Salmon doing better in coastal Oregon

Parked in Switzerland, watching some interesting trout spawn in nearby streams is nice (more later), but here's some news that warms my heart.

Coho salmon--my fish-- are doing better in coastal Oregon where I grew up. It's been a long time coming, but things are looking better.

For you data fans, here's a information-dense status review that says basically the same thing as the news piece linked above. Things are looking better.

Interestingly, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program rated Oregon coho as fish to avoid in their seafood buyer's advice. I think they're wrong for most Oregon fish, and it seems that they know better but can't fit the details on a simple seafood wallet card.

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Sad remnant lake emptied of fish in 15 minutes

This looks like a simple overfishing story, a lake in Mali emptied of fish in 15 minutes. But it goes deeper.

This is a remnant of a once-fertile lake that was bigger and capable of feeding people, but desertification and climate change have turned this formerly green land into a barren place. Now, the ritual fishing is just a pitiful remnant of better days.

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Few tuna, small tuna

Some tuna fishermen in the Philippines are unhappy they can't find enough big tuna.

According to Business World online, one fisherman explained the problem:

"We’re able to catch only one tuna, from three or four pieces we normally caught in the last few years," lamented the 42-year old father of four who has been catching tuna using the handline method in the last 15 years.

"Moreover, the sizes of the tuna have noticeably shrunk now than before," he added, speaking in Cebuano.

He seemed lost for explanations why the fishes have become smaller, but noted the stiff competition that abound near Balut Island, which is rich in tuna stocks, with so many fishing boats staking out there.

"Compared to a fruit, they are picked but not yet ripe," said American John Heitz, export manager of Aqua Gensan Traders talking about the small tuna hauled in by fishermen in the Philippines.

To protect tuna from being caught too small, the Philippines government has banned the sale of small tuna. Nice idea, but the limit is no catching tuna less than 500 grams. Say what? That minimum size limit is more appropriate for freshwater trout.

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Whales eating whales

Aptly-named killer whales in Alaska seem to be quite fond of eating baby grey whales.

The babies are separated from their mothers and held underwater until they drown. Then, after a good feed, the killer whales store the carcases in shallow water and come back days later to eat again.

These hunting methods are unique and carried out by a group of perhaps 150 killer whales, with the result of nearly 1/3 of eastern Pacific grey whale calves being eaten each year, from a total grey whale population of around 20,000.

Sharks and brown bears benefit by eating the scraps underwater or the carcases that wash up on the shore. One baby whale carcas quickly attracted a group of 19 brown bears. In this way, healthy grey whale populations provide an important food resource for ocean and land animals.

All of this happens around Unimak Island in Alaska, a group of killer whales specialize in grey whale calves, even though their prey is close to their own size and their protective mothers are much larger than the killer whales.

Here's an unrelated video of a killer whale attack on a baby grey whale. Yikes.

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Whale threesomes

Here's a photo that can probably make even a biologist blush (right).

A female right whale is shown here copulating with two males at the same time. The female is between the two males and you can see two penises, one coming from each side, and both entering her vagina.

This is real, that you can be sure, because the event was seen, photographed, and described by whale scientists.

On 11 August 2000 in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, a mature female right whale was observed copulating simultaneously with two mature males. The female made no attempt to resist copulation. For anatomical reasons, double copulation would be difficult or impossible in most mammals; however, it is quite feasible in right whales, and the fact that it actually occurs provides strong support for the belief that females of this species promote sperm competition as a mating strategy.

Male right whales have a penis that is 8 feet long and capable of searching out a female's vagina. Females often roll onto their backs during mating, so approach by males can require heroic lengths. Apparently, heroic lengths are not a problem.

Another interesting thing about right whales that goes along with this threesome or more-some behavior is sperm competition. Females often mate with more than one male, and males compete to see who can get the most sperm inside the female. Their efforts are made possible by massive 1000 kg testes that likely produce one whale of an insemination.

Sounds to me like a much more fun way to compete than fighting over who gets to mate. Let's all mate and let the sperm battle it out.

Of course, this is great blog fodder including a discussion of this event and what it means.

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