in the journal Deep Sea Research part I.

"These findings were completely unexpected," says Dr Alexander Arkhipkin of the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department, based in Stanley, on the Falkland Islands in the southwest Atlantic Ocean.
Since 1987, the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department has performed surveys of fish caught by commercial and research fishing trawlers travelling above the Patagonian Shelf and slope around the islands.

Commercial longline catches of Patagonian toothfish have also been examined.

Recently, these catches have brought to the surface animals previously unknown in the southwest Atlantic.

For example, Dr Arkhipkin and colleagues Dr Vladimir Laptikhovsky and Dr Paul Brickle report a 81cm-long grenadier fish belonging to the genus Albatrossia caught by the longline fishery set to catch Patagonian toothfish.

Another deepwater trawl caught a small 15cm-long pelagic eelpout at a depth of 1000m.

Experts have identified this fish as being a member of the slipskin species Lycodapus endemoscotus.


Previously both species were only known from the deepwaters of the north Pacific Ocean.

A small immature 11cm-long north Pacific gonate squid Gonatopsis octopedatus was also recovered from a trawl south of the Falkland Islands.

Genetic analyses confirmed the identification, which is the first time any member of this squid genus has been recorded in the southern hemisphere.

The catches are the first time that such deepwater species have been caught so far from their natural habitat.

All three species habitually live in the deep waters of the north Pacific, at depths greater than 600-1000m.

That makes it extremely unlikely that the fish and squid could have become trapped in ballast water used by ships, and transported around the world.

"We would not expect that relatively slow deepwater fish and squid might travel so far from their common habitats," says Dr Arkhipkin
All three species live above the seafloor, and none of the three are known to habitually migrate, just as tuna and whales do.


Far more likely is that each animal was transported thousands of kilometres by deepwater currents.

These flow south, across the equator, moving past South America underneath another northbound flow called the Humboldt Current.

Finally, this flow mixes with another called the Upper Circumpolar Deep Water to pass through the Drake Passage, whcih separates South America and Antarctica, to the Southwest Atlantic.

Such deep water currents flow slowly, so it may take a few years for a long-lived fish, or even several generations of short-lived fish or squid to migrate the whole way.


Dr Arkhipkin says the catches may force scientists to reevaluate their ideas about the distribution and movements of deepwater species.

Though there is no evidence to support the idea, Dr Arkhipkin speculates that climate change may be influencing the deepwater currents, facilitating the novel spread of such animals.

Is this the end of migration?

It's rained three times as much as usual this winter in Andalusia, and almost every day unemployed amateur ornithologist Javier Caracuel has walked past a disused mining tower in the decaying industrial town of Linares and looked up, expecting the pair of white storks that nest there to have migrated south.


Yet despite the surrounding high noise levels – the tower, some 10 metres high, is jammed between a school and a street clogged with traffic – and Andalusia's wettest winter in decades, the storks have stayed put. And they're not alone. "There have always been a couple of storks at the top of the church spire down by the railway station, but I've never seen so many across town," Mr Caracuel explains, "and there are dozens more in the villages."

The changes in storks' behaviour that Mr Caracuel has observed in one near-forgotten mining town in north-eastern Andalusia are far from uncommon. At a recent high-level congress attended by 200 migration experts, leading Spanish ornithologist Miguel Ferrer estimated that 20 billion birds have changed their migrating habits in the last few decades. The biggest single identifiable reason behind such a massive behavioural shift, involving 70 per cent of the world's migrating birds is – surprise, surprise – climate change.

"Long-distance migrators are travelling shorter distances, shorter-distance migrators are becoming sedentary," says Mr Ferrer, who works for Spain's Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in the Doñana National Park, one of the key European "stopovers" in bird migration routes. "That has a knock-on effect on almost everything they do, from breeding habits to feeding habits to their genetic diversity, which in turn affects other organisms in their food chain. It's a huge behavioural change, forced on them by rising temperatures."

"Climate change and environmental change are simultaneously forcing migratory birds to adapt extremely quickly," says Ian Newton, a Royal Society member and lifelong researcher into the subject. But if the adaption process is necessarily far faster than the last comparable geophysical phenomenon, the Ice Age, this time round it may not be anywhere near as successful.

"Fossil evidence suggests that in the Ice Age migration patterns changed, but now it's not such an easy option. The worldwide landscape is much more fragmented because of human activity. Put simply, it's not the same for a bird to try to adapt to the environment in Manhattan as it is in the Maldives."

Apart from migration changes, the birds' other option in the face of a fast-heating environment is fast-track evolution. This time there is evidence they are doing both. Reduction of wingspan sizes and changes in beak shapes have already been recorded. In another recent discovery, Francisco Pulido of the Complutense University in Madrid has ascertained that the recent shifts in migratory patterns are not necessarily temporary: rather for some birds, they're genetic.

"Pulido looked at migratory restlessness in blackcaps and warblers over a 13 year period," Professor Newton explains. "Studying a separate sample of birds each year, he found that their restlessness became progressively earlier each season. The only explanation for such a change is genetics."

Such changes are likely to become ever more common, as temperatures rise across the planet. "Average annual temperatures are moving northward at a rate of four kilometres a year," Mr Ferrer estimates, "so the normal summer temperature in your city 12 months ago is now normal four kilometres further north. It doesn't sound like a lot, but that's 20 times quicker than temperatures changed in the last Ice Age. At the same time, because birds are migrating less, one traditional path for genetic development – when they strayed from their migration paths by accident and had to adapt – is being closed off."

Scientists insist the consequences of rising temperatures have barely begun to scratch the surface of birds' behavioural patterns. But changes are becoming increasingly dramatic, with radical population shifts just one known effect. To use the example of white storks again, as long as six years ago recorded numbers in Spain had almost doubled to 32,000. Even in far-flung Tykocin, north-east Poland, they have risen by 20 per cent.

At the same time, wild geese in Doñana, once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, have plunged by 40 per cent. However, in Lake Gallocanta in Zaragoza, Spain, amateur ornithologist Javier Mañas reports that numbers of wintering cranes have increased six-fold in the past five years, from 3,000 to more than 18,000.

On the other side of the planet, there have been similar changes in migration patterns, according to a British specialist in Japanese wildlife and author, Mark Brazil. "We see considerable annual variation now in the presence and absence of wintering birds arriving into Japan." he says.

"Some people might say to heck with biodiversity," comments Peter Marra, a research scientist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Centre in the USA, "but they'd be wrong. Birds are the most sensitive thermometer of environmental change we have, and if up to 20 per cent are going to become extinct, it doesn't say to me we're living in a sustainable way."

Puffins' winter odyssey revealed

Tuesday, 12 January 2010
By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News

Puffins from the North Sea's largest breeding colony venture much further afield during the winter than previously thought, a study has shown.

More than 75% of the seabirds fitted with "geolocator" tags headed for the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, rather than staying in the North Sea.

Until now, very little was known about where puffins went during the winter as the birds spent the entire time at sea.

The findings by British researchers appear in the journal Marine Biology.

Writing in the journal, a team of researchers from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology said: "The finding that more than three-quarters of the birds made a major excursion into the Atlantic was entirely unexpected."

They added it challenged the previous view that puffin populations on the east and west of Britain remained separate from each other, during both the breeding season and during the winter.

"What we were completely unprepared for was that they made a one-to-three-month trip into the Atlantic and then came back to the North Sea," said lead author Mike Harris.

He said the development of geolocators - small location loggers that weigh 1.5g, which are fitted to birds' legs - allowed the team to track the puffins' movements for the first time.

"One of the big gaps in seabird biology is what do they do during the winter," Professor Harris explained.

"So, it's fantastic when all of these problems that you thought you would never solve, but then a technology appears that allows us to get somewhere at last.

"Up until now, the devices that have been available to fit on birds have been too heavy for puffins, which only weigh about 400g.

"So once these (geolocator) tags became available and were working well, the puffin was an obvious choice to use them on."

During the 2007 breeding season, the team fitted 50 birds on the Isle of May, a National Nature Reserve off the east coast of Scotland, with geolocators.

The loggers work by measuring light levels, recording when dawn and dusk occurs each day.

With this data, researchers can calculate day length, when midday occurs, and the daily longitudinal and latitudinal co-ordinates for the individual bird.

The researchers retrieved 14 devices during the following spring, and were able to download data from 13 of the tags.

Migration mystery

Professor Harris, who has been studying puffins for 37 years, said that it was too early to suggest why the puffins were making the extended journey to the Atlantic Ocean.

"At the moment, we are trying to get more information on what they eat," he told BBC News.

"We do not really know what species of fish or crustacea they eat during the winter; the suggestion is that they eat less fish and more plankton.

"The problem has been that until we know where they go, we cannot know what they are eating and whether there has been a change in [food availability].

Adverse conditions that limited the birds' access to food was one hypothesis for why there was a dramatic fall in the population of North Sea puffins between 2003 and 2008.

Puffin numbers on the Isle of May had been increasing for half a century, with the population reaching about 69,300 pairs in 2003.

Yet a survey in 2008 recorded 41,000 pairs, less than half of the 100,000 pairs that would be expected if the previous rate of increase had continued.

A similar decline in puffin numbers has also been recorded on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, England's largest breeding colony of the seabirds.

A survey in 2008 recorded just 36,500 puffins, down from a record high of 55,674 in 2003.

Female puffins only lay one egg a year, so a high mortality rate among adults across a few years can quickly destabilise the population.

Professor Harris said that the population crash was unexpected.

"Puffins normally survive very well, and suddenly we had two years when they did not," he said.

Over the winter, the birds undergo their main moult in which they lose their wing feathers, making them flightless and vulnerable to adverse conditions, such as storms or poor food supplies.

Researchers are not sure how long puffins are left flightless, so the CEH team had hoped that a device on the tag that measured when the birds' feet were in seawater would provide an insight.

"What we didn't realise then but now know is that when puffins sleep they often tuck their feet into their plumage," Professor Harris revealed.

This behaviour meant that the tag dried out, recording an "in flight" reading when the bird in fact was still on the water.

"So we succeeded in one of our objectives, which was to find out where the puffins were going, but we failed on the other, which was to find out when the birds were flightless."

The team plan to continue fitting geolocators on puffins over the coming years, enabling them to build a better picture of the behaviour and movements of the birds during the winter months.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8452423.stm

Dolphin 'super pod' seen in firth

Some of the short-beaked common dolphins which were seen in the Moray Firth

Hundreds of dolphins more commonly found in warmer seas have been seen in the Moray Firth while making a "massive migration" into the North Sea.

The environmental charity Earthwatch Institute said more than 400 short-beaked common dolphins were sighted off the north east coast.
It said the "super pod" was a sign of how climate change was pushing some wildlife further north.

The firth is famous for its bottlenose dolphins.

An Earthwatch team headed by Dr Kevin Robinson, director and co-founder of the Cetacean Research and Rescue Unit (CRRU), saw the pod 10 miles off land.

He said the dolphins' appearance in the firth was hugely significant.

Dr Robinson said: "Firstly, the sheer number of dolphins was astounding - there were common dolphin everywhere around us over a two-mile radius.

"Furthermore, this was only the second sighting in the past few years of such a 'super-pod' of this species in these waters. The first sighting in 10 years was recorded here in July 2007 when we were joined by more than 300 animals in the outer Moray Firth.

"Since then we have not seen them, although smaller groups have been identified by co-workers from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society on opportunistic boat surveys."

He said "super pods" were known to exist in other parts of the UK. There have been sightings in the Western Isles, but few in the firth.

The scientist added: "This is further scientific evidence that populations of dolphins are moving further north because of climate change."

'Wall-to-wall'

Christina Gore, a 61-year-old Earthwatch volunteer who was also on the boat trip, said the water was "boiling with animals".

She said: "It was incredibly exciting. They were swimming under the boat and leaping alongside us. There were older animals doing back-flips, and there were even newborn calves swimming along with the group."

Charlie Phillips, of the WDCS, said common dolphins could be seen in the Inner Moray Firth where the stretch of water narrows in the summer.

He said the numbers in the group seen by Dr Robinson off Fraserburgh were amazing.

Mr Phillips said: "To see wall-to-wall dolphins is something to behold."

Large sand eel and mackerel shoals off the Caithness coast may see the "super pod" move into the Pentland Firth, he added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8120523.stm

20,000 humpbacks start migration up Australia’s west coast

Western Australia wildlife officers prepare for a busy whale season
The annual migration of whales from Antarctica to warmer waters off Western Australia's northern coast has begun, and wildlife officers from the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) are predicting a busier than usual whale season.

DEC senior wildlife officer Doug Coughran said humpback whales are now making appearances off the Perth coast, while southern right whales are moving along the south coast.

"Based on current science, more than 20,000 humpback whales will migrate to the State's north and some of these will be preparing to give birth," Mr Coughran said. "These whales should be a regular sight off the WA coast until the end of the year. We'll see humpbacks passing through Perth waters during June and July as they head north and then again from September as they return to their feeding grounds in Antarctica."

The 13,000 kilometres round-trip is made in small groups and humpback migrations were among the longest known in the animal kingdom. The west coast population migrates to the so-called ‘maternity ward' in the north of Western Australia is one of the largest and most successful recovering populations in the world.

"The reality is that as their numbers continue to rise, nature will need to take its course to separate the stronger animals from the weaker ones, in order to maintain a healthy population," he said.

Humpback whaling stopped in 1963

The whaling of humpbacks in Western Australia ceased in 1963 when the population was depleted to less than 500 individuals.

"To go from having less than 500 humpbacks on the west coast, to having more than 20,000 today is a spectacular wildlife recovery story," Coughran said.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/australia-humpbacks727.html