Farallon Institute Newsletter - Spring 2021
Zoe Burr monitoring the Alcatraz cormorants.
Around The [Home] Office
2021 brings some change to the Farallon Institute group—Scientist Zoe Burr has worked as the Alcatraz Island seabird monitoring technician for the last several years but is moving on to new opportunities this spring. Zoe has been a fantastic part of FI and we appreciate all of the excellent work that she’s done. We wish her the best of luck in the future.
State of the Ocean
2020 was quite a year, and global temperatures were no exception as 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year in the 141-year record (1). For the ocean surface temperatures, 2020 ranked second after 2016 by a very slight margin of 0.04°F (2). The rate of warming seems to be accelerating since 2015, with the warmest years (globally and in the ocean) occurring since then. 2020 is not an exception, despite the La Niña developing in the later months.
In the California Current, however, the news is more encouraging. La Niña has indeed brought temperatures and overall conditions back to a normal range, as shown by the Multivariate Ocean Climate Indicator, and the 2021 upwelling season has started already with some tentative events, gaining strength as the months progress.
Northern California Multivariate Ocean Climate Indicator (MOCI).
Rice’s whale. Photo by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
New whale species discovered
Until now, there has been one species of Bryde’s whales (Balaenoptera edeni) with two subspecies (B. edeni edeni and B. edeni brydei). These “Bryde’s-like whales” are difficult to distinguish based on how they look. (Other whale species in the genus Balaenoptera include minke, sei, blue, and fin whales.) A new paper in the journal Marine Mammal Science describes a new Bryde’s-like species found in the Gulf of Mexico.
Key to this study was the discovery of a stranded whale on the Florida coast in 2019 that scientists were able to be collect and study as a specimen. Of particular interest was the morphology of the parts of the skull. Careful measurements of the skull were compared to skulls known from the other Bryde’s subspecies, and found to be substantially different in some of their characteristics. DNA from this whale corresponded with previous DNA samples collected from the Gulf of Mexico whales at sea, and were also substantially different than DNA from the other subspecies.
The new whale species is called Rice’s whale, Balaenoptera ricei, in honor of renowned cetologist Dale W. Rice (1930–2017). Dr. Rice was the first researcher to recognize that Brydes’ whales were present in the Gulf of Mexico. The holotype for the species (the specimen upon which the description and name of a new species is based (1)) is the whale that was stranded in Florida. Its complete skeleton and baleen are housed in the U.S. National Museum of Natural History.
These whales are the only year-round resident baleen whale species in the Gulf of Mexico and are particularly prevalent in the northeast region. It’s estimated that there are fewer than 100 individuals. Due to this small population size and limited geographical distribution, the species has been listed as Endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 and a Critically Endangered subpopulation on the IUCN Red List. Risks to Rice’s whales include interactions with the fishing and oil industries of the region, including ship strikes and pollution. The stranded whale that became the species holotype was shown by necropsy to have swallowed a large, sharp piece of plastic that caused internal injuries and led to its stranding and death.
(1) Oxford Languages English Dictionary by Oxford University Press
Left: Barge with the marine debris removed from shorelines (photo: Jeff Reynolds). Right: Locations of helicopter lift sites during the first removal expedition on the central BC coast (map by Courtney Edwards).
Cleaning up beach-cast marine debris
The coastal and marine ecosystems of British Columbia are biologically rich and support commercial, recreational, and Indigenous economic interests. Marine debris and ocean plastics are especially severe ecological threats on the BC coast due to its location near the edge of major oceanic currents and extremely rugged and remote coastline. In addition to the common sources of marine debris, such as lost fishing gear and runoff from urban areas, this area has received substantial amounts of marine debris generated by the 2011 East Japan earthquake and tsunami.
The entire 2020 tourism/travel season in coastal BC was lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening the businesses operating in that field. In response, the Small Ship Tour Operators Association of BC (small-ship expedition companies specializing in nature-based wilderness travel along the BC coast) applied for government funding to conduct a large-scale marine debris removal, never before undertaken. The proposed Marine Debris Removal Initiative (MDRI) had two objectives: 1) contribute impactful solutions to the environmental crisis of marine debris and ocean plastic pollution and 2) support the survival and recovery of BC's tourism sector through the pandemic. The MDRI was funded by the BC Government in August 2020, and marine debris removal expeditions took place in August/September 2020 by small-ship tourism vessels and operators, as well as members from three First Nations.
The MDRI group included 9 ships with 111 crew members and 69 First Nation community members. COVID precautions and protocols ensured the safety of the crews and Indigenous communities. MDRI vessels and crews were completely self-sustaining and autonomous for up to 30 days during the expeditions, and the vessel-based crews had no direct contact with crews from First Nations.
At each clean-up location, crews deployed from the ships (First Nations participants worked near their communities) to collect marine debris on beaches and shorelines and package it into large bundles or burlap bags to be lifted by helicopter. The helicopter deposited the bags/bundles onto a nearby barge, and the debris was transported to a landfill disposal site. The collected marine debris was weighed and categorized as it was packaged for helicopter removal.
In total, 279,400 lbs of marine debris were removed from beaches from 401 sites and ~335 miles of shoreline. There was a huge diversity of debris collected, including footwear, sports equipment, pieces of shipwreck or airplane fuselage, forestry equipment, refrigerators, oceanographic equipment, water/septic tanks, and barrels/canisters of fuel. The majority of the debris (56.2%), however, was derelict/ghost fishing gear, the majority of which originated from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China, though gear from BC and the western U.S. was also collected. Some of the debris dated to the 1960s and 1970s. These results demonstrate that the 2020 Marine Debris Removal Initiative was tremendously successful in achieving both objectives of making a substantial positive environmental influence while also providing some financial relief to people who rely on one particular sector of the tourism industry.
The full report of the Marine Debris Removal Initiative can be found here.