Since Lyne brought up whaling I'm curious whether anyone has a (professional or personal/professional) opinion on the International Whaling Commission upcoming vote on opening the world oceans to whaling again. Are people aware that this is on the table this June's IWC meeting in Morocco? It hasn't received much press. It surely will if it passes! Apparently the US is supportive. Yep.
But this is the thing. Save the Whales has been touted as perhaps the most successful environmental campaign of all time. Most people loathe the thought of killing the gentle giants. But we eat all kinds of other creatures. So... if some species of whales have sufficiently recovered (have any? It seems they have recovered, if not to the numbers they once were pre-modern era) then is it actually a possibly viable idea to hunt them IF it helps better regulate things like the "scientific" whaling of Japan? I'm at the beginning of my research here, but it's quite an interesting topic. What do whale ecologists think? Would it be good or bad for the marine ecosystem? Hunting and hunting enthusiast passion has helped to save/manage many species of terrestrial animal (ducks and elk comes to mind) but whales? Wendee ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wendee Holtcamp, M.S. Wildlife Ecology ~ @bohemianone Freelance Writer * Photographer * Bohemian http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com ~~ 6-wk Online Writing Course Starts May 15 or Jun 19 ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Im Animal Planets news blogger - http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of Lyne Morissette Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 10:56 PM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: [ECOLOG-L] New paper published: whales and fisheries Dear colleagues, The following article has just been published in this month's issue of Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS): Ecosystem models clarify the trophic role of whales off Northwest Africa ABSTRACT: There is global concern about the interaction between whales and fisheries, and in some countries, great whales are viewed as a threat to fisheries by potentially eating fish species that could be exploited for human consumption. We developed an ecosystem model to explore the trophic interactions between cetaceans and fisheries off Northwest Africa and to examine the potential impact of a reduction in the abundance of baleen whales on fishery yields. This allowed us to characterize the structure and function of the ecosystem in terms of biomass, mortalities, consumption rates, food habits, and fisheries. Faced with sparse data for our study area, we explicitly accounted for uncertainty in ecosystem structure, model accuracy, and input data and conducted an extensive sensitivity analysis. We tested model performance with time series of biomass and catches for important species of the system. Our results indicate that the overlap between prey species consumed by cetaceans and species targeted in fisheries is low. Furthermore, for a wide range of assumptions about whale abundances, diet composition, and food consumption in breeding areas, we found that whale consumption is several orders of magnitude lower than total fishery catches and 2 orders of magnitude lower than the amounts taken by other trophic groups. Finally, simulations of substantial reductions of whale populations did not influence the biomass of commercially important fish, nor any other species of the foodweb. These results suggest that fisheries yields would not benefit from the removal of whales in this area. The article can be downloaded from MEPS website (http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v404/p289-302/ ) or you can contact the first author for PDF copies (lyne.morisse...@globetrotter.net ) Lyne Morissette, Ph.D. Institut des Sciences de la Mer de Rimouski (UQAR-ISMER) email: lyne.morisse...@globetrotter.net Tél. 418-723-1986 #1981 | Sans-fil 418-750-5685